SharePoint's workflow engine explained by Peter Ward, InterDyn AKA www.wardpeter.com

1. Presented By Peter Ward - Business Collaboration Manager May 27th 2008

2. 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

5. - 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

6. Approval Workflow

7. 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

8. Out of the box Browser based SharePoint Designer Replacement to FrontPage Can handle more complex workflows K2 – No code solutions Custom development

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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:

12. 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

13. 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

14. … 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

15. 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

16. 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.

18. 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

19. ASSEMBLE WORKFLOWS THAT SOLVE BUSINESS PROBLEMS

20. CREATE RICH FORM-BASED WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS

21. DISPLAY RELEVANT INFORMATION FOR EACH STEP IN THE WORKFLOW

22. CREATE WORKFLOWS THAT PRECISELY ADDRESS THE BUSINESS PROBLEM

23. CREATE RICH INFOPATH-BASED WORKFLOW SOLUTIONS WITH FORM SERVICES

24. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FULL INTEGRATION

25. MANAGE AND MONITOR PROCESSES THROUGHOUT THEIR LIFECYCLES

26. MANAGE TASKS FROM A CENTRALIZED WORKLIST

27. TROUBLESHOOT WORKFLOWS WITH K2’S ERROR REPAIR FUNCTIONALITY

28. TRACK THE PROGRESS OF YOUR REQUEST

29. REPORT ON PROCESS INSTANCES

30. 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

31. 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

32. Here is your new desk. Informal Process Informal Results

33. Here is a new desk. Formal Process Formal Results

34. Email : Peter.ward@interdyn.com www.wardpeter.com Phone: 212 502 3937 Be part of the experience http://cadbury.horizonextranet.com/ Questions?