=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1985/BPM17industry11
|storemode=property
|title=Electronic Office: Zero-code Process Automation in the Google Cloud
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1985/BPM17industry11.pdf
|volume=Vol-1985
|authors=Anantharamaiah Prabhakar
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/bpm/Prabhakar17
}}
==Electronic Office: Zero-code Process Automation in the Google Cloud==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1985/BPM17industry11.pdf
Electronic Office: Zero-code Process Automation
in the Google Cloud
Anantharamaiah Prabhakar
Director, Enterprise Flow, Bangalore, India
ap@pristineworkflow.com
Abstract. Electronic Office is a tool which can be used by an organization to
automate an unlimited variety of business processes, without having to write a
single line of code. The main step in automating a given business process using
Electronic Office is essentially to identify the process participants, categorized
into originators and resource persons. Thereafter, Electronic Office enables in-
stantiation of the process in the Google cloud, its workflow through different
process participants, and finally its termination, whereupon the process instance
gets archived. Electronic Office is ideally suited for (i) small and medium busi-
nesses that cannot afford the cost of process automation requiring software de-
velopment, (ii) large corporations and organizations that require automation of
business processes having complex, or adhoc, workflows, and (iii) organiza-
tions that have already developed, or invested in, the required application soft-
ware, e.g., ERP, CRM or HRM, and only need to automate the workflow part of
their business processes.
Keywords: Business Process Automation, Zero-code Process Automation,
Cloud BPM.
1 Introduction
Business process automation is the strategy an organization uses in order to reap one
or more of the following benefits:-
§ Improved operational efficiency
§ Reduced turnaround times
§ Consistency of business activities
§ Reduced errors
§ Reduced operating costs
Automation of a given business process by most, if not all, vendors typically
begins with the process model, usually a BPMN model [1], which appears to be a
defacto industry standard. The starting model is usually a business-oriented model,
i.e., comprehensible by business users of the process. The model is then transformed
into an IT-oriented executable model (See Chapter 9 [2]), before beginning to develop
M. Brambilla, T. Hildebrandt (Eds.): BPMN 2017 Industrial Track Proceedings, CEUR-WS.org, 2017.
Copyright © 2017 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. Copying permitted for private and aca-
demic purposes. This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors.
Anantharamaiah Prabhakar
the software code for automating the process. An alternate model developed by the
author [3] directly yields key software artifacts required for process automation.
Most, if not all, business processes comprise of two parts, viz., workflow part, and
non-workflow part. In the workflow part, a process instance flows from process
participant to one or more other process participants, until one of them terminates the
process instance. In the non-workflow part, a process participant with whom a process
instance is currently pending performs his / her share of activities which form part of
the process. An important point to note is that the software for automating the
activities comprising the non-workflow part is usually available in ERP, CRM, HRM,
or Financial Accounting systems, being offered by a large number of vendors over the
last several decades. Accordingly, the focus of attention in this paper is automation of
the workflow part of processes.
2 Electronic Office - Overview
Electronic Office is one part of Pristine Workflow, a comprehensive suite of process
automation solutions in the Google cloud. (www.pristineworkflow.com,
www.elecoffice.com). The aim of Electronic Office is to automate the workflow part
of business processes, without having to go through the time-consuming and costly
step of developing software.
Electronic Office is based on the recognition of two generic roles present in all
business processes, viz., Originator and ResourcePerson. A business process in-
stance is always originated by somebody; the person who originates the process in-
stance is playing the generic role of Originator. Once a process instance comes into
existence, other roles may come into play; all of these other roles are represented by
the generic role, ResourcePerson.
Electronic Office permits parallel workflow; i.e., a process participant can, after
performing his / her share of activities,
1) create messages which can be viewed by future process participants
2) create links to documents, which can be accessed or downloaded by future pro-
cess participants, and
3) send the process instance simultaneously to one or more ResourcePersons, who
then receive email alerts.
By default, the process instance also flows back to the Originator. Thus, the Origi-
nator can continually monitor the progress of the process instance, and take corrective
action under exception conditions. In Electronic Office, only the Originator is author-
ized to terminate the process instance originated by him / her.
3 Premium Products, Inc.
In order to get an insight into how Electronic Office enables zero-code process auto-
mation, we consider a fictitious corporation, viz., Premium Products Inc.
The Management of Premium Products Inc have decided to automate the Order To
Cash process. This process comprises of all the activities that are performed from the
Electronic Office
time a Purchase Order is received from a customer, until all ordered products are de-
livered to, and payment received from, the customer, in accordance with the terms
and conditions in the Purchase Order.
The efficient conduct of the Order To Cash Process pertaining to each Purchase
Order is the responsibility of either Gary Cooper or Harsh Vardhan, the two Salesper-
sons of the company. Hence, these two employees must be assigned the generic role,
Originator, in the Order To Cash Process. Their process-specific role is Salesperson.
Invoicing customers is the responsibility of Lana Turner, the Accounts Officer of
the company. It is also her responsibility to debit customers when she invoices them,
and credit customers when she receives payment from them. Hence, she must be as-
signed the generic role, ResourcePerson, in the Order To Cash Process. Her process-
specific role is Accounts Officer.
Sarah Connor is the Storekeeper of the company. Whenever a Purchase Order is to
be fulfilled, she is the one who has to withdraw the corresponding items from stores,
and pass on the same to Spencer Tracey, the Dispatch Clerk. Spencer arranges for
transportation of the goods to the customer. Hence, Sarah and Spencer must be as-
signed the generic role, ResourcePerson, in the Order To Cash Process. Sarah’s pro-
cess-specific role is Storekeeper, while Spencer’s process-specific role is Dispatch
Clerk.
4 Electronic Office – Zero-code Process Definition
Shown in Figure 1 is the Main Menu of Pristine Workflow. The Administration Menu
(Figure 2) is accessible by the Administrator (of the organization’s Pristine Workflow
account) by clicking ADMINISTRATION in the Main Menu, then logging in.
Under the EMPLOYEES tab of the Administration Menu, Pristine Workflow ena-
bles defining the employees of the organization; these employees can then become
process participants in one or more business processes of the organization. Shown in
Figure 3 is the list of employees of Premium Products Inc.
Under the BUSINESS PROCESSES tab of the Administration Menu, Pristine
Workflow enables definition of the business processes of the organization. See Figure
4 for the current list of business processes of Premium Products Inc.
Under the GENERIC ROLES tab of the Administration Menu, for each of the
business processes, the employees who play the generic roles of Originator and Re-
sourcePerson are identified. See Figure 5 for the lists of Originators and ResoursePer-
sons of the Order To Cash process.
Finally, under the PROCESS-SPECIFIC ROLES tab of the Administration
Menu, for each of the business processes, the process-specific roles played by various
employees can be identified. See Figure 6 for the list of process-specific roles in Pre-
mium Products Inc.
Anantharamaiah Prabhakar
5 Electronic Office – Key Features of Workflow
An employee of an organization can instantiate a process, or access a process in-
stance, by clicking ELECTRONIC OFFICE in the Main Menu (Figure 1), and log-
ging in. Note, however, that from among all the employees of Premium Products Inc.
listed in Figure 3, only Gary Cooper and Harsh Vardhan can instantiate an Order To
Cash process, while each of the 5 employees listed in Figure 5 can access an Order To
Cash process instance pending for his / her action.
In order to illustrate key workflow features of Electronic Office, we take up an ex-
ample.
Premium Products Inc. have received a Purchase Order from Redmond General
Hospital, viz., PO No. REDGEN-223, for 2 ECG units, viz., 1 unit of Vesta-301i and
1 unit of FX-7102. The total order value is US$ 3500/-, payable upon full delivery.
This PO is being handled by Salesperson, Gary Cooper. Gary has stored a copy of the
PO in Google Drive, and has acquired a link to the same.
Gary Cooper clicks ELECTRONIC OFFICE in the Main Menu (Figure 1), logs in,
and sees the screen shown in Figure 7. He clicks the button, INITIATE THE
PROCESS, and sees the screen shown in Figure 8. He selects the Order To Cash
Process, then inputs “P.O. REDGEN-223 from Redmond General Hospital” as the
process instance identifier, then clicks SELECT, whereupon he sees the screen shown
in Figure 9.
In the lower part of the screen in Figure 9, he selects the Storekeeper, Sarah Con-
nor, and writes notes as shown. Notice that Gary has included a link to the Purchase
Order (pointed to by a red arrow in Figure 9), copy of which he has stored in Google
Drive. He now clicks SUBMIT, whereupon Sarah receives an email alert (Figure 10),
indicating to her that she should log into Electronic Office.
When Sarah logs into Electronic Office, she sees the form shown in Figure 11. No-
tice again the link pointed to by the red arrow, clicking which Sarah can download the
Purchase Order REDGEN-223 from Google Drive. Sarah, the Storekeeper, is now
expected to withdraw the ordered goods from Stores, hand over the goods to Spencer
Tracey, the Dispatch Clerk, enter an appropriate message in the form field in Figure
11, then send the form to Spencer.
In general, whenever a process participant receives an email alert, he / she clicks
ELECTRONIC OFFICE in the Main Menu (Figure 1), logs in, and accesses the corre-
sponding process instance. The process instance will present itself as a form similar to
Figure 11. The top part of the form will contain messages from previous process par-
ticipants. The lower part will contain a drop-down menu for selecting zero or more
future participants, as well as a field for creating a message for future participants.
The message can include HTML content, such as links to documents, images, etc.
Whenever the Originator feels that the objectives of the process have been
achieved, he / she terminates the process instance, whereupon the instance goes into
archive.
The Administrator can list or terminate current and archived process instances, and
view archived process instances, under the PROCESSES INSTANCES tab of the
Electronic Office
Administration Menu (Figure 2). The archived process instance corresponding to the
example is shown in Figure 12.
6 Conclusion
Most business processes comprise of two parts, viz., workflow part, and non-
workflow part. The software for automating the activities comprising the non-
workflow part is domain-specific and is usually available in ERP, CRM, HRM, or
Financial Accounting systems. Electronic Office is useful for automating the
workflow part, without having to incur the time and cost of developing software.
Electronic Office supports parallel workflow, which contributes to improved
operational efficiency, since different process participants can be play their roles
simultaneously. The originator of the process instance can continually monitor its
status, and take corrective action under exception conditions.
Fig. 1. Main Menu
Fig. 2. Administration Menu
Anantharamaiah Prabhakar
Fig. 3. List of employees
Fig. 4. List of business processes
Fig. 5. List of Originators and ResourcePersons
Electronic Office
Fig. 6. List of process-specific roles
Fig. 7. Electronic Office login screen
Fig. 8. Process initiation screen
Anantharamaiah Prabhakar
Fig. 9. Instantiated process pending for action by Gary Cooper
Fig. 10. Email alert received by Sarah Connor
Electronic Office
Fig. 11. Form seen by Sarah Connor
Anantharamaiah Prabhakar
Electronic Office
Fig. 12. Archived process instance example
References
1. Object Management Group, 2011. Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN): Version
2.0, OMG. Needham, MA.
2. Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., Reijers, H., 2013. Fundamentals of Business Pro-
cess Management, Springer-Verlag. Berlin.
3. Prabhakar, A., 2016. A State Transition Model for Business Processes: Towards Object-
oriented Business Process Automation. In Proceedings of the 8th International Joint Con-
ference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management,
Volume 3: KMIS, pp.271-276.