bpm.pro: Case study "Order processing hydraulic cylinder"

One of our customers was given the tentative promise of regular purchase of large amounts of hydraulic cylinders under the condition that the order processing ensured following procedure:
The order of the respective cylinders was to be made on Monday and it was conveyed in an Excel chart.
This Excel chart is to be completed (e.g. with the order number) and sent back to the client.
The cylinders will be requested for different delivery dates – and on average the delivery period would only be up to four days. With the delivery the required papers of the client are to be enclosed which are of great importance to internal processes. Furthermore the delivery details are to be transmitted in a XML document to the client.
The used ERP system of the customers does support the described order procedures in principal but it does not have the required interfaces in order to exchange data from Excel or XML formats. Furthermore the great outlay in respect to data collection for the client makes it difficult to adhere to the time frame set by the customer.
We were assigned the task to develop a solution to handle the above mentioned requirements based on bpm.pro.
It was possible to realize the Excel data exchange with the implementation of the respective bpm.pro-Standard-Interface-Module which also supports other common data formats. From the imported data orders are automatically generated in bpm.pro. The allocation of order numbers and determination of prices is also done automatically. All required master data are assumed over the interfaces of the ERP system. With the help of the bpm.pro-Maskgenerator which creates entry masks the order information is completed and then passed back over an Excel interface to the client. In the next step the order data is transmitted to the ERP system so that all relevant data is available for accounting and logistical procedures. In addition to this further information is released which is not saved on the ERP system in form of production documents.
After the cylinders have been manufactured they are summarized to shipping orders which are dated according to the delivery dates given by the customer. Following all necessary documents for shipping (e.g. commissioning of transport company, custom documents etc.) are created. In order to generate the individual documents the bpm.pro-easydoc-Module is used that enables to automatically generate documents similar to Word form letters.
Finally after dispatch the invoicing documents are created in pdf format and sent to the client electronically. The easydoc-Module is also used for this so that one can make alterations in regards to the format and content easily within MS Word based templates.

Resume

Because of the pre-assembled logic components it was possible within a manageable outlay to find a solution that supported a very customer specific process. The same implementation within an ERP system would have lead to much higher expenditure due to the typical inflexibility.