Workflow-Supported Organizational Memory Systems: An ... - CiteSeerX

Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2002

Workflow-Supported Organizational Memory Systems: An Industrial Application

Karl R. Lang1 and Marko Schmidt1,2 1

Department of Information and Systems Management, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, Email: [email protected], 2

KPMG Management Consulting, Munich, Germany

Abstract Workflow management technology has evolved from efficiency-oriented process automation tools to knowledge network building and support systems. This paper presents a workflow management application that collects information-rich business process documents, stores them in an organizational memory system, and informates staff and management in various situations. Combining SAP R/3 as the workflow machine and IXOSARCHIVE as the knowledge repository of the organizational memory system enabled us to explore powerful options in organizational knowledge distribution. We have been able to document and report organizational performance gains in terms of both process efficiency and knowledge effectiveness

1.

Introduction

In recent years, technology has advanced rapidly, enabling significant changes in the ways companies communicate. Modern communication methods, such as e-mail, Internet forms, and digital video streaming, speed up business processes and give the term “business document” a new and richer meaning. Companies rely increasingly on electronic business documents. As with paper documents, recording and managing business

processes requires securely archiving documents with immediate access for authorized users. In order to improve process automation, companies may use an integrated archiving solution that lets them manage documents in a more secure and structured manner. Combined with a workflow solution, a document management system enables companies to process information more efficiently. Moreover, this approach also provides a framework for effective knowledgemanagement. Workflow management technology has evolved from efficiency-oriented process automation tools to knowledge network building and support systems. Building IT-supported, collective organizational memory systems has been identified as one of the key challenges to achieve better organizational performance [1]. The role of computer networks as an enabling technology for effectively collecting and distributing organizational knowledge has been widely discussed [24]. Meanwhile, research in workflow management has shifted focus from organizational efficiency to organizational effectiveness. That is, aside from efficiency gains through process automation workflow management is increasingly seen as a backbone technology to support knowledge-centric activities in organizational environments [5]. Workflow-supported information flow and distribution applications within [6] and across [7] organizational boundaries have been analysed and discussed.

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This paper presents a workflow management application that collects information-rich business process documents, stores them in an organizational memory system, and informates staff and management in various situations. We have been able to document and report organizational performance improvements in terms of both process efficiency and knowledge effectiveness. Combining SAP R/3 as the workflow machine and IXOS-ARCHIVE as the knowledge repository of the organizational memory system enabled us to explore powerful options in organizational knowledge distribution1. The R/3 system with its comprehensive and modular infrastructure plays a strategic role in many companies. Most business applications of SAP R/3 relate to enterprise resource planning (ERP), but high availability, familiar interfaces, and powerful communication technology make R/3 also an ideal platform for managing business documents and business processes. The system contains a component called SAP Business Workflow that can represent electronic documents, define workflows and tasks, and execute and coordinate business processes. An integrated workflow-centric knowledge management solution using R/3, SAP Business Workflow, and IXOS-ARCHIVE has been implemented at a large German media company. This solution is ideally suited for archiving and managing business documents in an enterprise-wide setting. The implemented solution helps specifically to optimize the company’s invoice verification process, to reduce the amount of paper and shelf space needed, to speed up the manual archiving procedure, and to increase the efficiency in the accounting department. The overall gains in organizational efficiency are estimated to be approximately 50%. Additionally, the new system improves also organizational effectiveness through better information distribution and knowledge access. Whether e-mail, graphic images, host files, Web documents, or traditional printed documents, a business document system allows an enterprise to archive its entire collective memory electronically – permanently and in auditable form. It can integrate an archive with organizational processes, thus effectively creating an organizational memory system. A document archive manages large volumes of documents and enterprisewide data, giving global access to both employees and 1

See http://www.sap.com for detailed descriptions of SAP software products. The IXOS archiving system is described in more technical detail at http://ixos.de .

authorized external business partners. Users can quickly and easily search, retrieve, share, forward, and reuse all the data and documents. Many companies use ERP systems to integrate and optimize business processes. Documents are closely tied to business processes. Whether requests for bids, quotations, orders, delivery notices, or invoices – documents trigger or accompany business processes. As a result, fully integrating and optimizing business processes means letting authorized users view all the business documents related to a process on their desktops. For example a sales person should have easy access to all the invoices, orders, and correspondence that relate to her customers. To meet this need, IXOS Software and SAP jointly developed SAP ArchiveLink. This standard SAP R/3 component forms the interface between R/3 and integrated archive systems. Business Processes are very much emphasized in SAP application systems: Documents are uniquely linked with specific SAP objects, such as requests or quotations. In addition, documents can be assigned to multiple objects. To access a document in the R/3 system, users normally need specific knowledge about the relevant pieces in the R/3 application. It is difficult to keep an overview of logically related documents. This means that it is practically impossible for novice or casual R/3 users to perform even simple tasks like retrieving a specific document. This, unfortunately, prevents a large portion of employees from effectively using an enterprise-wide SAP knowledge base. Everyday business tasks, on the other hand, call for document-based access methods for information retrieval. Examples are an accounting clerk who needs to see all the invoices sent in the last 30 days, or a sales employee who needs an overview of all the offers sent to customers. In such cases, the employee should not really need to know about the underlying business processes and its representation in SAP, they merely need access to the information in the organizational memory system in way that is easy and useful for them. An electronic archive provides authorized users access to organizational memory. Experienced SAP R/3 users can continue to use the familiar SAPGUI (a graphical user interface for SAP R/3). Other employees can use groupware products such as Lotus Notes or office applications such as Microsoft Word to interface with the SAP R/3 application. An optical document archive can streamline business processes and improve productivity by enabling workflow solutions based on electronic documents: incoming information can be more quickly recorded and forwarded to the appropriate people within and outside the company. This lets employees make

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better decisions, because they have access to the relevant and correct information at the right time. And since they can find important documents more quickly, they can respond to customer inquiries more quickly and more accurately. Better informed employees, customers, and business partners who are in turn able to better coordinate with each other results ultimately in better organizational performance and increased organizational effectiveness.

2

Case Background

ProSieben, a publicly listed German media company with approximately 2,000 employees and one billion US dollar annual revenues in 2000 was the site of the system implementation of the present discussion. The company decided back in 1994 to implement a comprehensive ERP application with SAP R/3. In the subsequent years the company successfully implemented the SAP R/3 modules FI (Finance), MM (Materials Management), CO (Controlling), SD (Sales and Delivery), PM (Production Management) and HR (Human Resources). Based on the good experiences from the previous projects combined with a general willingness to use new technologies the project ‘Workflow-supported Organizational Memory through Optical Archiving and SAP Business Workflow’ was initiated. The primary goal was to create an organizational memory system that would be supplied with organizational knowledge, initially from a single key business process. Workflow technology would be employed to collect information, store it in the organizational memory system, and distribute information from the memory base to organizational agents when needed. If successful, the organizational memory system would be extended to integrate the information flows that had been implemented in the earlier ERP application. The invoice verification process, a large-scale process with an annual volume of some 80,000 newly incoming invoices, was chosen as the prototype business process to be linked to the organizational memory system. Automating the invoice verification process would also significantly shorten the time required for process execution. The conventional invoice verification processes was characterized by both long transportation and idle periods of the paper documents as well as resource and time consuming support needed for making and archiving invoice copies. To change that situation, the process of invoice verification process was completely redesigned and automated using the SAP Business Workflow module. All process documents are completely digitized in the new design. Incoming invoices, for

example, are now scanned centrally and then electronically send to the adequate bookkeeper using SAP Business Workflow. In the accounting department the bookkeeper can have a look at the scanned document via the Archive Viewer and decide how to route that invoice. Another workflow task module is triggered if an invoice and its corresponding purchase order don’t match properly. Now the bookkeeper identifies the responsible purchasing officer, and routes the verification task document, which includes links to the archive, to the responsible person immediately. The purchasing officer can then annotate the archived documents as necessary and make the decision to release (or withhold) the invoice so that the invoice can get paid. The notes and annotations made to the scanned invoice are logically assigned to that invoice and electronically signed by the purchasing officer. This method generates a transparent invoice process history.

3

System Implementation

All digitized documents have to be stored in organizational memory, that is, in the IXOS archive system, and they have to be accessible to all people with a relevant interest. To accomplish this goal, SAP offers various implementation options for archiving new, incoming original documents: • • •

Late Archiving: Archiving occurs after the SAP document has been entered. Concurrent Archiving: Archiving occurs while the SAP document is processed. Early Archiving: The incoming original document is first archived and, in a second step, assigned to a particular SAP document.

Early Archiving was the solution chosen for this case, which deals with more than 80,000 incoming invoices annually. With this method one can expect the best speed-up of the invoice verification process. New documents are scanned at once when they arrive at the central mailing room. A clerk then enters the digital document, classified by document type, into the electronic archive. A predesigned workflow, depending on the document type, is started for further processing. The diagram in figure 1 shows the general system environment necessary to implement Early Archiving and SAP Business Workflow as installed at ProSieben.

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Jukeboxes

Scan-Client Archive-Server

Interface ArchiveLink

Research-Clients(regular PC) SAPR/3 System

Figure 1: System environment for Early Archiving

3.1

Based on the notes on the invoice copy the bookkeeper processes the invoice or asks the creditor for a credit note. Finally the invoice together with the copies and annotations are stored in the archive. A number of obvious flaws regarding efficiency, transparency, and speed in the invoice verification process can be identified:

Process Analysis

A deep understanding of all the business processes involved is essential when implementing complex workflow solutions. Understanding and analyzing the invoice verification process with all its ramifications and idiosyncrasies, for example was a time consuming job requiring close corporation between system analysts and task managers. To give an overview, the traditional process can be described as follows. Most of the incoming invoices are received the company’s internal mailing room. A mail clerk opens, sorts, and counts all the invoices. Next, an accounting officer looks at the invoices and assigns and distributes them, according to some internal rules, to a responsible bookkeeper who is then responsible for processing the invoice. A bookkeeper can process 60 invoices daily on average. The bookkeeper enters the invoice data into the SAP R/3 system. If the invoice and the related purchase order match (in value and received items) a payment order is issued and the invoice gets paid, which ends the invoice verification workflow process. If the invoice doesn’t match with the related purchase order, or if there is no purchase order at all that is related to the invoice2, the bookkeeper annotates the invoice document and makes a hardcopy. In the absence of a purchase order, the bookkeeper has to find an authorized employee who is 2

able to verify the invoice (for example, for pizza ordered for a meeting two weeks earlier). Once the origin of the purchase is found, the hardcopy is send by internal mail to a clerical officer in the corresponding department. The clerk identifies the responsible cost center manager. Depending on the nature and value of the invoice there could more than one cost center manager for covering the purchase. Once the cost center manager is identified the secretary makes another copy of the invoice (actually a copy of the copy of the invoice) and forwards it. Now, the cost center manager verifies the invoice or asks for a credit note on his copy of the invoice. To be on the safe side, the secretary makes an additional copy (including the notes of the cost center manager) and finally sends all the documents back to the bookkeeper.

It is very common that there is no purchase order for low-value products like flowers, for example.

•

• • • •

3.2

The invoice verification is slow and resourceintensive. It involves several people and it takes on average four to five weeks on average to complete. The distribution and transportation by internal mail is slow and expensive. The invoice documents are not circulated in a predefined way There are multiple versions of the same invoice with different annotations in circulation. to find a stored invoice in the archive takes a lot of time (at least 2-3 hours). Process Redesign

A set of criteria was defined in order to facilitate the design of an effective automated workflow. The processes should be free of redundancy and structurally predefined. This requirement is necessary to translate and represent the physical, real-world process as SAP Business Workflow elements. Since SAP Business Workflow is based on event-controlled process chains it is essential that every step in the invoice verification process can either be expressed by an event or through a process. It is also essential that every decision that needs to be made during the execution of the process can be expressed by using the IF … THEN … control structure. For example,

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if the value of an invoice is higher than $1,000 then the department head has to verify the invoice. In addition to the technical requirements the new processes have to fulfill requirements set by accounting principles and German tax regulations. For example, •

all incoming invoices and credit notes have to be scanned at a central scan station,

•

the electronic image documents must be clearly and completely readable after the scanning,

•

after completing the scanning process, the documents have to be transmitted to the bookkeeper immediately,

•

there must be a definite link between the document and the related transaction in SAP R/3,

•

all notes and annotations made on the archived document must be related to a specific user (by digital signature, for example),

•

all archived documents have to be accessible and displayable for ten years.

Based on these requirements, the basic process structure for each working station involved in the invoice verification process can be designed as follows: Mailing Room: There are no major changes for the employees in the mailing room. They open all incoming invoices, presort and count them. After that, a clerk from the scan station comes and picks up all the invoices. Scan Station: The employees at the scan station sort the incoming invoices by creditor and scan them. The IXOS software requests a check after completing the scanning. The quality and quantity of the scanned invoices has to be checked by the staff to ensure every invoice is scanned and every scanned invoice is readable. Next, the scanned invoices are sent to the corresponding bookkeeper. Every bookkeeper is responsible for a certain range of creditors (For example, bookkeeper X may be responsible for creditors starting with M – O). This makes it easy for the staff at the scan station to assign the appropriate bookkeeper to the invoices. After sending the scanned invoices to the bookkeeper, the scan queue at the scan station is processed and the bookkeeper can instantaneously find the referred work items in his Integrated Inbox.

Bookkeeper: The bookkeeper now opens his integrated inbox in SAP R/3 and starts processing the workitem. When executing the workitem the R/3 system opens a window to enter the invoice data into R/3 and automatically starts the IXOS-Archive Viewer showing the scanned invoice. All bookkeepers have very large computer screens (at least 21 inches) to work comfortably with both windows simultaneously. Now the bookkeeper enters the invoice data into the SAP R/3 system. If the invoice and the related purchase order match then the invoice gets automatically paid and the invoice verification process is completed. If, on the other hand, the invoice doesn’t match with the purchase order, or if the purchase is missing, the R/3 system creates a new workflow that is designed to handle these cases. The workflow system then determines through role decomposition the possible employees in charge of the further processing based on the organization model included in SAP R/3 or based on certain run-time parameters (for example, customer number or invoice number). The corresponding workitem, including the link to the archived document is sent to the Integrated Inbox of the SAP Service Point (SSP). A new position is created in each department for this purpose. Usually, a departmental secretary takes this position and is often referred to as the SSP in this function. To correct possible clerical errors in the assignment of the original document, the bookkeeper has the option to make the corrections if necessary. When the invoice is processed the bookkeeper generates a corresponding SAP document and establishes the link to the original document in the archive. As a result, the archived original document is available for all subsequent working steps of the entire process chain with a single click. SAP Service Point (SSP): The SSP finds all the invoices to be verified in his Integrated Inbox. By executing the work item the Archive Viewer starts and shows the scanned invoice. Additionally, she is asked for a user decision to send the document to the responsible manager either by SAP Business Workflow or by traditional e-mail. If the manger is a SAP users he will get the invoice via workflow, but most likely the manager is not a SAP user. In that case, IXOS Archive allows the SSP to send archive links via traditional e-mail. Once the manager has made his decision the SSP sends the work item back the bookkeeper or asks the creditor for a credit note.

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Figure 3: Process view at the invoice verification process Cost Center Manager: The cost center manager, who is authorized to verify the invoice, finds a link to the scanned document either in his SAP Integrated Inbox or in his e-mail inbox. By double-clicking on the link the viewer starts and the manager can se the invoice. Now she can make her decision and make the appropriate notes and annotations on the document. Finally he sends the document back to the SSP. Figure 2 illustrates the newly defined invoice verification process. R/3

R/3 Workflow

IXOS

R/3 App Srv

DMS Srv.

R/3 DB

IXOS Scan Client Scan Station

Post Office

R/3 GUI

R/3 GUI

Difference

via e-mail

yes

Bookkeeper

SSP

yes

Invoice OK

Cost Center Manager no

Asking for a credit note

Figure 2: Redesigned invoice verification process 3.3

Workflow Definition

Process abstraction constitutes the basis for the definition of a workflow within the SAP R/3 system. In a first step one has to identify which parties and user groups are involved in the entire invoice verification process. Looking at figure 3 from a process point of view reveals the following scheme.

Integrated Inbox Bookkeeper

Intergrated Inbox SA P Service Point

E-m ailInbox M anager

Incom ing Invoices

Invoice Scanning

Invoice Entry

Invoice Coordination

Invoice Verfication

After designing the system view one has to define the processes and the events necessary to trigger these processes. At this point it becomes clearer how important a deep understanding of every step and decision made in the process is. Defining an appropriate event view of the invoice verification process is an essential success factor of the entire workflow development. Such an event view has to be created for every possible scenario. After creating all the views one can start to implement the views as a SAP Business Workflow definition. A Workflow Definition has to be created for each process that needs be automated with R/3 and SAP Business Workflow. The workflow definition module in SAP uses the same method of eventcontrolled process chains that is implemented in the SAP reference models. The process models are an important component of the SAP reference model. They present a clear overview of the relationships between the various business functions, the events triggering and linking them, the related information objects, and the acting organizational units. The SAP reference process models are therefore used as the starting point for Workflow definitions and serve •

to show which functionality is already contained in the R/3 software,

•

to see how the functions in the business processes are related, by which events they are controlled, which events they produce, and

•

to identify where it is practical, useful, or necessary to make extensions.

Besides the functions and events required in a business environment, a SAP workflow definition comprises other steps and control elements such as: •

sending and editing messages,

•

creating text documents and notes,

•

setting and monitoring deadlines,

•

escalation of overdue activities,

•

responding to processing exceptions.

A workflow can activate predefined process models. It controls the activity flow, distributes and monitors work steps, interprets rules, supplies applications with parameters and data, and evaluates the results. The

SA P R/3

IX O S A rchive

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relationship between the SAP reference model and the workflow definitions is determined by essential common aspects and by some important differences. The reference model provides a map of the R/3 functionality at the conceptual level. It accompanies the R/3 System and can be accessed via the SAP Business Navigator. The workflow definition describes a company specific business process at the operational level. Unlike the reference model process views, the workflow definition can be executed. It is recommended to create an overall workflow definition first. Later on, one can create more detailed instances. Based on the invoice verification process definition given above, the workflow definition, shown in figure 4, can be developed in the SAP Graphical Workflow Editor.

Workflow gestartet

XOR

Create long Image key

Complete document

Long Image Key created

document completed

Select org. unit of cost center

Release/Reject parked document

XOR

Org. unit selected Release

ArchiveLink: Assign document type

Reject

END

Loop until it's released

Preliminary posting

XOR

Determine Fipp key Document rejected

Fipp created

Document released

Posting released doument

posted

Workflow beendet

Workflow beenden

Figure 4: Overall Workflow Definition for Invoice Verification 3.4

System Deployment

Once all processes are identified and described as SAP Business Workflow definitions, the workflow solution can be implemented. A full implementation in a SAP R/3 environment usually has three steps and each step is executed on a different SAP R/3 system3. (1) The first step consists of development and testing. In this stage the workflow definition is created as described above. During the development it is very important to involve the end users. Because of different backgrounds the end users (for example, the. bookkeeper or the SSP) often have quite different expectations on a workflow solution than the SAP developers. Moreover, the end user can experience how the solution growths and how her recommendations are taken into consideration. This increases the acceptance and the willingness to work with the newsolution (2) The second step is an integration step. The entire workflow solution has to be migrated to an integration system. This system ideally is a mirror copy of the production system. It is recommended not to change the workflow definition on that system. The integration step is mainly for training and testing purposes. When training all the users in the invoice verification process it is important to enable all participants to understand both the entire process and their own tasks within this process as well as the value created by doing their own tasks. Again, early involvement of the end users can increase employee motivation and satisfaction. (3) The third step is to run the system in production mode. Before doing this, one has to ensure that everybody is well trained and all required hardware and software is installed on the employees’ desktops. In business practice, there is usually only one attempt at going into production mode with complex systems. If that fails, there is a good chance that the project is abandoned. After releasing the new invoice verification process application most of the users at first had to work harder than before. Many things were new and therefore took longer than expected. But after about eight weeks of 3

A standard SAP R/3 implementation cycle consists of module tests,

system integration , and the final system that goes into production.

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running the new system work loads reached steady-state and the users had completely adapted to the new process and could start to enjoy the benefits. Implementation and deployment of the workflow system took four months. During that time at least three experienced consultants worked full-time for that project and a number of in-house staff were involved in supplementary tasks. One system administrator and one external developer supported the project. After deploying the system and launching the new application service, three more months of continuous fine-tuning and improvements were necessary. Overall about 250 consulting days were billed for the entire project.

4

Organizational Performance and Conclusions

After running the system for several months in steady state, the company achieved significant organizational performance improvements. Evaluating tangible performance measures [8] resulted in the following efficiency gains: •

Cycle time reduction of the invoice verification process by one week (20-25%)

•

Efficiency in the accounting department increased by 50% (now one bookkeeper can process 90 invoices a day instead of 60)

•

Reduction of amount of paper and shelf space needed (no more office folders have to be archived)

•

Reduction of manual archiving activities (more than 90% of all invoice documents are stored automatically in the archive system)

To illustrate the improvements one can make the following calculation: ProSieben receives 80,000 invoices a year on average. Each invoice has approximately 4 pages and there are at least 2 copies of each invoice. This makes a paper volume of 960,000 pages a year. This amounts to about 5,000 folders a year, assuming one can store 200 pages in one traditional office folder. Since the invoices by law need to be kept for at least ten years, the archive comprises of at least 50,000 invoice folders. It typically took 2-3 hours to find a particular invoice in the traditional paper archive manually. Using the newly introduced workflow management system no more office folders are needed and any particular invoice document can now be retrieved within seconds.

Besides increased organizational efficiency, the project also resulted in a more effective use of business intelligence and organizational information. This applies to activities that revolve around the invoice verification process, but also extends to other tasks that benefit from the organizational memory system. • All people involved in the invoice verification process have access to the same document (no secondary archiving) • Non-technical and casual R/3 users can participate in the workflow process by email and access the organizational memory via simple request forms. • High quality of archived documents (no more copies or copies of copies) • Consistent and safe storage of archived documents (including backups) • Independent of the invoice verification business process, staff can access the organizational memory system and retrieve organization knowledge for reuse in a different context. Naturally, the gains in organizational effectiveness would increase if business processes other than invoice verification were automated and linked to the organizational memory as well. The company plans to consider to automate and integrate other business processes in the near future if the positive early experience holds up. Based on the experience made during the project the following key success factors for implementing the workflow-supported organizational memory system can be identified: •

Detailed identification and deep understanding of all sub-processes involved

•

Involvement of all people participating in the process already in the test and development stage

•

Suitable visualization and improvement of processes

•

Comprehensive education and extensive support before and during the productive stage

•

Combination of DBMS and SAP to ensures a complete system integration

•

Technical infrastructure (SAP and Intranet) to cover non-R/3 users

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References [1] E.W. Stein and V. Zwass, “Actualizing Organizational Memory with Information Systems”, Information Systems Research, Vol.6(2), 1995, pp. 85-117. [2] J.E. Scott, “Organizational Knowledge and the Intranet”, Decision Support Systems, Vol.23(1), 1998, pp. 3-17. [3] M.B Watson Smith, S. Narasimhan, and H.S Rhee, “Communication and Coordination in the Virtual Office”, Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol.14(4), 1998, pp. 7-28. [4] C.W. Holsapple and K.D. Joshi, “Organizational Knowledge Resources”, Decision Support Systems, Vol.31(1), 2001, pp. 39-54. [5] E.A Stohr and J.L Zhao , “The Expanding Mission of Workflow Technology”, Document World, Vol.3(5), 1998, pp. 21-26. [6] J.L Zhao, A. Kumar and E.A. Stohr, “Workflow-Centric Information Distribution Through E-Mail”, Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol.17(3), 2001. [7] W. van der Aalst, “Loosely Coupled Interorganizational Workflows: Modeling and Analyzing Workflows Crossing Organizational Boundaries”, Information & Management, Vol.37, 2000, pp. 67-75.

[8] M. Oba, “Evaluating the Quantitative Effects of Workflow Systems Based on Real Cases”, in Proceedings of the 33rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2000.

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