Enterprise Business Processing Foundation - Functional Overview

Enterprise Business Processing Foundation - Functional Overview

Enterprise Business Processing Foundation - Functional Overview Contents Enterprise Business Processing Foundation - Functional Overview 2 Commercial In Confidence 3 Introduction 4 Purpose 4 Executive Summary 4 Approvals Manager 4 Batch Request 4 Table 4 Business Benefits 4 Scope 4 Baselines 4 Functional Scope 4 Business Rules / Design Decisions 5 Transformation and Data Enrichment 5 Data Mapping 5 Reference Information 5 Interface Details 6 Process Overview 6 Approvals 6 Batch Request 6 Table 6 Ellipse Configuration 8 Approvals Manager 8 Batch Request 8 Table 8 FAQs 9

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Introduction Purpose The purpose of this document is to explain the business intent of the standard Enterprise Business Process Foundation integration solution, including how to configure and use the new functionality. There is no "user interaction" within the integration solution, business processing will occur in Ellipse and the external system(s) as per standard processing. Where required the information will be shared between Ellipse and the external system(s) automatically. Business analysts/consultants will need to understand the functionality of the Enterprise Business Process Foundation integration solution integration in order to instruct the technical resources as to how to implement and configure this integration. Executive Summary The Enterprise Business Process Foundation integration solution is comprised of a number of commonly required integration points with Ellipse. These are as follows: 1. Approvals Manager 2. Batch Request 3. Table These are provided as part of the core functionality for the Ellipse Integration Platform (EIP), as such there is no licensing requirement for the use of these. The purpose of each of these interfaces is outlined in the following sections. Approvals Manager The Approval Management module in Ellipse is used to consolidate all online approval processes into a single application to simplify the authorisation process. The module allows you to review and action unapproved transactions. Batch Request The Ellipse Batch subsystem caters for the bulk update of data in Ellipse, these are processed periodically in an offline process. The requests to initiate a batch process can be processed in an ad hoc manner (by Ellipse users) or can be processed automatically via configuration of the Ellipse Batch subsystem. Table The Ellipse Table functionality is a central component of Ellipse for the provision of reference information. Specifically the table file is used as a reference file for storing system codes and descriptions. It is the basis of many of the validation, processing, grouping of data elements and reporting mechanisms of Ellipse. It also contains some of the intelligence of the system. Business Benefits The key business benefits of this integration solution include: 1. Standardised Ellipse integration software will provide a lower cost and a higher quality solution to meet business process requirements. 2. Automation of the loading of data between Ellipse and external systems will eliminate potential transposition errors from the process. 3. Automation of the loading of data between Ellipse and external will allow for faster business processing times. Scope The Ellipse portion of the interface is contained within the Ellipse Integration Platform (EIP). There will be additional third party software required to integrate between the external system(s) and EIP to complete the end-to-end integration. The scope of the Enterprise Business Process Foundation (EBPF) integration solution is detailed below: Baselines Ellipse 8.5 onwards. This item is not suitable for back fit to prior versions of Ellipse 8. Functional Scope The functional scope of the Ellipse side of the integration solution encompasses the following: 1. Publication of transactions requiring authorisation from Ellipse to be processed in an external system. 2. Automated loading of batch process requests from external systems into Ellipse for execution.

3. Publication of table reference information from Ellipse to be utilised in an external system(s) to update data back into Ellipse. Business Rules / Design Decisions Transformation and Data Enrichment It is assumed that all transformation and enrichment of the data passed from the external system required for the message to be processed into Ellipse, will be carried out within EIP. The provision of third party software required to integrate between the external system and EIP will need to be catered for. Data Mapping The XML messages to be passed to the EIP adapters will be required to conform to the relevant OAGIS standard. Refer to the EIP adapter documentation under the Ellipse Knowledge Repository for the specific details of the messages required for each EIP adapter. Reference Information Where additional reference information (outside the Ellipse Table functionality) is required in order to provide valid data for update back to Ellipse, then those specific requirements will need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis to determine an appropriate solution.

Interface Details Enterprise Business Process Foundation Interface Schematic Process Overview Approvals The Approvals adapter is used to consolidate all approval processes into a single application interface to simplify the authorisation process. Where there is a requirement to undertake the approval processing in an external system (a mobile application for example), the transactions to be approved will be exported automatically from Ellipse and provided to an external system via EIP. The EIP adapter allows you to find and action unapproved transactions. The details for each transaction requiring action are provided in the messages output from Ellipse. The external system then will be expected to provide authorisation information back to Ellipse via EIP, in order to allow the business processing to progress in Ellipse once the transaction has been authorised. Via the EIP adapter a user can approve, re-direct to another position or employee, review or reject transactions. The authorisation transaction is then updated accordingly in Ellipse. Batch Request Ellipse has a Batch subsystem responsible for running batch requests, which for business consists of long running business jobs or time and date dependent tasks. The batch subsystem uses: Batch Tables to hold the batch definitions Queues to hold allocated batch jobs to execute Batch programs to execute the allocated batch jobs Administrators use the Ellipse Online applications to maintain the configuration of the batch subsystem. Users also create and manage batch requests through the Ellipse online applications. Where there is a requirement to initiate a batch process in Ellipse from an external system, the external system can submit the request to Ellipse via EIP. It is expected then that the external system will provide the identification of the process to be executed and the supporting request details. The Batch Request adapter will create the required batch requests in Ellipse, catering for the batch processing being initiated in Ellipse. Typically this will be in the scenario where a data update has been processed into Ellipse from an external system that then requires batch processing in Ellipse to complete the business processing of the related data. Table Table Files are central to Ellipse. A table file is used as a reference file for storing system codes and descriptions. It is the basis of many of the validation, processing, grouping of data elements and reporting mechanisms of Ellipse. It also contains some of the intelligence of the system. Where Ellipse data is to be maintained from an external system, then the export of Ellipse Table

information may be required to allow the selection of valid reference information by the external system, prior to the data then being sent to Ellipse for update. EIP caters for the publishing of Ellipse Table information, this can then be automatically be loaded into the external system for use. Where updates to Ellipse data entities are required from an external system, having the valid Table information in the external system will reduce the risk of invalid data being passed to Ellipse when updates to Ellipse data entities are processed via integration.

Ellipse Configuration In order for the data to be processed to/from Ellipse via the Enterprise Business Process Foundation adapters, there will be configuration required in Ellipse to allow this. The sections below briefly outline the requirements for this configuration. Approvals Manager The Approvals Manager is only available if the Approval Management (3875) and Position Management (3870) modules are installed in Ellipse. Position and Approval Management Modules Batch Request The Ellipse Batch subsystem is available as part of the standard Ellipse installation, therefore no Ellipse configuration is required to enable this functionality. Table The Ellipse Table functionality is part of the General module which is always required to be enabled, therefore no Ellipse configuration is required to enable this functionality.

FAQs The following questions are answered in this FAQ section: What is required in order to process the approvals of an unauthorised transaction in Ellipse? Can notification of Batch process completion be obtained from Ellipse? Are adapters that are developed by the customer to integrate to the ERP system have to be built to be run in the EIP? Does this support the initial load of data entities into Ellipse? Question: What is required in order to process the approvals of an unauthorised transaction in Ellipse? Response: A person must have valid credentials to login to Ellipse, these being Employee ID, Incumbent Position and Incumbent District. This will allow the user that has logged into Ellipse with these details to approve, re-direct to another position or employee, review or reject transactions. If required a rejection reason can be added. Question: Can notification of Batch process completion be obtained from Ellipse? Response: The notification to an external system of the completion of a batch process in Ellipse is not currently catered for in EIP via adapters. The batch process is submitted and will be run when required, therefore the adapter that submits the request cannot wait for a response. However where this is required the Ellipse Event processing can be utilised to cater for this. This will require Events to be enabled in Ellipse and a subscription to the topic 'EllipseServices' for the Batch table (MSF080) updates to be processed by the external system. Question: Are adapters that are developed by the customer to integrate to the ERP system have to be built to be run in the EIP? Response: The adapters that are developed to integrate to the ERP system do NOT have to be built to be run in the EIP. Those adapters can be developed to be run in the customer integration OR can be developed to be run in the EIP. The choice of integration platform will be dependent on the specific requirements of each customer. Where the customer integration platform is to be used to host the adapters for the ERP system, OAGIS XML messages will be expected to be passed to and from the EIP (over JMS) by the customer integration platform. Question: Does this support the initial load of data entities into Ellipse? Response: The integration solution is only intended to support the transfer of data in a normal, day-to-day operational environment. For the initial load of data the integration solution may suffice, however the volume of data to be loaded would need to be determined and the timeframe in which this is required to be transferred determined and then load testing on a production strength physical environment conducted to determine if that is possible.