Product Overviewoctober 2001

Product OverviewOctober 2001

ActionWorks® Metro

Products

ActionWorks® Metro

ActionWorks® Coordinator

Action Technologies has changed its product portfolio offering on its website.

New offering seems to combine the eBRM into Metro, offered under Metro Suite

ActionWorks® Metro is an award-winning e-process application platform. IT organizations and system integrators use Metro's proven web-based business process management technology to deliver solutions that automate and manage the customer-driven processes of business and government online.

An application development environment for creating enterprise business process management applications that enable people to collaborate across departmental and corporate boundaries. Frequently implemented solutions include collaborative commerce and customer care applications built using our patented closed-loop business interaction model, in which people make decisions, negotiate agreements, monitor performance and assess completed work.

Products, overview

ActionWorks® Metro

ActionWorks Coordinator™

Coordinator is a new class of "mega-application" that vastly improves how companies invent new products and provide their most important customers with custom services and programs. It is a coordination platform for: a) Reducing time and cost in complex, large-scale collaborative interactions associated with the design, development, delivery and deployment of custom goods and services; b) Exception management across corporate boundaries.

ActionWorks® Metro: Increasing Productivity and Shortening Delivery Time

ActionWorks® Metro is an e-process application platform. For the CIO or senior business executive who must rapidly automate and continuously improve the business processes that drive e-commerce initiatives, Metro empowers you to own the total customer relationship by enabling impeccable customer interactions and by managing resolutions across enterprise boundaries.

Unlike workflow systems or enterprise applications that control static, routine processes, Metro provides a closed-loop, customer-centric, business interaction model that supports dynamic, adaptive processes which enable you to acquire, service and satisfy customers online.

The ActionWorks® Metro software suite provides the fastest-time-to-solution for organizations automating customer interaction and resolution processes.

The ActionWorks® Metro suite includes:

ActionWorks® Metro, an application server and web-based work management environment
ActionWorks® Process Builder, a process mapping and application development tool
ActionWorks® Software Developer's Kit, an open set of process APIs

Own the Total Customer Experience

The promise of e-commerce, reaching and transacting with customers directly online, is appealing. Yet, for providers of custom products and services every online customer transaction is preceded and succeeded by many customer interactions. These interactions, and how impeccably you manage them, are the key to owning the total customer experience and building lasting customer relationships.

ActionWorks® Metro is the first e-process application server designed to manage online business interactions.

The Metro promise is to enable you to own the total customer experience with rapidly developed, open and adaptive e-process solutions that:

Enable closed-loop, impeccable customer interactions
Manage resolutions across organizational and geographic boundaries
Respond to exceptions, breakdowns and new opportunities
Serve customers one-to-one where individual customers are valuable, or the consequences of failure are costly

The Fastest Time to Solution

With ActionWorks® Metro you can design, deploy and manage business processes online. The latest Metro release promises to be the fastest time to solution for e-business. Many new features are designed to enable you to rapidly develop complete e-process solutions that range from administrative to strategic, or that encompass core mission-critical processes in specific industries.

ActionWorks® Metro - The Metro Software Suite

ActionWorks® Metro Server

Metro provides an application server and the WorkBox, a complete web-based environment for managing work including structured business processes, collaborative team-based projects and personal ad hoc tasks. The WorkBox's rich work management environment includes all the applications, views and reports necessary for knowledge workers (e.g. professionals, managers and senior executives) to deliver custom products and services to demanding customers.

ActionWorks® Process Builder

Metro application development begins with the Process Builder, a process design and application development tool. The Process Builder provides a drag-and-drop mapping tool and rapid application services to help developers, in collaboration with business users, design a map of the business process. Process Builder's unique ability to automatically generate complete web-based applications that fully automate the process defined by the map, dramatically speeds development and ensures operational alignment with business goals.

ActionWorks® Software Developer's Kit

The ActionWorks® Software Developer's Kit (SDK) provides a fully documented set of native APIs. The SDK provides ActionWorks® customers flexibility to utilize any number of development styles, including client/server, DCOM or CORBA.

ActionWorks® Metro: Increasing Productivity and Shortening Delivery Time

Overview

The ActionWorks® Metro software suite provides the fastest-time-to-solution for organizations automating customer interaction and resolution processes.

The ActionWorks® Metro suite includes:

ActionWorks® Metro, an application server and web-based work management environment

ActionWorks® Process Builder, a process mapping and application development tool

ActionWorks® Software Developer's Kit, an open set of process APIs

Own the Total Customer Experience

ActionWorks® Metro is the first e-process application server designed to manage online business interactions.

The Metro promise is to enable you to own the total customer experience with rapidly developed, open and adaptive e-process solutions that:

Enable closed-loop, impeccable customer interactions

Manage resolutions across organizational and geographic boundaries

Respond to exceptions, breakdowns and new opportunities

Serve customers one-to-one where individual customers are valuable, or the consequences of failure are costly

The Fastest Time to Solution

ActionWorks® Metro - The Metro Software Suite

ActionWorks® Metro Server

ActionWorks® Process Builder

ActionWorks® Software Developer's Kit

ActionWorks® Metro - Benefits

Close the Loop for Customer Satisfaction

Metro applications are based on a unique Business InterAction (BIA) model that builds customer satisfaction into every process. You develop Metro applications with the ActionWorks® Process Builder. First, design the process map, including the rules, roles, data and forms; then, generate the application and install it on the Metro server. Your business process is now online. Each and every step of your online process is based on the closed-loop, customer-centric BIA model. And because Metro applications are generated directly from the process map, you ensure that your online operations are aligned with your business goals.

Speed Development for Rapid Payback

Your business moves at Internet speed and your e-processes must too. The Metro suite includes the ActionWorks® Process Builder, which provides rapid application services that dramatically speed design and development and results in the fastest time to solution for e-business. Process Builder offers process design, application design, web interface design and automatic code generation in a single integrated "component assembly" environment.

Open Platform for Agility and Scalability

Open application architecture is a key Metro advantage. Metro's open application platform enables you to develop e-process solutions that integrate and support an exceptional range of technologies, applications and industry standards. For example, with Metro you can automate inter-enterprise supply chain processes or intra-enterprise human resource processes that integrate with ERP systems such as SAP or PeopleSoft. Metro's open application platform leverages your IT investment and provides you with the flexibility to extend your applications as business needs change.

Native Web-centric Architecture for Optimized Deployment

Metro has a native web-centric, distributed network architecture that enables you to optimize the deployment of your processes to support organizational growth and change. When business processes, users and roles are distributed across the enterprise on multiple servers, complexity increases exponentially, creating opportunities for transaction collisions, conflicting commitments and data corruption. Metro is unique in having built-in Business Process Integrity features that perform simultaneous updates to multiple servers, execute changes across all affected work and perform transaction rollbacks where necessary.

Features

The following list of features demonstrates the comprehensive nature of Metro's e-process application tools and servers.

Process Design

Process Mapping: ActionWorks® Process Builder provides intuitive process mapping features to define business processes quickly and easily.

Powerful, yet easy to implement drag-and-drop process mapping tools

Workflow objects that define business interactions

Automation objects that link external systems

Developer-defined rendezvous, splitter and conditional flow objects

Standard process and exception handling workflows

Protocol Wizards with point-and-click business rule definition

Protocol Test to evaluate customer-performer interactions

Attach documents to a business process with upload, download and locking mechanisms

Direct access to external ODBC sources

Point-and-click VBA scripting

Automatic consistency checking facility

Application Design

ActionWorks® Rapid Application Services: Process Builder provides automatic web-base form generation - an important feature that speeds application development.

Preview and validate "initiate," "reply" and "status" forms that incorporate workflow and data fields

Dynamic external data integratoin into Metro forms using a point-and-click interface

Forms generation including code for Metro XML, HTML and Javascript

Custom views with cascading style sheets and filters to display and manage work

High-level Application Services that dramatically reduce the time and effort to develop web-based applications

MailLinks (e-mail notification) are pre-configured and can be customized easily through templates

Shared Work Offices manage team-based work

Comment history enables discussions and track various business process events

Collaboration services facilitate human interaction

Timing services remind, follow-up and escalate work

Extranet initiation enables customers, partners or suppliers to initiate business processes from the Web

Work Management

Work Management: Metro provides a Workbox, a complete web-base work management environment where individuals manage personal tasks, team-based work and participate in business processes.

Metro WorkBox provides a single place to manage personal tasks, office work and enterprise business processes

A navigator bar provides a location to access deployed applications

Standard, Office and Custom views enable you to see and sort work

Applications can be deployed in logical groups by department, function or business process

Offices manage team-based work from multiple business processes

Individuals have access rights to applications, offices and views

Process Improvement

Reports and Exports: Metro tracks all process metrics and provides various views and reports that help you define and improve your process.

Tracking of process metrics helps identify bottlenecks

Views provide managers with real-time process data

Custom reports help analyze the process and define improvements

Architecture

Tiered architecture optimized for the Web

Open application platform enabling integration with IT infrastructure, document/imaging systems, databases and enterprise applications

Development Interfaces

HTML, DHTML, XML, Java, JavaScript, VB Script

ActiveX, COM

Precision Internet Forms

Applications

Document Management/Imaging

Enterprise and Line of Business Applications

Infrastructure Services

Messaging: MAPI, SMTP, POP3

SQL Database: Microsoft SQL Server

Directory: Microsoft BackOffice and LDAP

Scaleable distributed architecture designed to enable strategic flexibility

Aggregate work from multiple servers into a single Workbox

Distribute users and roles across multiple servers

Distribute a single logical server across multiple hardware servers

Requirements

CPU: Pentium 333 or higher

Operating System: Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0

Web Servers: Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0; Netscape Enterprise Server 3.51 or 3.6

Database: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or 6.5

ODBC: Microsoft ODBC Driver 3.7 or later

Messaging: A MAPI or SMTP/POP 3 compliant Messaging Server (Microsoft Exchange and Netscape Messaging Server Certified)

Web Browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, Netscape Navigator 4.0 or later

ActionWorks® Process Builder

Overview

The ActionWorks® Process Builder is an e-process design and application development tool. Process Builder provides a unique integrated process design and application assembly environment that enables you to rapidly deploy and continuously improve the customer-driven e-processes that support your online business needs.

This online datasheet provides a quick overview of ActionWorks® Process Builder. This version comprises process and application design services. If you're an application developer or interested in automating business processes and managing them online with the ActionWorks® Metro server, then this is the tool for you.

ActionWorks® Process Builder

e-Process Application Development Tool

Metro Solution Kits
Application Assembly
Benefits
Features
System Requirements

Overview

The ActionWorks® Process Builder is designed to enable rapid development and deployment of e-process solutions. Through easy yet powerful process mapping software and a set of powerful application development services, the Process Builder enables you to rapidly design, analyze, develop, and–as business conditions change–enhance the e-process solutions that support your strategic business objectives.

Leverages Metro Solution Kits which give you a jump-start on deploying a complete e-process solution

Provides Open Process Modeling for unparalleled ease of process definition, analysis and continuous process improvement

Focuses on customer satisfaction as a goal for every process

Supports knowledge worker processes, with the ability to handle negotiations, exceptions and ad-hoc workflows

Features an integrated process design and component assembly environment that speeds development and enables the reuse of common objects

Metro Solution Kits

Metro Solution Kits are the key to rapid deployment. A Metro Solution Kit is a fully functional, extensible Metro application that operates right out of the box. In addition, the kits include a set of professional services to install, configure, optionally customize, and deploy the application on corporate intranets, extranets or the Internet.