Online status and term forms

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M.J.
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    We have looked into using MSS for personnel actions but found them lacking quite a bit in what we want them to do and due to being hosted and not having the expertise in our enterprise to customize do not anticipate being able to use them.  

    Our I.T. department had created us a wonderful custom browser based application for manager to submit terms.  It pulls the info from Lawson, authenticates the users is the supervisor from the Lawson supervisor table, lets the manager select from one of the Lawson term reason codes, displays ETO balances, let's them select last day worked etc.  From there it routes to a task list for HR where we can confirm or change the info they entered and then it goes on to other areas like security to disable the badge etc. 
    It's great also that the info is stored in a SQL database and can be reported on. 

    Unfortunately, although we planned to expand this same concept to status changes (FT to PT, xfers, supervisor changes, etc) they say they can no longer expend resources to build this out.  So, we are going to look to 3rd party vendors as a possibility because we do not want to go back to paper.   Is anybody using anything similar or have any recommendations?

    BarbR
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      MSS personnel action work flows can do almost anything. You must have been looking at the "sample" delivered as a suggestion only. It would be well worth sending someone to the PF classes (5 Days in Total) or hiring a consultant to develop flows for you.
      M.J.
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        Thanks BarbR, that sounds interesting and wonder if our I.T. department would be able to look into that. Our main hurdles are all the extra compliance steps - such as verifying education and certifications before we would allow it to be processed. We also have several extra types of steps that tie into user fields for some custom processes as well as routing to security. Can work flows do all those things?
        BarbR
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          What PF can do is only limited by your imagination, and it's one of the most rewarding products I've worked with - your IT staff would enjoy developing work flows using it. I'd have to know more about what you want to do, but it sounds like one or more "back-office HR staff" need to do something before a certain personnel action can be finalized? We have several cases like that, and have set up User tasks and assigned them to appropriate HR staff. The flow has a UserAction node for the task when it is appropriate for that work to be done, the users assigned to that task are notified via email, do their piece of work, and then approve the task to proceed on to the next steps. You can have any number of User Action tasks in a flow. If the flow itself can take the action without human intervention, then of course that can be done. We have both MSS and back-office personnel actions that are work-flow enabled, it really streamlines your processes.
          M.J.
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            I'm really liking these possibilities! We'll get our IT involved to see if they can get some quotes on training. Couple of followups if you don't mind - we are hosted, do you think that would be an issue? Also, do you do any reporting later on those steps that happened in work flow? For example, we would want to be able to find out when the manager submitted as compared to the effective date, when each person in the chain approved it etc? We use Crystal Reports now through direct Lawson DB connection so if this hits that same database seems like it would be possible.
            BarbR
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              Some of that can be done right within the flow itself - for example if a manager submits a termination action more than 3 days past the effective date, our flow sends an email to the manager's manager and also to the SystemAccess team telling them of the late submission. Behavior changes quickly ;-). We do not do any flow statistical reporting, but I can say that the data you need for that is in the WF tables in the LOGAN product line. You may need to capture certain data elements within the flow and write them to variables in the LOGAN tables so that they are available for reporting later (e.g.the actual employee number or name of the actual person who approved a task, rather than just the task name). FYI, we are still on Process Flow (PFI), not Process Automation (IPA) - I think the source of the WF tables may be different in IPA - could be easier. I'll send you my email address confidentially in case you have other questions