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Photo Challenge: How Do You See Enterprise Easier?

Employee Self-Service Takes Flight

3 Crucial ESS Enhancements for a Growing Organization

rise A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION FROM K-RISE SYSTEMS, INC.

SUMMER EDITION

THE EMPLOYEE EDITION: CRUCIAL ESS ENHANCEMENTS YOU NEED NOW BETA ALERT! NEW ITEM LAUNCHES IN THE NEWS: EASYPROCESS 4.6 ACHIEVES E-BUSINESS SUITE INTEGRATION

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Employee Self-Service Takes Flight

Photo Challenge: How Do You See Enterprise Easier?

3 Crucial ESS Enhancements For A Growing Organization

Have questions or comments?

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Beta Alert! New Item Launches……………………………...3

Employee Self-Service Takes Flight…………………….........4

Photo Challenge: How Do You See Enterprise Easier?……………………………………...………………….6

Email easyprocessnews@krisesystems.com to provide feedback, share your EASYProcess solution, or be featured in the next edition.

rise is a quarterly publication by K-Rise Systems, Inc. To view and download the online version, visit: www.krisesystems.com/risequarterly Kent Johnson, Director of Marketing Christine Murphy, Editor

3 Crucial ESS Enhancements For A Growing Organization..........……………………………………….......8

Start Your Own EASYProcess Garden: Tips and Tricks To Get Your Wildflowers Blooming This Summer………………….12

In the News: K-Rise Systems Extends Its Reach To Oracle’s E-Business Suite (EBS) Community……...………………….14

K-Rise Systems, Inc. 75 Executive Drive, Suite 431 Aurora, IL 60504 Tel: 630.898.2923 Site: www.krisesystems.com Email: info@krisesystems.com K-Rise Systems, Inc. is a software solutions provider based in the western suburbs of Chicago, IL. The company has a diverse client portfolio, including organizations in such industries as communications, medical technology, and marine applications. K-Rise Systems, Inc. serves its clients using its proprietary development platform, EASYProcess™.

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Beta Alert!

New Item Approval The name speaks for itself. Approve and create new items, real-time, with full workflow and authority.

Watch for other upcoming news about K-Rise Systems’ line of EASYProcess applications in the next edition.

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Employee Self-Service Takes Flight What did a major international carrier need in an Employee Self-Service Portal? Learn about the implementation that supported 9,000 users, with a 98% approval rating.

Looking for a new method of integrating human resource data within SharePoint, the organization needed a portal that could be accessed via this Microsoft platform, a tool that had already been adopted by its employees. The current SharePoint site utilized by its corporate employees was very well-received and it was decided that the new employee portal would fully integrate with SharePoint.

The employee portal would consist of human resource data that could be

exposed, securely, in SharePoint upon logging in and entering a unique user identification code. The familiar interface of SharePoint paired with the additional functionality found in the employee portal allowed its users the ability to take control over their personal data, confidently.

K-Rise Systems’ Employee SelfService was selected for its ability to seamlessly integrate with SharePoint, as well as for its ability to connect with any data source, including JD Edwards, the company’s chosen ERP.

The organization also had the option to release the portal in stages, thereby allowing users to familiarize themselves with the application slowly and offer feedback during each phase of implementation.

Along with its integration capabilities, made possible as the portal was built using EASYProcess, K-Rise Systems’ platform for rapid application development, Employee Self-Service was also chosen for its wide-ranging features and functionalities. For example, the portal allows employees

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to access time entries, pay stubs, and review leave history for reporting purposes. Tax forms could also be downloaded and completed before submitting to management, and these forms could be revised directly from SharePoint.

“I wanted to let you know that the first release has been a great success since its launch. The communication went out to the company yesterday

implementation, KRise Systems received excellent user reviews from one of the organization’s IT managers:

afternoon. Since then the site collection has had over

“I wanted to let you know that the first release has been a great success since its launch. The communication went out to the company yesterday afternoon.

Since then the site collection has had over 1,000 views and almost 300 updates have been made using EASYProcess. Comments from the staff via SharePoint are also trending nicely with a 98% approval rating. I think we’ll pick up that last 2% with release 2.”

1,000 views and almost 300 updates have been made using EASYProcess.”

Other functionality was available via SharePoint, such as the ability to view benefits and vacation balance, and submit new time-off as needed. Name, address, phone, and emergency contact information could be updated automatically and sent to the manager for approval before being submitted to JD Edwards. All personnel records could be accessed and downloaded as necessary along with proof of employment letters. Finally, users of Employee Self-Service had the option to enroll in or cancel direct deposit, and enter or revise banking details; users also had the ability to send portions of their salaries to multiple accounts, directly from SharePoint.

Whether an employee updated emergency contact information or entered new banking details, managers are automatically notified of any changes. Transactions that require approval from management will only be submitted to JD Edwards once a decision has been made. Notification are sent via email with links that send the manager directly inside the portal; notification not requiring approval can be sent less frequently, reducing the number of emails received by 2 and 3tier management.

The features included in Employee Self-Service allowed the organization to enhance the experience of its SharePoint site. Within a month of the first Employee Self-Service

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K-Rise Systems offers a variety of functionality within its Employee Self-Service and Manager Self-Service applications, including interactive tax forms, mobile capability to enter time and process requests from anywhere, and dynamic, customizable workflow. Interested in seeing a demonstration of K-Rise Systems’ HCM solutions? Email info@krisesystems.com to request a demo for your team.

During the following month, rollout two went live, gaining an even larger share of users accessing the portal via SharePoint, and three more rollouts are planned currently.

For more info on this portal and other products offered by K-Rise Systems, visit our website @ www.krisesystems.com.

PHOTO CHALLENGE: How do you see enterprise easier?

K-Rise Systems wants to know how you see enterprise easier.

EASYProcess interacts with your enterprise and brings complex data into one, easy-to-use application to be hosted on the web or within a SharePoint environment. How do you envision enterprise easier? Submit your photos, illustrations, or images for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card.

HOW HERE’S

WORKS: IT

1) Submit two images of your best representation of the following phrase: Enterprise. Easier.

These images can be photographs of objects that you have taken, original artwork, or images straight from the Internet.

Include with your images a brief description of your vision of enterprise, easier.

2) Once you have finished, send your submissions to easyprocessnews@krisesystem s.com with the subject: “Enterprise Easier Photo Challenge.”

Include your name and contact information to qualify as a winner for this contest, and send in your submission no later than Thursday, July 31st, 2014!

3) Beginning in the first week of August, a panel of judges will review each submission according to:   

Creativity Composition Presentation

The submission that scores the highest in each of these areas will be featured in the next edition of rise, and the winner will receive a $100 Visa gift card!

Visit us on the web at www.krisesystems.com

Need some

I N A T

Enterprise

Easier Pi

S I

P I R O N ?

Check out these from the team at K-Rise Systems

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3 Crucial Employee Self-Service Enhancements for a Growing Organization Considering a large HR rollout? Deep dive into the ESS implementation of a Fortune 100 company that’s sure to help you gather ideas for your own Employee Self-Service Portal.

Employee Self-Service empowers employees and managers by granting them access to their own records and information, including leave requests, time entry, and tax information. Here are 3 crucial enhancements integrated into one Employee Self-Service Portal: Leave Requests Leave requests occur when an employee decides to take time off for illness, vacation, jury duty, or otherwise. Whatever the reason may be, an employee must submit leave requests to notify management of the duration of an absence.

An employee logs in to the ESS portal, and navigates to the leave calendar. This calendar exposes each leave request submitted within a given year, and the status of each of these requests. Further, the leave calendar includes a coding system to distinguish between approved and rejected requests. This allows the employee to review and report on request history. This calendar is available for download as well, when future reporting is required on this information. If no request history is needed, the employee can choose to submit a new request or multiple requests at a single time.

To submit a new leave request, an employee selects the date(s) within the calendar associated with the leave and clicks on the submission button.

Before a final leave request is submitted to management, a pop-up window appears asking for additional information. The duration of the leave request is included within the pop-up window along with the ability to change these dates, and a drop-down menu to choose the type of leave.

(Leave types can be generated from any data source, including ERPs, allowing this menu to be completely customizable.) A description of the leave can be entered within a free form field, if necessary, and the leave calendar is updated to include the pending request. Any data associated with the leave request is included within the employee’s calendar as well as follows the submission to the manager.

After the employee submits the leave request, the manager is sent a notification via email. This email contains a link which sends the manager directly to the request for approval or rejection. The manager’s leave request calendar, included within the Manager’s Workbench, exposes leave requests for all employees and includes the same

coding system featured in the employee leave calendar. Further, the manager’s leave calendar is automatically updated with pending requests submitted by employees.

With this functionality, a manager can approve or reject multiple requests at once and is exposed to all request information needed, including leave type and reason, necessary to make informed decisions.

A manager can also re-assign his leave authority to another manger when out of the office. This substitution grants the interim manager with the same authority, allowing leave requests to be decided upon without interruption.

Employees will not wait until the manager returns to the office to be notified of an approved or rejected leave request.

Employee Condition Employee conditions can constitute any updates or changes to position title and responsibilities, or changes to the duration of employment, for example. These adjustments to employee conditions are either submitted by the employee or manager. Typically, these transactions are initiated by the manager and are then sent to the

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Add these to your requirements list for your own Employee Self-Service Portal: Leave Request: 1. The leave calendar should allow employees to select time off by clicking dates within the calendar.

2. Multiple leave request transactions should be performed during a single session.

Employee Condition: 1. Within a single screen, positions should have the option of being added or deleted.

2. New titles to existing positions should automatically update our ERP. 3. Approvals of new or deleted positions are role specific and this influences the decision made to approve such a transaction.

Banking and Direct Deposit: 1. Employees should be able to split direct deposit into multiple accounts, from a single screen.

2. Banking details should be able to be update from the employee portal, along with the ability to enroll in or cancel direct deposit.

3. Managers should have the option to attach files and enter comments associated with a request decision.

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employee as a notification, as well as to be stored for reporting purposes.

the position will no longer be listed as active.

During periods of restructuring within an organization, a manager may have to change the titles of one or more employees. From the Manager’s Workbench, management has the ability to edit employee titles or job duties, and submit this information to the employee for review. A manager can perform a search, based on a number of customized criteria, or simply enter the employee’s name into a free form field to initiate this process. Once the employee is found within the portal, the full profile and action buttons appear, allowing the manager to edit the position title, responsibilities, and duration of employment; usually, contracted employees receive the most changes to employment duration. These changes in employee condition will be submitted to mid-level and even toplevel managers for approval; again, all of the additional information entered will follow the transaction to each level of approval hierarchy.

A manager can stay within the same screen and choose to add a new position or multiple positions at a single time. To complete these transactions, a manager simply clicks an action button to initiate this process, and a pop-up window appears asking for additional information pertaining to the new position. Much of the information required when adding a new position includes: position identification or reference number, position description, budgeted hours, and fiscal year, position status, and budget status.

Once all required fields have been completed, a notification is sent to the next level of approval managers for review. This submission will follow the hierarchy until it is approved and listed as an open position.

Higher level management may have the need to perform other transactions related to organizational restructuring, such as adding or deleting a position.

A manager has the ability to search based on a number of criteria, such as a position title, or business unit, for example. (These criteria can be customized.) Once the position is located, a full profile of the position is generated, including its status. When a manager clicks the button to delete a position, and fully completes this process, this status will change, and

information is included here as well, such as employee contact information related to the banking information.

Depending on the transaction, an employee can decide to add new direct deposit information or change the amount of money entering into each of the current accounts. Any request submitted when changing banking information is submitted to the appropriate manager to approve or reject.

Once submitted, the approval manager receives the change request and can begin to decide if this request will be approved or denied. The request received by the manager contains the request number, account number, routing number, and action taken by the employee, such as creating a new account, for example. The employee name and identification number are included, along with the date and time the change request was submitted.

Banking and Direct Deposit Banking and direct deposit information are available to review and update by the employee. An employee can remove outdated banking details, change details to current accounts, and enroll in or cancel direct deposit. Management can be notified via email or otherwise regarding these actions as soon as they are completed.

When necessary, an employee can log in and navigate to the banking section of the portal. This page displays data related to checking and savings accounts, the percentage of salary deposited into these accounts, and the status of direct deposit (such as enrolled or canceled). Other

With this information, the manager can decide to approve or deny the request, enter comments to be emailed to the employee, and upload an attachment; this information is automatically sent back to the employee and communication can continue. With the unique change request number associated with this transaction, any comments or changes in status are recorded for reporting purposes.

For more info on this portal and other products offered by K-Rise Systems, visit our website @ www.krisesystems.com.

Go with an EASYProcess Portal, and it’ll GROW with you. Check out the variety of business solutions from K-Rise Systems, built with EASYProcess.

EASYCommerce is an Enterprise-Class B2B/B2C Portal fully compatible with World, EnterpriseOne, and iSeries. Implemented as a connector, EASYCommerce works seamlessly with your current online catalog or web store, giving you live data inside and outside of JD Edwards.

Order Entry is an Enterprise-Class B2B/B2C application which allows sales representatives to experience an eCommerce site the way a customer would, perform searches and other actions, and place orders on behalf of a specific customer as well.

EASYBuyer is an Enterprise-Class Procurement Portal capable of connecting to any of your data sources, including JD Edwards. Since EASYBuyer is built using EASYProcess, the portal can be customized to fit your business needs, exactly.

Price Bidding is an Enterprise-Class Procurement application which allows vendors to enter in their offer for the buyer to review, allowing these buyers to make informed decisions about a product or service in need.

Vendor Self-Service is an Enterprise-Class Supplier Portal which gives your team the ability to interact with vendors electronically on invoices, purchase orders, transportation and more. Integrated seamlessly with your ERP, VSS puts you on the golden path to paperless.

Vendor Onboarding is an Enterprise-Class Supplier application which optimizes the vendor onboarding process by eliminating the task of scanning and faxing forms, as well as performing manual re-entry in JD Edwards to adjust outdated information.

Employee Self-Service is an Enterprise-Class Human Resource Portal that gives your employees and managers access to update their own records and information, including leave requests, time entry, and tax information – all in one place.

Supplier Contact and Item Update is an Enterprise-Class Supplier Portal which allows supplier information to be revised and item descriptions and pricing to be updated.

EASYPayment is an Enterprise-Class B2B/B2C application which allows users of EASYPayment to enter credit card transactions into the portal, whether they were received over the phone, via fax, or in the mail. 128-bit encryption ensures data from these transactions is secured, whether inhouse or secured with a third-party hosting site.

Since EASYProcess is a programming language, it excels at developing custom applications, portals, or modules that your company may need.

Looking for something more tailored than what’s featured above? Email us at info@krisesystems.com to request a customized demonstration.

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WILDFLOWER

Tip #4:

Before planting, mix wildflower

seeds with equal parts of sand or vermiculite.

Scatter this mixture directly on top of the soil on a calm weather day; planting on a very windy day will cause the seeds to scatter from your plot. Secure the seeds into the soil by walking on top of them. You

At our spring conferences this year, we gave away seeds to demonstrate that our platform for enterprise development, EASYProcess, builds applications that grow with you now and into the future.

Ready to start planting your wildflower seeds? Read our article below to learn some quick and easy tips to get your wildflower garden blooming this summer.

Tip #1:

Choose a place in your yard

to plant your wildflower seeds. Wildflowers will bloom in any type of fertile soil; if other plants, including weeds and grass, are currently growing in this place, your seeds will bloom here as well. Remove any weeds or old roots from this place to give your wildflowers a fresh place to flourish in your garden.

Tip #2:

Wildflowers love sun. The

place that you have chosen to plant your seeds should receive a generous amount of sunlight.

Tip #3:

In order for your seeds to

begin blooming quickly, they must be planted in an area which offers ample drainage. A moist soil environment will allow your seeds to grow quickly.

can even place an old board on top of the soil and walk on top of that, or use a seed roller.

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Start Your Own EASYProcess Garden Tips And Tricks To Get Your Wildflowers Blooming This Summer

Tip #5: Do not add additional soil on top of your seeds once you have secured them within your plot; this will inhibit your wildflowers from sprouting. Wetting the soil once the seeds have been planted will help to prevent them from blowing away.

Tip #6:

Water your wildflowers very regularly for the first six weeks, or until your wildflowers are six

inches in height. Wildflowers do not require much tending and can thrive on natural rainfall alone. Generally, the soil should always be moist; only when your region is experiencing light rainfall, periods of drought, or dry weather in general, should you have to water your wildflowers.

Wildflowers, like EASYProcess applications, thrive without much maintenance. Missed out on receiving K-Rise Systems’ wildflower seeds? Email easyprocessnews@krisesystems.com to receive a bundle and begin growing your own wildflower garden this summer.

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In the News: K-Rise Systems Extends its Reach to Oracle’s E-Business Suite (EBS) Community

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EASYProcess 4.6 Achieves EBS Integration K-Rise Systems announced that EASYProcess version 4.6 has achieved E-Business Suite (EBS) integration.

K-Rise Systems, a product leader to the JD Edwards, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics AX communities, announced today that EASYProcess version 4.6, its proprietary enterprise development platform, has achieved E-Business Suite integration.

EASYProcess connects to E-Business Suite by using the .NET database connector to integrate standard EBusiness Suite APIs into the EASYProcess interface. EASYProcess calls stored procedures that reference the standard E-Business Suite APIs which allows EASYProcess to execute any business logic and results in easier data management within EBS. This versatile type of integration will give EASYProcess the flexibility to exchange critical data and transactions with E-Business Suite.

Udo Troitzsch, Chief Information Officer at Mercury Marine Australia, commented on EASYProcess integration and K-Rise Systems: “We evaluated several tools and determined that EASYProcess would enable the quickest ROI for us. K-Rise Systems has exceeded our expectations and we could not have asked for a better partner.”

K-Rise Systems can now extend its reach and offer its eCommerce sites (B2B/B2C), vendor relations and procurement software, HR solutions, such as Employee Self-Service and Manager Self-Service, and custom applications to the E-Business Suite community. All of these applications are built using K-Rise Systems’ platform for enterprise development,

EASYProcess, and feature a dynamic workflow engine capable of accommodating any approval hierarchy. Organizations using EASYProcess solutions include leaders in the airline, media entertainment, oil, and consumer products industries, as well as government municipalities and healthcare providers.

Additionally, K-Rise Systems will be able to offer full Microsoft SharePoint integration into E-Business Suite. The growing interest in SharePoint indicated that the first area of EASYProcess integration with EBusiness Suite should be with this business collaboration platform. Users of SharePoint will only need to include EASYProcess as a “Feature” of SharePoint, and will then have the ability to include EBS data, as well as enterprise-class business applications powered

by EASYProcess, directly within SharePoint.

About K-Rise Systems K-Rise Systems, Inc. is a software solutions provider based in the western suburbs of Chicago, IL. The company has a diverse client portfolio, including organizations in such industries as communications, medical technology, and marine applications.

EASYProcess has evolved from a simple connector piece into a platform for enterprise development complete with an advanced workflow engine for

data processing and transactions. KRise Systems provides training, mentoring, and support for use with EASYProcess. K-Rise Systems also offers numerous pre-built applications and portals, all of which are built with EASYProcess. All of K-Rise Systems’ modules can be implemented through any version of Microsoft SharePoint.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

For more info on this portal and other products offered by K-Rise Systems, visit our website @ www.krisesystems.com.

“We evaluated several tools and determined that EASYProcess would enable the quickest ROI for us. KRise Systems has exceeded our expectations and we could not have asked for a better partner.”

Udo Troitzsch, CIO at Mercury Marine Australia