Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and information processing program

Abstract

To automatically generate a workflow without troubling a user.SOLUTION: An information processing apparatus includes a workflow management unit that selects a plurality of workflows, each of the workflows including a plurality of components and defining an execution order of the plurality of components, and determines a concatenation order of the plurality of workflows, and a concatenated workflow generation unit that generates a concatenated workflow by concatenating the plurality of workflows in accordance with the concatenation order.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and an information processing program for generating a workflow in which an execution order of a plurality of components, each of which indicates a command for an electronic device to execute a predetermined process, is defined. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, with the increasing demand for electronic documents, there has been an increasing need for workflow systems that can improve the efficiency of business workflows such as application procedures. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6852832 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2024-017895 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Patent Document 1 is a configuration in which workflows are managed for each application, and a workflow is created for each setting value, such as an output folder. With this management method, if a user increases the number of workflows in a disorderly manner, it becomes difficult to know which workflow is the desired one, and there is a problem in that the desired workflow cannot be found. Patent Document 2 defines a combination of components in units of an application, and it is possible to create workflows derived from the application. However, there is a problem in that this only supports changing setting values, and adding processing requires defining it as a separate application.

[0005] In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present disclosure is to automatically generate a workflow without requiring the user to take any effort. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] An information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a workflow management unit that selects a plurality of workflows, each of which includes a plurality of components indicating commands for an electronic device to execute a predetermined process and in which an execution order of the plurality of components is defined, and determines a linking order of the plurality of workflows; a linked workflow generation unit that generates a linked workflow by linking the plurality of workflows in accordance with the linking order; It is equipped with:

[0007] An information processing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: When the computer of the information processing device executes the information processing program, selecting a plurality of workflows, each of which includes a plurality of components indicating a command for an electronic device to execute a predetermined process, and in which an execution order of the plurality of components is defined; and determining a linking order of the plurality of workflows; A linked workflow is generated by linking the plurality of workflows in accordance with the linking order.

[0008] An information processing program according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: The computer of the information processing device, a workflow management unit that selects a plurality of workflows, each of which includes a plurality of components indicating commands for an electronic device to execute a predetermined process and in which an execution order of the plurality of components is defined, and determines a linking order of the plurality of workflows; a linked workflow generation unit that generates a linked workflow by linking the plurality of workflows in accordance with the linking order; Operate as. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to the present disclosure, a workflow can be automatically generated without requiring the user to do anything.

[0010] The effects described here are not necessarily limited to those described herein, and may be any of the effects described in this disclosure. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] 1 illustrates a functional configuration of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] Components, workflows and linked workflows are shown. [Figure 3] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the information processing device. [Figure 4] 1 shows a workflow selection screen. [Figure 5] 10 is a flowchart showing a linked workflow generation operation. [Figure 6] A generation result display screen is shown. [Figure 7] 1 shows a workflow management screen. [Figure 8] 10 shows a workflow progress management screen. [Figure 9] 10 is a flowchart showing a linked workflow proposing operation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0012] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0013] 1. Functional configuration of information processing device

[0014] FIG. 1 shows a functional configuration of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0015] A processor in a control circuit 100 (computer) of the information processing device 1 executes an information processing program, causing the information processing device 1 to operate as a component management unit 101, a workflow management unit 102, a linked workflow generation unit 103, and a workflow UI unit 104. The workflow UI unit 104 displays a UI screen on a display device 121 (such as a display or a touch panel) and accepts user input from an input device 122 (such as a keyboard, a touch panel, a mouse, or a microphone) in response to information displayed on the UI screen. The control circuit 100 of the information processing device 1 can read and write data from and to a non-volatile storage device 110. The storage device 110 has a component storage unit 111, a workflow storage unit 112, and a linked workflow storage unit 113. The information processing device 1 may be, for example, a personal computer, a tablet computer, a smartphone, or the like. The electronic device may be, for example, an image forming device such as an MFP (Multifunction Peripheral).

[0016] Figure 2 shows the components, workflows and connected workflows.

[0017] A workflow is a set of processes that includes multiple components, each of which indicates a command for an electronic device to execute a specific process, and in which the execution order of the multiple components is defined. A linked workflow is a set of processes that includes multiple workflows and is generated by linking the multiple workflows in a defined link order.

[0018] As shown in (A), components 201 and 202 are commands for executing, for example, OCR, document upload, etc. Components 201 and 202 are managed by the component management unit 101 and stored in the component storage unit 111. Input targets and output targets are also defined for each component 201 and 202. The input targets and output targets include file formats (extensions), file paths, etc.

[0019] As shown in (B), workflow 210 "Save Invoice" is a set of a series of processes generated by combining, for example, component 201 "OCR" and component 202 "Document Upload" by defining execution order 203. Workflow 210 is managed by workflow management unit 102 and stored in workflow storage unit 112.

[0020] The workflow management unit 102 associates with the workflow 210 the workflow name, status (active, deactive), update date and time, related workflow (own workflow), attributes of the workflow 210 (save, request, etc.), user affiliation (department, administrator, etc.) who executed the workflow 210, and document tendencies (content, extension, file size, etc.) of the target of the workflow 210, and stores them in the workflow storage unit 112.

[0021] As shown in (C), linked workflow 310 is a set of a series of processes generated by linking multiple workflows, workflow 210 "save invoice" and workflow 211 "request approval," by defining linking order 213. Linked workflow 310 is generated and managed by linked workflow generation unit 103, and stored in linked workflow storage unit 113.

[0022] The linked workflow generation unit 103 associates the linked workflow 310 with the linked workflow, and stores the linked workflow name, status (active, deactive), update date and time, related workflows (the names of multiple workflows that are the basis for the linked workflow 310), user attributes (department, administrator, etc.) who executed the linked workflow 310, and document tendencies (contents, extension, file size, etc.) for which the linked workflow 310 was executed in the linked workflow storage unit 113. Note that the workflow storage unit 112 and the linked workflow storage unit 113 may not be distinguished, and the workflows and linked workflows may be stored in a common storage unit.

[0023] 2. Operation flow of information processing device

[0024] FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the information processing device.

[0025] The workflow management unit 102 causes the workflow UI unit 104 to display a workflow selection screen 300 .

[0026] Figure 4 shows the workflow selection screen.

[0027] The workflow selection screen 300 displays multiple workflows 230, 240, and 250 stored in the workflow storage unit 112. The user selects multiple workflows 230 and 240 to be linked by checking check boxes 231 and 241. The first workflow 230 is a series of processes in which multiple components, such as "Multifunction Printer Scan" 232, "OCR" 233, and "Document Upload" 234, are connected by arrows 235 indicating the order of their execution. The second workflow 240 is a series of processes in which multiple components, such as "Web Upload" 242, "OCR" 243, "Person A Review" 244, "Person B Review" 245, and "Approval Result Entry" 246, are connected by arrows 247 indicating the order of their execution.

[0028] The workflow management unit 102 acquires user input information from the workflow UI unit 104 and selects multiple workflows 230, 240 based on the user input. The workflow management unit 102 determines the linking order of the multiple workflows 230, 240. The workflow management unit 102 may determine the linking order of the multiple workflows 230, 240 based on the attributes (save, request, etc.) of the multiple workflows 230, 240. For example, the workflow management unit 102 may determine the linking order of the multiple workflows 230, 240 based on a rule such as that a workflow 240 with the attribute "request" is always linked last. Alternatively, the workflow management unit 102 may determine the linking order of the multiple workflows 230, 240 based on the user input by having the user input it via the workflow UI unit 104 (step S101).

[0029] The linked workflow generation unit 103 generates a linked workflow by linking the multiple workflows 230 and 240 in accordance with a linking order (step S102). In this example, the linking order is such that the workflow 230 is the first stage and the workflow 240 is the second stage.

[0030] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of generating a linked workflow.

[0031] The linked workflow generation unit 103 links multiple workflows 230, 240 in a linking order (step S201). Then, the components "Multifunction Printer Scan" 232, "OCR" 233, "Document Upload" 234, "Web Upload" 242, "OCR" 243, "Person A Review" 244, "Person B Review" 245, and "Approval Result Entry" 246 are linked in this linking order (step S201).

[0032] When multiple workflows 230, 240 contain the same type of component, the linked workflow generation unit 103 deletes the component contained in one of the workflows (specifically, the latter stage). For example, "OCR" 233 contained in workflow 230 and "OCR" 243 contained in workflow 240 are completely identical. For this reason, the linked workflow generation unit 103 deletes the latter stage component "OCR" 243. Furthermore, "Multifunction Printer Scan" 232 contained in workflow 230 and "Web Upload" 242 contained in workflow 240 are both components with the common purpose of acquiring original document data. For this reason, the linked workflow generation unit 103 deletes the latter stage component "Web Upload" 242. As a result, the components "Multifunction Printer Scan" 232, "OCR" 233, "Document Upload" 234, "Review by Person A" 244, "Review by Person B" 245, and "Approval Result Entry" 246 are linked in this order (step S202).

[0033] The linked workflow generation unit 103 determines whether the output target of the previous workflow 230 corresponds to the input target of the subsequent workflow 240 in a linked portion of multiple workflows 230, 240 (step S203). The output target of the previous workflow 230 is the file or file path output by the last component "Document Upload" 234. The input target of the subsequent workflow 240 is the file or file path input by the first component "Review by Person A" 244. For example, the linked workflow generation unit 103 determines that they do not correspond if the file format (extension) of the output target does not match the file format (extension) of the input target, or if the output target is a file and the input target is a file path.

[0034] If they do not correspond (step S203, NO), the linked workflow generation unit 103 inserts a component that associates the output target and the input target into the linking portion (step S204). For example, if the file format of the output target (e.g., PDF) and the file format of the input target (e.g., text) do not match, the linked workflow generation unit 103 reads a component that converts the file format of the output target into the file format of the input target from the component storage unit 111 and inserts it into the linking portion. For example, if the output target is a file and the input target is a file path, the linked workflow generation unit 103 reads a component that saves the output target in a storage device and generates a file path for the saved output target from the component storage unit 111 and inserts it into the linking portion.

[0035] FIG. 6 shows the generated results display screen.

[0036] The workflow management unit 102 causes the workflow UI unit 104 to display a generation result display screen 400 showing the linked workflow generated by the linked workflow generation unit 103. The generation result display screen 400 displays the linked workflow 320 (step S103). The user checks the displayed linked workflow 320. If the linked workflow 320 is not as expected (step S104, NO), the user edits the linked workflow 320 using the input device 122 (step S105). If the linked workflow 320 is as expected (step S104, YES), the user approves the linked workflow 320 using the input device 122.

[0037] The linked workflow generating unit 103 stores the final linked workflow 320 in the linked workflow storage unit 113 (step S106).

[0038] Figure 7 shows the workflow management screen.

[0039] The workflow management unit 102 displays the linked workflows 320 and the like stored in the linked workflow storage unit 113 and the workflows 210 and the like stored in the workflow storage unit 112 on the workflow management screen 500 .

[0040] The workflow management screen 500 displays a workflow name 510, a status 520 (active, deactive), an update date and time 530, and an associated workflow 540 in relation to one another. The associated workflow 540 of a linked workflow indicates the names of multiple workflows that are the basis of the linked workflow. The associated workflow 540 of a workflow indicates the name of its own workflow.

[0041] The workflow management screen 500 further displays a filter button 550. By operating the filter button 550, it is possible to extract workflows that have common related workflows and linked workflows.

[0042] FIG. 8 shows the workflow progress management screen.

[0043] When the electronic device executes the workflow and the linked workflow, the workflow management unit 102 outputs (displays on the display device 121) a workflow progress management screen 600. The workflow progress management screen 600 displays a list of a job ID 610, a workflow name 620, a status 630 (completed, in progress, pending), a start date and time 640, a completion date and time 650, and a progress 660.

[0044] When the linked workflow "A+B" 621 is executed, the workflow progress management screen 600 displays a progress 660 divided into a progress 661 of the linking source workflow A, a progress 662 of the linking source workflow B, and so on.

[0045] FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of proposing a linked workflow.

[0046] When a workflow (not a linked workflow) is executed, the workflow management unit 102 may suggest to the user that they execute a linked workflow that includes this workflow. When the workflow management unit 102 detects that a workflow (not a linked workflow) has been executed (step S301), it determines the linked workflows related to the currently executing workflow. Specifically, the workflow management unit 102 determines that a linked workflow is the related linked workflow if, among the linked workflows stored in the linked workflow storage unit 113, the currently executing workflow is registered as a related workflow (the names of multiple workflows that are the basis of the linked workflow). The workflow management unit 102 acquires information about the related linked workflows from the linked workflow storage unit 113 (step S302). The information about the linked workflow includes the related workflows (the names of multiple workflows that are the basis of the linked workflow), the attributes of the linked workflows (save, request, etc.), the attributes of the user who executed the linked workflow (department, administrator, etc.), the document tendencies (content, extension, file size, etc.) of the target of the linked workflow being executed, etc., stored in the linked workflow storage unit 113.

[0047] The workflow management unit 102 calculates the degree of association between a workflow in progress and a related linked workflow. As a prerequisite, user attributes (department, manager, etc.) and document tendencies (document content, extension, file size, etc.) are associated with linked workflows and stored in the linked workflow storage unit 113. The workflow management unit 102 calculates the degree of association between a workflow in progress and a related linked workflow using the user attributes and document tendencies. The document content may be calculated using a manually assigned document class or vector information using natural language processing, etc. The degree of association may be calculated using machine learning, clustering, etc.

[0048] If the degree of association between the currently running workflow and the related linked workflow is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (step S303, YES), the workflow management unit 102 proposes to the user, as linkable workflows, one or more workflows that do not correspond to the currently running workflow among the multiple workflows included in the linked workflow (step S304). When the user selects a linkable workflow, the workflow management unit 102 executes the linked workflow.

[0049] 3. Conclusion

[0050] In recent years, with the demand for digitization of documents, there has been a growing need for workflow systems that streamline business workflows such as application procedures. There are various ways to digitize documents, such as uploading from a terminal device such as a PC, taking a photo with a mobile device, or scanning with a multifunction printer, and the processes and workflows required to digitize these methods are different for each. If the processing procedures or workflow settings (output destination, notification destination, etc.) are different, a different workflow must be prepared, which increases the effort required to create and manage the workflow.

[0051] In view of the above circumstances, this embodiment provides a function for linking workflows to generate a linked workflow. Linking enables new workflows of various patterns to be automatically and easily created by combining and linking existing workflows. Furthermore, because attribute information (names and tags) of existing workflows can be used for filtering, workflow searches are simplified and management becomes more efficient.

[0052] Although the embodiments and modified examples of the present technology have been described above, the present technology is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present technology. [Explanation of symbols]

[0053] 1. Information processing equipment 100 control circuit 101 Component Management Department 102 Workflow Management Department 103 Connected Workflow Generation Unit 110 Storage device 111 Component Storage 112 Workflow storage unit 113 Connected Workflow Storage 121 Display device 122 Input Device

Claims

1. a workflow management unit that selects a plurality of workflows, each of which includes a plurality of components indicating commands for an electronic device to execute a predetermined process and in which an execution order of the plurality of components is defined, and determines a linking order of the plurality of workflows; a linked workflow generation unit that generates a linked workflow by linking the plurality of workflows in accordance with the linking order; An information processing device comprising:

2. 2. The information processing device according to claim 1, When the plurality of workflows include the same type of component, the linked workflow generating unit deletes the component included in one of the workflows. Information processing device.

3. 2. The information processing device according to claim 1, When an output target of a previous workflow does not correspond to an input target of a subsequent workflow in a connection portion of the plurality of workflows, the connection workflow generation portion inserts a component that associates the output target and the input target into the connection portion. Information processing device.

4. 4. The information processing device according to claim 3, When the file format of the output target and the file format of the input target do not match, the connection workflow generation unit inserts a component into the connection unit that converts the file format of the output target into the file format of the input target. Information processing device.

5. 4. The information processing device according to claim 3, When the output target is a file and the input target is a file path, the linked workflow generation unit inserts into the linking unit a component that saves the output target in a storage device and generates a file path for the saved output target. Information processing device.

6. 2. The information processing device according to claim 1, When the linked workflow is executed, the workflow management unit outputs a workflow progress screen that displays the progress of the linked workflow in a divided manner. Information processing device.

7. 2. The information processing device according to claim 1, The workflow management unit determines a linked workflow related to a workflow being executed, proposes one or more workflows that do not correspond to the workflow being executed among a plurality of workflows included in the linked workflow to a user as linkable workflows, and when the user selects a linkable workflow, executes the linked workflow. Information processing device.

8. When the computer of the information processing device executes the information processing program, selecting a plurality of workflows, each of which includes a plurality of components indicating a command for an electronic device to execute a predetermined process, and in which an execution order of the plurality of components is defined; and determining a linking order of the plurality of workflows; A linked workflow is generated by linking the plurality of workflows in accordance with the linking order. Information processing methods.

9. The computer of the information processing device, a workflow management unit that selects a plurality of workflows, each of which includes a plurality of components indicating commands for an electronic device to execute a predetermined process and in which an execution order of the plurality of components is defined, and determines a linking order of the plurality of workflows; a linked workflow generation unit that generates a linked workflow by linking the plurality of workflows in accordance with the linking order; An information processing program that operates as a

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