Webiplex DocuPeak - Technical Overview
Webiplex DocuPeak makes it easy to rapidly assemble the necessary metadata definitions, views
and system structure. Using the DocuPeak Application Studio and DocuPeak Process
Tree technology, the IT professional is empowered to deliver ROI without
resorting to writing code.
Point and Click Smart Process Application Creation
The DocuPeak Application Studio is an innovative cloud environment for creating robust business - process applications – the kind that can provide significant competitive advantage – without the need for custom programming. It is the "toolbox" that defines the building blocks (called Application Entities) from which a DocuPeak application can be built. As an IT manager, you can easily learn how to use the Application Studio to create your own applications, or you can have our professional services staff create an application specially suited for your business.
The DocuPeak Application Studio contains Application Entities for defining:
- Document meta data definitions (Forms), Folders, and Repository structure.
- User interface elements such as Command Lists, Column Lists and Document Views.
- Role, Role Group, and data based security.
- Automated capture (e.g. e-mail or SFTP), auditing, and other capture methodologies.
- Content Readers that intelligently extract document content via OCR (for scanned documents) or native data parsing for EDI or PDF files.
- Document to document relationships and define external "reference folders".
- Process Trees, Formscapes, and numerous other and business process components.
Visual Process Design with DocuPeak Process Trees
Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is a standard that defines the components of a
business process in a standard way. It defines the subsets of components and also a diagramming
standard. Most systems that employ BPMN concepts use an external graphical editor to create a
diagram, and then dump that out to a descriptive file where the engineering or IT team then
implements the diagram. The diagrams can be very large and quickly become unweildy in
any serious process scenario, and their use is limitted to the initial design, not ongoing
maintenance.
DocuPeak fixes the BPMN problem in two ways; First, the DocuPeak Process Tree
is in fact a tree display. All major BPMN diagramming tools have an "outline mode" wherein
the diagram can be reduced to an understandable, workable model. The DocuPeak Process Tree starts
with just this tree model so time is not wasted aligning boxes, drawing lines, and changing colors.
Secondly, the DocuPeak Process Tree is the process - it is not simply an isolated diagram
that describes the process. If a change is made to a Rule, the change is implemented the moment
the Process Tree is updated. The DocuPeak Process Tree is thus entirely "round trip" in that from
design to implementation and back, it is all a single thing.
Development of the DocuPeak Process Tree technology has benefitted from the insights of numerous BPMN experts, most of whom have been building process models for many years and in a variety of environments. The Process Tree represents a standard, pragmatic approach to defining business processes – all specified and delivered via the cloud. Anything else is legacy.
Process Discovery with DocuPeak Easy Trees
One of the most difficult aspects of implementing any smart process application is making sure
the requirements of the business users gathered and expressed correctly at the beginning
of the implementation project. Webiplex professional services, as part of our standard
"Webiplex Way" implementation methodology, leverages DocuPeak's Easy Tree technology to
solve this problem. DocuPeak Easy Trees are simple to use, and thus can be used by
anyone during a process discovery meeting.
Easy Trees are fundamentally built upon the same structure as DocuPeak Process Trees
which allows one to be directly translatable to the other. Easy Trees can be used to gather
application requirements, roles, and create user buy-in and afterwards,
inherently define the actual Process Tree which will be created in the smart process
application implementation.
In addition, Easy Trees allow for the creation of familiar "swim lane" diagrams
which can be used to describe business processes for compliance purposes. Once a process
is defined as an Easy Tree, nodes within the diagram can be related to compliance "IDs"
which can then be related to risk (or threat) and control records also stored within DocuPeak.
DocuPeak can then act as the repository for the related compliance documents including test
result data and documents.
Distributed Client Tools
While DocuPeak provides an exceptional server platform, it also offers installable client-side tools.
For example, DocuPeak features the innovative DocuPeak Scan Bench (at right), which lets users scan, index and submit documents to a DocuPeak repository without having to wait for uploads to complete. Remote, production-level scanning is now possible with DocuPeak.
In addition, the DocuPeak Smart Client can perform hot folder automatic captures, bulk imports (e.g. to integrate with Kofax release scripts), and integration with local file systems and devices to connect printers to the cloud. The DocuPeak Smart Client bridges the gap between your local network and the cloud.
DocuPeak Forms
The "Form" Application Entity – a core element of every DocuPeak application – represents
not only a visual representation of a field to be entered by a DocuPeak user, but
also a true database record. DocuPeak is similar to a relational database, in
which forms are tables and can contain child tables – and thus
heirarchical structured information as well as sophisticated indexing records
for document management systems.
DocuPeak Formscapes, an innovative form-design layer built on top of DocuPeak Forms, allow
the application designer to create customized, real-world forms. Formscapes are based on
standard HTML and thus work on all browsers across all platforms. Whether you use the
default Form look or create custom Formscapes, the fundamental
entity remains the DocuPeak Form.
The DocuPeak Form combines the metadata concepts of document management with electronic
forms, while also including the workflow. DocuPeak Form "fields" are sophisticated entities
that move beyond simple text and numeric fields into workflow-specific fields. When
the workflow of a document or form is controlled by
special fields (as opposed to a separate "workflow" that controls a document), great flexibility
is gained in reporting and dashboards. DocuPeak combines relational database concepts
with content management to create an intuitive and highly flexible business process
application development environment.
Wizards
DocuPeak makes it easy to get started with the basics of any application by having Wizards do most of the legwork for the application designer. The Document View Wizard, available in the Application Studio, takes a Form definition and creates the menus, toolbars, and views that allow the application to be used immediately.
The primary types of applications that can be created on the basis of a DocuPeak
Form are listed in the Wizard. Traditional document management, with its heavy focus on
scanning and capture, is the first listed. Second is a collaborative
application, comparable to a simple Web folder system (such as the "box" Web
services or Microsoft Sharepoint). These entire services are available as a
single application type within DocuPeak.
The last two application types are related to Forms as pure data entities or database records. The "pure forms" application type is used to build a data-driven application where the form data is the focus. The final application type is a simpler model in which the form defines a lookup table for another form.
DocuPeak Integration
DocuPeak was architected to be integrated, providing
a Web service API for client side integration, as well as integration
entities built in to the DocuPeak Application Studio itself. Entities
such as Remote File Servers,
Reference Folders, and batch Content Readers
provide configurable integration to most external systems. Data sets can easily
be replicated from local systems to the cloud to provide a seamless local-to-cloud
continuity.
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