Processes

An RPA process is separated into several small steps. This improves the processing speed of the entire process. A process within the Spider includes multiple functions and conditions.

Requirements

• A process needs at least 1 process step to process a request.
• A Tool is optional.

Process - overview

In the process overview Processes > overview you can see the requests that are queued for each process and which ones still need to be processed or are currently being processed.

Process - status

Navigate to Menu > Processes > Overview for an overview of the processes and the number of requests scheduled for today.

Process - in Development

From version 1.12.0, it is possible to set a process to an 'inDevelopment' status. This process status is visible. See Create Process below. Proces create.

Once this status is activated, it is reflected on the various Process pages as an orange process name.

Example 1: Process status

Example 2: Process maintain

Example 3: Process overview

Example 4: Auditlog

In the audit log, it is possible to trace who set the process to this status.

Process - create

We'll take you through the process creation process and discuss the components that pass this way. Login to Spider and in the menu go to Menu > Processes > Maintain and click on Add New.

Next, the screen opens where the following information must be entered.

Subject:

• Give a clear name for the process.

Description:

• Give a clear description for the process.

Active:

• If the process is set to Active then this process may be picked up by robots.
• If the process is set to Inactive then this process may not be processed.

In Maintenance:

• A process can be set to Active but still be in maintenance. Especially for temporary maintenance the process can be set In Maintenance. This status can also be activated by a robot through the IWM API. If something goes wrong in the process it can be set In Maintenance.

In Development:

Starting from version 1.12.0, this option has been added. It is only a visual status and is not visible in the Nidaros BSD.

• For operators, it can be important to see whether a process is being handled by developers, in case of an issue or a slow start. This status is purely visual. The worker API will still recognize this process as an active process.

• The advantage of this status is that developers and administrators can collaborate more effectively. An administrator knows that the process is not under active monitoring, but also not in maintenance. The responsibility lies with the department handling the process.

• Once the process is ready to be set active again, the developer will change the status back to Active (or a previous status).

• A process can be set to InDevelopment when it is being handled by developers or when a slow start is occurring. It indicates that the process is active, but not fully operational.

Can be Scraped:

• Scraping is used to ensure that requests within a process do not get stuck. For example, a process step takes 5 minutes to complete its piece of the process. If this longer than this, the process may hang. This is an undesirable situation. The scraping function allows the request to return to the Todo, RFN or Running state (if a process step has been completed successfully).
• Scraping is turned on or off on the process. In the underlying process steps the time has to be set (maximum time, before the scraping process is started). - The scraping process runs via a cronjob every 30 minutes. This setting can be adjusted in the Web.conf on the IIS server and IWM site.
• Scraping is turned off if it is not known how long the process will take or how long an underlying process step can take to process its task. Then it is not desirable that the request is scrapped. A manual check should then be done.

XSD (Optional):

• If a process request needs validation, then the XSD can be placed here if the body in a request consists of an XML.

Tool:

• Een proces kan door meerdere workstations verwerkt worden. Een workstation is gekoppeld aan een Tool. Een proces wordt gekoppeld door een Tool. Elk workstation dat aan de Tool gekoppeld zit en het proces mag verwerken, kan de onderliggende requests verwerken.

SLA:

• Before the process can be saved an SLA needs to be filled in. Click on the button SLA to fill it in.

SLA

The SLA defines the following components:

• Process information to calculate ROI and capture guarantees within a process.
• Who gets the MtInfo.
• Per user can be set which alerts are sent.

Each process should have at least one contact person to manage a process. As soon as a person is added to the SLA he or she has access to the process within Spider. (As an example, being allowed to view requests). The other options are optional and depend on the role of the person or the processing of requests within the process.

SLA & Mtinfo

Here you can switch between the SLA and MtInfo settings. Also here is the process name (Hours Processing) according to our image.

Contact persons

• Users may see the process in Spider depending on their user role.
• Users will be notified if any problems arise within the process.

In our example, we added an Operator.

Basic data:

• Role: The job title of the contact person.
• Email Address: The email address of the contact person. This field must always be filled.
• Phone Number: The phone number of the contact person. This is not a required field.

Additional Options:

• Send Fail Mail: When a request is not properly processed this person will receive an email and the request will also be set to status "RFN".
• Signal: As soon as the robot activates a signal within a process an email will be sent to the persons that have enabled "Signal" in the SLA of the process.
• Alarm: When the robot activates the same signal several times an alarm will be generated and an email will be sent to the persons who have "Alarm" enabled in the SLA of the process.
• Alarm SMS: This is the same as Alarm, only then an SMS will be sent. A phone number is required.
• Needs Ok: Some processes need a confirmation when processing a request. Deze optie zal de personen een mail met link sturen naar de Spider omgeving om requests goed of af te keuren.

Business Rules

This contains information which is used to calculate the ROI of a process used in the MtInfo and to determine which rquest has priority in processing.

Explanation: Based on the settings below, ROI is calculated.

• Maximum lead time: Within how much time should requests within this process be processed.
• Hourly Rate: What is the hourly rate of the FTE who normally processes this process manually.
• Manual lead time for one single request: What is the current processing time for a request when an employee would execute this manually.
• Expected load per day: The expected number of requests per day.
• Success rate: The expected percentage of successful requests (that are processed according to the business rules).

Mt Info

The Mt Info has some basic settings that apply to every user, followed by settings for each user.

Report Schedule

• Daily:
• This activates the daily sending of Mt Info to contacts who have Daily turned on.
• Weekly:
• This activates the weekly sending of Mt Info to the contacts who have Weekly turned on.
• Interval: Every weekday Mt Info will be sent.
• Monthly:
• This activates the monthly sending of v to the contacts who have Monhtly turned on.
• Interval: Every date the Mt Info will be sent.

Mt Info user

Vervolgens stellen we per contactpersoon in wanneer deze de Mt Info wenst te ontvangen.

The first box Mt Information is not used. It is only relevant if updating from an older spider version < 1.6.5 to the current version. So in our case, the contact will receive daily, weekly and monthly Mt Info.

For detailed information you can read more on the Mt Info page. To save the data, click on the Save button at the Tab Management Information or at the Tab `Service Level Agreement to save the SLA settings. You will then return to the Process page.

Tip

Om een request te kunnen verwerken dient een proces minimaal één proces stap te hebben. If no process steps have been created yet, click Save and follow the steps in Process Steps

Once these are/are added continue below.

Process Build

Click on Build to add one or more process steps.

Here you can see all the process steps that have been created within Spider. A process step can be used within multiple processes. Drag the required process steps from the right tab to the left tab. Pay attention to the order. The process will process the process steps in order.

Drag the required process steps to the left.

Tip

Make sure that the order of the Process Steps is correct. This is also the order in which the process proceeds namely.

Waitinghours

Deze zijn belangrijk voor het verwerken van een request. Mag een volgende processtap gelijk gestart worden of dient er een wachttijd tussen de stappen te zitten. The Waiting times are specified in hours. If no waiting time is required, then the default value 0 can be used.

Example: Process step has been processed and process step may not be started until 5. Then enter 5 for the 2nd process step.

Click Save to save the settings.

Process Save

Once all settings are added click on Save.

If the process is not visible after saving, click on the refresh button.

Process Export

Starting from version 1.11.0, we have optimized the process export. As a result, retrieving process information has become much faster. The Excel file is also enhanced with headers above the columns to better distinguish between Reports, Signals, and variables.

Note

To create an export, a user needs either the IWM_HISTORY role or the additional rights IWM_PROCESS_EXPORTRESULT_GET assigned.

Start Process Export

Click on the export icon, select a date range, and create an export.

The export is initiated. Once it is successful, you will see this notification.

Cancel export

It is possible to cancel the export. Click the x in the pop-up at the top right of the screen.

If you leave the page, the export task is automatically canceled. This ensures that no tasks remain running in the background.

If you click the Export button multiple times, the previous export task is canceled and replaced with the new one. This prevents the server from being overloaded with export tasks.

Once the export is complete, you will receive a notification in the same screen asking if you want to save the export.

Details export

In the Excel (xlsx) export, all details of the requests can be found. An example of columns included in the export:

• Process information (ID, name, description).
• The body and variables of the requests.
• Last changes to a request.
• Which reports and signals were activated.
• Variables added by the robot.
• Whether the requests were executed within the SLA.

An example might look like this:

Excel filter

In some versions of Excel, it may happen that the Excel filter cannot be selected. This can be resolved by clicking below the column you want to sort and then activating the filter.

• [1] Click on the first cell below the column header.
• [2] The filter will now become visible.

The filter will automatically be applied to the column above.