The Esaya workflow product is divided into three components: The Process Designer, the Process Server and the Enterprise Manager.

Esaya Workflow Process Designer

This graphical design program permits fast development with a drag-and-drop interface and graphical workflow maps. Users build processes by dragging and dropping icons that represent components of the process onto a process map, then linking each icon with arrows to indicate the desired sequence of events. Point-and-click Wizards automatically generate tasks for standard events such as sending mail, querying a database, and invoking an Local and Remote EJB function, reducing development time by requiring coding only for custom processes and events. It should be written in Java/Swing.

The Process Designer should allow users have the option to create process templates and custom events and then save them for re-use. This allows processes and events to be quickly modified for the next department, location or application, eliminating the need to build new components from scratch.

Esaya Workflow reduces development complexity by enabling users to implement a nested process automation design revolving around sub-processes. Rather than forcing a single large process to accommodate all possible outcomes for a work item, sub-processes can be used to hand off work to other processes. For example, a purchase requisition approval process could launch an inventory receiving process after the purchase order has been approved. Work items may have multiple exits defined within a given process, and each of these exits may call or pass the work item to either a subprocess or an entirely different process based on the success, failure or result of previous operations.

Esaya Workflow Process Designer automatically installs new process versions as changes are implemented without bringing down the server. This provides process continuity as changes are implemented or refined.

Esaya Workflow Process Server

The Esaya Workflow Process Server is the routing engine responsible for moving work through a process, evaluating rules, handling split and join events, managing entry to and exit from sub-processes, and keeping track of expiration timers for process and event instances. It is designed with a connectionless architecture that enables clients to communicate with the database rather than the server, thereby avoiding the usual server bottleneck. This results in a highly scalable solution with the ability to distribute events to multiple servers. All compiled code is preloaded from the database for optimum performance.

Esaya Workflow is capable of automatically prioritizing work items within a given process based on a specific event trigger, an expiration date assigned to an item, or data input as part of the process such as an account balance or customer status. Users can also change task priorities manually at any time in the process.

Tasks, timers and events can trigger e-mail, pager and cell phone notifications to stimulate work completion. These notifications can be triggered based on the expiration of an event, a user action or an error condition.

The Process Server has a multi-server architecture that is designed to distribute the process workload across as many physical servers as necessary. Up to 50 or more Process Server instances can be run on a single physical server. This makes it possible to offload CPU-intensive processing events to a separate server or a separate instance on a single server to avoid slowing down the main workflow. Multi-server configurations are natively supported, and assigning entire processes or individual events to a server is easily accomplished using the Enterprise Manager. This can be done without interrupting the system.

Esaya Workflow Enterprise Manager

Enterprise Manager is a web based interface that performs administrative tasks such as process monitoring, exception management, ad hoc routing, database maintenance, server configuration, reporting, and assignment of user privileges. The Enterprise Manager also enables process configuration for multiple server environments.

Every work event created in Process Director has a dedicated Exception Queue designed to efficiently handle errors or situations outside of normal business parameters, such as a site change when executing a BrowserML task. Exception Queues and the events that can be associated with them quickly isolate transactions in error and can be configured to alert managers or supervisors by e-mail, or route work to specialists for fast resolution. When the problem is resolved, the item rejoins the regular workflow. This model ensures that out-of-tolerance transactions receive the attention necessary to complete the transaction chain. It also maximizes productivity by asking valuable employees to intervene in problem situations only long enough to resolve a specific snag and redirect the transaction to the automated work path.

The Enterprise Manager component of Esaya Workflow furnishes an at-a-glance look at the status of any process work item, individual workload and error conditions. This makes it easy to keep close tabs on system activity as well as determine the tasks pending for a user or group, re-assign some or all tasks to other users, or re-prioritize the existing work. The metrics gathered by the system can be analyzed to improve process performance and monitor employee progress.

Standard reports for work items, work item history, and summary statistics by task or process definition can be generated and viewed through a viewing window embedded in the Enterprise Manager. Esaya Workflow tracks all work statistics, including who, what, where,when, how long, and how many; the information that provides the feedback on the efficiencies and improvements of the process automation.