I have a question about process mapping (BPMN 2.0). In my project there are four activities where the task is done with one or more softwares. I have drawn a demo process flow. But I don't know if there is a specific way to mention the software tool? or We can simply mention the tool with the activity without adding an image of the tool?
Related
Does anyone know if there is a free online tool available to create BPMN files except bpmn.io?
I have been using BPMN io for a while, and it does not allow me to change the task/event's ID from the GUI. Because of this, I have to do this manually. But it's not practical when there is a large number of events/tasks. Can someone tell me if there is a free online alternative for bpmn.io that can change the event's ID or if there is a way to change the id in bpmn.io? Did a background check on this and couldn't find one.
There is also the offering from Camunda - Camunda Web Modeler (CaWeMo). I don't think it does what you are asking though. I didn't think event IDs were part of the BPMN specification, since they are likely more about implementation than modeling, but I've not actually looked into the BPMN specification that deeply.
If the one you are using exports in a format that you find useful, you could update the event nodes as a post processing step.
You can try using https://kiegroup.github.io/kogito-online/#/editor/bpmn for bpmn authoring.
I have my existing BI reporting from the SAP BO software and now I want to migrate everything to MicroStrategy. So is there any way to migrate those reports to MicroStrategy directly or just if I can migrate the dimensions and measures created in SAP BO to Attributes and metrics in MicroStrategy. Please suggest a way to do that effectively.
I did research on this topic on other platforms like on MicroStrategy community and Google also, but all those did not answer my question clearly.
If I remember correctly there was once an internal tool in MicroStrategy to do that, I never used it and from what I remember it was quire rough and still required a lot of manual work.
You can try to read this presentation from MicroStrategy to have an idea about the process and the possible approaches.
Personally I did once a conversion from BO to MicroStrategy, it was possible to reuse most of, if not all, the tables created for Business Object, but in MicroStrategy I created everything from scratch, the design of the dashboards was different to make them more interactive/easy to use.
Of course this approach can appear not feasible with big projects (this is why colleagues were using the above mentioned tool), but I think rebuilding from scratch, with a small scope (small team) and build on it will give the best result in the long run. The main issue here is that this could take time and some times organizations don't want to wait, but this is their problem :)
Intro
The company I work in (it is an intern-like position though, until I am done with university) recently implemented an automated warehouse solution, where goods are transported by means of autonomous shuttles. The basic functions of the shuttles are controlled by onboard electronics (microcontroller), routing through the warehouse racking is done by software solution which in turn communicates with our ERP solution. Effectively the ERP solution handles the whole warehousing.
Task
There are well documented processes for every of the four layers (operator who loads the the shuttles, shuttle itself, routing, ERP) individually. But since we kind of puzzled all four of them together to one solution (which was kind of new to all of the participating companies), there are only vague, on-the-flyish process descriptions involving all four layers available.
Now I have been tasked to come up with a solution to illustrate the processes at work.
Example
ERP signals goods in demand at assembly station A1
Warehouse operator looks at screen and starts loading boxes to be picked up by
shuttle
Warehouse operator puts in details into ERP, such as count/weight, box number,
...
Warehouse operator clears boxes for pick-up (by confirming inputs in ERP)
ERP generates transport order
ERP sends transport order to routing software
Routing software sends telegram to shuttle control
Shuttle control turns wheels and asks for directions to pick up boxes
...
Question
As mentioned, I have to graphically represent the kind of processes similar to the one shown in the (easy and not complete) example above. I need to incorporate the operator's actions as well as basic communication between shuttle, routing software and ERP.
Since I attended a course on BPMN at university it came to mind immediately. But now, after immersing myself into information about BPMN for several hours I still can't conclusively tell if BPMN helps my efforts or just further complicates the whole thing.
Is BPMN the right tool for my purpose?
Disclaimer
I am not a Business Analyst. I have looked at alternatives to BPMN (simple flowcharts, activity diagrams, ...) but they don't seem to fit.
Just putting together the existing processes for every respective layer yields no result, owing to the different and sometimes too detailed process descriptions.
Edit
The ERP is SAP ERP 6.0 EHP7 with integrated WMS component.
TL;DR: use the notation you would be implement process in, i.e. choose BPMS, not BPMN.
The notation itself means nothing unless it has proper tool for modelling and further process implementation aka BPMS. You can find dozens of comparisons (e.g. BPMN vs EPC or BPMN vs BPEL), however they won't help you unless you have clear understanding where and how you will be implement you modeled process.
Generally speaking, EPC is used for more high-level view of the process, whereas BPMN is utilized for more fine-grained view, where all technical details of communications between peers can be described. However, it depends.
I also recommend you to review this table
and answer the question to yourself whether your process changes (in)frequently or not, and whether you need separate BPM tool.
How I see it from your description: you have four participants (four layers), which are four lanes in BPMN terms, and they are collaborating/communicating with each other during the process. Generally speaking, this fits to BPMN application area, but personally I feel that you should stick your ERP tooling. I don't know which ERP you use, but every serious ERP solution includes tool for process customization. For example, SAP has Workflow,
which can widely enhance and extend existing processes within SAP. Probably, your ERP have it too.
Again, it's not clear which warehouse management system you use and if it is integrated to your ERP. It seems to be not, and it seems to be some old legacy system, because of which you start re-modelling the stuff. In this particular case it might me wiser to acquire special advanced warehouse management package (take a look at SAP's EWM features as an example) which can cover most of your requirements.
I am developing a business application and, provided that many companies look for integration, I would like to make it "compatible" with business systems like SAP or Navision. What mechanisms do these systems use for importing/exporting/syncing data with third-party applications?
There exist software tools known as EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) whose purpose is to act as middleware to enable the integration of applications across a company.
Apache Camel is an example of such framework, but there exist many of them. You can find a comparison list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_business_integration_software
As the user nmiranda pointed out, in the case of SAP, the framework used for data interchange is SAP PI (SAP NetWeaver Process Integration).
I think your question was actually aimed to find this "starting point", wasn't it? I faced the same question some years ago and I also wondered if there was any "standard" interface to integrate applications. In such case, I hope have helped you.
There are multiple ways to integrate with ERP data sources. You can do batch integration where you setup a query that pulls the data from the source ERPs on a scheduled bases. ETL tools like Informatica and Talend shines on this front.
If you want online data integration when you want live data in your business application then you need to look at Data Virtualization solutions like Denodo, VirtDB or Composite.
Prices, feature sets, performance and flexibility highly differ. One distinguishing factor in my practice is security. Solutions tend to extract data into file system, which makes a problem when sensitive data is extracted. In real projects, implementors usually start a long process replicating the source system security objects in the target application.
Is there anyone out there that used these two technologies and could give me some comparison in the form of advantages and disadvantages of both? I'm currently working with BO and I have heard that open source Pentaho does pretty good job as well.
Thanks in advance!
Pentaho is a full-fledged BI suite, meaning it can handle everything from reports, OLAP, dashboards, etc.
I've only briefly dealt with the reporting side of BO, but I haven't looked to any other systems since starting to work with Pentaho three years ago. It's a very powerful system (and FOSS). There's also a very vibrant and active community. Being FOSS, Pentaho also encourages the community to contribute back. Some recent examples of this are Saiku (previously called Pentaho Analysis Tool; 1.0 is around the corner, already usable as a plugin into the BI server) and the Community Dashboard Framework (which is now a core component of the suite).
The best suggestion I can make is to download the test server from Sourceforge and start playing with the toolset. It's free, so there's no trial expiration to worry about.
Pentaho also provides support packages for both individual components and the full suite. The last time I checked the prices, it was like $2.5k for a component and $10k for up to 10 developers on a single server.
With Business objects you created Universes which are a subject oriented semantic layer on a data base. You do that with BO Designer. These universes are then used with the reporting tool by just grabbing the objects in the semantic layer. The thing is that as the Universe contents a subject oriented semantic, any user knowing the subject can easily create a report by dragging and dropping the elements of the Universe within the report. No need to know sql. Users, reports and Universes are then managed in a repository where you can defined endless combinations of security between all of it. The reporting and the security management can be done via a web app.
Additionally, you have BODS which is the ETL tool that enables the creation and feeding of the reporting databases/data warehouses/data marts/EIS/ODS/.......
There are other tools which a didn't use. I've just used BODS (ETL), BO DESIGNER (Universes), DESKTOP INTELLIGENCE (reports) and the Central Management Console (CMC) for security.
Cheers