Solutions - BPM - Process Director

Process Director employs XML eForm templates, which can be built with Microsoft Word or Visual Studio. This makes it very simple to design graphically-pleasing forms in the familiar Microsoft Word, whilst the integrated rules engine provides a powerful method of defining rules and conditions that control the behavior of the forms (e.g. field validation, visibility, appearance and context-sensitive forms).

Below are a few example of how forms can be built to look, using nothing more than Microsoft Word:

Multi-lingual form

IT issue submission

Absence request form

eForms reduce paper handling and manual routing to eliminate errors and to speed up the lifecycle of forms processing, whilst allowing users to quickly and easily see where their form resides in the process. Process Director allows you to manage the entire lifecycle of a form:

Key Benefits of eForms:

These eForms will often be coupled to a workflow process but even if the aim is simple data capture, paper forms are inherently slow and have numerous draw-backs that electronic forms solve:

• Centralise form storage and access
• Make forms available globally in seconds
• Ensure only the current version of a form is used
• Make forms easier to complete whilst ensuring legibility
• Apply rules to remove the possibility of incomplete or inaccurate data
• Display guidance or warning messages dependent on entered information
• Dynamically change form elements as the form is completed
• Use lookups and auto-calculation to ease the burden of filling in fields
• Speed-of-light delivery of completed forms
• Automatically store copies of completed forms for both submitter and recipients

Brilliant Workflow

Processes Director enables organisations to take control of their business processes, ensuring that forms and documents are created, reviewed, approved and processed according to your policies and procedures. Using just a web browser, the AJAX based designer allows graphical workflows to be created by business users, without requiring the assistance of IT. This puts the power and control in to the hands of the process owners, so they can connect together the eForms, workflow steps, rules and people to deliver powerful but simple to use workflows.

The process management system integrates with existing user directories (e.g. Active Directory or LDAP), allowing existing users and groups to be assigned as participants in an automated process. Users assigned process tasks are automatically notified via email and presented with a concise and easy-to-understand web page relevant to the task or activity requested. They do not require specific knowledge about the overall process because requests are automatically routed to the appropriate users as the process progresses.

Process Director is based around a flexible web platform that allows off-the-shelf and bespoke modular components to be used to construct powerful workflows. Whether you need a component to export to PDF, dynamically fill a drop down list or run a more complex database query you can build a library of components that work for your business. The system allows almost infinite possibilities but some of the standard components include:

It is also possible to create your own components or simply ask us to create them for you. We have created components to validate post codes, credit card numbers, initiate phone calls or perhaps to automatically generate and send Outlook appointment requests.

Key Benefits of Automated Workflow:

Every organisation already has workflows, even if only with paper and verbal communication but moving them in to Process Director will provide many benefits:

• Ensures all staff know where and how to initiate a process
• Ensures consistent and compliant processes are adhered to
• Allows changes and new workflows to be rolled out instantly
• Enforces pre-defined policies for process decisions
• Automatic eMails and reminders improve completion times
• Forms and attachments are received by the next participant instantly
• No incorrect routing or hold-ups due to people not knowing who the next participant should be
• No lost or mislaid forms and documents
• 100% visibility of active processes for initiators, authorisers and management
• Instantly find out where your form or request has got to and who it currently resides with for input
• Full audit trail of when and who participated on a process

Not only does Process Director provide all the usual BPM abilities, it also provides a unique approach to modeling process flows. It uses a patent-pending technology that fuses Project Management methodologies with BPM. Sophisticated business processes can now be defined and automated through a project management-like, Gantt Chart. More than just a new interface, the product has been designed to address non-linear processes; those processes that cannot be easily represented in traditional flowcharts and contain many concurrent steps or events. This is ideal for "activity-based" processes that have well-defined milestones.

Predictive BPM (pBPM)

Running processes are also represented and administered from a web-based Gantt chart. This allows for predictive analysis and alerts before something becomes a problem, based on the completion of linked steps. Managers can identify process milestones and be alerted when those are expected to be late, long before the step is reached.

Process Director Business Intelligence (BI) and Advanced Reporting

This optional module enables you to combine external data, Knowledge View results, and Process Director database information into a variety of graphical and tabular formats. Using a drag-and-drop interface, you can create pie charts, dashboards, tables and other reports for screen display or printing.

This component offers the depth and flexibility of an expensive, dedicated reporting tool, with additional functionality supporting sophisticated Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) and process insight and builds it right in to the existing Process Director system.

Knowledge View Integration

Process Director advanced reports can be driven directly from Knowledge Views you have already configured as part of your workflows, combining the simplicity of Knowledge Views with the power of advanced graphical visualisation. The result: more process insight, produced more easily than ever before.

Portal Integration

Place advanced reports right in your Process Director profile or in to a SharePoint web part. Reports are resizable and the colour and style can be configured to match your existing intranet environment.

Pre-configured Reports

Process Director advanced reports can be generated in any of three pre-configured types: multi-page (for tabular reports), portlet (for portal integration), and dashboard (combining multiple graphical and tabular elements). Report types simplify the process of report creation without limiting the flexibility or value of the resulting reports.

No Client Software

No client software is required to view advanced reports. Your users simply click a button or icon on an eForm or Knowledge View and the report is displayed right in their browser. Scheduled reports can be sent to recipients within eMails or as PDF attachments.

Flexible Output

Process Director advanced reports can be generated in HTML or Flash. Once generated, reports can be printed or saved to a wide variety of formats including PDF, JPEG, and more. As a result, reports generated by one user can be distributed and shared by team members, managers, and executives.

Visibility Into Your Business Processes

Graphical views and management dashboard reports provide visibility into how your business processes are running. Process Director tracks and audits all workflow processes, electronic forms data and user actions which enables auditors the ability to look up old processes and know exactly who did what and when it was done.  This data also enables reports to be displayed graphically in an on-line dashboard in real-time.

Web-based graphing with real-time data calculations Display data in graphs or tables Fully clickable data for drill-down in to process forms Real-time reporting integrated with Microsoft Excel Various formats for exporting information Free of dependency on IT department to extract data Create dashboards that reflect the needs of different users

IT Reporting

For organisations that want more complex IT-based reporting, all data is stored within a relational database, such as Microsoft SQL or Oracle and the database is structured and documented to allow your IT department to access and report on any information. This includes all workflow data, eForm data, documents, user and security related information. This information can be obtained and reported on using any ODBC compliant report writer, such as Crystal Reports or Microsoft SQL's own reporting system.

PDA and Mobile Phone Support

The BP Logix Process Director Mobile module supports PDA's and smartphone devices that have network connectivity to the server host. This allows users with mobile devices to remain in touch and participate in your organisation's workflow processes whilst away from desks or even out of the office. Mobile users can now:

• Fill out eForms for submission with forms automatically rendering to fit the devices display
• Review and approve requests while travelling via eForms or simple eMail replies
• Start workflow processes via a simple link, a form or eMail
• Search for information and view knowledge views charts and tables

Whether your users have a Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Android or Apple iPhone based smartphone or even a more traditional text based mobile phone that supports eMail, the combination of mobile web and email support ensures compatibility.

Development and Integration Tools

Process Director allows you to build entire workflows and complex eForms using only the graphical design tools but to enable limitless flexibility there is a comprehensive set of development tools available too.

Some, such as the SQL query lookups can be used by end-users with limited training or previous experience but other, such as the C# scripting support via Microsoft Visual Studio are aimed at professional development departments.

Some of the development tools available and their features include:

Process Director Cloud Edition

Typically a Process Director system would be hosted at your premises on your existing or dedicated, hardware. There are often times when this may not be the ideal solution, in which case the Process Director Cloud Edition can be used to help with:

• Reducing internal software licensing costs
• Reducing internal hardware requirements
• Reducing the total costs of ownership through minimising IT management costs
• Reducing backup, disaster recovery and failover overheads
• Providing a guaranteed up-time service level agreement
• Making future system scalability more flexible and dynamic
• Making the solution globally accessible
• Increasing speed of access for remote sites, branches or home users

We can help you realise these benefits through a range of hosting options both within the United Kingdom (to comply with European Union (EU) directives regarding data protection) and abroad.

Mitigate the risks associated with electronic information capture and approval processes by adopting a solution that can be used within a compliant system; comprehensive security management, access control and auditing features enable your organisation to maintain compliance with various regulatory mandates.

Features built in to Process Director to assist with compliance include:

• User authentication supports your existing compliant security systems (e.g. Windows Domain Security, Active Directory, LDAP, etc.);
• Only authorised users have access to sensitive information;
• User IDs can be set to only be logged in from a single location at a time;
• Automatic workstation logoff ensures inactive sessions require revalidation through authentication system to continue working;
• All data transmissions can be protected through SSL encryption;
• All security, permission or access changes are audited;
• All instant messages and user notifications can be archived and retained;
• Digital rights management allows security permissions and policies to be enforced;
• A pre-defined, automated workflow process can provide consistent review, approval and update procedures for all content;
• Archive maintains documents in their native formats, allowing original information to be retrieved by authorised users;
• Document version control maintains the identity of any user who modifies a document;
• Historical reports maintain every workflow, showing not only who updated a document, but who reviewed it, what their comments were and who approved the changes;
• Detailed logs provide a complete audit trail of all users’ activities and system events for reporting and audit purposes;
• Access control lists allow security permissions to be established for the read, write and delete of documents, preventing users with write permission from deleting archived documents;
• All comments and annotations made to a document are identified by user and time;
• All security, permission or access changes are logged for audit;
• All document updates and approvals requiring electronic signatures are re-authenticated;
• Approval hierarchies can be established for document changes and updates;
• Software upgrades will not modify configuration parameters or settings on the existing system;
• Reliance on industry standard web and database technologies make fault tolerance and disaster recovery planning much simpler and easier to audit;
• All documents, workflows, permissions etc. are stored in an enterprise database with a documented schema allowing independent access, backup/restore, reporting and administration.

Process Director Compliance Edition

In addition to the standard features listed above, Process Director Compliance Edition is targeted at organisations that are subject to strict regulatory oversight.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was signed into U.S. law in July 2002. It introduced legislative changes to financial practice and corporate governance regulation. It requires organisations within the financial services industry to implement a comprehensive information security program that will protect information and provide timely access to reporting information.

As Part 11 of Title 21 from the Code of Federal Regulations (FDA 21 CFR Part 11) requires on-going attention in order to maintain compliance, we can deliver the tools and software that allows you to address the requirements of this regulation, rather than promising an unrealistic instant fix. The regulation's premise is to maintain proper identifiers for electronic data relevant to product safety, purity and efficacy. Just as printed documents provided a paper trail through the product life cycle, computer records need to create a similar electronic trail, identifying users, approvals and progressions that lead back to the original data.

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act enacted by U.S. Congress in 1996. The HIPAA legislation was enacted to protect patient information and provide regulations that define the standards for transactions, privacy and security in the health care industry. These regulations provide the health care system with provisions to protect patient information and electronic medical records.

Process Director Compliance Edition has been built with these and other regulatory acts in mind and provides:

Enhanced Audit Support:

• Form field auditing tracks any change to form data
• The ability to identify all groups, business rules, process steps, permissions, etc. in which any user explicitly appears
• External audit log that records all events and actions
• An automatic PDF snapshot of a form is stored each time a user takes any action

Enhanced Signature Support:

• Digital signatures
• Re-authentication upon submission
• Multi-factor authentication

Other Features:

• Strong password enforcement
• Encryption of form data fields
• Restrict the set of users to whom an individual may delegate their authority to

Activities handled by HR span an entire organisation. Even a simple HR process may require approvals from managers at many different levels. That is not surprising, given the number of laws with which HR has to comply. And each day there are more. Lawyers want to make sure that HR is dotting every "i" and crossing every "t". As a result, a detailed audit trail is essential when it comes to HR activities such as:

• Personnel changes including new staff and changes of position, title or surname
• Employee performance appraisal and review
• New hire processing and termination handling
• Travel, expense and time reporting
• Holiday and leave requests

The Challenges

HR departments handle highly sensitive personal information at top speed. They have to do so while still maintaining the privacy of documents as they pass from hand to hand throughout the company. With paper-based systems this can be very complicated, error-prone, inefficient and almost impossible to guarantee privacy.

HR is expected to increase productivity while controlling costs. Time-sensitive information being delayed or mislaid can have serious consequences such as a key player not being hired or a regulatory deadline being missed! To meet its obligations, HR needs to ensure that:

• Information is correct and routed properly and discreetly
• Approval requests are handled efficiently and don't end up being assigned to someone out of the office
• Managers don't waste time tracking down an item due to lack of visibility into the process
• All personal information is held securely whilst being quickly available to staff to comply with Freedom of Information

The Solution

The BP Logix products provide solutions to these problems through business process automation and reporting. Automation provides a consistent and reliable method for routing and tracking HR-related information. With the BP Logix products, your HR department will benefit from:

• Visibility into internal processes supporting management decisions and compliance initiatives
• Less paper handling and manual routing, eliminating errors and delays
• Process consistency aiding efficiency and auditing
• Reduced productivity problems due to lost or mishandled requests
• Reduced workload and empowered users through self-service functions (e.g. holiday requests, expenses etc.)
• Instant access to process information so that users have the information they need to assist in decision-making

Your IT department deals with change on a daily basis. It provides essential services and support to your organisation that can affect all areas. IT also addresses such functions as:

• Installation and implementation of hardware, applications and configuration changes
• Handling employee access changes to applications and other resources
• Creating, modifying and deleting user accounts
• Managing a company's ISO or compliance documentation
• Enforcing and maintaining a company's internal security and auditing policies
• And more...

The Challenges

Your IT department is measured on increasing productivity, even with shrinking budgets. When the requests and flow of information is manual, IT groups can face many additional challenges:

• Ensuring that new employees have access to applications and IT resources in a timely and secure manner
• Maintaining, finding and presenting information needed for audits
• Providing a consistent and secure approval process for processing requests
• Coordinating requests from various departments, facilities, vendors and suppliers
• Ordering and supplying new equipment in a timely fashion without duplication
• Tracking down change requests despite lack of visibility into the process

The Solution

The solution to these problems resides with process automation, tracking and reporting. Process Director can automate IT change control processes and functions. Automation provides a consistent method for routing and tracking the flow of IT requests and information. With BP Logix, your IT department will have:

• Visibility into internal processes supporting management decisions and compliance initiatives
• Less paper handling and manual routing, eliminating errors and delays
• Process consistency aiding efficiency and auditing
• Reduced productivity problems due to lost or mishandled requests
• Empowered users with instant access to process information to assist in their every day decision-making processes

Capital Appropriation Requests affect your organisation's spending and budgeting processes. Before being approved, these requests are checked for expenditure type, budgeting constraints and an individual's authorised spending limit. Financial professionals at companies worldwide oversee approval processes for:

• Capital Appropriation Requests (CAR)
• Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) Tracking
• Purchase Requisitions (PR)
• Purchase Order (PO) Processing
• Handling of Accounts Payable (AP)

The Challenges

Tracking users' spending limits, the required approvals and the status of requests can be very complicated, especially if the requests are on paper. Financial professionals at global organisations have resorted to ad-hoc methods, including the use of Excel, to keep track of the approval processes and to be able to get an instant view of outstanding amounts.

If your company's capital appropriation requests are still paper-based and manual, getting approvals for them can present many challenges, among them:

• Misrouted CAPEX's, leading to delays in approval
• Approvers not knowing the next step if a request is denied or additional information is needed for approval
• Incorrect information in a request, which result in accounting inaccuracies and auditing problems
• Bottlenecks caused by approval requests sitting in someone's email or being assigned to someone out of the office
• A lack of accountability and reporting
• A manual routing turnaround of days, weeks or more
• No way of seeing an instant report of the outstanding numbers

The Solution

The solution to these challenges lies in using the BP Logix software to provide process automation and reporting. The BP Logix products can automate all approval processes, provide instant visibility and ease an approver's workload. Automation provides a consistent method for routing and tracking the flow of your requests. With the BP Logix Solution, an organisation's capital approval processes may benefit from:

• Initiators who can track their own requests from start to finish
• Automated, consistent and accurate routing to ensure approvals are obtained for each type of request
• Reduced workload for approvers by using eMail notification and online eForms to present information concisely
• Dynamic routing based on the initiator's role, the amount, the type of purchase and the approver's spending limits
• An archive of all forms, document attachments and electronic signatures that are easy to locate, even years later
• Validation for 100% accuracy of all the information entered on a CAPEX, CAR, PO, etc.
• Approvers who do not need to be concerned with where to send a request next, or where to route a rejected request
• Unnecessary data input and approvals that are not needed

Keeping invoice payments running smoothly allows organisations to negotiate favourable terms with vendors and suppliers. Achieving that has obvious financial implications for each company, as does resolving supplier queries quickly and efficiently; both for you and the supplier.

The Challenges

There's a vendor on the phone, upset that he hasn't received payment for services rendered. It's not his problem that the person who should have authorised his invoice for payment is out of town.

Where are the invoices that arrived last month? Why haven't they been sent for payment? Who's holding up the system by not authorising them?

And what about the invoices that made it back to Accounting? Was the person signing off on each one within their spending limit?

These are only some of the challenges of accounts payable and cash flow in a paper-based, manual system. Without strict control and visibility, how can you keep your enterprise running smoothly and maintain good relationships with vendors and suppliers?

Goals

Accounts Payable and invoice management can be error-prone and inefficient causing a huge drain on resources, so companies need a way to:

• Avoid delayed payments because of manual approval processes
• Overcome the difficulties of processing invoices arriving in so many formats (mail, fax, email, online submission etc.)
• Stop inaccurate and un-validated information with errors from creeping into your accounting systems
• Reduce storage costs associated with paper invoices and forms
• Locate past invoices and forms that have been archived

The Solution

ePC provides the combination of technologies that enable customers to manage their organisation's end-to-end invoice processing requirements. Our industry-leading document scanning and imaging solutions seamlessly integrate paper-based processing in to workflow automation, consolidating paper into electronic processes.

The BP Logix software can then automate the entire approval process surrounding invoicing and account payable handling. You have instant visibility into the approval process, and better yet, less to do. Both internal approvers and external suppliers can participate in the process, perhaps automatically prompting an external supplier to supply a missing or invalid PO number.

• Automatic initiation of the workflow approval process with the scanning of paper invoices
• Instant access to invoices based on automated indexing, keywords and metadata
• Integration of your ERP and accounting software systems
• A complete audit trail and reporting of all activity
• Archiving of all forms, documents, images and electronic signatures