1. How We Did It
Tracking and Reporting on a NonLinear Process with InfoPath and PowerPivot
Sadie Van Buren
Presented to SharePoint Saturday Boston, 28 April 2012

2. About
 Sadie Van Buren
 Content Architect
 Working with SharePoint since beta 2003 version
 50+ SharePoint implementations
 Creator of the SharePoint Maturity Model
 Microsoft Certified IT Pro
 BlueMetal Architects
 Experts at building solutions that exactly meet the
needs of our customers by apply the right people,
processes and platforms.
 Focus on modernizing applications through expertise in
Creative, Social, Development and Data.
 Offices in Boston, New York and Chicago.
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3. Agenda
 Linear and Nonlinear Processes
 The Challenge
 The Solution
 Demo
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4. Submit
request
Approve
Request
Process
Request
Send
Materials
Submiter
Signoff

6. What is a nonlinear process?
 Recruiting
 Cost containment
 Innovation
 Building a brand
 Developing business strategy
 Ensuring happy customers
 Creating buzz
 “Going Green”
 Encouraging diversity
 Seeking business opportunities
 Increasing market share
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7. Request
Review
Copyedit
Graphics
Deliver

9. Request
Review
Copyedit
Graphics
COMPLIANCE

10. The Challenge
 Capture our process
 Get us off Excel
 Unify our global offices
 And do it using NO CODE.
 It has to look really nice,
 be intuitive to use,
 provide secured views by role,
 send automated notifications,
 and deliver powerful reporting.
And you can’t access the servers or Central Administration!
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11. The ROI
 Improve efficiency by reducing manual effort
 Standardize the process across global offices
 Speed up response time with automated
notifications
 Facilitate handoff among resources
 Surface request status to the requestor as well
as the working team
 Respond to questions with “paper trail”
 Track metrics of the process
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12. The Prereqs
 SP 2010 Enterprise
 with Infopath Services and PowerPivot
configured.
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13. Solution Design
 SP 2010 Site
 InfoPath form template, site content type, site
columns, & form library
 SP Designer workflow
 Audit list
 PowerPivot data feed
 Excel Services reporting
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14. The Site
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15. The Form
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16. The Workflow
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17. The Audit List
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18. The Reports
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19. Demo

20. Maturity of This Solution -
350
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21. Gotchas
 User Profile service data connection – a.k.a.
“the dreaded 5566 error”
 Kerberos
 Managed Metadata
 File interaction – attachments can’t be shown
via the icon in the form library, no easy way to
transfer them to a document library
 No data feed from InfoPath Form Library
 File attachment upload limit – 4 MB by default
And potentially many more!
4/28/12 #SPSBOS @sadalit

22. Resources
Color-coding (seen in request status on the
site):
http://blog.pathtosharepoint.com/2010/04/06/t
utorial-add-color-coding-to-your-sharepoint-
2007-calendar-in-15-minutes/
PowerPivot add-in for Excel:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/bi/powerpivot.aspx
4/28/12 #SPSBOS @sadalit

23. Thank You!
 Follow Up
 @sadalit
 Upcoming
 Join us for SharePint!
 The Skellig - 240 Moody St in Waltham
 Sponsored by RackSpace and BlueMetal Architects
4/28/12 #SPSBOS @sadalit