Application independant workflow ?

[Philip Kisloff]

Thanks Paul,

I agree there is the development track, and building up a workflow from 
scratch is the way to do that.
But, and there is a but, our support model doesn't scale up to make this 
a corporate standard. Say 200
applications would be using SAP, I would imagine that would be a big SAP 
workflow team needed in place
for all the custom developments, something perhaps tricky to source.

Now, if we could leverage a packaged solution's customising approach to 
implementation, after the initial
implementation costs might support could be cheaper and more feasible ? 
Anything dealing with this
constraint in the new NetWeaver suite ?

Phil

> Phil,
>
> Nice question! I haven't done this myself, but can imagine how you might
> approach it.
>
> SAP workflow is designed to work with business objects. For your purpose, a
> custom business object would have to be defined in SAP (as a BOR object or
> a class), while the methods of that object would manipulate an external
> entity via RFC calls.
>
> You could think of this business object as a simple 'proxy' for the
> external entity. You just need to define the object, its key, and any
> methods that you need for the workflow (esp Constructor and Display).
>
> For example, a 'Change' method might read the external object via an RFC
> call, present a dialog screen for editing, and save  the results via a
> second RFC call.
>
> I was recently on a job where we built a workflow around a custom
> application inside SAP (with its own Z tables, dialog screens etc), using
> the same principles. It was surprisingly easy, and works a treat!
>
> hope this helps
> Paul
>
>
>
> |---------+---------------------------->
> |         |           Philip Kisloff   |
> |         |           <pkisloff at tiscali|
> |         |           .co.uk>          |
> |         |           Sent by:         |
> |         |           sap-wug-bounces at m|
> |         |           it.edu           |
> |         |                            |
> |         |                            |
> |         |           06/09/2006 05:52 |
> |         |           Please respond to|
> |         |           "SAP Workflow    |
> |         |           Users' Group"    |
> |         |                            |
> |---------+---------------------------->
>   >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>   |                                                                                                                        |
>   |       To:       "SAP Workflow Users' Group" <sap-wug at mit.edu>                                                          |
>   |       cc:                                                                                                              |
>   |       Subject:  Application independant workflow ?                                                                     |
>   >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Has anyone had any experience, ideas or knowledge of SAP Business
> Workflow being used for generic workflow tasks that are not specific to
> a data object in SAP?
>
> I'm asking because I'm evaluating a successor to Domino, which serves as
> the company standard workflow engine. In the frame is Microsoft Office
> 2007, which will have in the next year or so a reasonable workflow
> engine, or so I'm told.
>
> Personally, I'm very comfortable with the SAP workflow engine and
> development environment, but in our company there are many business
> functions that don't reside in SAP (the majority, in fact).  Can SAP's
> workflow compete in this area? Obviously, we will install a fresh
> installation of NetWeaver 04, but not configure any of the applications.
>
> Any thoughts, pros and cons would be welcome.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Phil
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>
>
>
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