The new version of Nous being presented by HTS in Uruguay before the second quarter of this year will include the first Nous Wizard built on an intelligent assistant to configure generic systems.
HTS focuses on creating information systems for industrial enterprises. With their specialized focus, they developed Nous based on the GeneXus Workflow technology. Nous is a SCM for the integral management of industrial transformation processes. It uses a visual language and divides the productive process in production lines. "Nous's critical spot has been the training to help the client understand the program and us to understand his business. That's the reason for creating Nous Wizard." explains Justo Miranda. NW is an intelligent assistant to configure Nous systems to manage industrial processes, which configures large applications, one of the crucial steps with few available systematic solutions.
NW, which has been used to configure Nous since March 1999, allows for the use of an industrial language - drawing- to communicate with the client and leave abstract concepts aside. As he points, this saves time and effort.
He explains that NW has the objects needed to understand the Workflow drawing, and transform it in the system configuration.
NW was conceived to configure a management and production system, but HTS aims to release a version offering these advantages to any application. The generic Wizard was first built for the company’s internal use, and then used to generate the NW for the new version of its product.
A very unusual use for Workflow
"In NW we make an unusual use of Workflow technology." says Miranda. Workflow describes flows between objects. It is used to describe the flow of the steps in the information system of an organization; that is, between steps already defined. However, in a production system what is described are the production processes, where the objective is clear but the tasks needed to reach it have not been previously defined. "NW widens the Workflow concept." states Miranda. By offering a tree of possible ways to follow to reach the objective, it uses the WF graph tool to describe the said process. "The WF is not built on a predefined map, but on a jungle where the paths are built by walking on them."
NW features
It fosters a systematic and natural top down process and allows automatic codification, even of composition formulas.
It also sets a homogeneous procedure by requiring the information needed step by step. This eases both the management control and the exchange between consultants and users. The consultant, as opposed to the user, is responsible for the next move, as he establishes which data to configure next. The accessory tools include programs to verify the data entrance in Excel or Word, as they are active components of the program.