The True Power Of Share Point Designer For Workflows - Presentation Transcript
Presented By
Peter Ward - Business Collaboration Manager
May 27th 2008
The conference call dial in will be put on mute for the presentation
Q&A – We will have time at the end of the presentation for questions
A copy of the presentation is on my blog: www.wardpeter.com
- Workflow – Why do it with SharePoint - Note: There is no such thing is a simple workflow - Why use SharePoint designer for workflows? - Ideal workflows In SharePoint designer - Challenges of SharePoint Designer based workflows - Where SharePoint designer reaches its workflow limits and the SharePoint alternatives
This is not a tip session
Approval
Workflow
Department
Expense Claims
Vacation Request
Monthly Report
News Release
Hiring Request (Web)
Interview Process
Hiring/Intake Process
“ On-Exit” Process
Helpdesk Process
Financial Planning
Proposal/Sales Process
Contract Approval
Localization / Globalization
Corporate
Content Management/Approval
Order Fulfillment
Inventory Management
Logistics
Wills / Estates / Incorporations
Quotation & Contract Costing
Exploration & Appraisal
Check Request Approval
Real Estate Buy/Sell
Collections
Internal Audit
Purchase Orders
Pharmaceutical Trial
Enterprise
Quality Management
Resource Planning
Procurement & subcontracts
Initial Public Offering
Enrollment & Administration
ISO 9000/9001 Control
Safety & Regulation Control
Cataloging & Distribution
Product Engineering
Claims Processing
Facilities Management
Bill Consolidation & Control
Succession Planning
Inter - Enterprise
Press Release
Drug Discovery
Treasury / Cash Management
Supply Chain Management
Customer Acquisition
Mergers and Acquisition
Trade Show Process
Airline Operation Maintenance
Contract Risk Mitigation
Harmonized Tariff Scheduling
Federal Audit Control
Cataloging & Distribution
Advertising Collection & Control
Out of the box
Browser based
SharePoint Designer
Replacement to FrontPage
Can handle more complex workflows
K2 – No code solutions
Custom development
Ideal Not Idea Simple approvals –Tick in the box Line of Business System Integration Complex Human Workflow Bus Activity Monitoring More than 2-3 people involved Collaborative Document Workflow Business 2 Business Dynamically Changing Workflow Short workflow lifecycles A process that isn’t fully defined
Document workflow and basic information sharing
List-based applications that are driven by forms – issue and project tracking, task management
Enterprise content applications – records management, contract management
Web content publishing
MOSS infrastructure management solutions or governance – site provisioning and lifecycle management
Organizations are investing heavily in MOSS to address a few solution categories where processes are a key element.
SharePoint customers face a challenge
SharePoint Designer is not for business users, power user experience.
We need a breadth of capabilities for our workflow solutions but don’t have the tools.
The transition from SharePoint Designer to Visual Studio is too great a leap.
We spend a lot of hours writing code to get simple things done. Avoiding this would be a huge benefit.
Bringing people, information, forms and content together is key. We need a standard framework that can support this requirement.
We want to empower people in the organization to participate in building workflow solutions and, at the same time, be sure IT governs these solutions.
We want to use SharePoint for business applications and solutions, but we are struggling:
Support the ability to move “Back” within a workflow
SharePoint Designer DO NOT have a simple solution for this basic requirement. START Declined Approval Approved Rework START Declined Approved Rework Approval START Declined Approved Approval Rework START Declined Approved Approval Rework START Declined Rework Approval Approved START
The ability to model business logic as part of the workflow decision making
Parallel approval SharePoint Designer DO NOT have easy solutions to basic business requirements. Approval Serial approval Declined Approved Approved Declined Approved Declined 3 people in the group select “Approved” 1 person in the group selects “Declined” OR Incorporate business rules Declined Approved Rework All users in a group must select “Approved,” one after another Incorporate business rules
… can become quite complicated Medium Approval High Approval Low Approval < 2K > 8K Declined Approved START (Serial) START $$ > 2K $$ < 8K False True Low Approval Declined Approved Clean up Update List False True Medium Approval Declined Approved Clean up Update List High Approval Declined Clean up Approved Update List
Conditions limited to “True” or “False”
Approval limited to “Approved” or “Declined”
Duplication of business logic
Processes not representing the business problem
Manual creation of workflow user interfaces
Limited to “True” or “False” Limited to “Approved” or “Declined” Duplication of business logic >> Maintenance nightmare >> Reporting no longer accurate >> Expensive!! START $$ > 2K $$ < 8K False True Low Approval Declined Approved Clean up Update List False True Medium Approval Declined Approved Clean up Update List High Approval Declined Clean up Approved Update List
A new platform? Custom development? What if your needs outgrow the capabilities of your approach? Will you have to start over?
Invest in a platform that can grow with your needs.
Invest in a platform that empowers the entire organization to participate.
Invest in a platform that can offer continuing return on investment.
Graphical workflow-design experience for business and technical users (one size does not fit all)
The ability to create applications that are not list, site, server or farm bound
The ability to apply custom workflows to content types, critical to ECM needs.
The ability to easily model and manage rework scenarios (eg. Send back for comments)
Ability to model serial approval steps
Custom actions based on rules (eg. Amount based approval) or roles
The need for Escalation scenarios - working hours, time zones , out-of-office,
Parent / Child processing, share of information between processes
– (eg. Special Approval)
Version control on both process and associate forms
Synchronous and Asynchronous
ASSEMBLE WORKFLOWS THAT SOLVE BUSINESS PROBLEMS
CREATE RICH FORM-BASED WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS
DISPLAY RELEVANT INFORMATION FOR EACH STEP IN THE WORKFLOW
CREATE WORKFLOWS THAT PRECISELY ADDRESS THE BUSINESS PROBLEM
CREATE RICH INFOPATH-BASED WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS WITH FORM SERVICES
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FULL INTEGRATION
MANAGE AND MONITOR PROCESSES THROUGHOUT THEIR LIFECYCLES
MANAGE TASKS FROM A CENTRALIZED WORKLIST
TROUBLESHOOT WORKFLOWS WITH K2’S ERROR REPAIR FUNCTIONALITY
TRACK THE PROGRESS OF YOUR REQUEST
REPORT ON PROCESS INSTANCES
The price makes it accessible to small, medium and large organizations:
Team Edition: $5,000 Enterprises or departments up to a maximum of 200 users and a single SharePoint server
Standard Edition: $10,000 Enterprises or departments with more than 200 users and a single SharePoint server
Enterprise Edition: $15,000 Enterprises or departments with more than 200 users and distributed SharePoint environments
Remember developers develop and build, not the best people skills
No maintenance on the product, however there is a salary
Version prisoner if the workflow gets complicated
Documentation can be a challenge with the application
Standardize on the workflow process
Here is your new desk. Informal Process Informal Results
Here is a new desk. Formal Process Formal Results
Email : Peter.ward@interdyn.com
www.wardpeter.com
Phone: 212 502 3937
Be part of the experience http://cadbury.horizonextranet.com/ Questions?
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