Workflow capabilities enable you to efficiently automate the
flow of information throughout your enterprise, crossing
both application and functional boundaries.
PeopleSoft Workflow Technology consists of a powerful set
of tools that enables you to automate time-consuming
business processes and deliver the right information to the
right people at the right time.
You can merge the activities of multiple users into
flexible business processes to increase efficiency, cut
costs, and keep up with rapidly changing customer and
competitive challenges.
Many of the tasks that you perform throughout the day are
part of larger tasks that involve several steps and several
people. For example, when you order supplies, you are really
initiating an approval process: someone else reviews the
order and either approves or denies it.
If the order is approved, a purchase order is sent to the
vendor. If it is denied, notification is sent back to the
person who submitted the original order. The term workflow
refers to this larger process.
Using PeopleSoft Workflow Technology requires you to define,
step by step, your business processes. The first step in
implementing your workflow application is determining the
business rules of your organization.
This step involves taking fluid, subtle, and sometimes
controversial practices and defining explicit rules of
operation. The trick to this step is in walking a tightrope:
your business rules must be specific enough to give you a
solid understanding of your project goals, but not so
specific that they predefine a single solution—one that
might be impossible to implement, or that does not provide
needed flexibility.
