Track 4 - Business Productivity

Combining Progress OpenEdge, BPM and Corticon

Mike Liewehr AKIOMA Software www.akioma.de

What is AKIOMA CRM ?

Product Management

Contacts / Pipelining

Offer Creation

CRM

3 4

2

Content Management (Website, Web Shop)

Office (E-Mail, Calendar, Word,

Excel)

DMS (Any External Document)

Connect!

2 2 2 2 ERP-Systems (Items, Prices,

Customers, Orders)

What is AKIOMA CRM?

Progress OpenEdge Backend

Rich Web-UI as Frontend

• Web-UI with all the advantages…

• …BUT…

• With a User-experience comparable to native Windows Desktop Applications

The idea behind the AKIOMA UI

OE Corticon Server

OE BPM Server

Node.js socket.io

OE Appserver

OE Webspeed

Browser

Enterprise Service Bus

Browser Browser running AKIOMA JS-Client

OE DB

• ERP • MS-Exchange • CMS • ….

Server

Client

Webserver

Architecture

• Storing the whole UI in a Database (Repository)

• Rendering the UI at runtime in the browser, using the „blueprints“ from the repository

Why did we do this?

• Future-Proof

• Highly Customizable…

• …but still updateable

Did it work?

YES!

but…

They want more…

• IF Field contains xyz THEN…

• Value a is only Valid if…

• Once Field x changes, then…

…so:

We had to care about the logic as well!

What about the ABL?!?

Application Logic • Core functionality • Always the same • Quite stable • You have the knowledge

Individual Logic • Different for individual

Customers • Usually customized • Changes frequently • End users have the knowledge

ABL

internal

?

external

What about the ABL?

Challenges using ABL

• Barrier between business experts and developers. • Time To Market • Deployment • Flexibility (change rules/thresholds quickly and frequently) • Testing • Documentation

ABL

Corticon BPM

Separation of Logic

But why two additional Products..?

Differentiation between BPM and Corticon

BPM

• Performs Work • Runs in parallel • Longer timeframe • Large scale • Orchestrates

Corticon

• Does calculations • Called, returns result • Very shortterm • Detailed • Is orchestrated

Differentiation between ABL and Corticon

ABL KnowHow (existing) +

Licensing/Pricing + ALL data available +

Integrated + existing functionality (Security, Auditing) +

Flexibility / customization -

Documentation - Testing -

(Unlimited functionality) +

deployment -

programmer / domain expert gap -

KnowHow (needed) -

Differentiation between ABL and Corticon

Corticon

No coding, domain expert can implement logic +

Deployment/versioning + Testing, no broken rules

possible + Document result +

Shorter learning curve +

Additional skills -

Integration (duplicate work) -

External (Data access) -

Additional costs -

(limited functionality) -

Sample

Customer statements regarding the offer process:

• Salesperson can give up to 10% discount • If discount is > 10% team leader approval is needed • Team leaders can approve up to 17% discount • Offers with a non-Standard currency must be approved by Management • Discount rate is calculated based on actual offer amount compared to price list 5 • For foreign countries the base is price list 3 • For foreign currencies (Non-€) management approval is needed • When the team leader does not approve, salesperson can escalate to Management • Approval/rejection has to occur in max. 2 days • Non-standard warranty terms must be approved by Management • ….

Implement everything as a Process

Sample

Customer statements regarding the offer process:

• Salesperson can give up to 10% discount • If discount is > 10% team leader approval is needed • Team leaders can approve up to 17% discount • Offers with a non-Standard currency must be approved by Management • Discount rate is calculated based on actual offer amount compared to price list 5 • For foreign countries the base is price list 3 • For foreign currencies (Non-€) management approval is needed • When the team leader does not approve, salesperson can escalate to Management • Approval/rejection has to occur in max. 2 days • Non-standard warranty terms must be approved by Management • ….

Sample

Customer statements regarding the offer process:

• Salesperson can give up to 10% discount • If discount is > 10% team leader approval is needed • Team leaders can approve up to 17% discount • Offers with a non-Standard currency must be approved by Management • Discount rate is calculated based on actual offer amount compared to price list 5 • For foreign countries the base is price list 3 • For foreign currencies (Non-€) management approval is needed • When the team leader does not approve, salesperson can escalate to Management • Approval/rejection has to occur in max. 2 days • Non-standard warranty terms must be approved by Management • ….

Separation between BPM and BRM

Define 3 different Forms of approval: • Salesperson • Teamleader • Manager

1. Calculate the appropriate approval level

Separation between BPM and BRM

Define 3 different Forms of approval: • Salesperson • Teamleader • Manager

2. execute the corresponding process:

Live Presentation

Results and current status

• Adding BPM and Corticon was a good decision • Perfectly fits our strategy • The effort was very reasonable • Great new opportunities • Plans to make the whole application Process-Based • With Rollbase the potential will be even greater

Results and current status

Wishlist / current limitations:

• Unify the tools (e.g. BPM Dataslots, Corticon Vocabulary) • Make everything available for OE (e.g. BPM GLE, Portal functionality) • Query available decision services • Allow access to OE data from within Corticon rulesheets • Better support for TT/DS in BPM • Designers browser-based

• BPM and BRM open up great new opportunities for OE partners

• 11.3 makes it easy to get started.

Start now and: be creative!

Summary

questions…?