ShareVis allows you to leverage Windows SharePoint as a user-friendly front-end to more difficult to use, back-end legacy systems. SharePoint with ShareVis provides the occasional users in your enterprise with access to a multitude of systems to not only access information, but also to actively participate in business activities and tasks that they typically perform in their day-to-day responsibilities.
The standardization of Web technology across computers and operating systems has made the Internet a global concept crossing national boundaries and created a virtual universe in which the entire world's collected knowledge is available to everyone. The Internet has evolved to a point where we expect to have access to the world at large and to be connected to individuals and sources of information on a previously unheard of scale. We have thus come to expect to see the Internet-connected world as a direct source of information, products, and services.
How about a company's information and its Intranet sites - are we not to expect the same there? Companies typically have a large number of disparate systems that are required for the day-to-day operation of the business. We see sales automation systems and human resources applications each with their own syntax, use-model, and user interfaces. We find engineering systems where users need to master various CAD, PDM, and ERP products and where one can make a career out of understanding how to navigate a PDM system's data-model. So it is only fair to ask: how can a company's internal systems be made to appear as a company-wide interactive self-service infrastructure exposing appropriate services to a large number of "casual" users while leaving the uniquely qualified to master the full applications and the more demanding tasks?
Most desktop users today are familiar with the Windows Office paradigm and its applications and have, in one form or another, experienced collaboration and information sharing through shared and network drives. With Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) as the natural extension of the Office suite and ShareVis as the conduit of information sharing and process automation, you can insure a common user experience that resulting in reduced training and wider acceptance.
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Requirements for successfully linked solutions:
User Interface Consistency
Leverage WSS with ShareVis for collaboration and process automation tp provide users with a WSS-based use model and user experience. In this context it is important to understand that just presenting the target application's native client dressed up as a WSS Web Part is not enough - simply wrapping a difficult-to-use interface with the Web Part APIs results in a difficult-to-use Web Part. If that is the case then why not just provide a link to the application's own native client and train users in its use?
Rapid Turnaround and Continuous Improvement
Rapidly design, develop, and deploy a solution. ShareVis Workflow Designer and ShareVis FormEx web-forms enable non-programmers to easily create, modify, and improve process definitions ensuring ROI on even smaller projects. The ability by subject matter experts (not necessarily IT) to quickly modify and deploy business processes with continual process improvement further ensures high user acceptance and satisfaction.
Restriction of Functionality
Software systems that have been around for a number of years tend to suffer from feature bloat. Most follow an "80/20 rule," at the very least, where 20% of the features cover 80% of the use cases. In your legacy systems, it is likely that what non-power users want to do can be covered by a relatively small set of functionality, so why subject them to what they will never use?
Automatic Inputs
Where possible, provide inputs to your legacy systems behind the scenes. For example, SharePoint site information might tell you the department a user is in. Or, as another example, you might be able to create system inputs driven from a configuration file, database, or Web service based on column values in a SharePoint list. This functionality can be easily handled with ShareVis FormEx.
Integration
Integrate with and leverage data in legacy systems through pre-packaged ShareVis adapters or adapters for common ERP, PDM, and desktop systems using API's, ODBC/LDBC interfaces, XML, and SQL handlers.
Enabling activities and tasks to be performed by business users extending the use and acceptance of a company's infrastructure investments hold great promise. Let's explore some examples of process-based business and engineering processes that can be implemented using this approach:
Engineering change process involving a number of process participants and a PDM system
In this example the change is initiated by someone who fills in a ShareVis FormEx web-form with the required information. The specific parts to be changed can be "looked-up" or searched in the backend PDM system through a pre-packaged handler that is specifically written to serve the backend. To the person filling in the form the search appears just like any other look-up. Once the form is submitted and all the process participants have approved, the process triggers the back-end system to generate the required change orders. The power users then continue work on the changes using the regular PDM product.
Purchase Requisitions/Purchase Order Generation
Purchase requisition is a good candidate for business processes where a large number of users can start and submit a form that, after approval, automatically generates the purchase order. It is not uncommon, in today's world of corporate mergers and acquisitions, that corporations have more than one system for purchase order generation. A process could easily "hide" this fact and generate the purchase orders in the appropriate system based on the requestor's location or department.
Price change process involving a number of corporate functions and a backend ERP system
Assume the local field office needs to submit a price change request. The sales person launches the form, fills in the required information, and starts the process. The various participants, i.e., VP of sales, finance, etc., complete the information in the form as necessary and approve or reject the request. Once approved the price information in the ERP system is automatically updated.
New hire processing
A new hire needs to be set up with business cards, email account, and has to fill out and send in information for health insurance, etc. A human resources manager could start a form, completing the main information about the employee and select "check-boxes" for the processes that the new employee needs to complete. The main process can then "spawn" sub-processes that are routed to IT for email setup, to the employee with information to fill out for insurance, and other human resources-related tasks. The process will automatically monitor, remind, and ensure that when all tasks are completed, the respective systems are updated and the new employee is fully integrated into the company.
The potential human resources applications are endless and could of course also include, paid time-off requests, expense reports, travel requests. etc.
We believe that the emergence of SharePoint as the ubiquitous user platform of the future, coupled with process-driven access to information via ShareVis FormEx and DocEx will unlock the assets in the corporate workplace and accelerate the return of the often "hidden" values of these often large investments.
See detailed examples of ShareVis at work for:
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