Oracle Workflow™

Functional Overview
November 1999
 Oracle Workflow

INTRODUCTION
Oracle Workflow is a complete workflow management system that facilitates
business process reengineering. Its unique server-centric architecture provides
speed, reliability, and scalability for high volume environments by embedding
the Oracle Workflow Engine in the state-of-the-art Oracle8i™ database. Based
on the Internet model, Oracle Workflow supplies sophisticated Internet
monitoring tools enabled by your choice of Oracle Application Server™ or
Oracle WebDB™.
Oracle Workflow allows your enterprise to:
• Automatically process and route information of any type
• Define sophisticated business rules that can easily be changed
• Include any person inside or outside your organization
All Information

With so much information available, and in so many different formats, how do

you get the right information to the right people at the right time? Oracle
Workflow lets you provide participants involved in a workflow-enabled business
process with all the information they need to make the appropriate response in
an efficient manner. Oracle Workflow can route summary and supporting
information to each decision maker in your workflow process. Oracle

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Workflow also lets you reference documents in your business process that are
generated from data in your Oracle-based application or stored in select
document management systems.
All Rules

Adapting your business processes to a rapidly-changing environment is vital to a

company’s success. Oracle Workflow lets you model and maintain your
business processes using a graphical workflow builder. Unlike workflow
systems that simply route documents from one user to another with some
approval steps, Oracle Workflow lets you model and automate sophisticated
business processes. You can define processes that loop, branch into parallel
flows and then rendezvous, decompose into subflows, and more. With Oracle
Workflow, you can use the full power of PL/SQL™, the language of the
Oracle8i server, to automatically process information according to even the most
sophisticated business rules.
All People

Oracle Workflow extends the reach of business process automation throughout

the enterprise and beyond to include any e-mail or Web user. Oracle Workflow
allows people to receive, analyze, and respond to notifications awaiting their
attention via Oracle Applications™, any standard e-mail system, or Web
browser. Oracle Workflow automatically processes and routes information of
any type, according to business rules you can easily change, to any person inside
or outside your enterprise. You can easily include customers and suppliers in
your workflow using the Internet and the Worldwide Web.

POWERFUL BUSINESS PROCESS DESIGN CAPABILITY

Graphical Workflow Builder

Fully graphical, drag and drop

The Oracle Workflow Builder lets you create or modify a business process with
simple drag and drop operations. You can easily work with a summary level
model of your workflow process, expanding activities within the process as
needed to increasing levels of detail. Property sheets allow you to specify all of
the details for workflow objects that cannot be represented with a diagram. You
can operate the graphical Workflow Builder from a desktop PC or even from a
disconnected laptop.

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Clear Visual Representation of Process

You can use Oracle Workflow process diagrams to communicate business tasks
and operation flows to end users. Use any of the pre-defined icons to represent
process, function and notification activities or create your own custom Windows
icons to incorporate into your process diagrams.

Easy Rule Definition

Oracle Workflow Builder lets you quickly define the components of a workflow
process such as activities, messages, and lists of values using property sheets.
You can also define unlimited item and message parameters of type: text, date,
number, list of values, URL, Document, or Role, to support your process. All
property sheets guide you through the definition of your components and
reference appropriate lists of values to ensure accurate data entry.

Reusable Workflow Activity and Process Definitions

Using the Workflow Builder, you can create and modify reusable workflow
objects. You need only create them once and drag and drop them into a
workflow process as many times as needed. Every occurrence of an activity in a
process diagram is uniquely labeled for process execution.

Library of Standard Workflow Objects

To provide activities and supporting objects that are common to most business
processes, Oracle Workflow provides a wide range of pre-defined workflow
objects for both standard and exception processing. These objects range from

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simple result lists like approval codes, to more complex pieces like a voting sub-
process and its accompanying vote request notification activity and vote tallying
function activity. These seeded processes, activities, messages, and lists of
values can be dropped into your business processes or easily supplemented using
the Workflow Builder and PL/SQL.

Custom Activity Definition

You can use the Workflow Builder and the power of PL/SQL to tailor your
workflow processes to your specific business requirements. For example, you
can create a message in the Workflow Builder and attach it to a notification
activity, write a new PL/SQL procedure and reference it in an existing function
activity, or create a new process and drag it into another process as a sub-process
activity.

Process Definition Protection

Oracle Workflow Builder aids you in maintaining control of your workflow

definitions. You can customize workflow objects to meet the needs of certain
audiences and still protect the workflow object definitions against changes when
they represent standards for your organization. Suppose the information
technology team at your organization headquarters wants to deploy a custom
workflow definition that it created to teams at other regional offices. The goals
of the headquarters team are to:
• Identify certain workflow objects in the custom workflow definition as
corporate standards that the regional teams should not modify.
• Designate certain objects in the deployed process as available to customize for
the specific needs of the regional offices.
Your corporate team can satisfy both requirements using the access protection
feature in the Workflow Builder.

Connected or Disconnected Mode

Oracle Workflow Builder can run in disconnected mode by storing process

definitions in flat files, giving you the benefit of being able to design processes
on the fly or during interviews. It is a simple process to copy definitions
between flat files and the database using the Workflow Definitions Loader
integrated into the Workflow Builder. You can use it to move workflow
definitions from development into a production database, or to apply upgrades to
existing definitions in a database.

Process Verification

Oracle Workflow Builder automatically validates the current workflow process

definition when you save your changes or when specifically requested. For
example, the Workflow Builder validates that all possible activity results are

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 modeled with a branch to another activity, verifies that the type of response
requested by a notification activity matches the result type assigned to the
message being sent, validates that activity nodes marked as END points in a
process do not branch to any further activities, and, especially important in cases
of nesting processes, checks that a process does not contain itself as a sub-
process activity.

ORACLE WORKFLOW ARCHITECTURE

Server Centric

Oracle Workflow components and application

data reside within the Oracle Server. Oracle
Application Server or WebDB manages the
communication between a Java-enabled
browser and Oracle Workflow .

Processing Logic Close to the Data

Many business processes involve interaction with documents, but what if the
information coming into your enterprise does not take a document form? What
if the data is completely electronic, entering your organization through Web-
based applications, EDI, or interfaces from legacy systems? How do you access
this type of data in a workflow process? Oracle Workflow takes full advantage
of the power of Oracle8i by storing processing logic directly in the database
close to your Oracle-based data. The Workflow Engine is made up of a set of
state tables and PL/SQL procedures that manage the creation and execution of
the workflow process. The Workflow Engine can execute a workflow activity
immediately or defer its execution to a separate session using a “background
engine.” The Workflow Engine accesses Oracle-based data at RAM speeds
instead of at network speeds. With this architecture, the execution of process
activities, the access of data, and the work associated with progressing along the
workflow process, all occur within the database. The result is dramatically
improved throughput and reduced network traffic.

Audit and Analysis

Oracle8i transaction integrity guarantees consistency between your application

data and their workflow status. One hundred percent auditing is enabled

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through Oracle Workflow tables. The Status of active processes are stored in
current process tables while completed process state information is transferred to
history tables. Both current and historic state information can be analyzed using
Oracle Workflow Web-based reports or any ad-hoc query tool like Oracle
Discoverer™. Oracle Workflow jump starts your analysis by supplying views
that you can use in Oracle Discoverer to simplify your setup.

Complete Extensibility

The open and flexible architecture of Oracle Workflow makes it easy for you to
workflow-enable any Oracle-based application. Using simple PL/SQL calls, an
application can notify Oracle Workflow that predefined activities are completed.
Oracle Workflow can call any application’s PL/SQL functions as activities in a
workflow process. Oracle Workflow allows integration with functions external
to the database through use of Oracle8i Advanced Queues. Oracle Workflow
makes every workflow function available for use. There are no hidden APIs for
Oracle’s internal use only. Workflow APIs can be called by an application
program or a workflow function during runtime to communicate with the
Workflow Engine, to change the status of the activities, or to retrieve
information about workflow users and roles. Oracle Workflow also provides
Java APIs to communicate with the workflow engine and notification service.

Simple Administration

Oracle Workflow eases the burden of administration for the information

technology (IT) department. To deploy Oracle Workflow, IT administrators
install the Workflow Engine, Notification Service and Workflow Monitor only
on servers and not on client machines. The workflow packages are available for
use once they are installed in the database. Workflow activities created in
PL/SQL are portable across your organization. Your IT developers do not have
to worry about language or platform incompatibilities, thus giving them
flexibility in how best to develop and deploy. Workflow process and activity
definitions move easily from one Oracle database to another via an intermediate
flat file representation.

Independent Engine and Notification Service

One of the more compelling aspects of the Oracle Workflow architecture is that
the Notification Service is independent of the Workflow Engine that starts and
controls run-time workflow processes. These two systems communicate with
each other using public APIs. These APIs allow any Oracle-based application,
whether workflow-enabled or not, to use the Notification Service to
communicate between itself and people. Notifications can be sent and received,
and responses returned without interaction with the Workflow Engine.
Conversely, Oracle-based applications that do not require interaction with
humans can be automatically executed by the Workflow Engine without
interaction with the Notification Service.

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Overview of Oracle Workflow Architecture

Organizations now have a workflow solution that is based on the leading

capabilities of Oracle8i and the Internet model. Oracle Workflow exploits the
full processing power of high-end, scalable servers by using Oracle8i for data
storage and retrieval, and by embedding a stored procedure workflow engine
within Oracle8i for process creation, execution and control. Oracle Workflow
takes implicit advantage of the Oracle8i performance, scalability, availability,
transactional integrity, and recovery/restart capabilities by residing in the
database. The benefits that Oracle Workflow inherits automatically from
Oracle8i, have to be conceived, designed, and implemented along with the
standard workflow functionality, and all of the commensurate worries of process
and memory management by other workflow suppliers. Oracle Workflow on
Oracle8i lets the Oracle development team focus on workflow issues and
features to bring you the best in workflow applications.

Proof of Concept

Oracle Workflow provides mature features and functionality. Similar to other

Oracle tools, Oracle Workflow has been extensively tested and improved
through use by other Oracle product development groups and, in turn, by their
customers. Oracle Workflow was embedded in Oracle Self-Service Web
Applications from its inception. With the advent of Oracle Applications Release
11, the use of Oracle Workflow has grown to include a significant number of
Oracle Applications embedded workflows. Oracle Workflow in Oracle
Applications has demonstrated the ability to model real world business processes
in all of their complexity and still provide production level throughput. These

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capabilities are also available to you with Oracle Workflow. What other
software company provides a proven workflow product embedded in their
packaged applications and available for your own use?

ENGINE OPERATION

Oracle Workflow Engine

Because the Oracle Workflow Engine resides in the Oracle RDBMS, you get the
same industry-leading performance and scalability associated with the database.
Automated business activities speed through the system. Your users are quickly
notified of work to perform. Since there is no separate process, the Workflow
Engine is never down or unavailable - its availability mirrors that of your
Oracle8i database. As long as there are activities to perform, the Workflow
Engine is “running.”

Introduce Change without Interrupting the Engine

Some workflow products force you to stop their workflow engine to make
changes or to introduce new process definitions to the system. With Oracle
Workflow you can create new processes and make changes to existing processes
while the Workflow Engine continues to execute. When you make changes to
an existing activity, Oracle Workflow creates a new version of the activity. It
saves the new version to the database without overwriting older versions and
without interrupting active work items running against those older versions. If a
process is running at the time you make a change, Oracle Workflow continues to
use the version of the activity that was in effect when the process was started. It
does not switch versions of the activity mid-way through the process or require
you to shut down a process to make your change.

Manual and Automated Activities

Your business processes include tasks that can be automated and those that
require human interaction. Unlike some workflow products that only allow you
to route documents connected by approval steps, Oracle Workflow lets you
define your workflow processes to include complex automated activities as well
as notifications that require a response from a person or group of people.
When the Workflow Engine encounters an automatic activity it evaluates the
processing cost associated and either executes the activity immediately or defers
processing to a background engine. Notifications can be an informative note or
can prompt the recipient for a response. When the Workflow Engine encounters
a notification activity it issues a simple Send API call to the Notification
Service. When a required response is received the Notification Service calls the
Workflow Engine and processing continues to the next activity.

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Sophisticated Structure Capabilities

Oracle Workflow is designed to handle the complexity inherent in the business

operations of today. When modeling your business process as a workflow
process you have a wide selection of structures to use.

Result-based Alternative Branching

Alternative branching is a minimum requirement for any workflow system

which Oracle Workflow easily satisfies. You can model several possible
branches from an activity and Oracle Workflow will determine which branch to
follow based on the resulting value of the activity. You also have flexibility in
defining the results associated with the branch from an activity - you can specify
a single value on one or two branches and let processing for all other values
flow to a default branch. You do not have to specify a unique branch for every
result value unless the processing path should be unique. This greatly simplifies
your business process model and its maintenance.

Voting
Voting is one of the more sophisticated structures for a workflow product to
model but so common in practice that anyone could describe it. Oracle
Workflow supplies a Voting process with accompanying function and
notification activities for you to drop into any of your workflow processes. You
can model any of the following examples of voting schemes: a simple majority
with or without default outcomes, a popularity contest, a Black Ball where a
single vote for a specific response decides the outcome, or an All or Nothing
vote. You can alternatively create your own custom voting scheme. The Voting
process can be easily supplemented using PL/SQL to meet any unique voting
requirements.

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The pre-defined voting activity has simplified what has traditionally been a
complex task to model. Voting combined with our standard deadline and
default branching capabilities allow you to create powerful and complete voting
processes.

Parallel Splits and Joins

Oracle Workflow lets you model activities that proceed along parallel paths until
they join in a rendezvous point. The rendezvous can be an AND-Join or an OR-
join requiring either all parallel paths to complete before continuing in the
process or at least one path to complete before continuing. This structure can
result in a reduction of the total processing duration of the process by allowing
tasks without a sequential dependency to be performed in parallel.

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Loops

Oracle Workflow gives you the capability to repeat a sequence of activities until
an end condition is met. This powerful construct is handled very simply. Create
a loop of activities and the Workflow Engine re-executes all of the activities
until the loop condition tells it to stop. You can configure the process loop so
that before executing a new iteration the Workflow Engine compensates for any
previous work done.

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Sub-Processes

You can modularize your business process by defining sub-processes that are
interrelated. A sub-process is a complete process that acts like an activity. Once
you define a process it can be used as a sub-process activity in any other process.
Oracle Workflow allows you to use as many sub-processes as you want and to
nest one inside another as deeply as you want. There are no artificial limits.
Oracle Workflow even allows you to specify whether a sub-process can only be
run within the context of another process. This prevents inadvertent execution
of activities that need information from a higher level to make sense.

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TimeOut Notifications

What happens if a notification is sent but no one responds? Maybe the recipient
is sick, or on vacation or just swamped with other work. Your process needs the
response to continue. You can automatically send a reminder, send someone
else a message, set a default response and move on, or automatically assume it is
an error and break out to exception processing. You set the time frame. You
decide the action. Oracle Workflow executes it.

Ending Gracefully

A workflow process may have multiple processing paths active at any time with
corresponding end points. When Oracle Workflow reaches the first end point it
gracefully ends the process - closing any active branches, canceling any open
notifications, and immediately notifying the calling process (if any) of the result.

Error Handling

You can use Oracle Workflow to model the events you want to occur if anything
unexpected happens during the execution of a process. Use the default error
process supplied with Oracle Workflow, modify it, or create your own. Assign
an error process to any activity or process.

Supplement your Workflow Throughput with Deferred Execution

Oracle Workflow gives you the ability to balance the load of executing activities
across one or more background workflow engines. Generally, when the
Workflow Engine starts and executes a process, it completes all necessary
activities before moving on to the next eligible activity. But some activities use
a high level of processing resources or are very time consuming to complete.

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Oracle Workflow allows you to defer the execution of these costly activities to a
supplemental background engine. You can run as many background engines as
you require. They can be configured to execute activities associated with
specific types of processes or with certain cost ranges. The result is parallel
processing that reduces the overall duration of all your business processes.

Multilingual Support

When you deploy applications across your multi-national enterprise it is unlikely

that everyone will want to use the same language. Oracle Workflow users can
read and respond to their notifications and review their processes in the language
appropriate to their environment. Oracle Workflow supports different language
versions for all user-visible terms defined for the process. You can translate all
user visible text without having to make multiple copies of the workflow
process. This includes names of processes and activities as well as lists of
values and process variables. Multiple languages can be used simultaneously by
different participants.

Suspend, Resume or Abort a Process

The Workflow Engine APIs give you complete programmatic control over your
processes. Through simple yet powerful calls to the Workflow Engine you can
suspend execution of a process, resume execution where it left off, or force
execution to stop.

Variable Support

As would be expected with any Oracle product, Oracle Workflow supports

standard Oracle RDBMS data types through design-time and run-time variables
called workflow attributes. These attributes can be used to store and
communicate information from the system to end users and from one activity to
another.
The Workflow Engine provides the sophisticated modeling structures, change
management capabilities, library of activities, and execution controls to suit
today’s production environments.

CAPABLE DISPATCHING THROUGH NOTIFICATION SERVICE

Open Access to Notification Service APIs

The Oracle Workflow Notification Service bridges the communication gap

between your applications and your people. Because the Notification Service is
independent of the Workflow Engine you can use the same notification APIs as
the Workflow Engine to send and receive messages whether or not your
application is workflow enabled. The Oracle Workflow Notification Service
supplies a complete library of procedures to send, reassign, cancel, manipulate,
respond to, or query notifications.

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Choose Your Preferred Method of Communication

As a recipient of Oracle Workflow notifications you can choose to have

notifications pushed to you via e-mail or pulled through the Notifications
Worklist Web page or Oracle Applications Notifications Viewer form. Oracle
Workflow and Oracle Applications both provide a secure direct connection to
the Oracle Workflow server through Web or form access. Or you can opt for the
convenience of e-mail using your favorite mail application.

Oracle Workflow Notification Service will keep track of responses regardless of

where they originated. Your users can respond to their notifications from e-
mail, the Workflow Web page, or Oracle Applications without any worry that
their response will get lost or processed twice.

Robust Dispatching Strategies and Rules

For each workflow notification activity Oracle Workflow gives you a robust and
flexible method to select who will receive the message. The evaluation of these
rules may determine one user or many. You specify at design-time which
approach to use choosing from Shared Role Shared Queue, Expanded Role,
Workload Balancing, or Sequential delivery.

Shared Role Shared Queue

The default behavior for the Workflow Notification Service, one copy of the
notification is sent to a multi-user role. Every user in that role can see the
notification in their worklist, but the first to respond removes the notification
from the worklist for everyone.

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Expanded Role
You can direct the Workflow Notification Service to send an individual copy of
a notification to every user in a multi-user role. This powerful feature enables
complex workflow structures like voting and message broadcasting.

Workload Balancing
Spread the workload around by telling the Workflow Notification Service to
send the notification to the user in the role with the shortest worklist.

Sequential
Another approach to distributing the workload for everyone in the role; tell the
Workflow Notification Service to send the notification to the next user in the
role based on who has gone the longest without receiving a message of this type.

Build Dynamic Roles

Create dynamic multi-user roles based on your application organization model
using the power of PL/SQL. Oracle Workflow allows you to create an attribute
that will hold the value of the role to receive a notification. During run-time,
your function activities can build a new role and assign its name to the attribute.
At the end of the process you can either delete the role or leave it for future use.

Messages with Context-Sensitive Text and Prompts

Create reusable messages with context-sensitive subject line, text and html body,
and response prompts using message variables. Message variables get replaced
with run-time values when the message is delivered. They can be used to send
context sensitive information or to prompt for a certain type of response. In
addition to the variable types of text, number, date, and list of values, send and
respond variables can also take the form of a URL or Document.

Due Date Enforcement

Let Oracle Workflow do the follow-up for you. Associate a time period during
which a notification must be responded. The Workflow Engine will enforce the
notification due date according to your process model; send a reminder that a

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response is required, redirect the notification to a new role, assume a default and
move on, or run the exception workflow process. With the Workflow Engine
those important notifications will not go unanswered for long.

Directory Service Mapping

The ability to represent your organization in an abstract way is the cornerstone

of any dispatching capability. Oracle Workflow offers you flexibility in
defining your workflow users and roles. You determine the data sources that
you want Oracle Workflow to reference by creating three views based on the
database tables that make up your directory service. In addition, Oracle
Workflow provides three local tables where you can specify users and roles that
are not included in your existing data sources. Extend the reach of business
process automation throughout the enterprise and beyond its borders to include
any e-mail or Web user.

READY-TO-USE AGENTS AND INTERNET SUPPORT

Java Web Browser Process Monitoring and Performance Analysis

End users can be effective workflow participants with just a Java-enabled
browser installed on their desktop. By giving access to workflow processes
from a Web browser, a large number of users can be included at a very low
installation and maintenance cost. Oracle Workflow provides Web-based ready-
to-use agents available to every workflow participant. No programming is
required to use these procedures so even the most casual workflow user can be
effective.
Oracle Workflow provides procedures to cover the following functions:
worklist handling, notification routing and substitution rules, workflow process
monitoring, and access to the workflow process definition.

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Worklist

Workflow notifications can be answered or reviewed from a Web browser using

the Worklist. You can query which tasks you want to work on now and define
sort criteria giving you the freedom to organize your work the way you prefer.
Group notifications by the same process type or subject to avoid jumping from
one context to another. Or, sort by notification priority, date sent or date due to
focus on time critical tasks first. The Worklist allows you to toggle between a
list of your open notifications and all of your notifications whenever you need to
switch from answering open requests to reviewing notification history.

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Notification Routing Rules

Notification Routing Rules save you time and give you flexibility to assign
responsibility for notification responses for a variety of circumstances. Maybe
you have front line support to review certain requests to make sure that all
information you need is present before you make a decision. The Notification
Service can automatically forward these notifications to your assistant first.
Perhaps your assistant executes your decisions on routine matters. Why not
forward those messages automatically and focus your attention on the more
unusual requests that come your way? Or perhaps you are actually going on
vacation and want certain notifications to be handled by your backup support
while you are gone. The Notification Service can forward some notifications
while allowing others to wait in your worklist until you return. Handle the time
period in advance, specify a fixed window of time or leave it open-ended. By
combining Notification Routing Rules you can give the appropriate level of
coverage to all your notifications to accommodate any situation.

Workflow Monitor

Workflow supplies a number of Web pages allowing you to find and monitor
your workflow processes. You can view the graphical workflow process
diagram and the history of a specific workflow process instance. To ensure
appropriate use of the Workflow Monitor, Oracle Workflow evaluates whether
each user should have basic or administrative privileges. Administrators have
greater access to and control over workflow processes. The Workflow Monitor
allows administrators to manually intervene in the execution of a workflow
process.

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Find Processes
You are sure to find timely, relevant, and useful workflow process information
using the Workflow Find Processes Web page. You can target a single
workflow process instance, a specific workflow process type, or combine
definition and runtime options for a thoroughly custom search.

Process List
Refer to the Workflow Monitor Process List when you need a summary of the
overall workflow process status. From here you can select a single process
instance to drill down to further detail.

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Notifications List
Review the responses of all the notification recipients for a workflow process
through this brief listing. e-mail a responder by selecting the user link in the
Who column. Access the Diagram or Advanced Options if you need detail on
all the activities included in the workflow process.

Process Diagram
The Workflow Monitor Process Diagram provides a clear, color-coded graphical
representation of the status of a process. In one picture you can see which
activities have completed, which are active, and which are yet to be performed.
If you need more detail on an activity it is available in the Definition, Usage,
Status, Notification and Item files.

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For a workflow administrator, the Workflow Monitor Diagram allows easy
manual intervention. The expedite feature is especially powerful. When
expediting a workflow process, you can skip an activity, retry an activity, or
“rewind” the process to an earlier activity. During a rewind, the activities
already visited are reset and the process re-executes.

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Activities List
Designed for the development or administrative user, the Activities List Web
page provides the ultimate in runtime details. Choose the level of detail you
desire simply by checking the Activity Status and Type options. The resulting
list provides the current status. You can sort the activities by any column
heading to aid your analysis.

Process Definition Access

The Item Type Definition page provides distributed access to workflow
definitions stored in your Oracle Workflow database. Locate and review a
workflow process definition without running the Workflow Builder. This Web
page allows you to view a text version of a process definition with the familiar
structure of the Workflow Builder and all the details included in the property
sheets. You can easily present or review your workflow process definitions
from anywhere you can access a Java-enabled Web browser.
The Notifications List, Workflow Monitor Process List, Diagram, and Activities
List allow a workflow user to see a global view of the context of the work being
done, what was done before, and what will be done next, as well as the depth
provided by the process definition itself. These same pages provide a workflow
administrator the control to intervene when necessary to keep workflow
processes running smoothly.

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SUMMARY
The preceding sections of this overview explain how Oracle Workflow allows
your enterprise to automatically process and route information of any type using
sophisticated business rules to any person inside or outside your enterprise. This
is accomplished using the production level performance, scalability, and
throughput of the Workflow Engine embedded within the Oracle RDBMS along
with an architecture that provides independent and open Engine and Notification
Service Systems.
Oracle Workflow provides a solution for business process reengineering that
satisfies end users, business managers, and IT staff alike. End users get easy
access through e-mail or any Java-enabled Web browser along with the freedom
to choose from a variety of desktops. Business managers get increased
understanding, oversight, and throughput of their business processes. IT staff
get the centralized control and simplicity of administration that are key to cost-
effective operation.

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Oracle Workflow
November 1999
Author: Robin Seiden
Contributing Authors: Kevin Hudson, Siu Chang, George Buzsaki, Anne Carlson
Copyright © Oracle Corporation 1998
All Rights Reserved Printed in the U.S.A.
This document is provided for informational purposes
only and the information herein is subject to change
without notice. Please report any errors herein to
Oracle Corporation. Oracle Corporation does not
provide any warranties covering and specifically
disclaims any liability in connection with this document.
Oracle is a registered trademark and Enabling the
Information Age, Oracle Workflow, Oracle Applications,
Oracle8i, and Oracle InterOffice
are trademarks of
Oracle Corporation.

Oracle Corporation
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Redwood Shores, CA 94065
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Worldwide Inquiries:
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Fax 415.506.7200
Copyright © Oracle Corporation 1995
All Rights Reserved

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