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Process Functional Expansions and Add-on Capabilities

The Process Engine currently provides the following major functional expansions and optional add-on capabilities for Open Client (for additional information on these functional expansions and add-on capabilities, click on the links below; for information on acquiring these Process functional expansions or capabilities and adding them to your environment, contact your FileNet representative):

Process Analyzer

The FileNet Process Analyzer functional expansion provides analysis and reporting capability for business processes by enabling users to:

  • "Slice and dice" the collected data to identify workflow business problems (such as bottlenecks) and increase workflow productivity.
  • Generate chart-based reports on statistical information gathered by the Process Engine.
  • Create and save custom charts for future use.

Providing Process Analyzer capability for workflows requires an understanding of:

Process Analyzer Usage

FileNet leverages OLAP technology (On-Line-Analytical Processing) to provide process analytics. Use of the OLAP cube optimizes database queries and reporting, enabling fast analysis of multi-dimensional data. The Process Analyzer capabilities include support and configuration of remote database server (MS SQL Server) names, named database instance, and support a case-sensitive character set. Microsoft Excel supplies the user interface and charting capabilities for data from the OLAP database. In addition, FileNet provides a set of out-of-the-box reports that provide information on:

Productivity – measures the type and number of tasks processed

Cycle Time – the average process time for a specified time interval

Queue Load – the number of work items in a particular work queue

Work in progress – a real-time view of the number of currently running workflows and work items in a selected queue

Users can extend this reporting functionality by gathering business-specific process data and modifying the reports that FileNet provides. The following screenshots illustrate a report that graphically shows the amount of work completed by each user.

Process Analyzer Usage

The same historical data can be viewed or “slice-and-diced” in different ways.  The following four screenshots illustrate how the same historical data can be used to produce a variety of different charts.

For information on how to use the Process Analyzer to analyze data and create reports, see the Process Analyzer User Guide on the Process Documentation for FileNet Image Manager CD. For information on how to configure and administer the Process Analyzer, see Help for Process Analyzer Administration and Configuration on the Process Documentation for FileNet Image Manager CD.

Process Analyzer Architecture

The following figure illustrates the Process Analyzer architecture and its interfaces with the Process Engine (via the Process Analyzer Connector on the Process Engine) and the Excel client.

 

Rules Engine

As of Process Engine Release 2.0.1, the Process Engine comes with FileNet-provided integration built-in for the iLog Rules Engine (iLog JRules™), which may be independently added (FileNet does not provide the iLog Rules Engine). When combined with the iLog Rules Engine, the FileNet Rules Engine integration provides an add-on capability that enables business rules to be independently applied to workflows. For example, a user can define rules as a way to automatically assign certain participants to workflow steps, assign priority to workflow steps, validate information, apply rules about when and what data to save (for example, when a workflow step is completed), and so on.

Providing Rules capability for workflows requires an understanding of:

Rules Engine Usage

Integrating Process workflows with the iLog Rules Engine typically involves defining rules for user-defined fields (fields defined in the workflow definition), users, and/or groups (from Directory services via LDAP). These rules are applied to Process operations, such as: sending a work item to a map (similar to a call instruction), sending a work item to an exception map, setting a timer for a work item, assigning data to a work item field, creating sub-flows, and so on. Since implementing Rules functionality is optional, an option is provided so that users can enable\disable Rules functionality (for all Rules operations) on the Process Engine server via the Process Configuration Console.

Note: If the iLog Rules Engine (see Rules Engine Architecture below) is not present, the Process Engine server will be able to start, but the Rules daemon will return an error when rule operations are attempted.

Rules are applied to a workflow definition when it is created/edited with the Process Designer. The user specifies which rule set to run for all steps in the workflow using the Process Designer Workflow Properties dialogue box. For example:

Once a rule set has been defined, the user can assign it to multiple steps using the Rule Set Usage dialogue. Rule sets are assigned by type (Before Execution, On Save and After Completion).

Note: The grouping described above will also be used in the step properties, but the user will also be able to reorder the execution order of the rules.

Rules Engine architecture

The following figure illustrates the Rules Engine architecture and its interfaces with the Process Engine in a client/server configuration. Also shown are the Process Designer (on the client) that provides calls to Rules Engine functions (as defined in the workflow definition) and the iLog Rules Editor (on the Rules Engine client) that defines the rule sets and rule definitions. Note that the Rules daemon shown, although it uses an iLog library for rules functionality, is a FileNet-unique daemon specifically designed to interface to the VWRules library on the Process Engine. The Rules Engine resides on the Primary Process Engine server.

Note: The Rules Engine default port number is 32774, which needs to be set in the vwserver.ini and the fnrules.properties files.