Overview
UniFi has many use cases which can encompass a variety business processes within the same platform. To help you take advantage of all these possibilities we have built a number of 'Foundation Apps' and 'Enterprise Suites' which will give you a head start when implementing and expanding the use of UniFi throughout your organisation. Each of these can form the starting point for further customisation, either done in-house by sufficiently knowledgable users, or by using specialised UniFi consultants.
Foundation Apps
These are apps that are commonly requested for UniFi, which users are encouraged to take as a starting point and customise for their own use. Each of these are grouped into their various use cases (purchasing, sales etc.) but can stand alone if that's what you require. So if, for example, you want purchase invoicing and purchase ordering but not goods receipting or supplier onboarding from the purchasing use case, that is fine.
If there are any foundation apps listed here that you would like that you don't currently have access to, please contact your account manager who can arrange for them to be installed. Also, if you have any ideas for new foundation apps you would like to see let us know - if there is enough demand we will build it.
Some foundation apps will have links to external sources such as accounting software via data connectors. However, in most cases these can be adjusted to look at your implementation of that sofware, whether it is installed on-premise or in the cloud. See the section on 'Data Connectors' for more information on how to do this.
Enterprise Suites
These are more complex suites of apps that cover an entire process, and can include related reference data, dashboards and BI reports. As well as demonstrating the potential of the UniFi platform, these apps can form the basis of a UniFi implementation based around that particular use case, with further customisation either done by a UniFi consultant or in-house resources after suitable training and familiarisation with the UniFi platform. While they are generally an interlinked suite of apps, during the customisation individual apps can be removed or added as required.
Editing the Foundation Apps
In order to retain the templates, you are advised to first duplicate the existing app, rename as appropriate and then do your customisations on this new app. Customisations will generally involve:
Amending the form
While the foundation apps have the kind of fields that are required for the transaction type, it is likely that you will want to add or remove fields as appropriate. This will be done within the form tab of the app editor. When doing this, bear in mind that if you are wanting to interact with a 3rd party system at any point via the data connectors, it may be that some values are mandatory. E.g. in accounting software its often mandatory to supply default information that the user wouldn't necessarily even be aware of such as 'journal type' or a default 'suspense account'. In such cases you may prefer to leave them on the form with a default value set but hide them from the user.
Updating the process
This is the part that is likely to require the most customisation, as all organisations have different approval processes and financial limits etc. Within the process tab of the form designer you can add stages as required and include as many steps and branches as your organisation requires.
Connecting with other applications
It may be that your app is self-contained in which case this part is not required and any data connectors can be removed from the app. E.g. the 'Purchase Invoice' foundation app looks at data from an accounting system to get a list of suppliers. If you prefer to maintain that list within UniFi then you can simply remove the 'external' dropdown field and replace it with a 'reference' dropdown instead that looks at a reference data table containing a list of your suppliers and any other relevant information.
However, if you wish to get the list of suppliers from an accounting or other system then the relevant data connectors will need to be amended as described in the data connectors section of this help file. The foundation apps are configured to work with Infor SunSystems software, however it should be possible to interact with any other system that makes its functionality available via an application programming interface (API). This will require some technical knowledge of how your systems API works and how it needs to receive data, but in the advanced data connectors section of this help there are also examples of working with Oracle NetSuite and SAP Business One.
Older versions of UniFi handled this via an 'integration server' which customers can make use of, but the configuration did have to be done by a UniFi consultant. Some customers may still be using apps based on the old integration server. While these will continue to function, if you would like your apps converted to using advanced data connectors then please contact your UniFi support team.
Editing the Enterprise Suites
At their core, the enterprise suites are made up of a number of foundation apps that have been customised and linked as part of the enterprise suite build, so in a procurement suite for example, requisitions, orders, receipting and invoicing flows smoothly from one app to another with no re-keying, utilising the options within UniFi for apps to share and replicate data from one app to another. These can therefore be customised in the same way as the foundation apps, its just that there is likely to be more complexity in the process.
Dashboards and BI reports also form part of the enterprise suite. To get the full benefit these will also need some customisation. However the existing dashboards and reports will provide you with a starting point to amend data sources as necessary and then add the items and drill downs that you organisation will find useful.