Approval Express

Approval Express is a bolt-on product to your existing JD Edwards system enabling mobile approvals for JD Edwards. The solution routes POs, invoices or any document that requires approval from JDE to Outlook, Lotus Notes, Blackberry or Windows mobile device. These can then be approved or rejected via your regular email inbox from anywhere in the world without having to sign into JD Edwards and are then securely routed back to automatically update JDE.

Approval Express allows senior management and approvers to respond to approval requests on the move from anywhere in the world using any device that supports an email client, thus significantly speeding up your organisation’s entire approval processes. Mobile approvals for JD Edwards provides business process improvements and greater control as well as bottom line cost savings from the day that you begin using it.

A server of standard desktop PC size is sufficient. A number of customers run Approval Express on the deployment server, as that reduces the need to buy extra hardware.

Approval Express does not need any separate set up as it works over standard JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Approval functionality, so any set up for Purchase Order Approvals is maintained in EnterpriseOne.

The standard install process has three elements:

– An ASU needs to be loaded to create the System 59 applications and tables in JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.
– The Approval Express Middle Tier software needs installing on the chosen server.
– The application configuration is validated for the customer’s approval rules and the HTML mail templates are loaded.

Approval Express is written as bespoke objects in system code 59 so there is no modification to standard objects, and therefore this does not have any impact when standard software upgrades are taken.

Approval Express is licensed as a single enterprise license for unlimited users for each instance of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. So if a customer has a single instance with multiple environments – e.g. Development, Pre-production and Production – then only one Approval Express license is required. However if a customer has two separate instances of JD Edwards installed, then a license is required for each instance. Users still require JD Edwards Licences for these modules that Approvals are being processed for.

Approval Express does process and send any media object attachments that are attached to the originating transaction in JD Edwards as attachments in the approval e-mail.

The Approval Express tool could be used for almost any standard process within JD Edwards where an approval or status update is required. Additional processes are being added to the standard set of Approvals available and will be made available to existing customers who have taken out annual maintenance agreements as software updates. Any additional approval requirements identified by customers can be considered for inclusion on request. Non-standard JD Edwards EnterpriseOne processes can also be supported, and would be quoted for on a case by case basis.

There are a standard set of Approval Express e-mail templates delivered with each install and would include the customers logo. Any modification to the standard templates can be done but would be quoted for based on each individual customer’s requirements.

Typically Approval Express would be configured in non-production and production environments. Approval Express testing would be carried out by a customer to ensure they are happy with the process or processes being used. Once happy then the production environment final configuration would take place prior to go-live switch on.

No. Approval Express simply sits alongside your JD Edwards system and does not interfere with your existing processes and set up in any way.

Approval Express is priced per JD Edwards environment, making it particularly cost-effective for larger organisations with many approvers or large volumes of approval transactions.