AME Rules Using Dynamic Approver Groups

Barbara ArmstrongPradip Baniya

Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc.

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Agenda

What is AME? Initial design of AME at SSI Why change the process? New AME design Maintenance process Comparison Conclusion Q & A

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What is AME? Oracle application product that lets

you define approval rules that defines the approval process of the transactions in Oracle Applications.

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Key Terms Attributes

Business variables with single value for each transaction. Invoice_Amount, Organization_ID, etc.

Conditions Statement that evaluates to True/False

for each transaction and rule is applied to the transaction if all the conditions are True. Invoice_Amount >= 50000.

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Key Terms cont’d Action and Action type – It modifies the

transaction’s approval process. Action Type – Supervisory Action – Require approval from first three

supervisors Approver Group – Ordered set or list of

persons who will approve the transaction. CEO Group

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Anatomy of AME Rule

Approval Rule

IFinvoice_amount >50000

AND

organization_id = 101

THEN

Rule

Attribute

Condition

Supervisory Level – Requires approval from first 3 supervisors

Post Approval – Requires approval from CEO Approval group

Action Type

Action

Approver Group

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SSI Initial AME Design

Based on attributes

Operating Units

4

Preparer/Requestor

same?

2

AFE?

2

Gated Role

2

Supervisory Levels

10= 400+ Rules

Attributes used for Rule

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How many rules?

Design led to 150+ rules for AP Invoice Approval 400+ rules for Purchase Requisition

and 400+ rules for Requestor Change

Order And growing…

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Drawbacks

Difficult to manage. Very hard to understand the rules. Hard to troubleshoot when we

have issues. Creation, update, test and

configuration of the rules - time consuming process.

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Led to re-design

To streamline and simplify the AME rules.

Based on standard AME provided functionality, supported by Oracle.

Use of dynamic approver groups. Requires minor customization – for

maintenance of the approver groups.

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How it works?

Transaction

AttributesOU

Preparer/Requestor

AFEGated RoleSupervisory

LevelsTransaction

Amount

Approver Groups

CFO GroupController

GroupOperations

GroupSupervisory

LevelAFE GroupRequestor

Group

Dynamic SQL PL/SQL Package

AME Approver List

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Approver Group

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PL/SQL Package

Features Gets the required attribute values Based on compliance rule, gets

correct approver(s). Returns null or one or more approvers

per approval group to AME engine. select column_value from – to handle

multiple approvers.

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How is the Rule?

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Rules cont’d

Supervisory rules Based on approval level 1..10 Create 10 rules.

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Approver Maintenance

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How much improvement?

Number of Rules

Initial Design New Design

AP Invoice 150+ 10

PO Requisition

400+ 10

Requestor Change Order

400+ 10

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Time Savings - Benchmark

Previous Process New Process

IT Bus. IT Bus.

Design 20 5 2 5Test 50 10 2 10Configure

10 0 1 2

Total 80 15 5 17

(In Hours)

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Conclusion Unmanageable set of rules, and

growing. Aim to streamline the rules creation and

update process. Use of the standard functionality with

small customization led to fewer rules. Offer business capability to manage the

changes in efficient and timely fashion.

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Q&A

Thank you!

B. Armstrongbarmstrong@schn.com

P. Baniyapbaniya@schn.com