Workflow and SAPforms

[Jim Sauceman]

Workflow Experts,
 
Our Payroll Director would like to automate the approval of various Employee
Master Data Change Forms which now exist in paper form. After some research,
I found references in our 46B documentation to SAPforms. Within a day or so,
I implemented the Notification of Absence Demo Workflow from SAPforms using
both the Visual Basic program (Approve.exe) and the Excel spreadsheet
(Approve.xls). These forms came with my SAPGUI installation and submit an
approval Workflow via RFC. It appeared as if I had found a solution for
automating our forms and their respective approval processes. However, my
joy was soon squelched by the discovery that the "Form" would have to be
distributed to every potential requester and approver's PC (NOTE: If it were
just the requesters, it might work, but the approvers would never stand for
it). In our case, this is 2,000 users covering 400 miles. There are also
issues of distributing revised forms, etc. that make this seem like an
undesirable solution.
 
My question is what combination of technology (e.g. development platforms
such as WebStudio, Smartforms, R/3 Business Objects, Standard Tasks,
Workflow Templates, etc.) would you recommend to accomplish the following
goals:
 
1. A standard form that is pre-populated from R/3 Data (via BAPI's, RFC's or
whatever) based on the entry of the Employee's Personnel Number and allows
the requester to overtype existing data and/or add to that which was
returned from R/3.
 
2. A mechanism whereby the completed form is submitted to Workflow for
routing to the appropriate approvers (no further changes). The routing is no
problem, it is the Submit button that must be readily available.
 
3. The ability for the approver(s) to see the completed form along with
Approve and Reject Buttons. This could be a simple Decision Task as long as
I could present the original form in a very nice format.
 
4. Ultimately, the ability for Workflow to apply the changes to the
Employee's various Info types after the approval process is complete.
 
I would appreciate any suggestions or advice.
 
Thank you,
 
Jim Sauceman ...................... sauceman at tennessee.edu
 
University of Tennessee ................ Voice: (865) 974-2448
 
OIT Computer System Services ....... Fax: (865) 974-4810
 
Manager of Campus Database Administration
 
Project IRIS Workflow Team Leader