Understanding Enterprise Process Modeler

The Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Process Modeler is built on the premise that the business data contained in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) databases represent immense value beyond a mere system of record for business transactions. While it is true that ERP systems are designed to capture, record, and report business transactions that reflect the day-to-day operations of an enterprise, for example, requisitions, purchase orders, sales orders, work orders, inventory movement, warehouse activity, and so on, as these transactions are processed and recorded over time, they amass a body of data that paints a picture of how the enterprise operates, as well as metrics, measurements, and KPIs that depict the “health” of the enterprise.

More specifically, consider the case of the life cycle of a sales order. As a sales order moves through its life cycle, it carries a set of data that is recorded in the ERP system. Status codes are updated for each transaction, from initial creation, through approvals, and eventually to delivery of goods and collection of revenues. Through each phase there might also be certain ledgering, logging, or auditing data generated in parallel to the movement of the transaction. As thousands and tens of thousands of transactions accumulate, they begin to paint a picture of business processes, prescribed or implied, as well as metrics about those processes. It is the function of the EnterpriseOne Process Modeler to ingest this data and provide graphic visualizations of the models and metrics that are occurring in an enterprise with the intent of providing you with tools to analyze the data and determine inefficiencies or areas of improvement.

Like most ERP systems, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne offers applications to create business documents, such as a purchase order. Those applications set status codes on a purchase order, either manually by you or automatically by the application logic, as the purchase order moves through its lifecycle. JD Edwards EnterpriseOne offers additional functionality called “order activity rules” that impose a stricter pathway from one status to the next. While the data exists in the database, there is no way for a human to graphically visualize the “beaten path” that purchase orders take as they are created, approved, rejected, reversed, revised, and eventually closed. The EnterpriseOne Process Modeler/Process Model Generator can ingest this data and automatically draw a graphical depiction of the process flow. Additionally, the Process Modeler can ingest other data to reveal metrics about the process, such as how long the approval process is, in average; how many purchase orders are rejected; which business units have the most rejections; and so forth. While many reporting and business analytics systems address the visualization of similar data, the Process Modeler does it in context and in concert with the business process flow. It is only in the context of the business process flow that you can analyze the data and determine what changes to the process will effect a desired favorable change to the resulting metrics or KPIs.