BPM 11g and Human Workflow Shadow Rows by Adam Desjardin

June 7, 2014 Leave a comment

During the OFM Forum last week, there were a few discussions around the relationship between the Human Workflow (WF_TASK*) tables in the SOA_INFRA schema and BPMN processes.  It is important to know how these are related because it can have a performance impact.  We have seen this performance issue several times when BPMN processes are used to model high volume system integrations without knowing all of the implications of using BPMN in this pattern.

Most people assume that BPMN instances and their related data are stored in the CUBE_*, DLV_*, and AUDIT_* tables in the same way that BPEL instances are stored, with additional data in the BPM_* tables as well.  The group of tables that is not usually considered though is the WF* tables that are used for Human Workflow.  The WFTASK table is used by all BPMN processes in order to support features such as process level comments and attachments, whether those features are currently used in the process or not.

For a standard human task that is created from a BPMN process, the following data is stored in the WFTASK table:

  • One row per human task that is created
  • The COMPONENTTYPE = "Workflow"
  • TASKDEFINITIONID = Human Task ID (partition/CompositeName!Version/TaskName)
  • ACCESSKEY = NULL

Read the complete article here.

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Capgemini Global Business Process Management Report

June 6, 2014 Leave a comment

Welcome to the Capgemini Global Business Process Management (BPM) Report. This report is an exploration of key trends in BPM as seen by CXOs across a broad selection of sectors and geographies.

BPM is perhaps at a tipping point – it’s certainly at an exciting stage in its evolution. As both an engineer and an Operational Research practitioner in my early career, and subsequently as a consultant, I have seen BPM through its development over the last 26 years. BPM has its roots in management practices such as Total Quality Management, Business Process Reengineering & Model Based Development; but the advent of the new generation of sophisticated modelling and process execution technologies has greatly enhanced BPM’s power to truly transform businesses. This has created one of the most rapidly growing and attractive market sectors for both services and technology. We see BPM as a critical management discipline that when executed against clear, cross organizational business objectives, can deliver exceptional value to that organization.

However, we also see that the potential for BPM is not well understood. Our decision to conduct this global survey stemmed from discussions with our clients. We sought to gain a better impression of their understanding of BPM, how they measure its value, and how far it is prioritized within their Business and Technology Transformation efforts. This research confirms our belief that BPM needs to be a jointly owned Business and IT discipline. It also demonstrates that it is starting to gain significant traction in the market and investments are starting to pay dividends to the early adopters. At Capgemini we are being asked by our clients to help them simplify and improve their business models and the technology that supports them and we are already seeing BPM become an integral and key part of this proposition. Business Process Management is becoming ever more relevant to both large and small organizations in the current economic climate. At a time when many different market sectors are facing slow revenue growth, customer churn and increased pressures on costs, BPM becomes a critical weapon in the battle for efficiency and effectiveness in processes.

Furthermore, in a challenging and changing business environment that is characterized by uncertainty, it allows organizations to adapt, be more agile and fleet of foot. Capgemini is seeing strong demand for BPM services in markets such as the USA, the UK, the Netherlands and France; and there are clear signs of increased interest in other geographies such as, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy and Australia. In sector terms, the financial services industry has led the way in BPM adoption over the recent past, driven by increased focus on customer- centricity and regulatory compliance. Other sectors, public sector, utilities, telco, retail and manufacturing are now not only catching up, but are starting o use BPM in new ways to create new business models to serve customers and outsmart the competition. The research findings also show however that this is a complex landscape, and we are not seeing adoption of BPM in a clear and consistent way. This report also looks at some of the barriers to adoption, with organizational silos being a major obstacle. Waters are further muddied by fragmented budgets, lack of clear governance and ownership and internal politics.

The objective of our investment in this research project was to shed some light on these elements with a view to assisting organizations to create strategies that avoid or at least mitigate some of these barriers to success. Management of change in such endea vours is a key part in enabling the appropriate alignment of business and technology to support their transformation efforts. I hope that you find this report of benefit in the further adoption of Business Process Management. Get the full report here.

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Online Learning Library free BPM training for everybody partners, customers and freelancer!

June 5, 2014 1 Comment

  • BPM Product Library – Special Topics Tab A portal to free resources to help you learn about Oracle BPM
  • Employee Onboarding Process Accelerator Demo All organizations hire new employees, and helping new hires become productive immediately is important for the organization’s ROI and for the individual’s motivation as well. To do that, an organization needs to have a process in place to help determine what services the new hire needs, and to track that all of the activities needed to prepare for the new hire are performed on time. This video demonstrates how the Oracle BPM Employee Onboarding Process Accelerator helps ensure that new hires hit the ground running from their first day on the job

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BPM best practice by David Read and Niall Commiskey

June 4, 2014 7 Comments

At our SOA Community Workspace (SOA Community membership required) you can find best practice documents for BPM Implementations. Please make sure that your BPM experts and architects read this documents if you start or work on a BPM project. The material was created based on the experience with large BPM implementations:

Also we can support you with your BPM project on-side. Please contact us if you need BPM support!

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Why Healthcare Today Needs BPM and SOA by Avio

June 1, 2014 Leave a comment

Within the past couple years, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has led to significant changes in the healthcare industry. A highly-complex supply chain between patients, providers, buyers and insurance companies has led to a lack of overall collaboration when it comes to processes.

The first open enrollment deadline for products on the Health Insurance Exchange has passed. So what now? Let’s take a brief look at how things have changed and what organizations can do to stay in (and ahead of) the game.

New requirements, new processes
Organizations that have not adapted processes to meet new regulatory requirements will fall further behind. New regulatory requirements effectively make some legacy applications obsolete, require batch process to move to real-time, and more. Business Process Management (BPM) can help organizations bring data processes in line while helping IT redesign processes rather than change code or replace existing applications. BPM fills in application gaps and links critical information systems for a more visible, efficient and auditable organization.

Social and mobile solutions
BPM technology also facilitates social and mobile solutions that can help meet new needs. Patients are dependent on a network of doctors, pharmacists, families and others. Social solutions can connect members of the patient’s community in ways never seen before – enabling real-time, relevant communication. Likewise, mobile technology supports social solutions, and BPM is the most efficient way to make processes simple and role-based. It unties medical professionals from their offices by enabling them to access timely information and alerts anywhere.

Why SOA is also needed
Integrating BPM with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) also plays a critical role in the development of healthcare solutions that work. SOA can create a single end-to-end process, integrate applications and move them into a common workflow. While SOA enables the reutilization of existing IT infrastructure, BPM supports the process optimization, monitoring and social aspects. SOA and BPM applications support business analysts as they model, create and monitor processes – providing real-time insight and a unified workflow of process activities.

Read “New” Solutions for a New Healthcare Landscape on our blog to learn more.

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Zero to SOA in Minutes! Announcing the SOA/BPM 11g 11.1.1.7.0 Virtual Machine appliance By Rajesh Raheja

May 19, 2014 Leave a comment

I am pleased to announce the availability of Oracle’s SOA/BPM/OSB 11g 11.1.1.7.0 Virtual Machine appliance. This VirtualBox virtual machine is meant for testing and evaluation purposes only. It is not certified, nor licensed for any production use. It is our most comprehensive virtual machine to date, with the following Oracle products installed, configured and functionally integrated within the appliance:

  • Oracle Linux 6 Update 4 (64-bit)
  • Oracle Database Express Edition 11g Release 2
  • Oracle SOA Suite 11.1.1.7.0 (includes Service Bus)
  • Oracle Event Processing 11.1.1.7.0
  • Oracle BPM Suite 11.1.1.7.1
  • Oracle Webcenter Content (Enterprise Content Management) 11.1.1.7.0
  • Oracle Webcenter Suite 11.1.1.7.0
  • Oracle Webcenter Portal 11.1.1.7.0
  • Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.1.7.0
  • Oracle JRockit
  • Java SE Development Kit

Refer to the README document for full details on the appliance features, installation guide, memory configurations, URLs, credentials and other recommended software.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Why do we need a SOA Developer Virtual Machine? Virtual Machines (VM) play an important role in increasing developer productivity; saving hours, if not days, of provisioning effort in standing up a fully functional, configured Fusion Middleware platform for testing and evaluation. Think of it as your very own Platform as a Service (PaaS) on your laptop/desktop!

What can I use the VM for? A developer VM can prove useful for a variety of reasons: quick internal demos, proof of concepts, testing etc. For those new to Oracle SOA or BPM Suite, it can serve as a powerful tool to learn these technologies, which is why it is very popular for developer learning and training sessions. In fact, the VM includes pre-configured lab artifacts – "PO Processing" and "Sales Quote" – that are used in Oracle instructor-led training sessions and in the "Getting Started" books on Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle BPM Suite.

What benefits does the VM provide beyond simply installing the Oracle SOA Suite? For enterprise development, installation of Oracle SOA Suite (or any single piece of software for that matter) is only a fraction of the overall effort needed to build an end-to-end configured development environment. Typical effort in standing up an integrated software stack on a "bare-metal" would involve the following provisioning tasks:

  • Create base image: Install supported version of the Linux OS e.g. Oracle Linux, Ubuntu, EC2 AMIs etc.
  • Setup base image: Security policies, firewalls, port forwarding rules, hard drive partitions on block storage
  • Install pre-requisite software: Java, Database
  • Install Fusion Middleware: SOA Suite, BPM Suite, Web Center and any other modules, run RCU with correct schema names and passwords
  • Setup Fusion Middleware: WLS domain with correct templates needed for SOA+BPM+BAM+Service Bus+WebCenter
  • Configure Modules: Association between BPM and WebCenter Content/Portal with the correct security setup 
  • Install additional tools/software: JDeveloper IDE, extensions
  • Optimize the environment: WLS console properties, front-end host, external listen address etc. for your network topology
  • Create accounts: Seed demo user accounts with email addresses (or other user accounts)

While you can always automate the above-mentioned steps, having a pre-provisioned DevOps style machine image can help you reduce development costs. It can get you from zero to a fully working SOA environment in minutes, on any developer’s laptop. The benefits go beyond simply time to provision, it allows you to do more with less resources. For example, the VM allows developers to quickly switch between multiple running instances, each testing a new feature or version without the need for additional hardware.

We sincerely hope you enjoy using this VM and would love to hear your feedback!

You can follow him on Twitter and his personal blog.

Tip from Giuliano Bonardi Us the latest version of  Virtualbox (4.3.10) downloaded from VirtualBox Community website here. Virtualbox 4.3.8 might not work with the image!

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NEW Demo system page and new BPM demo

May 13, 2014 Leave a comment

To get access to the demo environment please contact Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN)!
New Demo system
You can make Reservations from outside the Oracle network on GSE’s new site, https://demo.oracle.com , even from your cell phone!  
New BPM demo
This new Sales Promotion and Reconciliation demo demonstrates how your customers can automate partner promotions and payments and eliminate manual interactions of Sales Operations / Finance using the enterprise orchestration capabilities of Oracle BPM Suite.

Highlights

  • Automate partner promotions, payments, order exceptions through BPM.
  • Provide real-time visibility across the Order to Cash E-Business Suite modules using BAM.
  • Increase partner satisfaction and employee productivity.

All this was achieved by service enabling E-Business Suite functionality by use of the “EBS Adapter” – The Adapter is based on open standards and exposes the underlying Oracle Applications interfaces such as JCA and Web Services.

Call to Action

For questions or feedback please contact Anvesh Baluguri or Sunitha Patel.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

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The key ingredients of an ACM case – the Hotel Booking Case in terms of adaptive case management by Amis

May 12, 2014 Leave a comment

In a recent post I have introduced the key concepts in Adaptive Case Management (ACM). In the article you are reading now, I want to show an example of a specific case. This example should provide some clarity on exactly how the core aspects of a case are specified and how these provide the foundation for the case as it will be managed  by the ACM engine of choice (for example Oracle BPM Suite 11g).

The example I use – inspired by the surroundings of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Partner Community event on Malta (February 2014) – is a hotel. The scope of the case is the booking and stay of a guest or party of guests. The case starts with the potential guest enquiring after prices and availability. It can conclude in several ways – ranging from the guest having had a pleasant stay to either cancellation, no show or even no booking at all.

This article does not yet discuss the implementation of the case. It introduces the key components that should be produced during design phase of the case and that provide the ingredients for implementing the case as an ACM process.

Note: I am not striving for a complete case definition. I am sure many hotels would use different, more extensive case definitions. This article’s objective is only to provide an example to demonstrate the various constituents of an ACM case definition.

Milestones

The milestones identified in my fictitious hotel case are:

  • Booking made: possibly based upon the quote provided to the guest, a booking has been made
  • Booking cancelled
  • Cancellation deadline passed: a guest can cancel a booking up 24 hours before the arrival data; when that deadline has passed, the booking enters a new phase: the hotel starts making preparations and the guest has to pay now – even upon no-show or (late) cancellation; note: this is a special milestone, one that is brought about by passing of the time rather than by an event in the case
  • Guest Checked-in
  • Check-out performed
  • No-show declared
  • Guest Complaint received
  • Guest Complaint handled
  • Case Closed

Not all of these milestones will have to be reached in a case instance. In fact, several are mutually exclusive. Some may be revokable: even when the milestone has been reached, the case stakeholders can be decide that on second thoughts it is not reached after all (for example: after no-show was declared, the guest arrives or after the guest complaint as declared taken care of, the guest persists with the complaint).

Stakeholders

Various stakeholders can be associated with the case. Whether they will have direct to an automated system that orchestrates the case is not yet determined. However, each stakeholder may directly or indirectly influence the case. Some of these stakeholders are internal (from the viewpoint of the hotel) while others are considered external. Not all stakeholders listed have to be involved with every instance of the case. Read the complete article here.

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Content-Enabling Your Insurance Business Using Oracle BPM and WebCenter Content by Raoul Miller

May 11, 2014 Leave a comment

Today we are featuring a guest blog post from Raoul Miller at TeamInformatics.

TeamInformatics is a leading provider of consulting and implementation services for Oracle WebCenter and has recently published an informative whitepaper on the value of integrating WebCenter Content with our BPM technologies to deliver more cost-effective business processes.

Guest post: Raoul Miller, TeamInformatics
TEAM has worked with a number of insurance industry companies over the years and the advantages of content-enabling these enterprises are numerous.  Many insurance organizations have grown through acquisition, with the end result that they have parallel legacy systems in place with increasingly evolving complexity in meeting the challenges of integrating them. This makes the insurance industry ideal for deployment of SOA/BPM as an integration methodology and adding content and records management to this is a no-brainer (as the insurance industry is so document and record-driven).

Last year Oracle published a white paper on how best to use their BPM (business process management) tools in an insurance industry setting. I won’t restate all their reasons as to why the Oracle solution is a good fit – but suffice to say that the Oracle Insurance business unit has a lot of experience in the area and solutions to meet all your needs. However, what was missing from the white paper was the value and flexibility gained by adding WebCenter Content, Records, and Imaging to the mix.

We are currently working with a number of customers on exactly these integrations – allowing for secure upload of files from agents’ offices, scanning and uploading of paper forms and documents (using capture and distributed capture), migrating legacy images from mainframe systems to modern Oracle WebCenter Content systems, and allowing users (for the first time) to truly search and retrieve content based on metadata and full text searches. TEAM’s Enterprise Architect, Raoul Miller, has produced a whitepaper that contains two case studies where SOA/BPM and WebCenter content enable businesses with these processes.

To learn more about these implementations, download the whitepaper here.

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Case Management API’s By Venugopal Mangipudi

May 10, 2014 Leave a comment

With the release of SOA Suite 11.1.1.7, Adaptive case management is now part of the tool. It is an interesting addition to the tool and the person modeling the requirements, as it will allow for designing more AD-HOC processes. For a very good overview of the features of ACM in OBPM 11.1.1.7  the series of articles by the Oracle A-Team is really great. For the current article, I want to attempt to show the usage of the Case Management API’s by building a Java client, as I did not find a lot of information except for the Case Management API documentation.

For this example I have built and deployed the case management example found here. Also for a API usage of raising custom events I had built a very simple Case Management project found here.

I will cover the following use-cases to show the usage of the Case Management API’s:

  • Search for all Active Cases
  • Search for all Closed Cases
  • Search for all Active cases in a particular case project
  • Search for a particular case based on the Case Id
  • Add comments to a Case
  • Retrieve the List of Comments on a Case
  • Retrieve the Case Data on a Case
  • Raise a User Defined Event
  • Close the Case
  • Reopen the Case

The following are the steps/code to create the Client application to interact with the case:

  • Jdeveloper Application Creation and Client Project Creation:

Create a New Generic Application  in JDeveloper and give it a name (for example, CaseManagementAPIUsage). In the Application create a Java  Based Project and give it a name (for example, CaseManagementAPIUsageJavaProject) and also provide a default package name (for example,  com.cm.apiusage).

  • Java Project Classpath and Libraries setup:

Add the following jar’s to the Java Path: Read the complete article here.

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