Infor Process Automation: Important Concepts and Terminology

System component Brief description
activity and activity node An activity is a step in a process. When users, typically power users or developers, create graphical representations of processes using Infor Process Designer, the icons that appear are called activity nodes.
BPA (Business Process Automation)

Industry-standard term for a type of software product that automates commonly performed and repeatable business actions.

Infor Process Automation is Infor's BPA for use with Infor Lawson and Infor M3 or Landmark applications.

Inbasket When a process determines that a user intervention is required, a request is sent to the user's Inbasket which is accessible through Infor Rich Client, Infor Smart Office, the web UI or via the user's email.
Infor Landmark Technology This term refers to the foundation technology that supports Landmark applications, including Infor Process Automation.
Infor Process Automation (IPA)

Umbrella term for Infor's Business Process Automation (BPA) product. It is made up of server components and a desktop component, Infor Process Designer.

The term also refers to server side components of the Infor Process Automation product. These components include configuration, administration and troubleshooting tools. They are delivered with Infor Landmark Technology and accessed using Infor Landmark Technology, Infor Rich Client, Infor Smart Office or the web UI.

Infor Process Designer (IPD)

Desktop tool for creating the actual processes. All process developers must have this tool.

(Access to Infor Process Designer is not needed for users who need to take actions on running processes.

Infor Rich Client The interface for administering Infor Landmark Technology includes menus for administering IPA. Infor Rich Clientis also where users launch any Landmark applications they use, including Inbasket.
Infor Lawson server components Software components installed on LSF that forward application requests to IPA.
Infor Smart Office The Windows-based user interface that can be used with IPA instead of or in addition to Infor Rich Client or the Web UI.
process

A set of steps that has been defined by a Infor Process Automation user (using Infor Process Designer). These steps execute behind the scenes.

Visually, in Infor Process Designer, a process is a set of icons that represent activities and connecting lines that show the sequence in which they should occur.

trigger A trigger is placed in application code to cause a process to activate when a business event occurs.
Web UI An alternative to Infor Rich Client. The same menus that are available with Infor Rich Client can also be accessed via this web-based UI.
Workunit A unique ID for each execution of an instance of a process.