Interactive Process Graph for Multi-UI Enterprise Automation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users engaged in complex business processes face inefficiencies due to the need to navigate multiple complex Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and user interfaces, which are often cumbersome and require manual data entry across various systems.
Innovation Solution
An interactive process graph that allows users to visualize and interact with multiple business process activities from a single view, enabling data entry and automation of tasks without opening underlying user interfaces, using robotic processing automation (RPA) to abstract away the complexity of multiple systems and interfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If users interact with multiple ERP systems through their native user interfaces, then they can access all necessary functionality for complex business processes, but the time and effort required to navigate and operate across multiple systems increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer (the process graph interface) that mediates between the user and multiple underlying ERP systems. This intermediary consolidates access to multiple systems into a single unified interface, allowing users to interact with all necessary systems through one graph rather than navigating each system's native interface separately.
Solution Approach 2:
The process graph serves as a universal interface that can represent and control multiple different ERP systems and business processes in a single unified structure. It provides multi-functionality by enabling users to perform diverse operations across different systems through a common graphical interface rather than requiring separate interfaces for each system.
2Adaptability or versatility
If ERP systems provide comprehensive functionality for many different use cases, then they can handle complex business processes, but the user interfaces become cumbersome and require manual data entry across various systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential process flow and data relationships from multiple complex ERP systems and represents them in a simplified process graph. By taking out only the necessary elements needed to represent the business process flow, it creates a simplified view that maintains multi-purpose functionality while reducing interface complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the complex multi-system interface into discrete, manageable nodes and edges in a process graph. Each node represents a specific system or process step, and edges represent data flow or relationships. This segmentation breaks down the overwhelming complexity into smaller, more manageable components that are easier to navigate and understand.
3Productivity
If users manually navigate and enter data across multiple systems, then they can complete business processes, but productivity decreases due to repetitive manual tasks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-defining the process flow, data relationships, and system connections in the process graph before execution. This preliminary setup allows the system to automatically route data and trigger operations across multiple systems without requiring manual intervention for each step, significantly reducing the time lost to repetitive manual tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The process graph enables self-service automation where the system automatically manages data flow and operations across multiple ERP systems based on the defined process model. Once the process graph is configured, it can execute processes autonomously, with systems serving themselves by automatically passing data along the defined paths without requiring continuous manual user intervention.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided are systems and methods for creating and managing an interactive process graphs which expedite performance of a multi-user enterprise process between user interfaces and the underlying systems. In one example, a method may include generating a process graph of a user interface process, wherein the process graph comprises nodes corresponding to activities and vertices between the nodes identifying dependencies among the activities, embedding input fields in the nodes of the process graph, embedding, via the process graph, an identifier of a current location of a data object within an instance within the user interface process, and displaying an instance of the process graph corresponding to the instance of the user interface process which includes the embedded input fields in the nodes and the identifier of the current location of the data object within the instance of the user interface process.