Portal - UWL vs. SAP Business Workplace

Thu Sep 1 23:48:22 EDT 2005

Folks, 
Substitution IS standard in the UWL as of EP 6.0 support stack 12.

Forwarding, reserve/replace and the other items you specifically
mentioned Sherman are also already included in the UWL.  As always make
sure you are on the highest support stack to get the maximum
bug/performance improvements and latest functionality.

You should also be aware that SAP considers the UWL as the main workflow
inbox from a future-direction perspective.  

While it still has a few rough edges compared to the more mature SBWP
these are gradually being smoothed out.  Similarly the documentation on
configuration options is improving. 

As Peter has pointed out the UWL has some advantages when dealing with
web-based services. 

It is also the only inbox which allows you to easily combine all work
items from all of your SAP systems. 

Another consideration is that the UWL has already become not just the
workflow inbox but the Alert Management inbox as well, so it has dual
functionality. 

You also get Collaboration Tasks (ad-hoc workflow ) in the UWL which are
not available in SBWP.  

Regards, 
Jocelyn Dart 
Senior Consultant 
SAP Australia Pty Ltd. 
Level 1/168 Walker St. 
North Sydney 
NSW, 2060 
Australia 
T   +61 412 390 267 
M   + 61 412 390 267 
E   jocelyn.dart at sap.com 
http://www.sap.com <http://www.sap.com/>  

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________________________________

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf
Of Peter Carroll
Sent: Friday, 02 September 2005 10:05 AM
To: 'SAP Workflow Users' Group'
Subject: RE: Portal - UWL vs. SAP Business Workplace

We also coded the substitution function for use inthe portal, basically
a copy of the standard SBWP code.

But when comparing the UWL and the SBWP my question is why would anyone
use something that is a half baked copy of the real thing ?

The UWL is flaky and hard to configure - maybe it is just me but I still
cannot get the same task to come up under more than one filter on the
open tasks tab etc

Other points to consider
*The UWL is slower than the SBWP.

*Depending on the nature of the task, business HTML in separate window
or some java ones, the task just executed is still in the open tasks
list after it has been just processed - users hate this as they are
unsure if item has been executed or not.

*Under some circumstances if the user double clicks on the item a lock
error is received, a note describes this but offers no solution.

*The documentation to use and configure the UWL is totally inadaquate
and unless one of the examples in it exactly matches your needs you will
struggle

*The loss of chained execution(advance with dialogue) is hard to take
and makes simple things complex.

Be careful if you use the UWL, but in my opinion you are better off on
just one platform as you will be hard pressed to satisfy users of both
with the one WF. In particular screens that use business HTML, are
generated from the container of the WF or are written in Java present
major problems when used in the SBWP.

Peter Carroll

________________________________

From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf
Of Athur Krishna
Sent: Friday, 2 September 2005 0:19
To: SAP Workflow Users' Group
Subject: Re: Portal - UWL vs. SAP Business Workplace

Hi Greg,

One small question, EBP Approvals have the "Substitution" option, How
did you achive that in UWL since UWL by default does not come with
"Substitute" option.

Thanks,
-Krishna

On 9/1/05, Gregory Utley <Gregory.Utley at citrix.com> wrote: 

	All,

	We just converted from the SAP Office inbox to the UWL with the
implementation of the SAP Portal.  The big plus for users here is one
stop shopping, i.e., all SAP Office inboxes (R/3, EBP, ESS) are now
available in one place.  Before, users had to enter via SBWP to approve
separately in each system.  The biggest negative with the UWL is the
loss of the "advance with dialog" feature.  We've had to write custom
code to compensate for this.  I think this is a major loss, although I
haven't seen any other complaints on WUG on the topic. 

	Greg Utley

________________________________

	From: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu [mailto: sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu
<mailto:sap-wug-bounces at mit.edu> ] On Behalf Of Sherman Wright
	Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:52 PM
	To: UserGroup, Workflow
	Subject: Portal - UWL vs. SAP Business Workplace

	Hi - 

	We are using Portal 6.0, and because of unfamiliarity, etc.,
etc., we had replaced the Universal Work List (UWL) with the SAP
Business Workplace (transaction SBWP) using Windows HTML GUI.  We have a
handful of workflow approval tasks (PR approvals, Fixed Asset retirement
approvals, Absence Request approvals, etc.) that we route to people in
their Workflow Inboxes, which should be available with either "tool". 

	We are in the process of moving from SAP R/3 4.6B to MySAP ERP
(ECC 5.0).  In light of this, I have been asked to provide pros and cons
regarding replacing the Business Workplace with the UWL, since the UWL
is the default tool in Portal.  Do any of you have any strong arguments
either for or against the use of UWL as opposed to the Business
Workplace?  Some of our users really like the ability to do their
automatic forwarding, substitution maintenance, outbox maintenance,
etc., from Portal.  Most of these things especially don't seem to be
available in the UWL. 

	Any information would be appreciated...

	Regards,
	Sherman

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