The Novunex Platform is the software as a service (SaaS) solution for any kind of BPM needs. With its architecture and components, the Novunex Platform is able to provide the ideal mixture between pre-configured models and fully customizable workflows. Five layers cover the functionality and organize the components:

• The top layer, called External, represents Users and 3^rd party systems working with the Novunex Platform.
• The Interface layer provides the Web GUI to Users and REST interfaces to connect 3^rd party systems.
• The Execution layer is the heart of the Novunex Platform. It handles the Processes and their Activities, no matter if they are manually started or executed according to certain Schedules and Conditions. Furthermore, its Data Queries and Reports allow you to access and represent the data generated or associated with Processes.
• The Persistence layer with its Database is the backbone of the Novunex Platform, storing the data organized in Entities and handles the Apps as well as any further Configurations.

Account, Subscriptions, Users, and User Groups

Your Novunex Account is required to use the Novunex Platform. The Account is the basis for contracting and billing between you or our company and Novunex. You can have multiple Users and several Subscriptions within an Account. Users are the representations of users from the real world, so this could be you, your coworkers, your employees, or just simply everyone that should work in the Account with the Subscriptions. The Subscriptions are bundles of Configurations, Data, and Processes managed within an Account. Access to Subscriptions can be allowed or restricted for each Users of an Account. Since it would be tedious to assign and manage the access for each Users separately, Users can be grouped into User Groups and the access managed on the group level.

Entities, Attributes, and Entity Types

The Novunex Platform organizes and stores data in Entities, Attributes, and Entity Types. You can think of an Entity Type as a table. The columns of the table are the Attributes of the Entity Type. You can freely configure what Attributes an Entity Type has. An Attribute is always assigned one of several Data Types like integers, decimals, or texts, defining what kind of data the Attribute holds. The data that you input and work within the Novunex Platform is called an Entity. You can think of an Entity as a row in the Entity Types table.

Processes, Activities, Instances, and Versions

You can create multiple Processes, each representing a different task performed by your organization. Each Process consists of activities that are linked by connections. Activities describe the tasks performed within each Process, while connections indicate the order in which these activities should be executed. Connections are always directed, with one end representing the start of an activity and one end representing the end of an activity. Each Process must always have one start activity and one end activity.

The Novunex Platform will automatically create a new version of your Process when you modify or extend it. The previous version will remain deployed and does not influence the new version.

Dashboards and Widgets

Dashboards are the main interface to your data. They’re where you can see all of your data and visualizations at once and use them to make correlations and spot trends in your data. Widgets are components that can be included on dashboards. They can be charts, graphs, or other visualizations that help you understand the data you’re looking at. Widgets can also be interactive. For example, if the widget shows a graph of some kind, clicking on it might bring up more information about that information point (like its source).

Data Queries and Reports

Data queries are used to access data from the database. Data queries are written in SQL and can be used to generate spreadsheets or PDF documents. Data queries can have a number of different types of parameters that are filled before execution. Data queries are also used to retrieve data from the database and make it available for dashboard widgets.

Schedules and Conditions

Schedules are a way of ensuring that certain processes are executed on a recurring basis. Schedules can be used to execute conditions (rule checks) on a recurring basis. For example, if you want to make sure that your process is run every other Friday, you can set up a schedule to run the Process on the first and third Fridays of every month. Conditions are rules that define whether a Process is executed or not. In our example above, we would set up a condition that checks for this particular day of the week, then run the Process if it is true.

Faults, Errors, and Exceptions

Whenever something goes wrong, this is referred to as a Fault. Different kinds of Faults can occur, Errors and Exceptions. Errors are caused by invalid configurations. Errors are identified by an Error Code, giving you a description of the problem. Exceptions are caused by failures occurring, although the configuration is correct. An Exception might be caused by things like an unreachable email server or an FTP server that is not responding. If exceptions are not handled properly, they also lead to an Error. For instance, if the unavailability of an email or FTP server is not handled by re-issuing the request to a backup server. Exceptions have no error Error Codes assigned and thus can be seen as undefined Errors.

Interaction between components

The Novunex Platform provides users the ability to view dashboards and configure scheduled processes. Scheduled processes start activities that execute workflows that generate tasks, change records, and perform other business-critical activities. The platform’s widgets allow users to visualize data across multiple entities directly from the dashboard. Users can add recurring schedules, which can start processes that create new entities automatically after each time period (daily, weekly or monthly).