XMPro Turns SharePoint From Good To Great

Transcription

1 XMPro Turns SharePoint From Good To Great January 2010

2 XMPro Turns SharePoint From Good To Great Contents 1. DON T GET STUCK IN AN OLD VERSION OF SHAREPOINT SEPARATE PROCESSES FROM THE PLUMBING NOT EVERYONE USES SHAREPOINT KEEP YOUR PROCESS KNOWLEDGE IN ONE PLACE KNOW WHEN TO HOLD EM, KNOW WHEN TO FOLD EM GET CONTROL OF YOUR END TO END PROCESSES ARE YOUR DOCUMENTS LINKED TO YOUR PROCESSES?

3 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single, integrated location where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members, find organizational resources, search for experts and corporate information, manage content and workflow, and leverage business insight to make better-informed decisions. 1 FIGURE 1 - A XMPRO GENERATED SCREEN IN SHAREPOINT Many organisations look to Microsoft SharePoint as their business portal for content and other business related information. They see it as the portal solution at the centre of their business intelligence where it needs to service users at operational, tactical and strategic level. But Microsoft SharePoint is not an Enterprise Workflow or process management tool. It serves many masters in an organisation. It is a platform designed to serve up information from a single integrated location. Similar to your database server, it provides a repository and delivery mechanism for much of the information in your organisation, but it is not the application that drives or utilises the information. It is the store. The complexity of the business requirements adds to the complexity of the configuration of Microsoft SharePoint and the skills that are required to implement and maintain it. Using XMPro as the Business Process Management (BPM) engine for Microsoft SharePoint reduces implementation time, business risk and enhances the process governance and Remember BPR (Business Process Redesign)? What happened to all those new and improved processes of the 1990 s? They ended up as transactional activities within systems such as ERP, CRM and the like; or, if they were process based, they likely ended up in a policy manual (eg. How to perform a credit check How to on-board a new employee How to conduct a stock take ). BPM (Business Process Management) takes the policies from these manuals into the automated, auditable modern world of computing ultimately transforming business into a predictable, measurable, repeatable, linked entity

4 security of the organisation and the overall effectiveness of the SharePoint solution. XMPro with Microsoft SharePoint simplifies enterprise BPM and ensures process integrity, security, maintainability and scalability. The following 7 tripwires for workflow or process automation highlight the risk of relying purely on Microsoft SharePoint and how XMPoint (XMPro for SharePoint) can address these business risks. 1. Don t get stuck in an old version of SharePoint Many ERP installations are stuck at an older version of the product due to the amount of customisation and bespoke development that was done. ERP users can not upgrade and access the latest features of the product that may address some of their new business requirements. Microsoft SharePoint projects suffer the same fate with programmers developing custom code in Microsoft Visual Studio and other developer tools to extend the functionality of Microsoft SharePoint. XMPoint allows SharePoint administrators to unplug the BPM component, upgrade or make major modifications to SharePoint and plug the process management functionality back without skipping a beat. It even allows business users to continue to use XMPro based processes in Microsoft Outlook or their favourite Internet browser during SharePoint maintenance. Business processes continue without any changes, as users benefit from new and improved features in the latest versions of Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft Office 2010 is tipped to have extensive new SharePoint functionality and XMPro based BPM will ensure continuity in the transition process. 2. Separate processes from the plumbing SharePoint administrators are specialists in configuring and maintaining SharePoint. It requires a unique set of skills. Business Process Management (BPM) requires a different set of skills. Skills to discover and map business process requirements, configure best of breed BPMS tools like XMPro and actively manage the process outcomes with process analytics and continues improvement initiatives. BPM tools have different requirements to the IT infrastructure that support them. XMPoint allows organisations to create and deploy secure and auditable processes that support the various governance and legal requirements that businesses have to comply with. XMPro separates business logic, process rules and mandate structures in the processes from the underlying transactional recording systems such as the ERP or accounting solutions. SharePoint administrators and business users can now focus on their core competencies. The segregation of the BPM duties from SharePoint administration tasks will support business and operational risk management requirements. The flexibility of XMPoint allows business users to define much of the functionality in XMPro based business processes and deploy them in SharePoint. XMPro ensures that process IP is maintained in a secure environment that will withstand the scrutiny of system audits. It will allow business users to configure their SharePoint based work portal with XMPoint web parts. This will ensure the integrity and security of the organisational 3

5 processes while extending the flexibility of the Microsoft SharePoint platform to the end users. Separate Processes from your IT infrastructure FIGURE 2 KEEP YOUR PROCESSES IN THE XMPRO PROCESS REPOSITORY 3. Not everyone uses SharePoint XMPoint utilises the same process definition and XMPro BPM engine as all other XMPro user interfaces. Not all users have to use SharePoint to share and collaborate on the same instance of a business process. XMPoint will render the process in the familiar list-based structure of SharePoint for SharePoint users, but other users may utilise Microsoft Outlook, an Internet browser or a mobile device to act on the same process. The XMPro Execution API even allows an organisation to embed XMPro in other applications in a bespoke or custom user interface. FIGURE 3 - XMPRO SUPPORT THE WAY YOUR BUSINESS WORKS Both Microsoft SharePoint users and non-sharepoint users can collaborate on the same process, extending the reach of SharePoint functionality such as content and records 4

6 management outside of the Microsoft SharePoint domain. It is the same process definition (process flow diagram), defined in the XMDesigner, that is rendered in the relevant user interface. One transaction, many user interface options. 4. Keep your process knowledge in one place The uncontrolled use and distribution of spreadsheets is a constant headache for business and IT managers alike. Vast amounts of organisational data is captured and stored on the local computers of business users and it doesn t add to effective data management, information and reporting practices of these organisations. Uncontrolled process workflow code for Microsoft SharePoint can have disastrous consequences if proper source control is not effectively managed. The challenge is that Microsoft SharePoint configuration is decentralised in many large organisations and organisational units are left to configure and use Microsoft SharePoint to their specific requirements. These distributed pockets of SharePoint excellence inevitably end up with bespoke components and code for their unique environment. This adaptive flexibility is one of the greatest benefits of Microsoft SharePoint but it needs to be well managed and controlled. Processes all in one place FIGURE 4 - ALL PROCESSES ACCESSIBLE IN ONE PLACE XMPoint provides a central, managed repository for all process definitions (process flows), associated business rules, application integration, web services code and the transactional data. It gives IT control over the technical environment from a source control and security 5

7 perspective while it allows business users and business units to create, deploy and optimise business processes based on their specific requirements. It gives visibility and traceability to the hundreds or thousands of processes that may be created in Microsoft SharePoint. Many organisations see their unique business processes as assets in their business and XMPro provides a register of the value of business processes and the control to manage them as business assets. 5. Know when to hold em, know when to fold em Continuous process improvement is one of the biggest benefits of a formal business process management approach. It allows organisations to define process performance metrics, evaluate current process performance against the metrics and adjust processes to improve performance. Changes to business processes need to be controlled and any changes must be traceable and auditable. Major changes may impact on transactions that are in process and data integrity needs careful consideration in any process change. XMPoint brings version management to Microsoft SharePoint processes. Each process definition (process flow and associated components) has a unique process version. Processes that are in progress can be completed based on the older version of a process while new instances will follow the new process definition. Processes can be rolled back to previous versions if necessary. Process audit trails are maintained based on the version of the process. FIGURE 5 - MANAGE PROCESS VERSIONS FROM ONE CENTRAL PLACE This allows business users to compare the performance of one version of a process with a prior version and drive continuous process improvement in an iterative way. XMPro s outof-the box process version management brings enterprise risk management principles to Microsoft SharePoint. 6. Get control of your end to end processes A great benefit of a business process management approach is that it looks at overall processes and not just snippets of workflow. It is not only about workflow or automation but managing a process to deliver a defined business outcome. XMPro is at the heart of many 6

8 process value chains and it brings the Process as an Application feature to Microsoft SharePoint. Composite Process Applications replace most of the bespoke development around ERP and other business applications. Composite processes integrate various stand-alone "process islands" allowing firms to quickly share and act on changes on demand. Typical examples of these process applications are: Target-to-Engage spans planning, creating, executing, and measuring marketing activities. Engage-to-Close starts with managing sales opportunities and follows the process through to negotiation and closing. Install-to-Maintain involves capturing, resolving, managing, and improving service for installed products. Request-to-Resolve covers responding to help requests, resolving problems, tracking resolutions and escalations, and enhancing service agreements. Source-to-Settle involves designing products, engaging suppliers for sourcing and procurement, and settling and analysing the process. Design-to-Deploy covers designing, sourcing, evaluating and deploying manufacturing. Plan-to-Produce spans planning, deploying, producing, and assessing production. Order-to-Support involves order entry, management, fulfilling and settling goods sold, and providing after-sales support. Plan-to-Act includes forecasting and planning to create operational business plans and budgets. Record-to-Measure covers recording, consolidating, and reporting financial transactions. Cash-to-Invest spans managing and positioning cash, executing deals, and managing risk. Propose-to-Complete involves planning, prioritizing, and managing resources and projects. Attract-to-Onboard begins with recruiting and ends with hiring and workforce enablement. Assess-to-Develop centres on workforce deployment, including training, evaluating, and assessing employees. Track-to-Deploy includes tracking workforce schedules, time, payment, and deployment. Plan-to-Reward involves managing workforce compensation, incentives, and benefits. The XMPro process application approach for Microsoft SharePoint delivers on Microsoft s vision for SharePoint as the single integrated location for all business users. 7. Are your documents linked to your processes? Business processes are filled with content but this gets lost in the transactional recording nature of business applications. ERP solutions are not good at storing a signed credit application with the customer information, for example. Much of the process content management in many businesses are manual tasks that depend on the diligence of employees to index and store associated business documentation. Reliance, repeatability and consistency are questionable with manual content management processes. 7

9 The focus of document management should not be around the technical nature of how we store and retrieve information. It should be how we make it available in the process audit trail while it is securely stored in the SharePoint document repository. XMPro provides standard, out-of-the-box support for indexing process related artefacts and uploading it to the relevant content list in Microsoft SharePoint. It leverages the features of SharePoint s record management functionality to ensure that documents that are subject to specific control policies are compliant to the requirements. Documents uploaded from a XMPro process can be tagged with the relevant process data to improve the quality and integrity of information in SharePoint. If you have SharePoint already, you should now be able to identify many ways in which XMPro can help your business to automate, control and manage your business processes, all whilst providing the audit trails necessary for the operation of low risk business. XMPro provides Return on Investment from all of your previous IT investments. We do this through leveraging and tying together all of your software applications which are required to run your business and we do this through interfaces you are already using such as SharePoint and Outlook. If your business could benefit from: Document Management Knowledge Management Process Automation Tight version control of SharePoint Tight business process Version Control Full integration of ERP, CRM, Sharepoint, Outlook, Policies, Documents and associated Manual Processes, Then you should be talking to us. We d be delighted to hear from you and we are sure we ve got a solution for you which will immediately reap ROI on all your IT investments. Why not give us a call? 8

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