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Ideagen EHS - Decani (Formerly the DevonWay platform) Users

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Ideagen EHSQ and Decani solutions use a design approach that shifts business logic into easily managed reference data. This simplifies configuration and ensures consistent delivery.

This integrated approach provides a platform layer that supports common variations in application behaviour, reducing the need for custom setups.

The platform underpins web-based, workflow-driven, and mobile business processes. It is fully customisable and rule-based, allowing rapid and flexible enterprise software development.

Think of the platform as a single, regularly updated codebase, offering new features while maintaining compatibility. This ensures solutions stay current and meet industry needs.

The platform prioritises ease of use over complexity, aiming to let non-programmers quickly build and deploy business modules. Each module handles both data and workflow for key business processes.

Industry-agnostic, the platform offers engines for user interfaces, workflows, rules, and calculations. It is ideal for building process-driven modules, from bug tracking to full asset management, with centralised data, constant access, and enhanced security.

Platform

The Platform is comprised of a collection of engines at the server layer. They are written in Java and are stateless, allowing them to scale up or down as demand changes. An important added benefit of statelessness is fault tolerance; if a node crashes, a user is redirected to a new node with no interruption in service.

The web tier delivers a UI comprised of 100% HTML/CSS/JavaScript. There are no client-side libraries to install; all a user needs to do is connect to a web browser.

Finally, the persistence layer is made up of the following components (all clustered):

• The Database, a traditional OLTP data store
• The Data Depot, a near-real-time operational data store; this is where reports and ad hoc SQL run, so normal Production usage isn't affected by long-running queries
• The Search Core, an in-memory search engine that underpins all searches and Business Intelligence functions, including alerts and notifications

Applications

A solution or application can be configured from a single module or multiple modules depending on its complexity. A module can contain data collected in fields, have workflows tasks and steps from initiate to close, and follow business rules that hide fields or steps.

Applications are production-ready and enterprise-class. They come with business-oriented features, such as:

• Robust workflow and task assignment rules
• A central dashboard for managing tasks
• Fast, integrated in-memory search, including search across attached documents
• Export to PDF, including attachments
• History tracking
• A workflow audit trail
• Email notifications
• Exposure over web services and interface mapping
• Ad hoc reporting, charting, and analytics
• Intelligent monitoring with trend notifications
• Users, roles, and reporting authorities for segregating data across departments and business units

Subscriber Area

The architecture achieves scalability by sharing resources across multiple subscribers and ensures rigorous security and uptime at a fraction of what it would cost to deliver that on a customer-by-customer basis.

The trick to sharing resources is doing that while still maintaining separation of data, which is accomplished by putting a subscriber in their own database or by putting them in a shared database but segregating the data by foreign key. The two approaches are equivalent from the subscriber's perspective and the decision to do one or the other rests solely with the Technical Operations team based on hosting requirements.

Environments

Each subscriber has multiple operating environments (Subscriber areas) used for various stages of software development. Module configuration of new enhancements or changes is initially built in the lowest environment until the changes have been successfully tested and promoted to the next environment.

The subscriber environment areas are:

1. Build: The area where module developers build modules.
2. Design Verification Test (DVT): The area where developers and subscribers initially test modules.
3. User Acceptance Testing (UAT): A close replica of the Production environment with both test and production data, where developers and users test modules.
4. Production: The area where users perform their job assignments on live objects.

Notifications turned off in build and test areas
Notifications are disabled in all non-production areas. This prevents issues where users could receive assignments or emails from a test area.