Workflow Manager for Legacy System Data Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current workflow management systems lack an efficient and systematic way to track, archive, and report business process information across multiple legacy systems, making it difficult to identify bottlenecks, maintain customer satisfaction, and perform accurate business forecasting.
Innovation Solution
A web-based graphical user interface that allows users to track, archive, and report business process object information within a workflow, enabling real-time status querying, customized reporting, and historical data analysis through a central workflow manager and linked systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple legacy systems with differing architectures are used to process orders, then system functionality and processing capacity are improved, but data access complexity and reporting difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a centralized workflow manager as an intermediary system that sits between multiple legacy systems and the reporting interface. This workflow manager collects, standardizes, and manages data from diverse legacy systems through unified data collection mechanisms, eliminating the need for direct complex queries to each individual system while maintaining full data access capability
Solution Approach 2:
The workflow manager serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a data collection point from various legacy systems, a centralized storage repository, a real-time tracking system, and a reporting engine. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require separate systems for each function, reducing overall complexity
2Reliability
If real-time tracking of individual orders through multiple workflow stages is implemented, then customer satisfaction and process visibility are improved, but system complexity and data collection burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The workflow manager serves as an intermediary that automatically collects status information from each workflow stage without requiring manual data entry or complex coordination between systems. It centralizes the tracking function, simplifying the overall architecture while maintaining real-time visibility across all order stages
Solution Approach 2:
Each workflow stage and legacy system automatically reports its status and data to the workflow manager without requiring manual intervention. The systems self-serve by pushing data to the centralized manager, which then makes this information available for tracking and reporting, reducing the operational burden
3Measurement precision
If comprehensive historical data is collected and archived from all workflow processes, then business forecasting accuracy and trend analysis are improved, but data storage requirements and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The workflow manager's centralized database serves multiple purposes: it stores historical data for forecasting, maintains real-time data for active order tracking, and provides aggregated data for reporting. This multi-use approach to data storage eliminates the need for separate storage systems for different purposes, optimizing storage efficiency
4Adaptability or versatility
If customized ad-hoc reports are generated on demand, then reporting flexibility and decision-making speed are improved, but system processing load and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The workflow manager provides a universal reporting interface that handles both standardized periodic reports and customized ad-hoc reports through the same system. The centralized database and flexible query capabilities allow users to generate any type of report on demand without requiring separate reporting systems or complex preprocessing
Solution Approach 2:
The workflow manager acts as an intermediary between the legacy systems and the reporting needs, providing a simplified interface for report generation. Users can request customized reports without dealing with the underlying complexity of multiple legacy systems, as the workflow manager handles all data retrieval and processing
Data Source
AI summary
A computerized workflow analysis tool, which allows a user to navigate through many levels of increasingly detailed order-related information. The order tracking and reporting tool of the preferred embodiments further allow a user to create customized, ad-hoc reports. In addition, the preferred embodiments allows a user to search information obtained from a plurality of databases by selected parameters, and to download the results obtained for further mathematical manipulation, graphing or trend analysis.