Solved: work flow

Using SAP Business workflows, one can define the business processes that are not yet mapped into SAP system. Workflows are suitable for the situations where the given task is executed repeatedly or when the large number of people is involved in the completion of that work. Workflows can be used in conjunction with the existing business scenarios e.g. during the standard functionality errors or exceptions occurs then workflow can be triggered on these actions.

There are lots of standard workflows available from SAP for different areas like Sales & Distribution (SD), Travel Management (TV), Treasury (TR), General Logistics (LO), and Personnel Management (PA) etc.

Why Workflows:

Following are the scenarios, which occur on daily basis in each organization -

Finding out what work needs to be done

Planning of work that needs to be done amongst the group of people

The identification of roles & responsibilities on who will do what, when & in how much time

Working in coordination with others

Informing next person about his work to be done, when the earlier one has finished his own

Duplication of work that has been already done because of communication gap,inefficient knowledge

transfer & the incomplete documentation in the central repository

Identification of delay in the completion of the work

Preparing status on this delay

Workflows help to optimize each of the above scenarios. In workflows the processes are linked to each other and flow one after the other. At each step, a right person (Agent) will take care of the process. If the step doesnu2019t need any interaction then the process flows automatically.

Here deadlines can be set for the activities depending on the fair time that step needs to complete. Once this deadline is reached and the process is not performed by the concern then the administrator (manager) gets the notification mail. Here as the right people can be kept in loop in this automated process so a disciplined work atmosphere is automatically planned in the organization.

Due to this automated system, the process becomes transparent to all the users and the risk of manual errors is also reduced. Again the time required to complete any work manually is simply reduced in this automated system. So this adds to the quicker completion of targets and hence leads to the financial growth of the organization.

Features of Workflows:

New business processes can be easily defined with the workflows.

Workflow uses the existing transactions and functions without changing them.

Workflow uses the Organization structure. This helps in the term of changes to organization

structure, which will be immediately in effect in the execution of workflows.

Lots of tools are available in the workflow like tools for definition, analysis and monitoring of

work processes.

Workflow template (transaction: PFTC) can also be created for the workflow definitions.

Workflow Builder is a very effective tool available for creation, change and display of workflow

definition.

Agents can be easily maintained in the workflows. They receive the work item in their SAP

Business Workplace, which they will process.

Deadline monitoring can be easily used against the tasks for the defined agents.

Using Business Object Editor (transaction: SWO1), we use the business objects in workflows.

These business objects help to use the SAP standard functionality in workflows.

ABAP Classes can also be used in workflows along with the business objects.

Business Workflow explorer gives the overview of all the tasks.

Workflow can also be used on Internet. This is especially useful for the managers, who might not be directly accessing the SAP transactions. So the approval forms generated via workflows can be sent on internet. This is even useful for the people who mainly preparing SAP data and not knowing much about the SAP transactions. They can be given a simple web form for entering data & on submitting data of this web form workflow can be started.

Several workflow wizards are also available for supporting the workflow definition

Version management is available for workflows. Only one version can be active at one time,

which is referred while execution.

Lots of administrative tools are available for control and analysis of workflows.

Lots of diagnostic tools are also available in workflows.

Prerequisites of using Workflows:

System Requirement: R/3 Release 3.0 & above

Mail servers involved should be SMTP Compliant if the workflow involves email notifications.

As the workflow may execute lots of background jobs so it may require lots of system

resources. Hence the hardware should be enough to fulfill all these requirements along with the

normal functionality of the server without affecting the speed.

SAP Workflow is a tool to automate complex business processes where there is more than one user involved. SAP workflow maps the position in organization because SAP believes that Positions are more stable than the people.

SAP Workflow is a process tool that is designed to facilitate and automate business processes involving the tasks sequence performed by the users (people in the workplace) and ensure that the right work is assigned in the right sequence at the right time to the right person in the workflow. The SAP workflow can be linked to other software tools such as Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. Using SAP Workflow, each step of a business transaction can be easily monitored throughout the initiation and completion of the business processes. The SAP Workflow enables the process owners to track deadlines, determine the workload as well as provide statistics on the length of time to complete work processes.

The key components of the SAP Workflow include the Workflow Definition, Work Items, Events triggers and the Organizational Structure in the workplace.

Technically SAP Workflow is an integrated part of SAP application server.

Example 1

[[Approval procedure in Procurement. Some person creates a Purchase Order which must be approved by one or another (or even more than one) manager depending on the amount]]

Example 2

Suppose Person A is EDI administrator. It is defined that all EDI related jobs will be done by him. It is also defined that in his absence another person will do his job. If person A wants to take a planned leave and then he wants all his jobs assigned to him in his absence to be assigned to person B. He will nominate the person B in SAP and then SAP automatically assigns the job of A to B.

Practical Workflow for SAP

http://www.sap-press.com/downloads/h950_preview.pdf

An expert guide to new SAP workflow capabilities

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/c6456e89-0a01-0010-0189-a79...

Workflow

http://iris.tennessee.edu/Blueprint/Workflow/Workflow.doc

Workflow Scenarios

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/04/926f8546f311d189470000e829fbbd/content.htm

SAP Business Workflow

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_46c/helpdata/en/c5/e4a930453d11d189430000e829fbbd/content.htm

Home to SAP R3 Webflow - Workflow ->

http://www.erpgenie.com/workflow/tips.htm