Getting Started With Oracle BPM 11g

In a previous blog post I wrote a step by step guide on how to install Oracle BPM 11g. That was all good and well, but now what? The first thing I would suggest you do is go and by the book Getting Started with Oracle BPM Suite 11gR1 – A Hands-On Tutorial. Read that book cover to cover and go through the labs. It provides very good information and a great sample application that you build from scratch throughout the book. If you’re like me and you want to first play with the software a little bit before you go reading a 500 and some-odd page book, Oracle allows you download the same application that you create in the book.

To download the sample application, go to:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bpm/learnmore/index.html

Browse down to the Samples and Demos section for the link. The sample application is called the Sales Quote Demo and is a BPM process where sales people enter in a quote into the process system, have the quote go through approvals and reviews, perform some automated routing, and finalize the quote.

Once you download the sample application and unzip it there are two documents to help you set up and run it. The first doc is the ‘Setup Instructions’, it takes you step by step through prepping your environment for the application. It walks you through the steps of creating your schema, setting up the WebLogic server, seeding the LDAP, connecting JDeveloper (or BPM studio if you prefer) to the MDS, deploying the project, setting up the groups, and mapping the LDAP users to the process roles. The guide is very good and I didn’t have any problems following through it step by step and deploying the application.

The second document is the ‘Understand and Run’ guide. This document has two sections. The first section goes through the process design and describes the logic behind it. The second section walks you through actually running the application and the end-user experience. Just like the Setup document, this guide is pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Unlike the Setup document, when you go through this guide you actually learn a little bit about Oracle BPM 11g and how it works.

Downloading the Sales Quote Demo and deploying it isn’t a replacement for reading the book I mentioned above or going to a training course, but it is a very good jumping off point. If you like dry reads you can download the various guides that Oracle has for BPM. The guides are all located at:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17904_01/nav/portal_booklist.htm

The guides are actually invaluable and for Oracle BPM 11g I would recommend downloading the following and putting them into your library:

• Quick Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite
• Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite
• Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management
• Administrator’s Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite
• User’s Guide for Oracle Business Rules
• Business Process Composer User’s Guide for Oracle Business Process Management
• User’s Guide for Oracle Business Process Management

Going through these steps, setting up the Sales Quote Demo application, and reviewing it is a great way to start off learning BPM and I highly suggest it. Good luck!

 

John Linehan

ImageSource, Inc.

www.imagesourceinc.com

IPM 10g is Going Away, Now What?

Earlier this month ImageSource hosted our annual ECM conference Nexus.  I had the chance to meet with many of our customers and have some really great conversations.  Many of these folks are running IPM 10g as a core component of their enterprise and since that product is being end of life’d they are taking a long hard look at their installations.  Everyone wanted to know what options they had and to talk about the best way for them to move forward.  The 11g version of IPM was frequently a core topic of conversation and everybody wanted to hear how to get from here to there.

This turns out to be a hard question to answer! There is no single bullet-proof solution that you can just pull the trigger on and have everything completed.  (Sorry, we’re still working on the ILINX® Magic Wand)   Depending on your environment and your goals there are different considerations.  Let’s take a look at a few common scenarios.

IPM 10g, Imaging Only

So in your environment you’re using IPM to store and retrieve images.  You’re not using workflow, you don’t have many complex integrations, IPM is basically acting solely as a repository.  You are in a great position for an upgrade to IPM 11g.  Unlike folks with workflows and complex integrations there is a clear and defined upgrade path for an Imaging-only IPM 10g system.  Oracle provides a migration tool that performs the actual transfer of documents (with annotations!) from 10g to 11g.  The upgrade is mostly a matter of setting the applications and searches up in 11g and letting this tool move the content over.

IPM 10g, Process

Your environment utilizes workflows to streamline your business processes.  All your content can be moved over no problem as described previously in the Imaging-only section but what about all these workflows?  Sadly there is no way to directly move these from 10g to 11g.  11g workflows utilizes technologies like BPM and BPEL which are architecturally far-removed from the Process engine in 10g.

Not all is lost however.  While not being built on the same technology, there is a strong mapping between the older 10g workflow and 11g workflow (especially when using BPM).  The workflows won’t have to be redesigned just reimplemented.  Much of the work in creating workflow is capturing the business process in the first place, implementing the design is in many ways easier.  Plus, this is a great time to take a look at your workflows and see which ones you are still using and which ones could do with some updates.  IPM 11g offers much more advanced workflow functionality and this is also the perfect time to add modern workflow features into your own workflows.

I’ve talked a great deal at Nexus and with customers about the benefits of 11g workflow.  If you’d like to learn more leave a comment or email me and we can talk about some of the features that can really add alot of value to your workflow business process.

Migration to Another Platform

Lastly since the switch to 11g is more of a migration rather than an upgrade now is a time to consider implementing other systems.  Many of our current IPM 10g customers are looking at a product of ours called ILINX Content Store as a replacement option.  IPM 11g is really geared towards the enterprise and everything from server hardware to licensing is based on that assumption.  But if you are using IPM 10g at a departmental level, or just as an imaging repository 11g is in many ways overkill for your needs.

ILINX Content Store is focused on easy and effective content management  with strong Microsoft Windows integration.  It’s built on modern technologies and  encapsulates our years of experience in the ECM space to provide an intuitive, easy to use and administer solution.  It is a natural replacement for an imaging only IPM 10g system and most end-users find Content Store’s user experience easier and just as powerful.

If you’re using a lot of workflow though your options drift back towards the enterprise.  Many of our customers are making Sharepoint a core component of their workflow strategy.  We are also exploring IBM’s P8 family of products (which live in their FileNet umbrella).

Wrapping Up

These three scenarios are the ones that I see come up again and again.  But every environment is different.  Your needs and requirements are going to be different.  If you have further questions I encourage you to leave a comment or email me and we can have a great discussion about where you are today and where you want to be.

Les Harris
Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

Oracle BPM 11g Install for a Development Environment

Who is finally ready to get off their laurels and start looking at Oracle BPM 11g? I knew I was, the question I had was: where do I start? I figured the best place to start would be to actually install the software. A special thanks to one of our Systems Engineer, Les Harris who helped in getting me going on installing the software. I installed the entire Oracle BPM 11g stack on my laptop and documented the procedure. The following outline is not for a production install, but rather for getting a development environment up and running. A production install would be different and require different install packages as well as a few more steps. This install is strictly for setting up a development environment which is why I used the versions of the software listed below. Sorry I didn’t take screenshots, but I documented everything I did and using these steps I have been able to install multiple environments without issue.

The first thing I had to do was go and download all of the different install packages that comprise the Oracle BPM stack, those are:

• JRockit (JDK R28.1.4)
• Oracle Database (10G Express Edition – Universal)
• Oracle Repository Creation Utility (version 11.1.1.5.0)
• Oracle Web Logic Server (version 10.3.5)
• Oracle SOA Suite (version 11.1.1.5.0)
• Oracle JDeveloper Studio Edition (version 11.1.1.5)

Next I had to unzip all the packages that came zipped up. I recommend 7-zip or pretty much anything else that isn’t the built in Windows utility, that thing is just too slow for these large files.

Now it’s time to start installing.

1. Install JRockit. Since I’ll need to type the path a lot I installed it to C:\Java.
2. Install the database server. It’s a very typical install, I used all the defaults. Be sure to write down the sys account password.

a. After installed launch SQL plus and run the following commands to up the process count:

i.      Connect
ii.      Enter the credentials (username: sys as sydba, password: whatever you specified during your database install)
iii.      alter system reset sessions scope=spfile sid=’*';
iv.      alter system set processes=400 scope=spfile;
v.      shutdown immediate
vi.      startup
vii.      exit

3. Install the RCU utility. This creates all the necessary components in the database.

a. This must be done from the command line. Install as follows:

i.      Cd:\<path to RCU install>rcuhome\bin
ii.      Set RCU_JDBC_TRIM_BLOCKS=TRUE
iii.      Rcu.bat

b. Use all the defaults, pointing it to the database server that was just installed (hostname = localhost, port = 1521, servicename = xe,)

i.      You will see an error message about the database not being supported. Ignore it, this isn’t a production install.When prompted for which components to install select SOA at the top level in order to get all the other necessary requirements.

4. Install Web Logic Server. This is the underlying foundation upon which the application runs.

a. This must be done from the command line. Install as follows:

i.      Cd:\<path to weblogic install>\
ii.      C:\Java\Bin\Java.exe – jar wls1035_generic.jar

b. Select a custom install but choose all the defaults when prompted.

5. Install SOA. This is the meatiest part of the Fusion Middleware stack.

a. This must be done from the command line. Install as follows:

i.      Cd:\ path to RCU install>\Disk1\
ii.      Setup.exe –jreLoc c:\Java

b. Select all the defaults.

6. Create the SOA domain.

a. This must be done from the command line. Install as follows:

i.      Cd:\oracle\middleware\oracle_SOA1\common\bin
ii.      Config.cmd

b. When prompted select the ‘Create domain’ option

i.      Select the BPM Suite for Development and Enterprise Manager option
ii.      Select the Admin Server, Managed Servers, and Deployments options

7. Now it’s time to test the install out (this may take a while, be patient).

a. This must be done from the command line.

i.      Cd:\ oracle\middleware\user_projects\domains\base_domain\
ii.      Startweblogic.cmd

b. When the server is all done with its first start-up the command window should say something like: ‘SOA platform is now running and accepting requests’)
c. You can now close out the WebLogic server (CTRL+C)

8. Install JDeveloper

a. Use all the defaults
b. Once installed, launch JDeveloper Studio from the start menu (it will be under Oracle WebLogic)
c. Go to Help|Check for Updates

i.      Select Next on the Source
ii.      In the search box type in SOA and select the SOA update, then type in BPM and select the BPM update.
iii.      Select Next, then Finish. When it is done, close out of JDeveloper.

9. Now it is time to create your very first BPM 11g project.

a. Launch JDeveloper Studio.

i.      Select File|New
ii.      In the prompt select Applications in the left pane and BPM Application in the right pane.
iii.      Select OK
iv.      Now you’ll be prompted to give your application a name, name it whatever you want or leave it default and select Next.
v.      Now you’ll be prompted to give your Project a name, name it whatever you want or leave it default. Make sure BPM and SOA are selected form the list of available technologies. Select Next.
vi.      Select the Composite with BPMN Process option and select Finish.
vii.      You should now be prompted to create a BPMN process, just select Finish and you can start from there.

You should now be looking at an empty project with a Start and an End event. Here is where the fun begins…

John Linehan

Sr. Systems Engineer
ImageSource Inc.

Features in ILINX Capture (Part I)

The feature set in ILINX Capture is vast and it can be a drag reviewing and interpreting feature lists in software documentation.  Those of you not familiar with ILINX Capture can visit the following website www.ilinxcapture.com, or feel free to leave a comment and we can provide additional information and/or a hands-on demonstration.  In short, ILINX Capture is a web based capture platform that excels in distributed capture and custom capture workflow environments.  It is scalable to work on a single workstation or it can be extended to an enterprise wide global standard for capture in your organization.

I wanted to use this post to touch on a couple of the features that I see being used more and more in ILINX Capture.  These features became part of the product based on customer feedback, industry direction, and internal vision for the product.  All of the following features can be added to any point in your process flow map, so it provides not only the functionality but also the flexibility to adapt to the business needs of current processes in place today.

1. 2D Barcode Support   – This feature adds the ability to read metadata, classify and separate documents, and provide quality control checks through the recognition of 2D barcodes.  Through a GUI the user has the ability to parse the barcode data and map it to fields, separate and identify the type of document, and validate that the number of pages in the document match what was captured through the scanning or electronic import process. 
2. Web Service Integration  – This feature provides ILINX Capture with the ability to integrate with any existing web service.  Most commonly, we see this used to perform database lookups or validations against existing line of business systems.  Another way this is being utilized is to interact with different organization processes, for example, you can create a support ticket in an organization’s support system every time a process exception occurs in their fully automated capture workflow.
3. Queue Thresholds & Triggers – Work queues in ILINX Capture are areas where human interaction is required to process data or documents through the workflow.  The thresholds and triggers provide the ability to monitor the batches or documents in a queue and execute a function when a threshold or trigger is met.  This is useful to monitor escalations or the processing of high priority documents.  For example, if a fax comes in to the system for an auto loan or stock trade, in most cases, this is a time sensitive process that needs to move rapidly through the workflow.  Between the notification features and the thresholds/triggers, ILINX Capture can ensure that 1) a user is notified that there is high priority work to process, 2) the documents are processed within a defined time frame, and 3) if the documents are not processed the system can notify a manager or route the documents to another user group.

These are just a few of the features that have been added to extend the functionality of this product.  Stay tuned to this blog for additional information on other features that help shape this product to provide value to its customer community. 

Ryan Keller

ImageSource, Inc.

eForms 101 part 2

A short while ago I wrote a blog entitled eForms 101…and I’d like to continue on the theme. I mentioned some of the main advantages of eForms – that they save money, are green, fast, accurate, malleable – and thus they improve customer service.

One of the real values of eForm use is that it can be coupled with a workflow. When a paper form arrives there is lots of processing time. Routing the form electronically takes a fraction of the time it takes to physically route paper. And tracking the progress of a routed paper form is slow and can be frustrating. Think of the last time you had to call a long chain of people looking for a piece of paper any of them may or may not have — woof. Again, an eForm that has been routed electronically using a workflow is easy to check up on. No calls. Just view the progress map and you can see who’s got the ball. And parallel workflow routing offers a way to speed up routing exponentially over physical counterpart processes. If an item is stuck in a queue or inbox too long, it can trigger alerts or can be automatically routed for processing. If I am the customer who submitted information to a company, that’s how I want my info taken care of!

In terms of return on investment (ROI), labor costs are obviously reduced because it is now quicker to locate a form, get it approved, share it widely or launch it through a specialized review path, etc. But beyond this is the less tangible benefit of making employees more productive overall. And the fact that ALL the ‘i’s are dotted and the ‘t’s are crossed with alacrity and quality control contributes greatly to improved decision making.

Now some thoughts on how to get going quickly. If this is an initial foray into eForms and workflows, I suggest the paper process to be replaced is simple and well understood. Paper forms can be reproduced electronically verbatim, so filling the form will be instantly intuitive to the user. Focus on high volume forms to cost justify the endeavor. If your goal is to take a process to the extreme in automation, be sure to take a phased approach. Basic form and workflow capabilities must come first, and must work perfectly. A tool always worth mentioning to get eForms up and running fast is Texcel FormBridge. Using a per page licensing fee, this tool allows you to convert paper or TIFs, or flat PDFs into eForms for a variety of products. What’s the big deal? Well, scan in a paper form filled with fields and watch FormBridge work. It identifies automagically where the fields go, and what their titles are. The eForm looks like the input form, nicely formatted. All the text in the form is editable – including field titles. And the same is true with all those scattered myriad rows of checkboxes. They are all converted to eForm checkboxes with proper labels. From paper to LiquidOffice eForm in the blink of an eye.

After you get a chance to review the business benefits of eForms in your organization, time to ask :

• Where is your organization right now on the paperless scale?

• Is paper use on the rise?

• Are services that impact customer satisfaction stalled due to cumbersome paper processes?

• Has your existing eForm initiative lost any momentum?

ImageSource is staffed to help you, with industry veterans including: Systems Engineers, Support Engineers, Developers, Project Managers, Sales Staff, and Senior Managers.

Oracle Content Management – IPM 11g Links

Looking for some useful links to information about installing Oracle IPM 11g?  We have been performing successful Oracle IPM 11g implementations and will be providing useful information, as well as, tips and tricks on this blog.

Here are the main links that have been leveraging for some valuable information related to this next generation ECM Suite:

Oracle Content Management Description	URL
Overview	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/overview/index.html
Downloads	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/downloads/index.html
Documentation	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/documentation/index.html
UCM 11g Downloads	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/downloads/index-085241.html
IPM 11g Downloads	http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/content-management/downloads/index-ipm-088963.html

Ryan Keller

ImageSource, Inc.

Nexus 2010

I recently attended the Technology conference put on by my company. Nexus®, as it is dubbed, is where we try to bring in all the local and national minds in our ECM space together. On the vendor side we had both hardware and software manufacturers represented. On the standards side we had credits offered for PMI, ARMA, AHIMA, and IAPP just by attending. There was pre-conference training on  Oracle I/PM 11g, a risk management course, and an AIIM ECMp course. For the user community we had attendees from Fortune 50 companies  down to small government agencies and everything in between. Sounds great right? It was.

As with any conference, you have to make it to the break out session that relate to you, and make connections with people that you can relate to. The latter was easy of course, we are all living and breathing the ECM world. Even if your content is different, the pain points are nearly always the same. It’s great to connect with others and find out their resolutions to similar issues, their approach to common problems, and to hear their success stories. Besides giving a presentation on our product ILINX® Integrate (something I have blogged about in the past), I also attended sessions on advanced document capture, ILINX Content Store, Oracle I/PM, and sessions on project management.

The breakout sessions had real value for me. The sharing of knowledge is essentially what Nexus is all about and the break outs are core to that. In years past, I have attended Nexus but allowed myself to do project work or provide technical support for the conference itself during the breakout sessions. This year I made it a point to attend as many sessions as possible and only missed two. I am confident I took the right approach.

I attended Shon Mueller’s presentation on advanced capture solutions and it was great. He was dynamic and brought a wealth of experience in his years at Kofax, ImagesSource, and other ECM technology companies. Jon Sutherland’s presentation on ILINX Content Store was informative for me as well. As a system’s engineer that’s busy in the field I haven’t had as much time as would like to work with our latest product offering. ILINX Content Store is a real solution for content management and I am quite confident we will see and hear more about it. Les Harris’ session on upgrading to Oracle I/PM 11g was an eye opener. I have worked extensively with the I/PM product line for many years and the new product accomplishes the same functions as all previous versions, but with an entirely new architecture. For those planning on sticking with the product it is time to start planning your upgrade path now. I also attended a session on project management in which Dennis Brooke discussed how to use Web 2.0 technologies to streamline project management and enhance project morale. The session sparked lots of questions form the audience and I could see the wheels turning as people thought how they could use these ideas in their own corporate structure. I worked with Dennis for many years and it was great to hear about some of the lessons learned and successes.

I have linked to all the presentations, please feel free to review them and all the other’s on the Nexus site.  All in all Nexus 2010 was a success and I can’t wait to see what ImageSource puts together for next year.

  

LiquidOffice / TeleForm Tango

In the past I have blogged about exporting Autonomy Cardiff’s TeleForm forms into LiquidOffice using the File Exchange Format.  And then populating those LiquidOffice forms with OCR’d metadata from TeleForm data using LiquidOffice’s virtual submit feature. So in this dance, TeleForm is the lead.

And a lead dancer’s job is to make the other dancer look good, right?

Time for a swap  – let’s let LiquidOffice lead.

Here we’ll leverage the TeleForm LiquidOffice SOAP connect agent.  Price: FREE with TeleForm. Using this method offers a helpful twist: you can attach data and documents to an active LiquidOffice process if you wish.  That is not achievable with the virtual submission method.

Though described in the help files as a “complex subject”, there’s some scenarios that comply with the KISS approach (my favorite). Time to jump in but, warning, danger, disclaimer: this blog assumes you’ve spent some quality time with LiquidOffice and TeleForm.

That said, we’ll begin.  Let’s say a form needs a wet signature.  Here the user fills the LiquidOffice form and prints the form for  signature and then submits it.

Create a LiquidOffice process that has an initial form data entry event and then another form event called “Wait For Wet Sig”.  Then, after that, add an event for an approval queue or whatever you want.  Now time to slap together a quick LiquidOffice PDF test form.

In LiquidOffice Designer create a read-only field on the form that will be populated by a LiquidOffice Process TaskId.  On form load this field will be populated with the TaskID of the “Wait For Wet Sig” event in the workflow.  So this is the event where the process hangs out and waits for the signed copy of the form to be faxed in. You can use code such as this to fetch the TaskID.

FormTask fTask = thisProcess.getTaskByName(“Wait For Wet Sig”);
int _TaskID  = fTask.getId();

Add other relevant fields including a space for a wet signature.  We are making this a PDF form because we want TeleForm to be able to recognize this form no matter what whacky printer this form was printed on (why am I remembering that first dot matrix I had to save up for?). Now I’d add a print button, and then when the submit button is clicked I’ll use OnSubmit JavaScript form code to make sure the print button was clicked before I allow a submission to occur.  We don’t want people to get antsy and submit the form before getting that hardcopy!

Now donning a TeleForm Designer hardhat, let’s train TeleForm to recognize that new LiquidOffice PDF using existing form technology.  Another blog down the road I’ll write about creating traditional TeleForm forms within LiquidOffice because it is fun and offers big bennies.

Once TeleForm has the reference marks set to recognize the form, overlay a data entry field to read that TaskId.  Name this field, you guessed it: TaskID.  For extra credit you can create a signature field that will mandate a review step if it looks like someone forgot to sign the form:

Now it is time to set up the TeleForm LiquidOffice SOAP connect agent, where Cardiff does the heavy lifting for you.

Click on Form, AutoExport, and then select as your new connect agent “LiquidOffice SOAP”.  Click Save As (intuitive next step…NOT!) and authenticate.

Note your reference to the server is modified.  Now that you are in, select the LiquidOffice Form/Process tab. Select the PROCESS (not the form!) you created earlier and the GUID is filled in for you (nice). Now select the TeleForm field called TaskID.  And also check the ‘Initiate a new process If a Valid Process Cannot Be Found’ button. This will do just that – create a new process in case there’s a synch problem.

Two more steps to go… on the File Export tab make sure you click the ‘Export Files’ checkbox. This makes sure the faxed in signed form TIF image is attached to your LiquidOffice form.  Now click the Fields tab.  Make sure the TaskIF field is checked.  Checking other field names will map that TeleForm data to the LiquidOffice form. My hint is to use the same names in TeleForm and LiquidOffice.

Hey save your form! Did you forget to activate it? As they say ‘that dog don’t hunt’.  Activate and save again.

Now, assuming your fax input is configured, go to LO, open your workflow, fill your form and print it.  Sign the hardcopy and fax it into TeleForm (or scan it in).

TeleForm will recognize the form, read the TaskID, export the form as an attachment to LiquidOffice, and connect it to your form waiting in the “Wait For Wet Sig” event.

Cool.

The form automatically proceeds to the next even where it awaits your approval.

TeleForm and LiquidOffice: strike a pose.

Mobile Capture: Remote Capture taken to another level

I am on the road quite a bit as part of my job.  While on the road I acquire quite a number of physical paper receipts that I must care for until I submit an expense report to the accounting department.

Over the years I have misplaced a few of these receipts causing headaches for myself and accounting. Lost receipts won’t verify expenditure, so I have to call and get copies.  Nobody loves making or getting this kind of call!

Since I always have my iPhone, I have tried different versions of mobile capture applications.  Some are free; most others aren’t.

I’ve just downloaded a free one. This one was created by the same company that brought us the Award Winning ILINX® Capture ‘Distributed Capture software’ — ImageSource, Inc.-.

For those of you on the road frequently as a way of life, this new iPhone application has extended the functionality of ILINX® Capture to allow Mobile Capture. It is an excellent tool to add to your belt.

ILINX® Capture Mobile:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ilinx-capture-mobile/id370256882?mt=8

What sets this mobile capture application apart from other mobile capture apps?

1. Ease of use
   1. Take a photo (Or use a photo you already have on your iPhone)
   2. Add Index values (Optional)
   3. Enter the email address you want the mobile capture item to be sent to
   4. Hit send
   5. Have recipient check their inbox for your industry-standard PDF file.  (If you entered Index values the recipient will see them in the body of the email)
2. Other mobile capture applications require you to install an application onto your pc or laptop to sync up with your iPhone to download your captured items.
3. Now I don’t need to wait until I get to my laptop to offload the receipts from my iPhone

I can now scan receipts on the plane, at my lunch table, at the hotel desk… It’s a great feeling to have this wrapped up before my trip is complete.

The expense scenario above is just one way to use ILINX® Capture Mobile, just think of how many ways your current business process could benefit from the use of Mobile Capture technology.

Robert Gartner

Sr. Systems Engineer

Oracle IPM 11g Released!

For those of you who have not heard Oracle has released the next generation of their Enterprise Content Management Software, Imaging and Process Management (IPM) 11g.  This version is the first major step that Oracle has taken to tightly integrate the product into Oracle’s overall software architecture…IPM 11g has been completely overhauled to be part of the Fusion Middleware (FMW) tech stack.  From the ECM perspective, Oracle now has a complete seamlessly integrated end to end offering that includes the storage repository, document management, business process management, library services, web publishing, records management, reporting/monitoring and application integration.  This creates many advantages for customers that use or plan to use other Oracle products in their workplace, as well as, integrating and leveraging existing investments in non-Oracle software.

I have been working as a Systems Engineer and Project Manager with the IPM software base for over 8 years, through the Stellent IBPM acquisition, all the way back to the Optika Acorde and eMedia days.  A couple major differences in implementing the latest Oracle 11g version are the requirements for Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM) for the storage repository and Oracle WebLogic Server for the application/web server.  I look at both of these requirements in a positive light.  UCM and WebLogic Server are powerful robust products that provide standard approaches to managing content storage and applications, respectively, from the FMW perspective.  With that said, if you do not have experience with either UCM or WebLogic, you will need to get up to speed with them to succeed in an IPM implementation.  Neither of these products can be installed through the “Next, Next, Next, Finished!” approach, so careful upfront planning and architecting is required to ensure a successful implementation. 

Let’s talk about the new user interface a little bit.  Oracle has followed suit with the rest of the major players in the ECM world by creating a complete web based interface for performing all administrative and end user functions.  This makes administration duties of the system much easier than in past versions that require administration to be done through the “thick” client.  Also, by moving to the WebLogic Server the full featured web interface is now much more browser agnostic than in the past.  The image viewer comes in two flavors that support over 400 file formats; a zero footprint view only version and the a re-written java applet that allows for full annotations, annotation security, and server based conversion/rendering for access speed.  The following are a couple of screen captures of the user interface from IPM 11g:

The Client Interface

The Zero Footprint Viewer

The Java Applet Viewer

Lastly, I would like to touch on a feature that is often overlooked when implementing ECM solutions, application integration. Oracle has done a great job in IPM 11g to provide some powerful capabilities for leveraging investments into Oracle and non-Oracle applications through integration.  For a process where users are assigning metadata to a record in their business application, through application integration this data can be pushed to and associated with the document stored in IPM 11g. Another example of integration would be the image enablement of a business application.  In this case a user could be accessing records in their ERP system a hotkey, menu item, or button in the application screen can retrieve and display the document from IPM without the user ever having to leave their business application.  These capabilities can create significant efficiencies in an organization through increased user productivity, the reduction of training and the simplification of support and administration. 

All in all I see the changes that Oracle made in IPM 11g as great additions to an already strong platform.  Oracle has a product that not only adheres to their architecture model, but also will provide many benefits to the customers that use it.  Stay tuned to this blog for more information related to our experiences with Oracle IPM 11g.

Ryan Keller

Project Manager

ImageSource, Inc.