Among the numerous new features provided by W4 BPM Suite 2006, we suggest that you pay particular attention to the W4 Control Center control panels.  They are accessed from W4 BPM Workspace and this access is privileged.  They are grouped in two large categories: monitoring reflects immediate actions connected to the implementation of processes and reporting facilitates temporal analysis by overlapping the “files” and “business data” areas of production processes. 


The user interface takes the form of reports grouped in a control panel. You may browse either by using a filter (for example, by selection of a particular process), or by navigation from one report to another which is more refined with drill-through.

What are the particular indicators which are present in terms of  “Business Process Monitoring”?

Information concerning the execution of files on the W4 BPM Suite 2004 platform is stored in the server’s database, primarily to guarantee the traceability of activities, such as the tracking of current files by the users themselves. This same information is consolidated in monitoring reports, according to different criteria: the age of tasks in the users’ recycle bins, keeping count of the files according to their status (created, in progress, finished or cancelled), the allocation of tasks for files in progress or counting of files which have exhibited anomalies (change or cancellation of tasks, triggering of alarms or over-runs detected).

With respect to reporting, the criteria are focussed more on the time frame, as for example, the emphasis on the dynamics of creating and closing files  during a “sliding” period (13 months by default). Most of the reports provided may be analysed according to a parameter of the current procedure for analysis by classification of processes (classification of the creation of files by source – Internet or department – for example).

How do we create “business reports”  in W4 Control Center?

In its Entreprise version, W4 Control Center provides the opportunity to personalise reports and to create new ones. This operation is performed by means of an Internet browser, and is implemented by means of a graphical configuration interface. It is thus possible to create personalised reports which underline business data (for example, the list of outstanding liabilities by supplier, in the context of purchase order procedures).

W4 Control Center is available in several versions:

W4 BPM Suite 2006 comes in a “basic” version which consists of all of the monitoring report features, approximately thirty.

In addition to personalization and creation of reports, the Enterprise version also offers the user the capability of configuring reports at his work station (in fact , with reference to his or her profile, as access is gained by means of a Web browser). Of course, all of the monitoring and reporting features are accessible to users who have a licence.

What is the technical difference between monitoring and reporting?

The distinction is made at the level of the data accessed: monitoring mines these data directly in the production database of the W4 server, whereas reports are produced using a supplementary database, known as a “datamart “. The latter is supplied from the W4 server, and imports only the data defined by an administrator who selects procedures and their respective indicators. This importing may be set to be executed at regular intervals and a purge function is available, so that only data from the period to be analysed are saved. Reporting requires the installation of a datamart supply module on the W4 server.

What kind of configuration is necessary for the utilisation of W4 ControlCenter?

This functionality is accessible by means of W4 BPM Workspace. The control panels are constructed on the basis of a database and their settings are also saved in this mode. The impact on the dimensioning of a server is reasonable, as it may be envisaged on the same platform as the W4 server for “modest” use, bearing in mind that each time a report is called up, an SQL request is made on the database used. For more intensive use, it is possible to install the software and setting databases remotely on other servers.