Demonstrating the Features of Advanced Workflow

Advanced Workflow is a web-based application designed to manage and automate your unique business processes. This solution enables you to organize, execute, and analyze business processes that connect people, data, and daily activities, and provides the tools you need to configure and customize business processes based on your specific business needs.

Advanced Workflow extends the following SAP applications. No extra license is needed to use the solution.

• SAP Incentive Management
• SAP Territory and Quota
• SAP Agent Performance Management (APM)
• SAP Agent Lifecycle Management (ALM)

Some examples of business uses for Advanced Workflow include:

• Compensation inquiries
• Onboarding new producers or agents
• Payment approvals
• MBOs
• Acknowledging receipt of plan documents

Workflows are the foundation for creating business processes that enable you to organize, execute, and analyze relationships and activities between people, data, and business operations. You can configure and customize your workflow business processes based on your specific business needs.

A workflow represents a set of rules, statuses, and actions, which specify the life cycle of a case assigned to the workflow. You can create and configure statuses and actions, or use default statuses and actions to represent your specific business activities.

Let’s look at an example of a workflow. Intellasoft is a large corporation that calculates incentive compensation for several thousand sales reps worldwide. Each sales rep can submit an inquiry if they have questions or concerns about their compensation. Different inquiry types require specialized handling by dedicated teams, and are subject to manager approval depending on the content of the inqury.

Amy Whitton is a sales representative for the eastern region of the United States. Viewing her most recent commissions dashboard, she has a question on how to view her quarterly quota. Going in to Advanced Workflow, she opens a case and enters the details.

The flow diagram below shows the workflow. Once Amy submits the new case it is assigned to the compensation manager, who manually assigns the case to a team member, the Inquiry Admin, for resolution.

If the administrator needs more information, they can place a request, which sends a notification back to Amy to add details. Once the administrator has the information they need, they can resolve the case. This sends a final notification to Amy.

To streamline this process, Intellasoft needs a robust workflow system that efficiently routes, tracks, and manages these inquiries from initial submission to final resolution. This lesson guides you through designing this workflow using SAP's advanced workflow capabilities.

Several key components should be considered during workflow design:

• Projects are essential to managing case access and organization. A case can belong to only one project, and a project is required for every case.
• Statuses and Actions clearly define the different statuses an inquiry can have, and which actions are available for each status.
• Forms and Fields capture necessary information for each inquiry. This includes predefined standard fields and custom fields tailored to specific needs.
• Permissions control user access and actions based on their roles.
• Service Level Agreements, or SLAs, allow you to define time-based thresholds for different stages of a process.
• Priorities enable you to specify the urgency of a case. All cases in a workflow have a priority.
• Reminders enable Advanced Workflow to send a notification to designated users at a designated time. Reminders can be automatic, or ad-hoc.
• Email Notifications keep stakeholders informed of inquiry status changes
• Custom tables store additional data as needed.
• Custom Parameters and Dictionaries provide flexible configuration and management of workflow settings.
• Workflow Metrics: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track workflow efficiency and identify areas for improvement.
• Implement robust logging tracks workflow execution and facilitates debugging. Tools like the data exporter and migration manager for reporting and environment management.

Accounts and Contacts are optional features that can be enabled by the administrator.

Accounts represent a company or outside entity that contains general information such as contact information, shipping, and billing information.

Contacts can be customers, partners, or agents that work with the organization and have an interest in certain cases. A contact may create, monitor, and perform limited actions based on permissions defined by the administrator. Contacts are not required, but they are very useful for unregistered users who need limited access to a case.

• Advanced Workflow is a web-based application designed to manage and automate your unique business processes.
• A workflow represents a set of rules, statuses, and actions, which specify the life cycle of a case assigned to the workflow.
• Key components of a workflow include statuses and actions, forms, permissions, and notifications.
• Advanced Workflow extends the capabilities of SAP Incentive Management, Territory and Quota, Agent Performance Management, and Agent Lifecycle Management. No additional license is required.
• Accounts and Contacts are optional features that can be enabled by the administrator.