MAKE THE MOVE FROM IBM LOTUS NOTES AND OPTIMIZE YOUR BUSINESS APPS

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1 MAKE THE AND OPTIMIZE YOUR BUSINESS APPS Despite the enormous market share that IBM Lotus Notes has earned since its release in 1989, many organizations are now finding that the combination of IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino no longer meets their needs. Many companies are migrating to other solutions, like Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft SharePoint, but they find that their business applications are a challenge because their IBM Lotus applications don t migrate: instead the applications have to be rebuilt in the new environment. An ideal solution for efficiently rebuilding these applications would leverage an organization s existing IT investments. It would provide the organization with the applications that meet its current needs while also helping to evolve applications to meet the organization s future business needs. Building business applications with K2 blackpearl provides these benefits. It enables IT non-specialists to build any application by using visual tools coupled with reusable components, which can help speed up future app development. K2 blackpearl comes ready out of the box to integrate with all an organization s line-of-business (LOB) systems and to provide mobile apps so that users can be productive from anywhere, on any device.

2 BREAKING UP CAN BE HARD TO DO: MOVING OFF OF IBM LOTUS NOTES When the client/server combination of IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino (now IBM Notes and IBM Domino) came on the market in 1989, this collaborative enterprise solution did a number of things that were cutting edge at the time. Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino offered , an early form of instant messaging and importantly for a number of organizations a means for non-specialists to build business applications. However, a number of enterprise solutions now also perform these functions and were designed to be agile and flexible in ways that Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino never were. For example, Lotus Notes doesn t have built-in reports and dashboards that provide visibility into applications and processes; this makes reporting a time-consuming process. Moreover, Lotus Notes also doesn t have built-in mobile capabilities for business applications. Enterprisese may thus be discouraged from building their own mobile apps for Lotus Notes due to the time and money it takes to build and manage apps, to say nothing of the resources required to manage upgrades and updates once the apps are deployed. Many organizations are moving, or planning to move, off of Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino to enterprise solutions like Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft SharePoint. This can, however, pose a major challenge for the IT organizations migrating off of Lotus Notes: while the Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino components that supply the , unified communications and data underlying the business applications are relatively straightforward to migrate to other solutions, the actual business applications that use Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino components cannot be migrated. These applications must be rebuilt in the new environment. DEFINING THE RIGHT SOLUTION FOR REBUILDING APPS Organizations that are looking to switch their enterprise solutions from Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino to ones like Microsoft SharePoint and Office 365 have to balance a number of competing needs. They need to decide which applications to rebuild in their new environments rebuilding all of them is not practical. These organizations also need to rebuild specific applications quickly. What would a business-application platform that could help organizations rebuild their applications look like? Ideally, it would: Allow users to easily rebuild simple or complex applications Capitalize on existing investments in solutions like SharePoint and Office 365 without code development Enable end-to-end application management Permit easy application evolution and lifecycle management Let s look at each of these points in greater detail. p.2

3 TOP 4 REASONS TO MAKE THE Efficiently rebuild applications Because of the huge penetration IBM Lotus Notes enjoyed in the enterprise market, many organizations rely on the business apps they have on it. But waiting months (or years) for IT or third-party consultants to rebuild those apps is not an option, so app-development tools need to be easy to use, ideally enabling non-specialists to build apps without needing to re-code them. Such tools need to be simple but not simplistic. The tools need to be powerful enough to support creating enterprise-class applications that meet business needs. Organizations have processes that interact with and generate data across a number of LOB systems, both on premises and on the Web. Ideally, businesses app-creation tools would enable organizations to build apps that can integrate with all of these systems. These app-creation tools also need to enable development of Web and mobile apps that can be used from any device and at any time. A challenge with IBM Lotus Notes for a lot of organizations is that it has few mobile options, none of which are applicable to business applications. Modern users need to access business data from anywhere, at any time, to stay productive. Manage applications from end to end Beyond creating apps, a business-application platform needs to enable managing business applications across the enterprise. This includes creating enterprise-class applications that can meet business needs. Such management features should include out-of-thebox reports, audit trails and error handling capabilities to give organizations visibility into exactly how their applications are running, making it easy to react to bottlenecks or inefficiencies. Management features should also include enterprise-class error handling and authentication methods. Evolve applications to meet changing business needs Another reason to have a solution that enables non-developers to build apps is that business needs change. If a solution requires consultants to code custom applications for a year, the needs of the business will likely have changed by the time the solution is finished and the apps will be difficult (or impossible) to easily change. Enabling users to build apps also has the advantage of reducing bottlenecks when compared to waiting for an overworked IT department to build those apps. After all, who knows the business needs better than the users themselves? Leverage existing investments Business-application solutions need to leverage the IT investments that an organization has already made. For many organizations this might include a large Microsoft infrastructure, including Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office solutions. It might also encompass other critical LOB systems on premises and on the Web, such as SAP and Salesforce.com solutions. Being able to easily reuse and repurpose parts of business applications is another way to efficiently meet changing business needs. Even if some apps themselves are not used, pieces of those apps can still be of use. And reusability can also speed up app development. No other solution is as enterprise ready, capable in its enterprise workflow and task management, has the ability for rich forms that are able to integrate to multiple SharePoint instances, and has a no-code integration into SAP. COLLABORATION SERVICES MANAGER Global leader in energy and automation technology p.3

4 BUSINESS APPS BY K2 BLACKPEARL K2 blackpearl is a low-code business-application platform that bridges the gaps between people and systems. It helps automate business processes and workflows and connects people with the right information at the right time. It increases efficiency and enables smarter and faster decision making, so people can focus on their businesses instead of processes. The K2 platform works by securely drawing real-time information from SharePoint and other LOB systems in your environment after you have migrated from IBM Lotus Notes. The platform presents that data to users through intuitive visual interfaces that are easy to create. K2 blackpearl provides visual, drag-and-drop design tools that let LOB managers and users create or modify business apps quickly, as their needs and circumstances change. Work smarter, build faster with reusable components Crucially, the K2 platform lets users create reusable application building blocks called SmartObjects. When users configure these building blocks once, they become preconfigured business objects that can be used by any business app that works with different data and systems across your organization. For example, you could create a SmartObject that represents an employee. The SmartObject can encapsulate data and functionality associated with that employee, such as: Core information from Active Directory Salary and organizational tree information from a human-resources application Connections and role-based access associated with the employee from the user-profile services in SharePoint Then, when you pull that employee SmartObject into any number of K2 business apps, the properties you have defined come with it. You can then interact with information about that employee directly from the app, while the data remains secure across multiple systems of record. Leveraging reusable SmartObjects can significantly accelerate solution delivery and can reduce costs by eliminating the need for solution specialists. Figure 1. Because K2 SmartObjects are reusable across different apps, you can leverage them to speed up app development. p.4

5 This patented technology lets you build data entities once and leverage the information across multiple applications, including K2 workflows and forms, SharePoint or any other.net application. Furthermore, the ability to reuse a SmartObject means that applications become progressively faster and easier to create as you expand your inventory of these powerful building blocks. Your organization can roll out numerous applications within a relatively short time under the care and supervision of IT. And if there is a change, you only need to make one update for that change to be automatically reflected in all apps that use the SmartObject. Reusability also helps you meet the changing needs of your business. If your business apps no longer meet your needs, you can either redesign them to meet your new needs or repurpose components from those apps, including the SmartObjects created to support them. What s more, any business user can make these design changes: there s no need to describe the desired changes to IT or to wait for consultants to furnish inflexible solutions. Currently in production we have 25 workflow applications, some of which are quite extensive, doing around 2,000 cases a day. We are currently growing with 10 workflow applications each quarter. New components in the technology stack, like the K2 Designer for SharePoint can considerably increase the speed with which we design workflows and bring them to production. WOUTER FABER Operations lead, workflow center of excellence, Shell Corporation Visit k2.com/customers/shell to read the case study. Out-of-the-box data integration K2 blackpearl provides out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft solutions, like Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Share- Point, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word, in addition to SAP, Salesforce.com and Oracle solutions. K2 blackpearl can also connect with almost any Web data source, giving your workforce access to all the business information they need in one place at the same time. And because your business applications are accessing multiple LOB systems from one centralized location, users don t need to spend the time and effort to log in and out of multiple systems. p.5

6 Users become app builders with low-code visual tools The K2 business-application platform provides a familiar user interface and intuitive wizards to help your users quickly build business applications to solve common business problems. When your organization has needs that are not covered by the wizards, you can quickly get new applications up and running by using visual tools that require no programmer time. Multiple design canvases are optimized for both technical and non-technical users, allowing business and IT users to collaborate on building and running the applications. One advantage of empowering users to build business applications is that it avoids key business knowledge getting lost in translation between business users and IT. It also prevents IT from becoming a bottleneck in creating business applications and it helps keep your developers focused on mission-critical projects. Figure 2. K2 Studio provides users with a visual interface to quickly build even complex business applications with no coding. K2 mobile apps K2 mobile apps for ios, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry give users access to all of their tasks generated in K2, across all processes, from a single interface. Your workforce will know precisely what work needs to be done and where their assigned tasks came from. And the ability to sync the K2 Task List mobile app and then use it while offline allows users to remain productive, even if they don t want to pay for Wi-Fi on the plane. Figure 3. K2 mobile apps give you access to all of your K2 tasks, across all processes, from a single interface. (The K2 Task List app is pictured here on an Apple ipad device.) p.6

7 K2 BLACKPEARL IN ACTION WITH SOLUTIONS LIKE MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT There are limitless ways to automate business processes and build business applications on solutions like Microsoft SharePoint with K2 blackpearl. Whether rebuilding application functionality you had on IBM Lotus Notes or creating net-new business applications, consider these examples to get a sense of what you could do with K2 blackpearl. Workflow automation The credit union where Jillian works prides itself on knowing its members and giving them prompt service. However, originating loans is still paper-intensive and takes days to complete. applications, ranging from enrolling employees in Oracle for HR to creating their network credentials in Active Directory. Worse, because data entry is different for each application, new employees have to fill out several different forms at each stage of the onboarding process. Jillian would like to automate the process as much as possible while making better use of her credit union s SharePoint platform. But the prospect of building out SharePoint to do this seems daunting. Worse, while much of the credit union still uses the on-premises SharePoint deployment, some parts are experimenting with SharePoint Online, which Jillian fears will hopelessly complicate automation. K2 changes that for Marco. He can bring data from all 17 different applications including Web services directly into an onboarding workflow that he created in SharePoint. Beyond the efficiencies of automating the workflow, Marco is also able to easily make consistent, reusable forms for data entry, further speeding the process. Independent apps that use SharePoint data By using K2 blackpearl, Jillian is able to quickly build workflows in SharePoint by using K2 s drag-and-drop design tools. Between the K2 wizards for configuring common SharePoint workflow scenarios and the K2 custom logic and rules engine, Jillian is able to build a SharePoint workflow application that precisely fits her credit union s loan process all without any coding. Better still, Jillian s new workflow app works with lists and libraries across multiple SharePoint sites, including those residing on SharePoint Online. As an added bonus, the K2 mobile options allow Jillian s team members to access workflow tasks from their phones and tablets. As a result of the workflow app, loan origination at Jillian s credit union now takes hours instead of days, which means lower costs for members seeking loans. Forms and line-of-business data Employee onboarding is a chore and a challenge at the firm where Marco works in human resources (HR).1 Despite his firm investing heavily in its Microsoft infrastructure, processing new hires requires using 17 different Patient-care coordination is a challenge for the hospital at which Jenny works.1 Ideally, the doctors that Jenny supports would be able to assess trends among patients and flag high-risk patients in real time. As things are, doctors and nurses have to interact with different applications and SharePoint sites just to order medications and schedule tests none of which are easy to use from the tablets that doctors carry with them while on the hospital floor. By using K2 blackpearl, Jenny is able to build a mobile app that runs independently from SharePoint while still making use of the hospital s extensive SharePoint investment. Jenny s app blends data from several of the hospital s applications with data from SharePoint lists, without having to open SharePoint. And because K2 enables steps in the workflow underlying the app to trigger, based on any change in patient data or status recorded in those applications, the app is able to automate processes based on risk assessments. p.7

8 MAKE THE Rebuilding your business applications after migrating off of IBM Lotus Notes can be a substantial challenge because it requires recreating business functionality that accumulated over years and possibly decades of use. However, with good organization, the rebuilding process can be an opportunity that helps you weed out redundant, obsolete and poorly built applications and replace them with apps that span the entire organization and that are extensible and flexible. A solution like K2 blackpearl can help make the challenge of rebuilding your business applications more manageable. Its visual, easy-to-use tools help ensure that you are not dependent on consultants or even your IT department to build apps. The reusability of K2 SmartObjects also means that you can leverage the apps that you have already built to create new apps faster; it also makes updating apps to meet changing business requirements easy. Ultimately, using K2 to quickly and efficiently rebuild apps from your previous IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino environment means that your workforce can focus on the business rather than processes. To see K2 in action, visit k2.com/contact-us to request a demo. Copyright 2015 SourceCode Technology Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. SourceCode software products are protected by one or more U.S. patents. Other patents pending. SourceCode, K2, the four squares logo, K2 blackpearl, K2 connect and K2 smartforms are registered trademarks or trademarks of SourceCode Technology Holdings, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks or product names are property of their respective owners.