Topics

Introduction

The BPM Workspace is a central window from which you can review, track, and act upon notifications that are updating you and/or awaiting your action. From your Workspace, you can open individual notifications, review details of the associated request, track its progress, print it and, if authorized, approve, reject, or reassign the associated request.

New Features

NYU has recently utilized the Oracle BPM Workflow tool in conjunction with Orgs and Hierarchies maintained by the Budget Office in Oracle Hyperion DRM (Data Relationship Management) to manage routing and approval paths of budget modification submissions. In addition, BudMod submissions can now be submitted in foreign currencies, and are no longer restricted to whole dollar amounts.

The new BPM Workspace includes a number of enhancements to allow support for NYU’s global sites and an improved workflow routing methodology. Among these, a more robust user interface – allowing approvers to view custom reports, and view the status of all tasks in their queue.

To access your new BPM Workspace, the BudMod application, or the JEMS application, you will need to navigate to the NYU Home Work Tab and click on the application links located in the Additional Services section, rather than logging into BIA.  All BPM applications are now Single Sign-On enabled, so there is no need to log in once you are signed into NYU Home.

Managing BPM Workspace and Legacy Worklist
In an effort to better streamline processes, a project team comprised of members of the budget office, controller’s division, and other cross-functional units, is replatforming several workflow applications including BudMod and JEMS. During this time, BudMod and JEMS users may need to manage two worklists.

The new BPM Workspace will be used to manage all BPM application requests, and the legacy worklist will be used to manage requests for other applications (e.g. AP Workflow and ePass). The legacy Oracle Workflow worklist will eventually be phased out completely.

Navigating your Dashboard

Once a BudMod request is submitted by the requester,a system-generated email will be sent to the submitter as an “FYI” – For Your Information, and another email will be sent to the approver as an “RFA” – Request for Action. All emails sent by the system will have a corresponding task in the BPM workspace that can be accessed in one of two ways:

1. By clicking the Workspace Application link within the notification email, or

2. By clicking the BPM Workspace link on the NYU Home -> Work tab (Figure 1a. below)

Either method will redirect you to your BPM Workspace, where all BPM tasks will be routed for your review. 

1. Worklist Views: This menu allows you to filter requests by Application, Due Date, and Priority. Double click the desired view to filter your requests.
2. Reports: The Reports function allows approvers to run on-demand status reports arranged by Tasks. See Generating Task Reports for step-by-step directions.
3. Task Status: Provides approvers with a snapshot of Assigned, Suspended, Completed, Expired, Withdrawn, and Alerted requests. Tasks in “Expired” status have automatically been rejected due to a lack of any action being performed on the request.

Note that requests in “Assigned” status include informational tasks (FYIs) that do not necessarily require any approval action, but remain in the “Assigned” state until they are dismissed.

4. Task Queue: Summary of all requests pending approval. Requests with “RFA” in the title are pending your review. Requests with “FYI” in the title are for informational purposes only.

The “status” filter at the top of the Task Queue can be used to filter tasks based on their status. This field defaults to “Assigned” so you will only see active tasks that are pending user action. To view tasks you’ve previously acted on (Accepted, Rejected, Cancelled, or Dismissed), you can change this filter to “Completed.” Alternatively, you can change this filter to “Any” to show all tasks regardless of status.

Viewing, Approving, or Rejecting a Request

1. Within your Work Queue, locate the request of interest and click on the line that corresponds to the request you would like to act on. The request will be displayed in the preview pane underneath the task list. Alternatively, you may double click the line to open the task in a new window.

Important Note: Web browsers with built-in popup blockers will hinder the new window functionality and may force you to restart the workspace. Disable your pop-up blocker or add the BPM domain to your list of excpetions if you run into this issue.

2. Scroll down to the end of the request and click the appropriate button to Accept, Reject, or Cancel the Request.

A sample BudMod request is shown below to demonstrate these action buttons. Note that requests will vary in appearance depending on the application used to submit the request.

Reassigning or Delegating a Request

To reassign or delegate approval to another user, simply click the appropriate request within your work queue. The request should appear in the window pane below your queue.  Click on the Actions menu under My Tasks. Click on Reassign within the menu.

Important! When you click the Reassign button, you can choose to delegate or reassign ownership of the request to an eligible individual. Please be aware of the differences between these two options. Delegating the task will allow you to retain ownership of the request, enabling you to take back control at any time.

Reassign: The task is completely transferred from the original approver’s inbox to the reassigned approver. Actions taken by the reassigned approver will be recorded under that approver’s name, so it is clear who performed the action.

Delegate: The task is shared with the delegated approver, while remaining in the original approver’s inbox and either approver can take action on the task.  Once an action is taken, it is removed from both inboxes; the original approver has no ability to perform a different action than the delegated approver on the same task.

NOTE: If a delegated task is later reassigned to a new approver, the reassigned approver will gain sole ownership of that task, removing it from the inboxes of any delegates.

Once you click Reassign, a new window will appear. Within this window, click the appropriate button to Reassign or Delegate the task.

Searching for a Request

To search for the appropriate approver, enter the user’s First name, Last name, or NYU NetID and click Search. Search results will appear in the Available window pane. To select the user(s), click on the appropriate name and click the right-facing arrow to move from Available to Selected. Once you have selected the new approver(s), click OK.

Once you click OK, the request will be removed from your work queue.

Important note on reassignment: The BPM system will allow reassignment to anyone with access to BPM, which includes a number of different applications. Therefore, a JEMS request can be reassigned to a BudMod approver who should not be receiving this request. Please be careful to reassign requests to users who have knowledge of the application, and who is aware that the request is being reassigned to them.