ELMA BPM Platform

ELMA BPM is a business process and performance management system. It allows you to shift from instructions to automatic execution and process monitoring, and helps control the effectiveness of your company. The mechanism of continuous process improvement allows developing a management model in the company.

ELMA Architecture

Fig. 1.ELMA system architecture

ELMA has a three-tier architecture:

data tier, provided by the file server and database server;
logic tier, provided by the application server. ELMA WebAPI allows you to extend the logic tier by interacting with external systems;
display tier, provided by client software.

Any SMB server can be used as a file server.

As the database server, you can use Firebird, MS SQL Server, Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Database 11g or Oracle Database 12с., depending on ELMA edition.

As the application server, the integrated ASP.NET components of the Cassini and IIS web servers are used. ELMA WebAPI allows you to extend ELMA by interacting with external systems, and to use ELMA to extend the features of external applications.

Client software is aweb browser or ELMA external applications. The following browsers are officially supported by ELMA:

for Windows: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer;
for MacOS: Safari;
for *nix operating systems: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox.

WebAPI

WebAPI is a set of root web services for accessing the system's core functionality. It can be used to create external applications and to interact with external systems. The information on the current WebAPI web services and the description of their methods is available: http://<site_nameа>:<port_number>/API/Help/Services; where <site_name> and <port_name> are the ELMA web server address, specified in general system settings.

ELMA BPM Platform

ELMA BPM Platform provides capabilities for modeling business processes and implementing them in your organization. The platform is the core of the ELMA product family.

ELMA BPM Platform can be divided into two functional parts:

Business Process Management;
Web Portal.

The Business Process Management part offers tools for modeling, executing, monitoring and improving business processes, monitoring KPIs, creating business process documentation, and provides means of integration with external systems.

The Web Portal part provides tools for interaction within the company, such as task control system, messages and calendar.

ECM+ Application

ECM+ Application is intended for managing the electronic document workflow of a company. It extends the capabilities of the ELMA BPM Platform by allowing users to create and set up new document types and record cards. When modeling a process, a user of the ECM+ application can select a new swimlane type - "Business Role". It allows several users to work on one document at the same time. Also, such specific tasks as document registration and signing with digital signature become available.

In the Web Application, new features become available to users:

new document types;
document routing processes;
document registration.

Projects+ Application

Projects+ is a project management application. It is designed to help you execute projects, control available resources (time, money, human resources) and establish communication between project team members. With the basic features of ELMA Projects+ you can control due dates and project execution, create a shared workspace and organize teamwork, manage the project budget, inform the team members on the project progress, and manage project constrains.

CRM+ Application

ELMA CRM+ offers basic features for customer relationship management: customer, contractor and contacts databases; convenient sorting and search tools. Besides, ELMA CRM + significantly extends the capabilities of ELMA and provides specialized functions:

integration with VoIP with automatic registration of incoming calls. Users can call a client directly from the client page in ELMA;
users can start a business process from the page of a client, deal or lead, which greatly facilitates the work with the CRM objects;
the active sales funnel that automatically triggers a business process when a deal stage is changed. This feature allows automating many routine activities of sales representatives. For example, all the documents related to a specific deal can be created and approved automatically.

ELMA CRM+ is a comprehensive customer relationship management tool that is effective and easy to use.

KPI Application

ELMA KPI helps improve a company's efficiency, align the management strategy with the activities of each employees, so that the entire organization was working towards the same goals. The application provides you with tools for controlling employee performance, monitoring progress and adjusting goals by automating KPI management in the company.

The main capabilities of ELMA KPI allow you to set up:

a KPI tree, according to the specifics of your company;
any key performance indicators, and combine them to manage the company's strategic goals;
goals, goal maps, a goal tree, goal planning and goal management;
performance matrix templates, for evaluating employee performance, based on key factors;
dashboards, which allow top manager to control the most important KPIs and timely react to deviations.

ELMA Settings

ELMA has a wide range of settings that allow you to adapt the system to various fields of application without programming.

These are just some of the ELMA configuration capabilities:

Enabling required applications: ELMA ECM+ with the Contract Management, Barcode modules; ELMA Projects+; ELMA CRM+; ELMA KPI; Integration with 1C; ELMA for Sharepoint.
Configuring the Web Application interface for each user at the user and administrator level.
A simple mechanism for configuring user interfaces with the Page Designer.
Granular access permissions for different user roles

ELMA Editions

There are three ELMA editions. Editions have different functionality and support different DBMS and Windows system functions:

ELMA Express is intended for small and medium-sized organizations where the number of system users does not exceed 30. This edition is the most simple to install and maintain - all the components necessary for the system operation are included in the ELMA Express distribution package. Only Firebird or PostgreSQL can be used as a DBMS. You do not need to purchase licenses for Firebird DBMS and PostgreSQL. ELMA Express Edition supports only standard authentication with username and password.

ELMA Standard is intended for the organizations that need to create AWP for multiple users and ensure a consistent system response time with a large number of concurrent users. ELMA Standard uses MS SQL Server, Firebird or PostgreSQL as a DBMS. With MS SQL Server, the system provides reliable operation of up to 150 users. The license for MS SQL Server is not included in the ELMA Standard license; it must be purchased separately. In addition to standard authentication, this edition supports single sign on.

ELMA Enterprise is suitable for organizations where 150 + users work in the system. ELMA Enterprise provides increased failover protection and high performance. Features of ELMA Enterprise:

Database: Oracle® Database 10g, Oracle® Database 11g or MS SQL Enterprise Edition, PostgreSQL database;
Allows you to use a distributed server structure - a web farm with multiple servers;
Single sign-on – allows users to automatically sign in to the system, once they are successfully authenticated in the corporate domain;
Secure system access with certificates and tokens;
Special edition of ELMA Agent with the possibility of centralized installation and updating by a system administrator using the ELMAAgent.msi installation file;
Allows working with MSMQ message queues services (Microsoft and Java Message Service);

Free ELMA edition:

Community Edition is an ELMA BPM edition with an unlimited usage period and number of users. Community Edition is suitable for a full-scale implementation in a company, however, its capabilities are limited compared to that of commercial editions of ELMA BPM. You can find the list of features of Community Edition and commercial ELMA BPM editions here. Please keep in mind that there is no technical support for ELMA Community Edition . Community Edition uses Firebird, PostgreSQL or MS SQL Server as a DBMS. You do not need to purchase licenses for Firebird, PostgreSQL or MS SQL Server.

ELMA Use Cases

The process approach is applicable to many business areas, here are the most common use cases:

Automation of separate business processes. Using ELMA, you can start, execute, monitor a business process, implement integrations with external systems, control execution of document-based tasks and create process policies. In this case, it is necessary to configure the user interface so that users had access to all the important business process information and hide all the unused features. The frequently used elements of Web Application are the My processes portlet, Start Process portlet, as well as the Filter data portlet;
Corporate portal – implies the extensive use of calendars, message feed, as well as document management tools and tools for assigning and monitoring tasks. You can configure multiple user interfaces for different user roles.
Service Catalogue – is a list of all service processes. Each business unit provides a set of services to other business units, and a department head ensures compliance with the terms of the service. Generally speaking, this is a service request system, and in this case, business processes can be referred to as Requests. The focus is on the process execution and control. Integration and documentation are a secondary concern. The most common elements of the User Interface are the Start Process and HTML portlets. It is recommended to add process start buttons using GET requests and processes descriptions to the HTML portlet.
Integration with the company’s IT systems. This use case implies that:
Each of the applications provides services to customers
The BPM system transfers the information from one service to another
The BPM system organizes a clear information flow between different applications.
The BPM system interacts with users when necessary, so that they can make timely decisions.
With the BPM system a user always has up-to-date information on process instances.
Object-oriented BPM – this use case describes how to regulate actions with a certain object, for example, a Document, Contractor, Project or other business objects. It is beneficial to opt for a BPM system as an automation tool, when the company requires establishing an information flow between the process participants, rather than store information. For a number of ELMA objects, applications have already been implemented that allow establishing information flow without programming. Scripts significantly expand the list of objects used in the automated processes.

You can implement several use cases within one system.