Process Management & Workflow Capabilities

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1 Process Management &

2 Fortune 500 companies enjoy the power of Enterprise Content Management -shouldn t you? Process Management Process Management is becoming increasingly important to corporate management as well as proactive small business management. Process management is creating, managing, automating, and reporting on client process in a company. Being able to define work processes, automate activities, track progress and build reports, is a valuable asset to any company. Most companies use workflow diagrams to illustrate their process management needs. Tools used to implement and create workflow diagrams are in high demand and are usually costly. Decos D5 Web Edition provides a powerful process management tool that can help you simplify and organize your process without hurting your bottom line. What is a Workflow? A workflow is an array of activities, processes, or steps through which work is structured. In Decos, we use a Workflow diagram to illustrate a workflow process. The workflow diagram contains a start point, at least one activity and an end point. All of which, are based on activities of the client.

3 We realized we were Literally drowning in hundreds of Thousands of pages of paper ~Dr. Richard Kaplan Workflow and Decos Use the Administrative client of Decos D5 Web Edition to create all workflows. The application administrator has the ability to design, delete, or modify any workflow. Designing workflow diagrams in Decos is simple. Importing Process Descriptions A company may have process descriptions in an application, which they would like to use in Decos D5. Decos D5 has the ability to import process descriptions. Conversion from processes description to workflow happens after the process description is imported. Import process descriptions multiple times to create multiple versions of workflows.

4 Getting Started A workflow can be started by a user action, a date on a calendar, a registration, field input or a computer action. Actions and decisions can have consequences for each workflow. The decisions made control the progression of the workflow. The workflow diagram uses activity points placed in the order the activities occur. There are seven activity points to choose from in the Decos D5 workflow module. Activity Points Start Point- Begins the workflow Decision Activity Point- Allows for a decision. o Automatic- Decos decision based on conditions specified for field values of the document, folder, or address linked to a workflow. o Manual- User decision based on values from a table defined in Decos Document as well as user roles. Handler Activity Point- Defines the user or user role that is responsible for an activity. o Spread Evenly - activity is assigned to users in order of the User. Example user one, User two, User three, and back to User one. o Emptiest Queue- activity assigned to the user with the fewest To-Do items. o Previous Handler- activity assigned to the previous user or user role. o Manual Distribution - activity assigned to everyone in a particular user role. Once a user in that role accepts the activity, activities are no longer visible to other users. Waiting Activity Point- ensures a temporary stop of the workflow until an activity meets certain conditions. o Until - Choose which day on a calendar that the activity will restart. o Day(s) -choose amount of days or workdays to wait for an activity to restart. o Until Next Day - choose from the days of the work that an activity will restart. o Until Day No - enter a number of days until activity restarts. o Until Next- From drop down lists, choose which week and day of the month activity will restart. (Exp First Sunday of the month)

5 Activity Points (Cont.) Collector Activity Point- merges multiple paths to one point. All previous activities merged into this point must be finished before collector point is completed. Set Processed Activity Point is an informative process only. Activity takes no action. Computer Activity Point*- allows for automating processes using a web service or website. Computer actions can registering documents, create files, send s, and submit web forms. o Web Service- A Web Service is XML using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and HTTP protocols, to communicate between different platforms and programming languages. Using web services, a client can remotely call complex methods and functions from a web server for use in Decos. This empowers Decos with the functionality of applications located on a web server without having to install them on the client machine. o Website- Access a website, integrates a web application, and submits a web form using the website/ computer action point. Tasks *The computer action requires a customized solution. A customized solution requires a higher level of technical knowledge to set up and Support. Contact a Decos representative for more information. End Activity Point- indicates workflow is complete. A workflow may contain multiple end points. When using workflows, users will have Tasks that are activities assigned to a user and completed within a certain period. Based on the To-Do items menu in Decos users will know when an activity is due. A user will complete an activity, forward the activity to another user, or wait for an action to happen. Activities dealing with documents will have the documents directly linked to them, for quick access Management can see delayed or incomplete activity by tracking and reporting on actions taken. The List pane is Decos lists all items in a particular items directory. The Registration Pane displays the description of the items. There are four types, Active, Forwarded Completed and Wait:

6 Task Types Active- This Active Item directory contains activities with an active status, i.e. activities that not completed yet. Items in red indicate that the processing time for the item has lapsed. Forwarded- An assigned activity forwarded to another user and displayed in the Forwarded directory Completed- activities found in this directory are complete. When the statuses of an activity changes to Completed, the activity automatically moves from the Active directory to the Completed directory. Wait- This directory holds activities with the status wait. The wait status shows that the activity is waiting on an outside influence to occur. This can be Decos or a person completing a requirement. Reporting Decos provides capability for users to build reports based on tasks and, current, future or past workflow activities. Reports can be user, user role, and workflow activity specific. There are three types of reports, global reports, personal reports, and workflow reports. Any user with the appropriate rights can view global reports. Personal reports are only visible to the owner of the report. The Reports menu in Decos displays global, workflow, and personal reports in the item directory. Workflow - Workflow reports are reports based on activities and workflows. Global - General reports are stored in Reports (Global). The application administrator creates the reports for the users. A user may edit the reports if they have the proper user role or rights. Personal - Personal reports are stored in Reports (Personal). Reports created by the user for the user. These reports are only accessible to the user who created them. More information Would you like to receive more information about Workflow Management in Decos Document? Please contact us by sending a message to: info@decosdocument.com or call