Building Mobile Enterprise Applications : Understanding Software AG Products : Agile Process : Business Process Management
Business Process Management
A business process is a series of business activities that are performed in a specific order by a variety of applications, systems, employees, and external businesses. Examples of business processes include handling a purchase order from receipt through fulfillment, taking a product from inception to market, and preparing for a new employee. Business processes are more complex and long-running than application integrations and can include activities performed by humans.
Business process management enables you to automate business processes. For example, the process of preparing for a new employee could be automated as follows:
1. The hiring manager submits an online form that contains information about the new employee.
2. The submission of the form triggers the first step in the process. This step adds the employee's information to the internal human resources (HR) database and registers the employee in various systems and applications, such as the enterprise's e-mail application.
3. The next step in the process uses the enterprise's trading network to notify the external payroll company to set up an account for the employee.
4. The next step sends the facilities department a task to assign office space and provide office equipment before the employee's start date.
Business processes typically involve many variables and conditions, and the longer they run, the more likely the variables and conditions are to change. For example, a supplier might temporarily run out of parts needed to fill orders. Business process management enables you to act on running processes in response to such changes; in the example above, you could suspend order fulfillment processes until parts are available again.
Copyright © 2007-2016 Software AG, Darmstadt, Germany.

Product LogoContact Support   |   Community   |   Feedback