Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Transforming the Approval and Delegation Process

November 2010

Session Agenda
Introduction

Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Delegation Framework

Demonstration

Q&A

BTRG: PeopleSoft Background

Beta-Financials Implementation at Ontario Hydro Cultivate GC niche for DCAA compliance and FAR/CAS Cost Accounting solutions

17 years of experience with PeopleSoft Implementations, Upgrades, Integration

HCM

Financials

SCM

Leading Healthcare and BCBS Organizations Rely on BTRG to Implement FIN, SCM and HCM solutions

Leading Financial Services Firms to facilitate MAs, design HCM, FIN and Procurement solutions

Nov-10

The Business & Technology Resource Group (BTRG) Proprietary & Confidential

Slide 3

About Your Presenter

Janet Martin, HCM Solutions Architect

15+ Years of PeopleSoft Consulting SME with HR, Payroll and Time & Labor Modules Secondary skills with Benefits, Self Service modules Typical role of functional lead or project management

Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

What is the Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)?

The HCM Approval Workflow Engine (AWE) is the current HCM standard for transactions requiring approvals processing.
The Approval Workflow Engine (AWE) is the engine that provides the framework and capabilities for creating, running, and managing approval processes. Through a series of easy-to-use pages users are able to:
Approve or deny individual or multiple transactions Include multiple approvers for individual steps Define criteria within the approval process Assign additional approvers and reviewers during the approval process Configure Notifications and Escalation of approvals Approve, deny, or push back approvals Reassign approval tasks to another approver and other Admin tasks Configure Generic Email Templates
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Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

What transactions are delivered within the AWE?

The following transactions are delivered in version 9.1 of the AWE:

Absence Management
Absence Management Requests Abs Mgmt - Leave Donations Extended Absence

ePerformance
Performance Appraisals

eCompensation*
Compensation Proposals

Delegations
Delegations

eProfile Manager Desktop

Promote Employees Reporting Changes Transfer Employees

Profile Management
Non-person Profiles Person Profiles

Time and Labor*

Recruiting
Job Offers Job Openings TL Reported Timesheets TL Payable Timesheets

* - new in 9.1

Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Individual or Multiple Transactions

You can Approve or Deny individual or multiple transactions

PeopleSoft transactions are made up of top-level records (known as a header-level) and more detailed line level records (known as line-level) . Most of the delivered processes in HCM are using Header level approvals. Time & Labor is one that uses Line level approvals.

If a particular transaction supports line level processing, an analyst can configure the approval process so that different line-items in the same request follow different routes. For example, a request can contain multiple lines, and you might want to use special approvers for certain lines based on their area of expertise. You can deny some lines of the request and approve others, making linelevel approvals independent for each line.
Each line can continue to the next step of the approval process without waiting for other lines within the transaction to complete.
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Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Single or Multiple Approvers

Include multiple approvers for individual steps

Approvals are made up of stages, paths and steps. The approval steps that you place on the approval path represent the approval levels that are required for a transaction. You can develop approval processes that:
Meet organizational or tiered approval limits. Use alternate hierarchies, such as supervisor approval and department approval. Use multiple parallel tracks, such as division and HR approvals at once. Use staged tracks, such as first receiving department approval and afterward receiving HR approval.

Typical approval processes might include:

Two different approvers for each step, where both approvers at a step must approve the request for it to advance to the next step. Monetary based approval criteria where additional approvers are needed at certain amount levels.

Most of the delivered processes in HCM are Single Step approvals.

Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Criteria Definitions

Support for User Defined Criteria Configuration

Areas in which you may set up criteria definitions include:
Process Definition Alerts Paths Steps

Example: You may want employees based out of Europe earning more than $100,000 per year to have only one level of approval for submitted promotion requests, whereas for all employees in the US you want three levels of approval for any submitted promotion request. This would be step criteria. Alert Example: You can define alert criteria to display a message to an approver letting him/her know that he/she is the last approver for the step. Any criteria evaluation is possible as long as the appropriate fields exist in your header record. If the field does not exist in your header record, you cannot run criteria against them.
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Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Ad-hoc Approvers and Reviewers

Assign additional approvers/reviewers during the approval process

If Ad Hoc Approval Status Monitor is implemented for an approval transaction, then during the approval process, approvers can add other approvers or reviewers to the current or a later stage of the approval process. Ad hoc approval only applies to the approval instance in which the addition occurs and does not affect the underlying process definition used for other requests. You can insert ad hoc approvers and reviewers in serial or parallel with existing approvers. If you have an ad hoc approver user list defined in the transaction registry, only the users within that list can be added as an ad hoc approver or reviewer. Workflow proceeds without waiting for reviewers to act.

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Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Notifications and Escalations

Send Notifications and Escalate approvals

Escalations are used when an approver has not responded within a specified time period to a transaction that is pending approval. You can specify the time period (timeout) and you can specify alternate approvers to whom to notify and escalate the approval for further action. You can set the number of hours and total max number of times to notify each participant by event. An example would be on Final Approval notify the Requester every 2 hours, not to exceed 5 notifications). The notification is trigged only if the participant has not acted on the transaction or request. You can use this feature to define what should happen to a particular transaction after a certain period of time. The options are:
Notify the participant - Sends an email/notification defined in the transaction registry, to the individual. Advance the approval - Skip the current approver. Advance Approval will not advance if it is on the last step of the last stage. Reassign the approval - Reassigns to a user ID or a user list. 11

Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Approve, Deny and Push Back

Users may approve, deny or pushback a transaction

Approve Allows the user to approve the request and send to the next person in the process (if one exists). Deny Allows the user to deny the request and terminate the approval process.

Pushback - Allows the user to push the transaction back only one step. The transaction cannot be modified while it is being pushed back, unless the user is the originator.(ie:Time & Labor)
While configuration may require multiple approvers to approve a step before it advances, any single approver can deny a step. The moment an approver denies a step, the transaction stops moving forward in the approval process. If the transaction is at a line level, other lines will continue to move forward. If the denial is at a header level, the approval process terminates, and the entire transaction is denied.

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Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Generic Email Notification Templates Configure transactions to create Email Notifications
Use the Configure Transactions page to select and define elements that determine: what triggers a notification who receives the notification content of the notification Anytime the AWE triggers an email notification based on the rules that are set in the Configure Transactions component, it will construct the email based on the assigned template.

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Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Generic Email Notification Templates

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Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Administrator Access
The Approval Monitor gives administrators a view into all approvals to which they have access, as well as the ability to take necessary actions on pending approvals. Actions available for the administrator are:
Reassignment - Allows the system administrator to reassign pending approvals to a new approver based on search criteria. Approve - Allows the administrator to act on behalf of the assigned approver. The approval is initiated for a specific user, wherever that user may be pending within a specific transaction. Once the administrator takes action, the approval resumes the approval process. Denial - Allows the administrator to act on behalf of the assigned approver. The denial is initiated for a specific user, wherever that user may be pending within a specific transaction. Ad Hoc - Allows the administrator to add a reviewer or approver to a specific transaction. Resubmit - Allows the administrator to resubmit a completed transaction to all approvers in the approval path. Push Back - Allows the administrator to send the process back to the previous approver.

Note: By transaction, you can define what the Administrator is allowed to do.

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Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Who can approve transactions?

The following approval hierarchies are delivered:

Department Manager
Uses the Manager ID field from the Department Profile page

Partial Position Management - Department Manager

Uses the Reports To field from the Job Information page and then the Manager ID field for that position and department from the Department Profile page

Partial Position Management - Supervisor

Uses the Reports To field from the Job Information page and then the Supervisor ID field for that position from the same page

Position Management
Uses the Reports To field from the Job Information page

Supervisor ID
Uses the Supervisor ID field from the Job Information page 16

Approval Workflow Engine (AWE)

Typical Questions about the AWE

Can I have different approval processes for the same transaction depending on user requirements?
Yes, you can configure multiple approval process definitions for each transaction within an application

Can I send email notifications in the users preferred language?

Yes, you can utilize the message catalog and the SetLanguage( ) function to determine either the senders or recipients preferred language and then retrieve the correct text from the message catalog.

Is there a way to migrate Approval Process Definitions across PeopleSoft databases or instances?
This can only be done using DataMover scripts that you develop.

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Delegation Framework
What is the Delegation Framework?

The HCM Delegation Framework is the current HCM standard for selfservice transactions capable of delegation processing.
The Delegation Framework is integrated with the Approvals Workflow Engine (AWE). The AWE recognizes when a transaction needs to be routed to a proxy instead of the original manager and documents the routing as such.
Background: Prior to the v9.0 release of HCM, the only delegation functionality available in the system was the PeopleTools Alternate Approver functionality. This was not a complete solution primarily because: worklist items did not automatically get re-assigned the alternate approver did not inherit menu security there was no self-service access to manipulate the alternate approver

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Delegation Framework
What is the Delegation Framework? With the Delegation feature, users can authorize other users to perform managerial tasks on their behalf by delegating authority to initiate or approve managerial transactions. Delegation of authority to perform managerial transactions is usually prompted by one of these scenarios:
A manager takes leave and wants to delegate authority of managerial transactions to another person while away from the office. A senior executive does not have the time to process transactions and wants to delegate this authority to another person, such as an assistant.

The Delegation framework supports the following types of delegation:

Downward delegation of authority to a direct report or another person lower down in the reporting hierarchy. Upward delegation of authority to a manager or another person higher up in the reporting hierarchy. Lateral delegation of authority to a peer either within the same division or in a different division within the reporting hierarchy
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Delegation Framework
What transactions are delivered within Delegation Framework?

The following transactions are delivered in version 9.1 of Delegation Framework:

Absence Management
Initiate Employee Balance & History Inquiry Initiate Manager Balance & History Inquiry Initiate Absence Requests Approve Absence Requests

eProfile & Manager Desktop

Initiate View Employee Info Initiate Location Changes Initiate & Approve Promotions Initiate & Approve Reporting Changes Initiate & Approve Transfers Initiate Retirement Initiate Termination Initiate & Approve Reported Time Approve Payable Time

Profile Management
Non-person Profiles Person Profiles

Time and Labor* Recruiting*

Job Offers Job Openings

eCompensation* ePerformance
Performance Appraisals Initiate Proposals Approve Proposals * - new in 9.1 20

Delegation Framework
Installation Settings Duration to check for active proxies
The Delegation Administrator is responsible for executing a batch job routinely to check for proxy availability. The system will add the duration in days to the current system date and check proxy availability with that date. If the system finds anyone who is either inactive or will be inactive within the number of days, it will notify the Delegation Administrator.
Checking for proxy availability is particularly important if you expect delegators to use open-ended delegations.

Enabled Hierarchies
This section defines which employees (possible proxies) the manager (delegator) will be able to select when he/she is selecting a proxy from the Manage Delegation home page. These settings apply to all transactions.
All Persons: Specify whether to allow the delegator to select any person in the database to serve as his/her proxy. This is also known as open selection. Specific Hierarchy: Specify that a single hierarchy be enabled. If the Specific Hierarchy check box is selected, the seven available hierarchy fields are displayed. These correspond to the hierarchies available under PeopleSofts Direct Reports. 21

Delegation Framework
Delegation Notifications Worklist and Email Notifications
The system uses email and worklist notifications to notify managers and proxies of new delegation requests and transactions pending approval. The system creates a worklist item only on the proxy's worklist, not on the delegator's worklist.

The system sends email notifications for approval to the proxy and, if configured, the system also sends the delegator a courtesy email notification.
Generic Email Templates can be configured to allow different email notifications for the proxy and delegator.

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Delegation Framework
Manage Delegations Self Service Manage Delegation Home page
Launching page for delegators to create their delegation requests or revoke their delegated authorities.

Users can:
Create Delegation Requests
Review a list of Proxies Review a list of Delegated Authority

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Delegation Framework
Manage Delegations Self Service A notification will be sent to the proxy to review and to either accept or reject the delegation. The delegation request does not become active until the proxy accepts the request and the delegation time period has arrived. If a user delegates multiple transactions to the same proxy, all the transactions are grouped together and only one notification is sent out. For multiple transactions, the proxy must accept all or reject all. Once the delegation request has been approved the delegator may revoke a specific transaction or all transactions.

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Delegation Framework
Administrator Access Delegations The Delegation Administrator has the following access:
Add Delegation Request page is used by Delegation Administrators to create delegation requests on behalf of delegators. This would be done in the case of a manager being out of the office unexpectedly. Administer Delegation is also used by Delegation Administrators to review delegation requests and to revoke active delegation requests on behalf of delegators. Maintain Delegated Authorities process invokes the application Engine batch program to process delegation transactions. The main task of this batch process is to activate all future-dated delegation requests that should be active as of the current system date and to deactivate all delegation requests that have expired as of the current system date. The dates are inclusive. It is recommended that you run this batch job daily.

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Delegation Framework
Typical Questions about the Delegation Framework

What happens to any pending transactions when a delegation is revoked?

If there are pending transactions and a delegation is revoked, the pending transactions will be re-routed back to the delegator.

When searching for a proxy how far can you search up the hierarchy as well as down the hierarchy?
For any hierarchy chosen, the system will only drill up or down one level and return a set of employees. For example, the system will not show indirect reports or people above the users direct manager. This is by design.

Can the proxy delegate transactions to another user?

To prevent situations of cascading or circular delegation chains, after the Delegation framework passes delegated authority over a transaction to a proxy, the proxy cannot delegate authority over that transaction to another user.

What happens if the delegator and the proxy initiate the same transaction?
If the delegator and proxy initiate duplicate transactions, then either the proxy, delegator, or delegation administrator can cancel the duplicate transaction or approvers can deny the duplicate transaction while approving the original transaction.

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Demonstrations
AWE and Delegation Demonstration

Delegation Demonstration
Create a Delegation Request Accept Delegation

Initiate Manager Self Service Transaction

Initiate as the Proxy

Approval Demonstration
Approve Transaction

Administrator Demonstration
Approval Monitor Add ad-hoc reviewer

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Discussion / Q & A

Janet Martin jmartin@btrgroup.com

http://www.btrgroup.com/blog/

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