Powering Up SharePoint and Office 365 with Custom Solutions
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Powering Up SharePoint and Office 365 with Custom Solutions
- 1. POWERING UP SHAREPOINT AND OFFICE 365 TO SOLVE REAL BUSINESS PROBLEMS Scott Restivo Crow Canyon Systems, Inc. www.crowcanyon.com
- 2. crowcanyon.com Scott Restivo, CEO Crow Canyon Systems, Inc. Email: scott.restivo@crowcanyon.com Office: 1 707 746-5272 Blog: http://www.crowcanyon.com/blog Twitter: @crowcanyonsw PRESENTER
- 3. crowcanyon.com About Crow Canyon • Founded in 1999 • Main Office: Benicia, CA • 5500+ Installations Worldwide • 100+ Custom Development Projects • We have been building business applications on Microsoft platforms for almost 20 years. • Successful delivery of many programs, both out-of-the-box and custom development projects, to organizations worldwide.
- 4. crowcanyon.com What I will cover today 1. Common Business Application Challenges 2. Out-of-the-Box SharePoint /Office 365 – Good Enough? 3. “The Three Pillars of Application Design” 4. Power To The People -- Options to Enhance SharePoint Q&A
- 5. Business Challenges Houston, we have a problem
- 6. crowcanyon.com Organizational Challenges • Corporate Directives • “Move to the Cloud” Initiatives • “Digital Workplace” • User Adoption Issues • Company Growth • Mergers or Splits • Regulatory & Compliance Requirements The times they are a changing’ Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan
- 7. crowcanyon.com Need Another Set of Applications • Emails/Spreadsheets – Limited collaboration – No tracking & reporting – Lack of accountability – Limited access & scalability • Legacy Systems – Outdated technology – Discontinued Support • Enterprise Software – Expensive – Feature overkill – Lack of customization • Adhoc/Homegrown – Developer-dependent – Issues with Support & Upgrades
- 8. crowcanyon.com “DIGITAL WORKPLACE” Buzzword du Jour? What is a Digital Workplace? Gartner’s definition, which emphasizes a consumer-driven viewpoint: “The digital workplace is an ongoing, deliberate approach to delivering a more consumer-like computing environment that is better able to facilitate innovative and flexible working practices”. https://www.gartner.com/doc/3034922/digital-workplace-key-initiative-overview
- 9. SharePoint Out-Of-The-Box Is it enough?
- 10. crowcanyon.com SharePoint Out-of-the-Box • Sites, Site Collections • Lists & Libraries • Permissions • Views/Filters on lists • Columns • Integration with AD
- 11. crowcanyon.com But SharePoint Needs More • What about: – Forms? – Workflows? – Custom columns? – Email sync? – Reporting? – Database integration?
- 12. Three Pillars of Application Design Crow Canyon’s Approach
- 13. crowcanyon.com Three Pillars of Application Design UI/UX Workflow and Business Processes Reporting
- 14. crowcanyon.com UI/UX & User Adoption Low User Adoption Rates in SharePoint Source: 2015 AIIM Report
- 15. crowcanyon.com GO FROM THIS TO THIS
- 16. crowcanyon.com Why is UI/UX important? • Drive User Adoption (engage users) – Ease-of-use – Simplicity – Information at your fingertips – Attractive visual elements • To power up User Adoption, look for: – Forms Manager/Dynamic Forms – Custom Columns – Portals for Employees, Customers – Configurable Workspaces – Dashboards to present key information – Branding to match corporate “look and feel” – Responsive Design
- 17. crowcanyon.com Good Forms • Are Interactive • Are Dynamic (show/hide fields) • Validate inputs / Have required fields • Pull information from other data sources • Initiate workflows & business processes
- 18. crowcanyon.com Tabbed SharePoint List Form • Tabs • Dynamic forms • Tab permissions • Column permissions • Mandatory fields • Field validation • Custom fields • Related Items • Database Integration
- 19. crowcanyon.com Custom Columns • Cascaded Lookup • Cross-site Lookup • Color Choice • Associated Items • Discussion Column • User Profile Info (AD) • Database Connections
- 20. crowcanyon.com Portals • Custom .NET pages • Configurable • Security Proxy • One Site or Multiple Sites • Very Flexible
- 21. crowcanyon.com Portal Forms Submit Ticket View Tickets
- 22. crowcanyon.com List Views • Highlighting, Color Indicators, Bolding, Choice of Views
- 23. crowcanyon.com Configurable Workspaces • Role-based • Easy to configure • Many web parts available • Visual displays • Pertinent information is readily available
- 24. crowcanyon.com Dashboards Current information shown graphically • Visual displays • Counters • Gauges • Meters • Drill-down
- 25. crowcanyon.com Branding • Logo • Colors • Fonts • Layout • “Tone”
- 26. crowcanyon.com Mobile / Responsive Design • Growing use of mobile devices • Flexible, anywhere access to data
- 27. crowcanyon.com Three Pillars of Application Design UI/UX Workflow and Business Processes Reporting
- 28. crowcanyon.com Work, work, and more work! Are we having fun yet?
- 29. crowcanyon.com Work can flow … … easing tasks and effort.
- 30. crowcanyon.com How? Workflows to the rescue! • Automate important business tasks and provide: – Visibility – Accountability – Full lifecycle tracking – Communication
- 31. crowcanyon.com Common Business Workflows • Marketing – Creating content, publishing content, lead nurturing • Sales – Leads to Opportunities, Sales Forecasting • Human Resources – Onboarding, Leave Requests, Benefit updates, Travel requests • Purchasing – Requesting, ordering, receiving, deploying • IT – Trouble Tickets, Hardware Requests, Change Requests – Asset Maintenance, Inventory Tracking, Equipment reservation … and on and on and on!
- 32. crowcanyon.com Mapping out the process Important to understand the process and have it mapped out– before building the workflow. • What business need(s) are you trying to solve? • What is the current work process -- highlights, pain points, bottlenecks? – What key steps in the current process can be automated using SharePoint. – What key pain points and bottlenecks can the SharePoint solution overcome? – What “soul-crushing” work can be eliminated or automated? – As a rough estimate, how much time can be shaved off the existing work process? This will help determine a return on investment (ROI). • What would users/business owners like to see happen? Ideally, how should things work? • What improvements can SharePoint workflows/automation bring?
- 33. crowcanyon.com Onboarding–simple workflow Create Account Grant Access Setup PC DONE!
- 35. crowcanyon.com Workflow functions • Routing • Approvals • Alerts/Notifications • Service Level Agreements • Auto Assignment/Escalation • Recurring Items - Tickets/Tasks • Sub-tasks & linked Items • Printing of lists or items • Email synchronization • Database integration
- 36. crowcanyon.com What triggers a workflow? • Item created • Item modified • Item deleted • Date/Time field on Item • Absolute time • Manual kickoff (button on form or ribbon) • Other actions can trigger workflow Could also be based on meeting certain conditions Field(s) equals/not equals/contains/is greater or less than/begins with/etc. Multiple Conditions may apply
- 37. crowcanyon.com What actions take place? In what order? Are they dependent on each other? • Create Item • Delete Item • Update Item • Send Email • Print Item • Run Web services • Run Stored Procedures • Update database • Run another workflow
- 38. crowcanyon.com For example: When an Item is created: If the Priority is “High” and the Category is “Network”: Notify Director Set Due Date to 4 hours Assign to Team One TRIGGER: When an Item is created: CONDITIONS: If the Priority is “High” and the Category is “Network”: ACTIONS: Notify Director [Send Email action] Set Due Date to 4 hours [Update Item action] Assign to Team One [Update Item action] -- Notify Team One [Another workflow kicked off by this action]
- 40. crowcanyon.com Mapping out the process - diagrams/presentations • Whiteboard for simple presentations • Mockups in the tools themselves – Create some proof-of-concepts • Wireframes - for more elaborate workflows and for executive sign-off – Microsoft Visio – Microsoft PowerPoint – Balsamiq (http://www.balsamiq.com/) – Many other workflow design tools
- 43. crowcanyon.com Simple Questions Does it save time and money? Does it make someone’s job easier or better?
- 44. crowcanyon.com Three Pillars of Application Design UI/UX Workflow and Business Processes Reporting
- 45. crowcanyon.com Why are Reporting & Analytics important? • To answer key business questions: – Are we meeting our service level goals? – Is the staff performing optimally? – What are the most common issues? – What is blocking better performance? – How can we improve?
- 46. crowcanyon.com • Key business questions: – Are we meeting our service level goals? – Is the staff performing optimally? – What are the most common issues? – What is blocking better performance? – How can we improve? • Tools that help answer these questions: – Report Center – Dashboards – Tiles & Dials – Data Integrations (Excel, SSRS) – Power BI Why are Reporting & Analytics important?
- 47. crowcanyon.com Reporting & Analytics: Continuous Cycle of Improvement • Find root causes and fix them – Hardware – Software – Procedures – People
- 49. crowcanyon.com Report Center – Office 365
- 50. crowcanyon.com Report on Important Stats Example: Open Tickets by Staff
- 51. crowcanyon.com Dashboard Pages Bring Visibility
- 55. crowcanyon.com Three Pillars of Application Design UI/UX Workflow and Business Processes Reporting • Forms Manager • Dynamic Forms • Custom Columns • Employee & Customer Portals • Configurable Workspaces • Responsive Design • Branding • Workflow Manager • Ticket Routing • Alerts/Notifications • Service Level Agreements • Auto Assignment/Escalation • Recurring Tickets/Tasks • Sub-tasks & Linked Items • Print Manager • Email Synchronization • Database Integration • Report Center • Dashboards • Tiles & Dials • Data Integration
- 56. How to Power Up? Options
- 57. crowcanyon.com • Build-Your-Own using components or platforms OPTIONS • Third-Party Applications • Custom Development
- 58. crowcanyon.com Build-Your-Own using components/platforms – Apps (available in Office Store and from vendors) – Web Parts (available from multiple vendors) – Platforms (Nintex, K2) – Visual Studio – SharePoint/Office 365 native capabilities • Standard lists and libraries • SharePoint Workflows • SharePoint Designer • InfoPath Forms • Microsoft Flow/Power Apps OPTIONS Concerns/Issues • Need to know the tools and how to use them • More important: need to know how to design and build an application. • Costs in time and fees • Often requires hiring a consultant or developer • Support is an issue when that person or group moves on
- 59. crowcanyon.com Third-Party Applications – Fully supported – Regular upgrades – QA / Tested – Quick to implement – “Battle-hardened” – mature, in use at multiple locations – Configurable without coding using utilities built into the application OPTIONS Concerns/Issues • Reliable, known vendor? • Reasonable support/maintenance fees? • Is there a suitable application out there? • Time and effort of trials and selection
- 60. crowcanyon.com Custom Development using outside firm • Means hiring company skilled in development and project management • Usually involves RFP’s, vendor selection, contract negotiation. • Appropriate for specialized projects OPTIONS Concerns/Issues • Finding reliable, known firm • Keeping costs under control • Keeping project on track • Change management
- 61. crowcanyon.com • Build-Your-Own using components/platforms • Third-Party Applications • Custom Development OPTIONS
- 62. crowcanyon.com Crow Canyon NITRO™ Layer
- 63. crowcanyon.com Crow Canyon NITRO™ for Office 365 is 100% native Office 365 • Uses Apps and Add-ins built specifically for Office 365 • Uses no sandboxed solutions or legacy on-premises features or code • Follows all Microsoft standards for Office 365 development Crow Canyon NITRO™ for SharePoint 2013 or 2016 (on-premises) • Uses web parts and apps built specifically for SharePoint on-premises • Pre-built components deliver a wide-range of capabilities • Follows all Microsoft standards for SharePoint development Crow Canyon NITRO™ Layer
- 64. crowcanyon.com Crow Canyon Applications • Help Desk • Asset Management • Customer Service • Facilities Requests • Equipment Tracking • HR Requests • Purchasing
- 65. crowcanyon.com Crow Canyon Applications • Security Access Requests • Onboarding • Compliance Workflows • Document Management • Marketing Materials • Membership Services
- 66. crowcanyon.com Crow Canyon Custom Projects • Claims Management for Insurance Provider • Check Vouchers • Quote Generator • Guideline Documents • Critical Essential Assets • Freedom of Information Requests • Laboratory Setup & Equipment Management