Navigating the World of SAP Workflows: Tips and Best Practices

SAP Workflows are a powerful tool for automating business processes within your SAP software system. A workflow is a series of connected steps, designed to automate any particular business process, such as approving a purchase order or processing an invoice. Customers can choose to work with a range of preconfigured workflows or customize their workflow to fit the specific needs of their organisation (something we at Expertum have helped with many times before). In other words, SAP Workflows are designed to perform both simple tasks or complex repetitive business processes.

So how can SAP Workflows improve your business in particular? There are several benefits to SAP Workflows, including the all-important improved efficiency, streamlined processes and productivity boosts. But that is not all! SAP Workflows will also:

• Increase efficiency in routine tasks and processes: as those are automated, it eliminates the need for manual intervention allows your co-workers to focus on more valuable tasks and, as such, increases overall efficiency and productivity.
• Improve accuracy: by automating processes, a workflow helps to improve accuracy and reduces the risk of errors.
• Allow you to base your important decision-making on accurate and reliable information.
• Ensure better collaboration between your different teams and departments: by automating the routing and approval of tasks, SAP Workflows bring everyone on the same page, working towards the same goals.
• Enhance transparency in the process: SAP Workflows provide a clear overview of all tasks and processes, allowing you to track progress and identify areas for improvement.

As said, workflows are used to automate routine tasks and processes by creating a series of steps that are automatically executed, based on predefined criteria. Here are a few telling examples of how SAP Workflows can be used to your advantage:

• Approval workflows: to automate the approval process for various items such as POs, time sheets, travel expenses …
• Notification workflows: to automatically notify co-workers of important events, business processes …
• Reminders: to automatically send reminders to ensure that tasks are completed
• Document management: to automate document management processes, such as creating new documents, revising existing ones and archiving old ones
• Error handling: to automate error handling processes, for example errors in a financial transaction or order processing

When starting up and implementing workflows, there are a few rules and best practices we always need to uphold. First, it is important to define very clear and objective goals as to what you want to the workflow setup to achieve. Second, it is really important to involve all stakeholders in the process, including but not limited to end users, managers and IT staff. This will ensure that everyone is aware of and invested in the project and that it meets the needs of everyone involved. Furthermore, when designing a workflow, always keep simplicity in mind. So, to avoid unnecessary steps and errors, keep it short and simple. And last but not least, provide workflow training and support for end users to help them understand the underlying process.

SAP Workflows come in different sizes and shapes, depending on the needs of businesses. Which one is right for you? Below are SAP’s two main approaches and their key differences.

To sum it up, SAP Standard Workflows are suited best for companies that have already invested in SAP while the relatively new SAP BTP Workflows are better suited for a cloud-based environment. As the latter are more scalable and flexible, they can be integrated in a wider range of applications. Hence the choice between the two depends entirely on the needs of your business, an analysis Expertum will gladly make for you.

One of Expertum’s customers was looking for a workflow solution that would automatically release a purchase requisition (PR) based on several criteria. The workflow had to be able to:

• Determine the approvers for the purchase order
• Update the approval message
• Send an email to the approver
• Make it possible to approve and release at once in the Fiori Inbox
• Auto-approve if level X was not found or when 2 consecutive approvers are found
• Avoid the same approver more than once for the same PR

Expertum swiftly set out to work with these requirements and created a workflow that was entirely tailored to the customer’s specific needs. After implementation, the customer was happy to notice that the whole process ran more efficiently and allowed for easier collaboration between the business teams.

In summary, SAP Workflows can provide numerous benefits for your business, including improved standardization, higher efficiency, increased productivity … Our Expertum team has many years of experience in implementing SAP Workflows for businesses of all sizes. We can help you configure and implement any type of workflow for your business and will tailor it to your specific needs. So why wait? Contact us today to learn more about how SAP Workflows can help your business succeed!