Workflows

IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records includes workflows that help automate the review and disposal of record categories, record folders, volumes, and records. A workflow includes the tasks, procedural steps, personnel, input and output information, and tools for each step in a business process.

You can modify existing workflows and create new workflows. Most of the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records workflows are launched automatically as a result of either the Disposition Sweep process or the execution of an action associated with the workflow. The Physical Record Management workflow and the Create Record Folder workflow must be manually launched.

When you create a disposition phase in a disposition schedule, you must associate a disposition action and a disposition workflow with the phase. At the end of the retention period of entities in a particular phase, the entities are due for disposition. You must manually initiate the disposition action which launches the associated disposition workflow. For more information on the disposition process, see:

Before you can start using the workflows, you need to complete configuration tasks. These tasks are usually completed during the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records installation. For more information, see "Prepare to configure IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records workflows" in the IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Types of workflows

The following are workflows provided in IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records.

Workflow notifications

The system displays notification messages that include information about the status, failure, and validation errors encountered while the workflow is in progress. There are four types of notification messages that include the following:

Transcript

A transcript is an XML file that the system generates when the disposition action is performed successfully on entities approved for disposition. This file contains information about:

The system automatically sends this file as an attachment to the records manager. The records manager can view this file, save it to a local drive, or open the file in a browser.

Warning

IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records displays a warning message when the value specified for the various fields in a particular step of a workflow is incorrect or missing from required fields. If you have not specified the value of the Location field in the Physical Transfer step of the Interim Transfer workflow, IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records displays the warning message.

Information and status messages

IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records displays information and status messages for the Physical Record Management and Create Record Folder workflows. The messages contain the status of entities or any other relevant information about the entities. For example, if the current holder of a physical entity has delayed the release of the entity, IBM InfoSphere Enterprise Records places the message as a work item in the Inbox of the person who is scheduled to receive the entity.

For more information about the information and status messages, see:

Failures and exceptions

Failure and exception messages show the affected entities and the reasons for the failure of a workflow step, For example, you completed the Cutoff step for a batch of ten entities and out of these ten entities, two entities have been reopened. In this situation, this message indicates that the Cutoff action could not be completed for the two entities and displays the cause of the failure.

In the Message step, you can click Complete to complete the workflow step that has failed, and remove the work item from the Inbox. You can correct the problem and launch the workflow again to complete the step properly. In the example given above, you can close the two entities for which the Cutoff step failed and launch the workflow again.