Model and Automate Oracle Applications Processes, Using
Oracle BPEL and BPA Tools
Sandeep BanerjieSenior DirectorOracle [email protected]
Kailash [email protected]
Srikant SubramaniamPrincipal Product ManagerOracle [email protected]
October 15, 2009
The following is intended to outline our general
product direction. It is intended for information
purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any
contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any
material, code, or functionality, and should not be
relied upon in making purchasing decisions.
The development, release, and timing of any
features or functionality described for Oracle’s
products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.
A Shift to Next Generation of Business
Applications
3
Bu
sin
ess V
alu
e D
elivere
d b
y I
T
Custom Apps
Packaged AppsLowered TCO,
but less
differentiated
capabilities
Differentiated
capabilities built on
standardized
platforms &
services (lower
TCO)
Service-
based
Apps
Next
Generation
Apps
Reduction in TCO
Source: Accenture, 2007
An Illustration of this Shift
Order $
OrderingWarehousing
Invoicing
Need: Support Business Processes
…An Illustration…
Order $
Ordering Warehousing Invoicing
CRM SCM Financials
Integration Integration
The Past: Implemented as Apps Silos
…An Illustration…
RMS
TopPlan
RDW
MAS
RDM
RDM
RDM
MAS
(Tandem)
RTE(Z)
Tandem
AIM
Sales
Audit
TMS
Sorter
PeopleSoft
(FMS)
PeopleSoft
(HR)
Stores Stores Stores Stores Stores
Credit
Switch
Credit
Authorizer
Tandem
(Fine
Jewlry)
Business
Warehouse
EJ
Aspect
ReconNet
EquityEdge
BlueBird
Planalytics
Customizations
Interfaces
Application
The Past:
…An Illustration…
Now: Modern Architecture across Silos
Order $
Order Warehousing
Invoicing
WS WS WS
Modern Architecture
CRM SCM Financials
Third Party
WS
…An Illustration
Simplification & Rationalization of
Applications
Standardization & Abstraction of
Complexity
Flexibility & Ease of Use
Now:
Next Generation of Business Applications Small Strategic Investments…
Industry Process Area
Project Delivery Time
(months)
Project Resources
(#)
Financial Services Market Risk Mgmt. 3
Deposit Origination 8
HR file access 3 2
Front End Process 6 4
Apps Consolidation 12 6
Healthcare Claims re-pricing 2
High Tech Sales Process 2 2
Apps integration 3 10
Procure to Pay 3 3
Partner Integration 4 3
Higher Ed Eligibility processing 4
Finance workflows 1.25 2
Leave requests 4 3
Manufacturing Project Mgmt 8
Apps Integration 4 4
Warranty Management 3
Order processing 8 3
Oil & Gas Sales Process 1.25
Accounts Payable 7Services Finance processes 4 8
Telco Change request 2
Customer onboarding 6
Installer processes 6 10
Call Center productivity 5 25
Fraud Detection 9 2
Utility Apps Integration 3
Order Renewal 2.25 5
Workforce Automation 3 4
Average 4.5 5.6
9
…Delivering Significant Returns!
Industry Process
Processing Time
(% reduction)
Overhead
(% reduction)
Overhead Reduction
(#)
Savings
(% less cost)
Savings
($M annually)
Financial Services Market Risk Mgmt. 79
Trade Exceptions 50 25 1
Apps Consolidation 30 3.6
Healthcare Claims processing 52 63
Claims re-pricing 90 1
High Tech Sales Process 75 1.5
Procure to Pay 90 1
Higher Ed Eligibility processing 1.2
Finance workflows 90 25
Leave requests 2
Insurance Mortgage origination 40 30
Change requests 45 4.4
Mainframe Modernization 73 22
Manufacturing Project Mgmt 42 80
Warranty Management 60 3 2
Oil & Gas AP/ Invoicing 35 80
Public Sector Certificate of good standing 50 66
Retail AP/ Invoicing 90 7
AP/ Invoicing 90 25
Telco Capturing customer contracts 9
Change request 88 22
Customer activation 90 71
Installer processes 500 13
Call Center productivity 25 40.5
Utility Apps Integration 60
Order Renewal 75 4
75 52 58
10
Oracle Fusion MiddlewareBuilding Blocks for Next Generation Business Apps
11
Enterprise Scale SOA Platform
Native BPEL and BPMN
Integrated Process Analytics
Rich Business Editors
Web-based
Business
Editors
Rich AJAX
Workflow
Forms
Developer
Tooling
Unified Business Process PlatformSingle Workflow Engine for People, Systems, Documents
NetApp Confidential - Limited Use
NAPANetApp People Actions -
Automation of HR Processes
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Agenda
NetApp Introduction
Background about HR Processes
Cost - Benefit Analysis for Automation
Project Objectives
High Level Solution - End to End
Workflow Design Considerations
Workflow Solution - End to End
Challenges and Road Ahead
Conclusion
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved. 15
A Culture Dedicated to Your Success
“We measure our success by our customers’ success.”
Dan WarmenhovenChairman
2003200420052006200720082009
#1 in 2009
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved. 1616
Customer Success Fuels our Growth
Broad solutions portfolio
Comprehensive professional
services
Global support
Industry-leading partners
135+ offices around the world
~8000 employees
Fortune 1000, S&P 500,
NASDAQ 100$1B
$3B
$4B
$2B
0706050403 08
FY09:
$3.4 Billion
09
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved. 17
Leaders Rely on NetApp
Energy
Telco
GovernmentFinancial
Media/InternetHealthcare
Tech
Manufacturing
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved. 18
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Background about HR Processes
19
Change Process involving Approvals e.g. Salary Change
Get Approvers
Sign-offDocument
Handover to
HR OpsData Entry
PeopleSoft
Updated
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Background about HR Processes
20
For some of the online forms, approval process was becoming mandatory.
Change Process without Approval e.g. Department change
Batch OperationPost Online Form
Staging table
PeopleSoft
Updated
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Cost - Benefit Analysis for Automation
21
Process Pre-Automation
Cost
Self-Service Cost
(projected) % Savings
Department,
Location or
Supervisor Change
$$ $
All the scenarios
reflected about
20-40% savings
Job Change $$$ $
Salary Change $$ $
Promotions $$ $
Approvals $$$ $
Personal Info
Updates $$ $
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved. 22
NAPA (NetApp People Actions) Objectives
Implement automation
Increase compliance
Reduce inquiries
“The project will introduce a new web-based
global tool for Employee- and Manager-Self-
Service to replace manual and paper-based
processes for high-volume transactions.”
Build Scalable Portal and Workflow
framework for the Enterprise.
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
High Level Solution Guidelines
EA Principles
– Avoid customizations to Enterprise Application
– Focus on “use” rather than “build”
Leverage existing PeopleSoft functionality mixed
with modular custom extensions
Customizations through SOA composite application
Moving towards Oracle Fusion vision
23
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Portal Solution
UI Framework
Security Framework
Roles & Entitlements
Personalization
…and we closed on WebLogic Portal
24
Automation & Compliance – main drivers for project resulted in
following high level requirements, and architecture team was to
identify right starting platform – WebLogic Portal Framework or
Custom JEE Application
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Workflow Solution
Human Workflow - Task routing with
various flow patterns
Emails – Actionable as well Notifications
Ease of integration with External Web
Apps, Enterprise Apps, LDAP, DB, JMS
Security, Auditing, Error Handling
… and we closed on Oracle BPEL Engine
25
For Workflow solution, following were main considerations, and
again the choice was Home grown or Standard Workflow engine.
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Oracle BPEL Engine
26
?
BPEL
Web Service - CI
Java Service(Notification Content)
Actionable
User Tasks
DatabaseJMS
RMI
* Slide adapted from Oracle SOA platform
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
High Level Solution - End to End
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Workflow Design Considerations
Workflow Modeling
Workflow Patterns
Business Rules(for Approvals & Notifications)
– Hierarchy
– Departments / Roles
– Regional
– Thresholds
– Compliance
Configuration Driven
Recovery
Auditing
28
Word
Excel
Visio
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved. 29
Workflow – Patterns
Parallel
Sequential
Adhoc
A B C
Start Process
B
A
C
Start Process
CA B
Start Process
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Workflow – Approvals & Notifications
Approvals & Notifications are the most critical pieces
of Human Workflow
Here is our sample Approval matrix (similar for Notifications as well)
30
Scenario Task /
Type
2n
d L
eve
l
Ma
na
ger
Fu
nc
tio
na
l V
P
HR
BP
Co
mp
en
sa
tio
n
Job Promo, Reclassification
based on Job Code and Job Level fieldsApproval A A
Salary for job level X
based on Annual Base Salary and related fieldsApproval A A A A
Salary due to Weekly Hours Change
based on Weekly Hours fieldApproval A
Initially we did POC using Business Rules
components, but ran in challenges with scalability.
Based on roles, dynamically generated content for
Emails.
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Workflow – Auditing
Clean up processes – e.g. User termination
– Batch process mode implementation outside of
BPEL Engine but using Workflow APIs
Batch notifications to HR Administrative staff with
manual intervention capability
Compliance capabilities like Approver can’t be
Subject, or certain Pre-Approved scenarios
Alerts for exceptions using BPEL Fault Handling
mechanism
31
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Workflow – Recovery
32
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Workflow Solution - End to End
33
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Workflow Solution - End to End
34
• Complex Workflow Matrix
• Dynamic Approvals
• Individual Approvals – 100%
• Group Approvals – 1%
• Any Approver can add more
approvers
• Approvals thru Portal or Email
• Supports Self as well Proxy
• Resubmission
• Manual Updates
start
Process
Initiated
Update
HR Module
Notifications
Change
Processed
end
Approvers
Task
Complete
Worklist
Update
Task
Publish
JMS
Update
Status
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Challenges & Road Ahead
Technical Challenges – RMI Invocations & Email
Test environments
For Human W/F testing, ensure dedicated setup of following
environments
– Single Sign On
Road Ahead
– New modules related to low-volume transactions
– Upgrade to 11g, Business Rules component
– High Availability setup
35
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Conclusion - Key Takeaways
Identify key capabilities of the Enterprise Application
Understand Enterprise Application data updates from
external process
Auditing, Error Handling should be ingrained with the
in application
Keep Object Oriented hat on with design and
development of BPEL processes
Building automation solution with human workflow is
complicated36
© 2009 NetApp. All rights reserved.
Demo: Modeling and
Automating Business
Processes
Components in play
• Oracle BPA Suite 10.1.3.4
• Oracle JDeveloper 10.1.3.3
• Oracle SOA Suite 10.1.3.1
• BPEL Process Manager
• PeopleSoft HCM 9.0 with Peopletools 8.48
Birth of a Child Use Case
PeopleSoft
Employee Access
Self Service
Select Qualifying
Event
Select Birth of
Child
Qualifying Event
Process
Birth of a Child
Process
Employee
Information Review
Process
Make Life Event
Change
LDAP
Authentication
LDAP Provisioning
PeopleSoft Process
HR notification
Review Information
Start
End
Process Overview
• Use case: (Simplified) HR benefits enrollment• Enroll a new dependent for benefits
• Update employee’s payroll withholding
• Verify newly added data
• 3 step implementation• BPA Suite: Create the business process model and generate
the metadata (process blueprint)
• JDeveloper: Generate the BPEL model from the blueprint
• JDeveloper: Invoke PeopleSoft partnerlinks, add BPEL artifacts, generate the executable BPEL code
• No coding required!
Implementation Roles : Analyst &
Developer
Business Process Model in BPA Suite
Process Blueprint in JDeveloper
BPEL Model in JDeveloper
Completed BPEL Model
Solution Architecture
ADF/WebCenter
PeopleSoft
BPEL
Insert Dependents Insert W4 …
Workflow
(HR Admin)
PSFT CI
For More Information
• Fusion Middleware Best Practice Centers• http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/fmw4apps/index.html
• Fusion Middleware @ oracle.com• http://www.oracle.com/fusion
• Fusion Middleware @ OTN• http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/middleware