Approver's substitutes in MDM workflow

[Former Member]

Hi,

We are implementing SRM-MDM Catalog 3.0 and we are planning to implement MDM Workflow. I know that MDM doesn't provide dynamic approver determination facility so I am planning to use branch functionality to identify approvers dynamically. My question is how to use approver's substitute functionality if main approver is on vacation or sick. If I define custom roles, and assign the same role to both (Approver & Substitute), they both will get notification for approval if I assign custom role as approver. Please suggest.

[Former Member]

Hi,

I don't have MDM Visio installed on my system. So, i will say just give it a try.

Say, you have Branch step->Notify step->Approve (Assigned to Role who has both user Approver and Substitute).

Check if you can attach Notify step after Branch Step.

This notify step will send e-mail to Role who has both users Approver and Substitute.

In the content of mail just write:

@ Approver: Please Approve records...

@ Substitute: Please verify that records has been approved and moved to next step. Please check it after 2 days. It could be any number of days as per your requirement.

So, After 2 days Substitute user will logon to MDM Data Manager and check that either records has approved or not if not, he will assume that Approver is on vacation or sick and he will do this job on behalf of main Approver.

Hope it helps...

Thanks and Regards,

Mandeep Saini

[Former Member]

Hi Anshuk,

To have a substitute approver you dont have to create a branch for approval. You can assign the approval step to the role and can chose the execution type as "Any single". Moreover the job can be pulled by the respective substitue approver in case of the absence of primary approver.

By this any one approver can approve the task and the job will be completed.

Regards,

Indraveer

[Former Member]

Hi Indraveer,

Appreciate your prompt response. If I assign approval step to the role and execution type as any single, any one of approver or his substitute will get mail for items approval. I want to make sure that substitution approval will come only in picture if main approver is not there (on vacation/sick). Also, I am using branchig for approver determination as we have different approvers for different countries.

[Former Member]

Hi Anshuk,

Unfortunately in SAP MDM there is not direct way to acheinve what you are saying but stil I would ask you to try out these two approaches:

1) Create a branch and set the threshold value of approval as the number of days you want to wait for the primary apprver to approve it. If the approval is not done in that time then automatic notification wil be sent to the assignees (in this case roles) which will include the primary approver as well as the substitute approver.

2) Try creating another workflow and set the maximum days as let us say 2 and trigger it once the approval is not done by the primry approver. In this case the second workflow correspondsto the approval by the substitute approver.

Hope it works,

Regards,

Indraveer