The document discusses a project to implement a dynamic workflow system using EMC Documentum xCP to streamline an approval process for over 200 documents per month at a financial services company. Key aspects included gathering requirements, designing a single workflow to handle 30+ document types and reviews by 16 departments, and using custom methods like "Gatekeeper" and "Keymaster" to dynamically route documents and track completion. The results were a significant increase in productivity and cost savings of $9700 per user.

1. Managing Content Chaos Dynamic Workflows using EMC Documentum xCP

2. Agenda Introduction The Situation The Project The Plan The Execution The Results

4. Project manager in telecom and Producer in multimedia

5. Experience in both financial, medical and manufacturing industries.

8. Takeaways Learn why are parallel workflows better than sequential. Learn how to combine hundreds of workflows from a dynamic process into a single workflow. Project experience: Know your users better Learn how to design the “perfect” application Overcome objections when the word “compliance” comes up in conversation

9. The Company – A medium sized financial services company Organized 1958 More than 284,000 client families $16.4 billion in managed accounts and brokered mutual funds $51.2 billion in-force life insurance policies $623 million in banking assets

10. The Company – The environment Around 300 people in the home office in 16 departments Recent leadership turnover (CEO, CTO) New corporate philosophy being implemented. IT department transitioning from Java to .NET

11. The Project “You want to do what now?”

12. The Problem Over 200 documents need approval every month 30 different types of documents Up to 16 different departments need to approve Each approval needs to be recorded (compliance) A single generic form used to gather approvals No written guidelines on process

14. A single person had to “shuttle” each document to each individual signer

15. Any review meant leaving the document with the reviewer

16. Reviewer could take forever

17. Often lost or forgotten

18. If a reviewer was busy or not there, the document “babysitter” had to come back.

19. The process usually took all week, if not longer.

20. Created temptation to take shortcuts

21. Easy to lose track

23. Gathering RequirementsThe “In a perfect world…” Use Case “What would the perfect application do to solve your problems?” Don’t Be Afraid! Be Bold and Imaginative!

25. 30 Different Types

26. Send documents to who needed them when they needed them

27. 16 departments and know who those reviewers are

28. Be easy to use

29. Be familiar to users; no learning curve – intuitive

30. Only show users what they need when they need it.

31. Track my documents

32. Reporting, auditing

33. Versioning

34. Be secure

36. The execution “If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true.”

37. Building a foundation Specific components used: Content Server EMC Documentum xCP BPM provided by Business Process Services (BPS) TaskSpace (originally used My Documentum for Outlook) xPlore Composer – for development

38. First things first Take inventory What written policies exist? Is there already a defined terminology? What structure is already there? What can be reused? Don’t reinvent the wheel!

40. Easily dazzled by pretty graphics and widgets.

41. Play dumb, but in reality deceptively smart.

42. Dangerous when frustrated.

43. Do NOT like to guess.

44. Want thinking done for them.

45. Would prefer to shop online or check Facebook than to do actual work.

47. A meeting of minds Each department was given a checklist of all document types and they choose which ones they wanted to Review, get an Informational copy or just ignore. This matrix was used to determine who reviewed documents.

49. People may come and go but roles never do. Management is very easy.

51. Dynamic Parallel Workflows Have One Flaw After the split, the join MUST know the exact number of completed tasks before completing.

52. Solution: Gatekeeper and “Keymaster” Two simple custom methods: One that replaces the split function in the workflow, the other is a form control. Gatekeeper determines which departments need to review documents and uses setOutputByActivities(list) Keymaster is a document processor inForms Builder. It writes the final number of required departments as a process data value.

54. Next, does a little cleanup by removing the activity timers for unused activities.

56. The results We saved how much?!?

57. One year later in production… Productivity benefits and cost savings equal $9700 per user. Net ROI: $5,567 per user Workflows completed: 1154 Documents circulated: 3250 Worker productivity increase of 14% Impact to overall net profit: 5%

59. Q&A

60. Contact Information “Just in case…” Email: Chris.Campbell99@gmail.com Twitter: @TorgosKnees

61. Appendix “Extra stuff”

63. Every required department could review the document at the same time.

64. Notifications were sent by email.

65. Each department designated a person or persons to review .

66. Reviewers could delegate tasks or request additional review.

67. Content Server automatically managed the workflow comments and document versions.

68. If task left dormant, the server would send an email “reminder”.

69. One workflow to rule them all Custom workflow method “Keymaster” would pause workflow until all departments finished review. From there, the submitter could review all comments and make changes. When finished, a choice was given to have the departments to re-review or go forward to legal review. Past legal review, a “release authority” (an executive on some level) would give final approval. Place hooks were left so further workflows could be launched based on document type once approved. Keymaster

71. Next, does a little cleanup by removing the activity timers for unused activities.

73. Developer Tip: How to get everyone behind compliance. Compliance is a major obstacle. Use a little child psychology to get everyone on your side. The “bad guy” is always an external force to the company. The Government The Voters The Competition The Economy Corrupt Business Owners Never blame another department It because of those “few bad apples” that you must to be compliant. “Legal and Compliance are looking out for us.” Improves performance through metrics. Protects the innocent user. If all else fails to convince doubters, resort to “It doesn’t matter. It’s the law.”