PIPER-Rx New Zealand Oracle Users Group Conference 2010 A better approach to OEBS workflow management By Gary Piper March 2010 PIPER-Rx

Abstract…  Workflow management is often ineffective and a perennial problem for many E-Business sites – so many workflows get lost or just hang around in various states of completion.  This happens because workflows have inherently long process timelines – e.g. receipt of an order through to inventory despatch can take several weeks, yet the management of workflow if often left to technical staff whose experience is much more around operating with database transaction times of milliseconds or seconds. It is therefore not uncommon in larger organisations to find several thousand workflows with various completion statuses in many cases dating back several years. The tidy up cost can be enormous.  This presentation demonstrates how to apply the principles of Aged Accounts management to workflow to help you manage workflow simply and far more effectively by identifying and focussing on slow workflows in the same way organisations identify and focus on slow payers. It covers how to collect the relevant information on the age profile of your workflows, what to focus on first for best results, what to do with the information and how to implement a regular review program to ensure workflow issues are identified and addressed early rather than left to clutter your system.

PIPER-Rx Agenda…  Assessing the damage  The impact  Technical  Business  The cause  Aged Debtors- apply the approach to workflow  The how  Simple four (4) stage process  Maximum return for almost no effort on your behalf  Free stuff

PIPER-Rx Assessing The Damage… Note: This level of completed workflow activity is not uncommon given the majority of the activities for a workflow have a status of complete I have encountered sites with over 300,000 workflow items with a status of notified…

PIPER-Rx Assessing The Damage… 32 of 35 ( 91%) with a status of Complete

PIPER-Rx Assessing The Damage…

PIPER-Rx Workflow Stats…

PIPER-Rx The Impact - Technical…  Number of rows in workflow tables  wf_item_activity_statuses AUS: Typically million US: 35 million  wf_item_activity_statuses_h spinners  wf_notifications ( notifications with no workflow )  Number of rows in the workflow indexes  The PK index is an alpha partitioned index. Thus, if your site is predominantly OE then all the records will be in the OE partition – Love to know who came up with that idea!  Poor performing workflows  Purging does not appear to work  Workflow background process

PIPER-Rx WF Background Processes… Program NameArgumentsNext Run TimeSchedule Workflow Background Process* * * N* N* Y22-Oct-09 18:037DAYSEND Workflow Background Process* * * N* Y* N20-Oct-09 17:1215MINUTESEND Workflow Background ProcessGLBATCH* * * N* Y* N20-Oct-09 17:091MINUTESSTART Workflow Background ProcessGLBATCH* * * Y* N* N20-Oct-09 17:091MINUTESSTART Workflow Background ProcessGLBATCH* * * Y* N* Y20-Oct-09 17:091MINUTESSTART Workflow Background ProcessGLBATCH* * * Y* N* Y20-Oct-09 17:135MINUTESEND Workflow Background ProcessGLBATCH* * * Y* Y* Y20-Oct-09 17:091MINUTESSTART Workflow Background ProcessOEOH* * * Y* Y* N20-Oct-09 17:221HOURSSTART Workflow Background ProcessOEOL* * * N* N* Y20-Oct-09 17:091MINUTESEND Workflow Background ProcessOEOL* * * N* N* Y21-Oct-09 03:001DAYSSTART Workflow Background ProcessOEOL* * * N* Y* N20-Oct-09 17:125MINUTESEND Workflow Background ProcessOEOL* * * N* Y* Y20-Oct-09 17:091MINUTESEND Workflow Background ProcessOEOL* * * Y* N* N20-Oct-09 17:105MINUTESSTART Workflow Background ProcessOEOL* * * Y* N* N20-Oct-09 17:095MINUTESEND Workflow Background ProcessOEOL* * * Y* N* N20-Oct-09 17:095MINUTESEND Workflow Background ProcessOEOL* * * Y* Y*20-Oct-09 17:2115MINUTESEND Workflow Background ProcessREQAPPRV* * * Y* Y* N20-Oct-09 17:135MINUTESSTART Resulted in over 10,000 requests per day; 45% of daily request activity

PIPER-Rx The Impact - Business…  Slow performing workflows  Trading impacts e.g. orders not being fulfilled  Lost revenue  Unhappy customers  Lost productivity  Accounting impacts – duplicate accruals?  Cost of rectification  “We don’t know what we don’t know”

PIPER-Rx The Cause…  No responder  Poorly designed workflows  Not completing the process via workflow Examples:  Repairs (goods never arrived)  Stock returns (not entered into inventory)  Annual leave application (leave records not updated)  Duplicate POs  The ones that fall through the cracks

PIPER-Rx Accounts Receivable…  You are overdue by 60 days you get a notice  There are whole departments set up for debt collection - Accounts Receivable  Trying being overdue with your:  AMEX account – You pay a late fee  Telstra account – They will close your account  Tax or GST – You get fined  Why don’t we apply the same principles to workflow  Identifying and focusing on slow workflows the same way as we identify and focus on slow payers Animation

PIPER-Rx Applying the Aging Process to Workflows…  A simple four (4) stage process  With almost no effort on your behalf  Stage 1  Assess your workflows average time to complete by type. This becomes your base line (only calculate complete workflows) This report can also be used to determine workflow business efficiency  Stage 2  Run an aged workflow report - (aged trial balance ( 7 buckets ))  Stage 3  Send the information to the appropriate department for rectification  Stage 4  Follow-up and monitor KPI (percentage closed)

PIPER-Rx The How…  Based on one (1) table  Workflow Items wf_items Begin date End date  Warning  I have found there can be records in the base tables wf_item_activity_statuses but not in wf_items

PIPER-Rx Step 1 – Workflow Runtime Stats… Animation ** WARNING ** The times quoted in this report will depend on the state of your workflows If you purge regularly there will be limited and or skewed information ** WARNING ** The times quoted in this report will depend on the state of your workflows If you purge regularly there will be limited and or skewed information ** NOTE ** This is REAL business end to end ** NOTE ** This is REAL business end to end

PIPER-Rx Step 2a - Aged Workflows (Months)…

PIPER-Rx Step 3a – Aged Workflow – APEXP…

PIPER-Rx Step 2b: Aged Workflows (Days)…

PIPER-Rx Step 3b – Aged Workflow – POERROR…

PIPER-Rx Step 4 - Individual Workflow Activity… ** WARNING ** Does not include information from wf_item_activity_statuses_h ** WARNING ** Does not include information from wf_item_activity_statuses_h

PIPER-Rx Workflow Notification Information…

PIPER-Rx Follow-up…  Hand workflows off to the appropriate person for follow- up  Reports 3a (months) or 3b (days)  Individual workflow names (Item type) and keys  Do the same thing again next month and monitor % cleaned up  DBAs - Don’t forget to rebuild the workflow indexes  Don’t forget to mention all your hard work cleaning up and keeping on top of workflow during your next review

PIPER-Rx Free Stuff… FREE  All reports and code referenced in this paper are FREE from the PIPER-Rx website   No registration required  No signup etc  Full open source  TOAD Report Manager Tutorials:  Importing and exporting TOAD Report Manager reports  How to write a TOAD Report Manager reports  How to write a TOAD Report Managers report that calls a package 

PIPER-Rx Questions…

PIPER-Rx Disclaimer… The material contained in this presentation and any accompanying documents is provided by the author "as is" and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall the author be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of any content or information, even if advised of the possibility of such damage. It is always recommended that you seek independent, professional advice before implementing any ideas or changes to ensure that they are appropriate. TOAD® is a registered trademark of Quest Software. Oracle® is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation © 2009 G Piper All Rights Reserved