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Author's profile photo Peter Engel

SAP Process Automation – New Product Enhancements

Since the launch of SAP Process Automation on February 14th, 2022 there are a lot of new smaller and larger enhancements for our new solution.

In this blog post I will highlight some of these new features.

Enhanced Conditions in Process Builder

You can add and configure conditions to a business process, enabling you to route a running process based on applying IF or DEFAULT rules to the process context.

Context

In the following example, this process condition checks if the value of a submitted request is over 1000. If yes, then the request is sent for approval. If no, then the request is considered as a default request, automatically approved, and a confirmation mail is sent.

For this example, the process condition is configured like this:

.

You can also create more detailed conditions by using the ALL or ANY feature.

In the following example, the process must include ANY of the following three values for the process to be sent for approval:

  • Value of the request is greater than 1000
  • Office location is Potsdam
  • The item requested isn’t a laptop

You can also apply both the ALL and ANY rules to groups of rules, such as in the following example:

In this example, the process must include any of first group conditions AND all of the second group of conditions for the request to be approved.

 

Add Mail Notifications to a Process

You can add mail notifications to your business process via the process builder, allowing you to send preconfigured emails to recipients while a process is running.

Prerequisites

Before adding mail notifications to a process, you must first configure your SMTP mail destinations for SAP Process Automation.

This configuration includes assigning the ‘From’ address for sent mail, for example: user@example.com. This field muslowing it to receive replies.

Configure SMTP Mail Destination

Context

As an example, there are three mail notifications in this simple request process:

  • Confirmation that the request was received
  • Confirmation that the request was approved
  • Confirmation that the request was rejected

How to use it

Either click + or right-click on the process builder canvas and select Mail.

The mail notification is added to the process and the settings are displayed in the side panel:

Configure the Mail Header fields.

Field Description
To The recipient of the mail notifications. Either add specific mail addresses or use information taken from process metadata or context.
Subject The subject of the mail itself. Either add specific text here or use information taken from process metadata or contex.
CC The copied recipient of the mail notifications. Either add specific mail addresses or use information taken from process metadata or contex.
BCC The blind copied recipient of the mail notifications. Either add specific mail addresses or use information taken from process metadata or contex.

Click Open Mail Body Editor and configure the mail body. The mail body can include the following:

  • Text
  • Process context information (such as the Form fields in the example)
  • Process metadata (such as the ‘Process Started By’ information)

Click Apply.

Review and fix any missing mandatory fields.

The mail notification is added to the process, with mails sent to recipients when a process is running.

Import and export of decision content using MS Excel

In many case the input for decisions is available or managed via Excel sheets. You have now the possibility to import this Excel sheets into the decision table:

  • Export decision tables modeled as part of a decision artefact as a MS Excel spreadsheet with details such as name, project name and column names for input and results together with the corresponding cell values
  • Author the decision logic using MS Excel
  • Leverage the modeled rule expressions maintained in a MS Excel spreadsheet by importing them into an exisiting decision table

File upload in forms

You have now the availability to add a file input field in the form or approval builder. The citizen developers can also restrict the number of files to be uploaded for each file input field.

The approver is able to download the file in the runtime during working on the approver tasks in the inbox.

Prerequisite for the use of this functionality is a connection to a document repository e.g. SAP Document Management. Only with this connection established the input field will be visible. For more details check the description here.

Process Visibility

Redesigned process visibility instances view

  • Enablement of a split view for instance details
  • Redesign of the header section of instance details
  • Enablement of navigation for phases
  • Enablement of dynamic values for instance labels
  • Setup of custom sub-status for on-track and completed instances

A detailed explanation can be found here.

Updated step-level insights for process visibility

  • Update process path with step-level data insights for step status, cycle time, processor, and event history
  • Expand notion of steps toward observed processes

A detailed explanation can be found here.

 

Enhancements for Automations

A detailed overview about all new features for automations can be found here.

 

Conclusion

We just started our journey with SAP Process Automation and you can see how the product is evolving. With a fully packed roadmap you can expect a lot of new features in the next month and beyond.

You are curious now but do not how to start? Try it out now using our Free Tier offering.

You are interested in the bigger picture of LCNC?

To see LCNC in action, check out the SAP Low-Code/No-Code Learning Journey – designed to increase low-code/no-code skills and teach citizen developers the basic concepts of software development including SAP AppGyver, SAP Process Automation, and SAP Work Zone and learn how to build mobile apps for free. Check out LCNC and plus much more free learning for developers at SAP Learning site.

 

For more information on SAP Process Automation, please refer to the following sources:

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      2 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Keerthana Jayathran
      Keerthana Jayathran

      Hi Peter Engel ,

      Is it possible to use file upload option if we have an S3 bucket subscription.

      Regards,
      Keerthana

      Author's profile photo Peter Engel
      Peter Engel
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Keerthana,

      for the document integration we use SAP Document Management, integration option. The integration with 3rd-party storage requires that this storage has an API which is CMIS confirm. If S3 provides this format it is possible to use S3.

      Br,

      Peter