Workflow processing using ERP objects

Abstract

Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) Systems, and Workflow Management Systems (WFMS) evolved parallel in the past. The main business drivers for automation came from the ERP world, but the WFMS solutions discovered their own way figuring out the necessity of such applications without ERP as well. In our paper we follow only the usage of workflows in ERP systems. The central elements of built-in workflows are the ERP objects, which embed and handle the business data providing real life meaning of business objects as well. The capabilities of built-in workflow systems of such ERP solutions are presented via two market-leaders: SAP and Microsoft Dynamics AX. Both solutions are dealing with ERP objects in sence of the workflow management. We recognized and present the weaknesses and restrictions of the built-in workflow systems on these two ERP examples. In our paper we describe the results of our analysis of the interoperability of the built-in workflow systems as well and demonstrate the required add-on functionalities to provide usable cross-system workflows in such an environment. We also mention the possibility of using a built-in workflow as a full-featured WFMS.