These materials are © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any...

These materials are © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

www.k2.com


Business Apps for SharePoint® and

Office 365®

by Lawrence Miller, CISSP

K2® Special Edition


Business Apps for SharePoint® and Office 365® For Dummies®, K2® Special EditionPublished by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030‐5774 www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

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Table of ContentsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

About This Book ........................................................................ 1Foolish Assumptions ................................................................. 1Icons Used in This Book ............................................................ 2Beyond the Book ........................................................................ 3Where to Go from Here ............................................................. 3

Chapter 1: Using SharePoint Apps to Deliver Business Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Meeting the Needs of the Business .......................................... 6Staying flexible ................................................................. 6Staying secure .................................................................. 6Scaling across the organization ..................................... 7Moving to the cloud ........................................................ 7

Chapter 2: Exploring SharePoint Business App Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Considering Common SharePoint Application Scenarios... 11Form‐based applications .............................................. 11Forms and workflow ...................................................... 12Integrated business apps .............................................. 13

Chapter 3: Understanding Workflows and Forms in SharePoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Designing Forms Yourself and Creating Workflows that Drive Efficiency ............................................................ 17

Data capabilities ............................................................ 18Forms and interfaces ..................................................... 19Workflow design ............................................................ 21Task management .......................................................... 23Management and administration ................................. 24Reporting and analytics ................................................ 26

Integrating Data Across All Your Systems ............................ 27


Chapter 4: Getting Started with Business Apps in SharePoint and Office 365 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Thinking “Outside the Box” about SharePoint and Office 365 ....................................................................... 31

Understanding Your Needs .................................................... 32Planning for the Future ........................................................... 32Determining When a Third‐Party Vendor Can Help ............ 36

Chapter 5: Ten Features to Look for in a Third‐Party SharePoint Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Robust Workflow and Form Capabilities .............................. 40Visual Tools .............................................................................. 40No Code Required .................................................................... 41Mobile Access from Anywhere............................................... 41Real‐time, Secure Access to LOB Data .................................. 41Custom Reports and Audits.................................................... 42Capability to Integrate with Line‐of‐Business (LOB)

Apps and Data ...................................................................... 43Apps that Function the Same on Premises

and in the Cloud ................................................................... 43Adherence to Microsoft SharePoint Best Practices ............ 43A Single Product Solution ....................................................... 43

iv Business Apps for SharePoint and Office 365 For Dummies, K2 Special Edition


Introduction

O ver the past several years, organizations of all sizes have turned to SharePoint for their everyday portal and col-

laboration needs. As adoption has grown, organizations have started using SharePoint as a platform for business applica-tion development. According to a recent survey by Forrester, 52 percent of all SharePoint customers are building, or plan to build, custom apps in their SharePoint environments.

Although it has been common practice for some time, build-ing custom apps in SharePoint has proven difficult, sometimes resulting in unstable SharePoint environments. To address some of these difficulties, Microsoft introduced the App Model as part of its SharePoint 2013 release. The SharePoint App Model provides a framework for building custom SharePoint apps while still maintaining the integrity of an organization’s SharePoint environment.

The App model provides some great capabilities, but many app developers find it difficult to use and are still searching for a better way to build apps.

About This BookThis book explains common challenges encountered when building SharePoint business apps, what the implications are, and best practices for finding a solution that can make app development within SharePoint more successful for your organization.

Foolish AssumptionsIt has been said that most assumptions have outlived their uselessness, but I assume a few things nonetheless.

2 Business Apps for SharePoint and Office 365 For Dummies, K2 Special Edition


Mainly, I assume that you are a line-of-business (LOB) manager or department head in an organization of some sort — perhaps a small or medium business, large enterprise, nonprofit, or military or government agency. This book is therefore written primarily for nontechnical readers who don’t necessarily work in an IT department. If you are in the IT department, I assume that you are supporting an LOB man-ager in your business.

I also assume that you’re currently using Microsoft SharePoint and/or Microsoft Office 365 in your organization but are strug-gling to create easy-to-use business apps that will automate common workflows and forms, and help your various teams and departments be more productive in their daily work activities.

If the preceding assumptions describe you, this book is for you!

Icons Used in This BookThroughout this book, I occasionally use special icons to call attention to important information. Here’s what to expect:

This icon points out information that you should commit to your nonvolatile memory, your gray matter, or your noggin — along with anniversaries and birthdays.

You won’t find a map of the human genome here, but if you seek to attain the seventh level of NERD-vana, perk up! This icon explains the jargon beneath the jargon.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy the book, and please take care of your writer! Seriously, this icon points out helpful suggestions and useful nuggets of information.

This icon points out the stuff your mother warned you about. Okay, probably not. But you should take heed nonetheless — you might just save yourself some time and frustration.

3 Introduction


Beyond the BookI can cover only so much in 48 short pages, so if you find your-self at the end of this book thinking, “Gosh, this was an amaz-ing book, where can I learn more?” just go to www.k2.com.

Where to Go from HereWith my apologies to Lewis Carroll, Alice, and the Cheshire cat:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat — er, the Dummies Man.

“I don’t much care where . . . ,” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go!”

That’s certainly true of Business Apps for SharePoint and Office 365 For Dummies, which, like Alice in Wonderland, is also destined to become a timeless classic!

If you don’t know where you’re going, any chapter will get you there — but Chapter 1 might be a good place to start. However, if you see a particular topic that piques your inter-est, feel free to jump ahead to that chapter. Each chapter is individually wrapped (but not packaged for individual sale) and written to stand on its own, so feel free to start reading anywhere and skip around to your heart’s content. Read this book in any order that suits you (though I don’t recommend upside down or backwards).

I promise you won’t get lost falling down the rabbit hole!

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Using SharePoint Apps to Deliver Business Value

In This Chapter▶▶ Building better apps to support the business

▶▶ Adapting at the speed of business

▶▶ Keeping your data safe

▶▶ Supporting business growth

▶▶ Migrating from on-premises to the cloud

W hen Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server was intro-duced back in 2001, it focused mainly on providing

a document management and collaboration portal. Over the past decade and a half, SharePoint has grown to be much more, with many users viewing it as a web application plat-form. With the introduction of the SharePoint App Model, SharePoint 2013 became a more complete web application platform, allowing developers to build web-based applications served up through the SharePoint interface. Subsequently, there has been a rise in the number of organizations turning to SharePoint for their application needs.

In this chapter, you learn how SharePoint-based apps can deliver significant value to your organization.

Chapter 1

Business Apps for SharePoint and Office 365 For Dummies, K2 Special Edition 6


Meeting the Needs of the Business

As organizations embrace SharePoint as a core technology for their business, SharePoint users have found that the apps they are building need to do more. In fact, the rise of the “bring your own app” (BYOA) trend is making it increas-ingly difficult for IT departments to implement business apps and tools that will be used. Whether that means including additional business logic or providing a more intuitive user interface, meeting the business’s needs without turning to software code is getting harder. By using SharePoint’s out-of-the-box application platform capabilities along with third-party SharePoint add-ins to fill in the gaps, companies can build applications that meet users’ needs while keeping devel-opment time and costs down.

Staying flexibleBusiness is moving more quickly than ever, and organizations need to be agile enough to quickly adapt to changes. With more businesses running critical apps in their SharePoint environment, it’s important to be able to build apps that can adapt quickly as well. SharePoint-based apps provide a way to keep up with rapidly changing business needs while still providing easy-to-use tools that don’t require a lot of custom development time.

Staying secureSecurity breaches in organizations that handle consumer data are occurring far too often. Even if your company doesn’t handle large quantities of sensitive information, you need to make sure that your SharePoint applications are secure. With third-party integration options that provide real-time, secure access to line-of-business (LOB) data, you can combine all the benefits of a SharePoint app with integration points that are secure, regardless of where your information resides.

Chapter 1: Using SharePoint Apps to Deliver Business Value 7


Scaling across the organizationMany companies start small with their SharePoint app devel-opment, but it doesn’t take long for the rest of the organiza-tion to jump onboard, especially if the apps are built well. Having SharePoint used across departments in organizations of all sizes provides a great way to roll out applications across the entire organization without the need for a lot of additional training. Third-party additions can help ensure scalability and performance across all your applications, no matter how big they may be.

Moving to the cloudYour organization may not be moving to the cloud yet, but it’s bound to happen at some point. According to recent cloud computing research by the New Jersey Institute of Technology, 73 percent of the world’s data will reside in the cloud within the next two years (http:// graduatedegrees.online.njit.edu/mscs-resources/mscs-infographics/security-of-cloud-services/), and according to AIIM’s most recent survey of SharePoint users, 34 percent of organizations are planning to move to SharePoint Online (a cloud-based service hosted by Microsoft) for at least some of their content (http://www.aiim.org/Research-and-Publications/Research/Industry-Watch/SharePoint-2015).

To ensure that you have access to all the information your users need to make proper decisions, your apps need to be built to integrate with your data regardless of where it lives. With new capabilities being added to SharePoint 2016, run-ning a hybrid environment that spans on-premises and cloud environments will help ensure that your applications run seamlessly no matter where they are.

Lack of feature parity between on-premises and cloud-based SharePoint environments may mean additional implementa-tion challenges for many organizations that are moving to the cloud, but third-party tools can help ensure a smooth transition.

http://graduatedegrees.online.njit.edu/mscs-resources/mscs-infographics/security-of-cloud-services/



http://www.aiim.org/Research-and-Publications/Research/Industry-Watch/SharePoint-2015





Improved case management with K2 and SharePoint

Keoghs is one of the leading pro-viders of claims-related services to insurers, businesses, and other suppliers to the insurance sector. It combines proven processes, tech-nology, and a low-cost infrastruc-ture with deep legal and insurance market knowledge. This combination enables Keoghs to create individual solutions for each client that match the client’s requirements in terms of quality, performance, and value for money.

The legal services market in the United Kingdom is experiencing rapid change as a result of forces that include market consolida-tion, globalization, and regulatory change leading to greater corpora-tization, new legal structures, and an increased role for technology. As a forward thinker, Keoghs recog-nized the need to transform its busi-ness early to support its specialist teams and drive efficiencies through advanced technology.

As had many of its peers, Keoghs had implemented a Windows client-based legal case management solu-tion in the past. As the firm’s need to accelerate processes increased, this solution had become a rusty ball and chain, preventing rapid changes and limiting Keoghs’s ability to scale to meet customer demands.

When looking for a replacement solution, Keoghs, which refers to

itself as a nonconventional law firm, had several requirements that general law-firm-oriented case- management systems couldn’t meet. Keoghs’s focus on complex insur-ance claims, together with industry changes, required a level of process excellence typically associated with advanced business-process- management tools. These factors led Keoghs to choose a solution based on K2 and SharePoint.

Solution

Slicedbread was selected as the preferred partner by Keoghs to implement a single case- management solution, based on Slicedbread’s previous experience implementing large-scale claims case- management solutions using K2 and SharePoint. The solution, named Tracker, formed Keoghs’s main business application, running 95 percent of all its critical processes from case management to product development and client reporting. Slicedbread’s experience helped Keoghs reduce risk and accelerate implementation.

Tracker combined the power of SharePoint (across document management, unified desktop, col-laboration, and analytics) with K2 (to manage and optimize business processes and increase overall business maintainability), and Qorus DocGeneration.

Chapter 1: Using SharePoint Apps to Deliver Business Value 9


Designed to empower case handlers to coordinate, advocate, escalate, document, track, and report across their case portfolios, Tracker will enable caseworkers to make intelli-gent predictable judgments on cases and work allocation based on solid empirical evidence.

The solution also supports Keoghs’s lean principles, including:

▶✓ Reducing activities that add no client value

▶✓ Supporting adaptive case man-agement

▶✓ Empowering and guiding, rather than leading and preventing

▶✓ Favoring visualization rather than escalations

▶✓ Reducing IT bottlenecks to process management/process improvement

John Salt, Chief Information Officer at Keoghs, says, “Delivering so much

more than simply tracking to-dos, watching a calendar, and keeping a file of notes, the future of Tracker is to be truly dynamic — we have a vision of it knowing exactly what has been done and being able to handle anything that might be next, even if it’s not ‘what’s next’ on paper.”

Benefits

▶✓ Streamlined core processes including due diligence, drafting, negotiation, and risk assessment

▶✓ Reduced process “waste” and increased billable hours

▶✓ More efficient allocation of resources, improved quality, and more intelligent decision-making

▶✓ Quick adaptation of Keoghs’s processes to meet clients’ needs, enabling them to be more price competitive and responsive


Exploring SharePoint Business App Use Cases

In This Chapter▶▶ Managing data with intuitive, forms‐based apps

▶▶ Using workflows that drive efficiency across your entire business

▶▶ Working with integrated business apps

I n this chapter, you learn about common usage scenarios for forms, workflows, and business apps in SharePoint.

Considering Common SharePoint Application Scenarios

With the introduction of new capabilities and features on the SharePoint platform, users are building all types of SharePoint‐based applications, ranging from simple, department‐focused document approval workflows to mission‐ critical business applications that span an entire organization.

Despite that variety, some application types are better suited to SharePoint than others. Industry analysts like Gartner and others see the following application scenarios most often.

Form‐based applicationsSharePoint is often used as a repository for gathering data, so it’s no surprise that many SharePoint users are interested in creating forms applications that can be used to easily gather or update information within a SharePoint list or library.

Chapter 2



As an example, consider a common use case involving an employee suggestion box. Robert, the CEO of a mid‐sized manufacturing company, encouraged all his employees to send him suggestions on actions the company can take to improve. His employees weren’t shy about providing sugges-tions and often emailed him or even jotted down ideas on sticky notes, which were then hand‐delivered to Madeleine, Robert’s assistant.

Robert had a hard time keeping track of all the ideas and didn’t have a good prioritization system or even a way to easily update the company when an idea was implemented.

Madeleine used the company’s SharePoint site to keep track of many of her projects, and she suggested that implement-ing a suggestion box within SharePoint might solve Robert’s problem. Madeleine created a simple SharePoint list to store the suggestion information and included fields for priority and status. She added a form to the home page of the site that allowed users to add new suggestions and, using SharePoint’s out‐of‐the‐box web parts, created a dashboard page that gave everyone the capability to view new submissions, check on the status of ideas they submitted, and even vote on their favorite ideas.

With the centralized system for keeping track of suggestions, Robert could focus on getting more of his employees’ ideas implemented and saw significant improvements in the orga-nization’s day‐to‐day operations. He also planned to look at other forms‐based applications to implement in SharePoint, including an employee satisfaction survey and an asset‐ tracking system.

Forms and workflowApplications in this category include forms for gathering and updating information as well as workflow to handle that data in some way. Approval workflows are the most common use case in this category and include applications like leave requests, policy approvals, and service‐ticket requests.

Sarah, an HR specialist, was looking for a new way for her employees to submit leave requests for approval. She wanted approvals to be assigned to the appropriate HR person in

Chapter 2: Exploring SharePoint Business App Use Cases 13


each of her company’s regional offices. She wants to make it easy for employees to track their requests.

Working with James, a business analyst in the IT department, Sarah created a SharePoint workflow to handle leave requests, which were added to a SharePoint list. Using SharePoint’s integration with Active Directory, Sarah automatically pulled in the correct approver information based on the region of the employee submitting the request. The workflow that James added directed a task to the appropriate HR person, who could quickly approve or decline the request. Upon comple-tion of the process, the requesting employee received an email providing real-time updates on the status of the request.

Sarah also created some reports using the information in the leave‐request list, allowing her to track the different types of leave being requested and to look for trends across each region.

With the introduction of the new leave‐request system, Sarah has seen a decrease in the number of last‐minute leave requests and has received lots of positive feedback from employees who are excited about the improved visibility the request system gives them.

Integrated business appsThe final category of applications commonly built in SharePoint consists of more advanced form and workflow applications that span one or more other systems outside SharePoint. These applications may use SharePoint as the entry point because of its familiar end‐user interface, but often need to surface data from other systems or connect directly to the system to create or update new or existing information. Use cases in this category tend to be either organization‐wide or mission‐critical applications.

As an example, consider a customer help‐desk scenario. A large software company was looking for a new help‐desk package to replace its old, custom‐developed solution. Hana, the IT project manager in charge of the project, had trouble finding a solution that met all the company’s requirements. Not only did the solution need to handle common help‐desk needs such as escalations, it also needed to integrate with the



company’s customer relationship management (CRM) plat-form and provide an interface that didn’t require a lot of train-ing for the busy help‐desk staff.

During a project meeting, someone on Hana’s team suggested looking at developing a SharePoint‐based application that could meet all the company’s requirements. Hana knew that SharePoint offered some line‐of‐business integration capa-bilities as well as a workflow engine that she thought could handle their ticket‐routing needs. Gail, the help‐desk supervi-sor, was also excited about the idea because her team already used SharePoint on a daily basis to keep track of vacation and internal project tasks.

Hana decided to put together a team to build a quick proof of concept (POC) so that they could verify some of the most critical requirements. Her IT team was experienced with SharePoint and its capabilities, so the team could quickly build an application that covered the majority of their requirements.

Gail and her team were impressed with the system and could start using it immediately because the interface was already familiar to staff. Gail quickly saw an improvement in the speed in which tickets were handled, and she noticed a decrease in the number of ticket escalations, in part because of the cus-tomer contract information to which her support engineers had direct access.

Video game maker uses K2 business apps to maintain control

Action‐laden games like Tomb Raider and Hitman have helped to make Square Enix one of the biggest names in digital entertain-ment. Gaming enthusiasts around the world eagerly await news of upcoming releases, and the company has to work hard to keep its plans top secret. Even internal requests to see games in development must be very

carefully managed to prevent the latest plots and graphics from falling into the wrong hands.

The company’s recent game Hitman: Absolution took many years and a large investment to produce. If the story line had leaked out to the mar-ket prior to launch, it would have been damaging for the business.

Chapter 2: Exploring SharePoint Business App Use Cases 15


“The element of surprise is as impor-tant in a game as it is in a movie,” said Etienne Lambert, global IT develop-ment manager at Square Enix Europe. “We therefore have to be very careful to protect our investment and ensure that every request for a copy of our software is properly authorized.”

In a typical four‐week period, the person responsible for making and releasing copies of the company’s software (the mastering manager) can receive up to 200 requests from employees to see games in devel-opment. Previously, these requests were all sent by email. The master-ing manager had to track down the correct authorizations, who wanted which version, when, and why.

Solution

Square Enix Europe replaced its manual process for mastering with a K2 business application, closely integrated with Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Active Directory. Now, employees who wish to see a copy of a game complete a SharePoint form, which is automatically for-warded with a personalized link to the relevant manager by email. Only the intended recipient can open the link and authorize the request for software. Approved requests are then sent directly to the mastering manager.

The use of this K2 business appli-cation improves the security of the company’s digital assets, and access to games can be tightly monitored

and controlled because K2 keeps a record of all requests.

“K2 gives us a solid architecture for tracking exactly who has which soft-ware version and when,” Lambert said. “It improves the security of our mastering requests process, which ultimately helps us to ensure the quality of our products.”

The mastering manager can work much more productively because he is no longer bombarded by emails and doesn’t have to manually track approvals. Instead, he is simply pre-sented with a schedule of approved mastering requirements.

“[K2] gives us the ability to direct the approval to the right person, audit it, and work out where the workflow is. The mastering will only go to the right person, only once it has been approved by the right producer,” Lambert said.

“The K2‐based process saves the mastering manager a ton of time,” Lambert said. “If we hadn’t devel-oped an automated workflow, we probably would have been compelled to employ another person to help facilitate the manual process.”

Square Enix also has K2 business apps in place to automate finance processes and employee tasks such as travel expense requests. Employees have a single view of requests and all information is routed to the right people for approval.

(continued)



Using K2, Square Enix can tie work-flows together with backend sys-tems, see process status at any time, and respond quickly and effectively when issues arise.

Benefits

▶✓ Greater control over game security

▶✓ Drastic time savings

▶✓ Cost savings from reduced head count and increased efficiencies

▶✓ Easy integration with SharePoint and Active Directory

▶✓ A reliable, global solution for use across continents

(continued)


Understanding Workflows and Forms in SharePoint

In This Chapter▶▶ Creating forms and workflows

▶▶ Integrating data from different systems

▶▶ Recognizing important out‐of‐the‐box limitations of SharePoint

I n this chapter, you learn about the “out‐of‐the‐box” work-flow, forms, and data integration capabilities of SharePoint,

both on premises and online, as well as some key limitations to be aware of when you’re looking at building SharePoint‐based applications.

Designing Forms Yourself and Creating Workflows that Drive Efficiency

With the release of SharePoint 2013, Microsoft made several key improvements to the workflow capabilities available in SharePoint, including an independent workflow engine called Workflow Manager 1.0. This new engine separates workflow functionality from other SharePoint services and provides new runtime capabilities.

Chapter 3



However, despite the addition of new features, workflow in SharePoint remains limited in many scenarios, so it’s impor-tant to understand what capabilities are available, what limi-tations may exist, and why turning to third-party workflow software might be necessary to build SharePoint‐based workflow and forms apps that meet your needs.

Data capabilitiesData is at the core of your business and your apps, so you need to understand how it is accessed, how users will view and interact with it, and what security measures are in place to ensure that your data is safe.

Consider the following important SharePoint data capabilities:

✓ Access to non‐SharePoint‐based data: SharePoint sup-ports web service calls to access line‐of‐business (LOB) data via code. Workflow Manager’s lack of support for Business Connectivity Services (BCS)/external lists is one example of the lack of feature parity between recom-mended SharePoint 2010 workflow practices and current capabilities of Workflow Manager.

• Use case example: Customer and order history data is stored in systems outside SharePoint, so if the app is built using SharePoint, web services and code will be required.

• Why it matters: Not all line‐of‐business (LOB) sys-tems have web services available, and because application programming interface (API) calls require development resources to write code, time to market increases and maintenance time/com-plexity is added.

✓ Access to SharePoint‐based data: SharePoint‐based apps have access only to information that resides within the same SharePoint site.

• Use case example: Customer and sales order data may be stored in separate site collections because of different security requirements. Using SharePoint, it would be difficult to provide access to both sets of data without needing to write code and/or storing information in duplicate locations.

19 Chapter 3: Understanding Workflows and Forms in SharePoint


• Why it matters: If your SharePoint environment has multiple site collections that include data needed for the business app, a developer will need to write code to access the information. Time to market increases and maintenance time/complexity is added.

✓ Data security: Web service calls will either need to handle data security directly or be built to work properly with the native LOB system’s security architecture.

• Use case example: Sensitive information, such as customer credit limits, may be exposed to users who should not have access.

• Why it matters: Data may not be secured properly, exposing sensitive information to people/groups who should not have access. Additionally, if secu-rity requirements change, updates to custom code will be required, increasing maintenance time and complexity.

✓ Data integrity: Out‐of‐the‐box SharePoint integration capabilities typically involve copying LOB data into the app for use in each instance, rather than providing real‐time access to the LOB data.

• Use case example: Important information, such as payments that are past due, may not be up‐to‐date, possibly resulting in inaccuracies such as over‐ or under billing.

• Why it matters: Data may be old, resulting in inaccu-racy and less than optimal decision-making.

Forms and interfacesConnecting to information at the source, in real time, is impor-tant but gets you only halfway to a business app. Equally important is the ability to create forms that can display infor-mation in a way that makes data easy to alter and use to make good decisions. A third‐party solution lets nontechnical users easily create intuitive forms that combine the power of data and workflow, without writing code.



Look for the following capabilities in a third‐party SharePoint forms‐and‐interfaces solution:

✓ Designing simple forms: Automatic generation of forms for each SharePoint list or library.

• Use case example: An organization needs to embed its customer and sales order lists, along with docu-ment library‐based functionality in data, into a single form.

• Why it matters: Out of the box, forms are tied to SharePoint, so reuse opportunities are limited. This situation results in inefficiencies and wasted time.

✓ Designing complex forms: SharePoint forms can be modified via InfoPath or Visual Studio, unless the form is being used as part of a workflow, in which case your only option is to write custom .Net code in Visual Studio.

• Use case example: In a sales order review process, viewing additional information — like the cus-tomer’s order history, outstanding invoices, and outstanding orders — is necessary. The ability to easily access relevant information in other LOB systems is important to enable sales managers to make better and more informed decisions.

• Why it matters: Most business apps include multiple pieces of data for users to look at while making deci-sions. Without the ability to easily create forms that include all that information in one place, SharePoint‐based apps force users to either look at multiple forms or use a developer to create custom forms.

✓ Versioning: SharePoint doesn’t support multiple versions of a form. After a form has been published to the site, it is the only version of the form that’s available.

• Use case example: Introducing changes to exist-ing apps should be easy. In some cases, existing instances should continue to make use of the same form version it started with. But in other scenarios, users may want to introduce new form versions and at the same time upgrade running instances to make use of the new versions.

• Why it matters: Rolling back changes that may be causing a problem with your app is very difficult and can lead to significant downtime while the problem is being resolved.



✓ Reusing objects: SharePoint forms are tied to a specific list or library from a specific site, so reuse isn’t possible. This limitation includes connections to external data sources.

• Use case example: A sales order approval workflow has a number of steps that assign tasks to users, and the one commonality in all the forms is the customer details section. Adding an additional field to this section impacts every single form in the app and requires extensive development and testing cycles.

• Why it matters: Multiple form‐based apps that span an entire organization often share commonalities: Data and sections of forms can be the same. There are no development efficiencies with SharePoint because each component has to be configured or built for each app. This situation increases time to market and maintenance costs.

Workflow designDesigning complex workflows in SharePoint often requires advanced development skills to write code. Consider the following workflow design capabilities and limitations in SharePoint:

✓ Design environment: SharePoint Designer is the default workflow designer in SharePoint. Developers can develop SharePoint‐based workflows in Visual Studio.

• Use case example: Business process owners who best know how the sales‐approval process works need easy‐to‐use tools that allow them to create the process map without using code.

• Why it matters: Although SharePoint Designer provides a better design experience than previ-ous versions, there are still limited capabilities in SharePoint that often lead to custom development via Visual Studio.

✓ Routing capabilities: SharePoint 2013 added new routing capabilities, including loops and stages; however, more



complex scenarios are difficult to set up and in some cases can cause unexpected behavior in your apps.

• Use case example: SharePoint supports “approve/decline” workflow scenarios out of the box. However, other workflow scenarios, such as que-rying the details of an order, require additional configuration.

• Why it matters: SharePoint workflow scenarios beyond simple “approve/decline” decisions require custom coding.

✓ Rules engine: SharePoint provides a list of basic func-tions and mathematical functions.

• Use case example: When new sales orders are placed, business policies dictate that no order can exceed the customer’s allowed maximum credit limit. Although basic validation can be done on new orders, this does not account for previously placed orders. A business rule that can calculate the total outstanding payment amount for the customer (including the new order and previously placed orders that aren’t yet paid in full) is needed.

• Why it matters: Although SharePoint provides a number of functions, the list is not extensive, and data used as part of a rule must be stored in a SharePoint list or workflow to be used. This requirement often results in duplicate data stores and potentially outdated information.

✓ Reusability: SharePoint workflow apps are tied to a spe-cific list or library from a specific site, so reuse is not possible. This limitation includes connections to external data sources. The use of a field or property from a LOB system requires a new connection every time it is used within a workflow.

• Use case example: Multiple form‐based apps that span an entire organization often share commonali-ties: Data and sections of forms can be the same.

• Why it matters: Considerable time is spent creating apps. Being able to reuse any part of an existing app is a big win and can drastically cut down devel-opment time and cost.



Task managementUltimately, your SharePoint apps must empower users in your organization to take action. Interacting with, and managing tasks associated with, a business app is central to a workflow‐driven process. If users don’t have an intuitive, easy‐to‐use mechanism for accessing tasks, they will be less likely to use the app on a regular basis. Some important task‐management capabilities missing in an out‐of‐the‐box SharePoint implemen-tation include:

✓ Task forms. Task forms are typically separate from forms that include business data needed for decision making. Including additional information requires a developer to write .Net code to query the appropriate data sources and display the information appropriately.

• Use case example: In reviewing a new sales order, additional information can lead to more informed decisions and better outcomes. Having access to the customer’s order history, for instance, can provide insights into customer patterns as well as an indication of the overall health and value of the account. Understanding circumstances sur-rounding an outstanding invoice can affect your next decision: If an invoice is overdue because of a delivery discrepancy, you might approve the order. However, if the invoice is overdue without explana-tion, the new order can be held until the account is paid in full.

• Why it matters: Having task forms that include all the information necessary to make an informed decision is a critical piece of an efficient business app. Without it, your end users waste time look-ing for information they need. Custom‐coded task forms can be difficult and inflexible to maintain, especially when requirements for task needs change.

✓ Task delegation/redirection: A delegation activity is available but needs to be included as part of the work-flow when it is designed.

• Use case example: In some scenarios, a business colleague may need to review or approve a task. For example, a loyal customer might be given a



one‐day grace period on payment. Such an excep-tion may need to be delegated to someone in accounts receivable who has the information neces-sary to approve the customer’s request.

• Why it matters: With out‐of‐the box SharePoint, you have less flexibility in providing end users with commonly needed functionality, unless that func-tionality is always designed into each workflow individually.

✓ Out‐of‐office situations: SharePoint doesn’t provide out‐of‐the‐box capabilities for handling advanced scenarios like out‐of‐office situations. Custom development is required to add this feature to your business apps.

• Use case example: An urgent sales order needs to be processed on the last day of the quarter, but because the approving manager is out of the office for the day, the sales order sits in her queue until tomorrow (the start of the new quarter) and an important sales opportunity is missed.

• Why it matters: Your business operations don’t stop just because someone is out of the office for the day!

Management and administrationBasic management and administration capabilities and limita-tions in SharePoint include:

✓ Versioning: SharePoint keeps only the current version of workflows and forms. If a newer version of a workflow is published while instances are running, you won’t have the option of migrating them to the new version.

• Use case example: An existing SharePoint app is being upgraded with new features requested by the user community. Upon pushing the app update, the help desk is flooded with calls from users running older versions of the app that no longer work.

• Why it matters: Versioning is critical for enterprise‐level apps. Having the capability to revert back to a previous workflow or form if problems are found means less downtime when problems occur. Additionally, updating apps can break existing app instances.



✓ Server management: All management functions are done via cmdlets (“command‐lets”) or code written in Visual Studio. There is no user interface for administrative tasks beyond server performance monitoring (which can be done via event tracing).

• Use case example: Process owners need a visual and intuitive tool to manage and maintain their business apps. For example, user permissions may routinely need to be assigned regarding who can create, approve, and view new orders in a sales order app.

• Why it matters: Centralized business app admin-istration performed by IT can be inefficient and slow the speed of business. Instead, business users need the ability to perform basic app administra-tion tasks, but are unfamiliar with technical server administration tools.

✓ Error handling: In SharePoint, instances that run into errors are terminated unless you have the latest SharePoint update installed, allowing the instance to be suspended rather than terminated. Troubleshooting errors is done through the use of SharePoint error logs, and although SharePoint provides the capability to update actions that cause errors, the update will apply only to new instances of the process, not instances that are already running.

• Use case example: The final step in a sales order process emails the customer a copy of the invoice and tracking information related to the order. Network issues caused the email notification to fail and forced the workflow into an error state.

• Why it matters: Identifying and correcting errors is important so that other orders aren’t disrupted and the error state can be corrected with minimal impact to the customer.

✓ Security: Access is controlled via standard SharePoint list security.

• Use case example: Customers should be allowed to place new orders; however, one customer should not be able to see orders created by any other



customer, nor should any customer be able to track the progress of approvals associated with orders placed by other customers.

• Why it matters: App security roles don’t always match up one‐to‐one with security needed on a SharePoint list or library. Using the same roles can open your SharePoint environment or your app to more people than necessary. Also, SharePoint security roles may not be granular enough for your particular app needs.

Reporting and analyticsAfter an app is running in production, it’s important that pro-cess administrators and process participants have the ability to quickly determine where bottlenecks are in order to under-stand how to best optimize the process on an ongoing basis. Important capabilities include:

✓ Instance reporting: SharePoint provides the capability to access basic information about each instance, but it requires a developer to write code as well as knowledge of how the data is stored.

• Use case example: Certain times of the year are busier than others. Understanding these patterns allows businesses to plan ahead. Targeted cam-paigns and special promotions can drive more orders during the slow time of the year. Planning for the busier times of the year can mean more head count to process orders faster.

• Why it matters: User‐friendly reporting to keep track of status is a critical piece of keeping your apps running efficiently and allows users to keep track of important information without always having to involve an IT resource.

✓ Auditing: SharePoint provides basic information, like start and stop times, but that information is hidden by default. Access to the information occurs via SharePoint Manager, which requires elevated privileges. Additional audit information capture can be added to an individual app but is not available for reuse between multiple apps.



• Use case example: In the event that something goes wrong with an order, having access to a full set of logs is important to easily investigate and identify what caused the problem and what needs to be done to prevent similar occurrences.

• Why it matters: Keeping a detailed audit trail is a critical component of many apps, particularly in regulated industries such as health care and finan-cial services.

Integrating Data Across All Your Systems

Today’s business environment is a complex puzzle of soft-ware apps, systems, and people. Apps and data are distrib-uted across a wide range of systems that aren’t designed for integration — or even interoperability — without extensive customization and costly development. For IT, the process of piecing together disparate systems is challenging and often requires costly, risk‐prone coding initiatives. SAP is one such example of mission‐critical software commonly used in many enterprises today.

In many organizations using SAP, line‐of‐business (LOB) man-agers must file monthly reports that summarize business con-ditions, such as revenue and expense projections, inventory status and materials, and human resources requirements. To access the necessary data for these reports, LOB manag-ers log in to SAP Business Suite and multiple other systems, and rely upon people across various departments. What LOB managers really need from the IT department is the ability to access disparate databases across the organization that store mission‐critical business information, whether on premises or in the cloud, from a single location.

A central access point to information makes it easier for LOB managers to create reports so that they can gain insights and make smarter business decisions faster. Also, all the infor-mation needs to be delivered in a way that aligns with how people today work: via mobile, desktop, and offline. The IT team knows that the solution they provide must ensure gov-ernance and compliance without complicating processes or



extending approval cycles. Although doable, all of this trans-lates into time‐consuming and costly customizations.

Business apps can bridge the gap between SAP systems, other LOB systems, and the people who need data from those sys-tems to do the business tasks that they perform every day. To be effective, business apps should be simple to build and change. Effective business apps should also help users do more with their SAP data. The right solution can do this by allowing users and IT to innovate on top of SAP solutions — without costly coding and customization. Users can then access those innovations on smartphones and tablets so that they can be effective wherever they go, without requiring IT to rebuild the apps for each platform.

A powerful business application solution should provide intui-tive and easy‐to‐create, completely customizable forms and workflows that span departments and systems, giving you visibility into what’s happening, and when. The solution that creates these apps should include visual application design-ers and wizards to help users create process apps, which IT staff or programmers would not have time to create.

Business apps can integrate with both on‐premises and cloud‐based systems, including SAP systems. Consider how a business‐application solution could work with an enterprise SAP environment. Donna is responsible for the quote‐to‐cash process for a large global enterprise. In a typical workday, she must interact with at least five different cloud systems to oversee this process end‐to‐end:

✓ Customer relationship management (CRM, such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics): This system pro-vides a comprehensive view of each customer and her interactions with the business.

✓ Enterprise resource planning (ERP, often an SAP system): These business‐critical systems embrace finan-cial administration, including accounting and days sales outstanding (DSO), and track manufacturing and supply‐chain data.

✓ Custom currency calculation web service: This legacy system was built by the IT department. It provides real‐time international currency conversions.



✓ Enterprise content management (ECM, such as SharePoint): This system is the organization’s content and collaboration platform that helps manage contracts and other supporting documentation.

✓ Digital document signing service (such as DocuSign): This service supports digital signatures, which are required to formalize contracts and payments.

The manual process of interacting with these different sys-tems is time consuming and error prone because Donna must continually navigate to various windows and manually input data to interact with the different systems. She needs a solu-tion that automates this process across all her systems, one that pulls important information from multiple systems and presents that data in context.

With a business application solution, Donna or her LOB manager can use visual tools to create a business app that securely pulls data into a single, easy‐to‐use interface. Specifically, Donna can create a form that combines customer information from Microsoft Dynamics CRM, contracts stored in SharePoint, currency information from the custom system, and recent purchase information from her SAP ERP suite. No more logging in to multiple systems to search for the informa-tion she needs.

This app also enables better decisions and greater efficiency because Donna can see data in context — beside other rel-evant data from disparate systems across the enterprise. In addition, the app helps prevent delays through a workflow that automatically sends forms to the right people, at the right time, for review, approval, or task completion across any device. After the entire process is completed, the app also stores the executed contracts in the right system of record.

The business app solution has helped Donna automate and streamline a complex manual process, allowing her to do her job more efficiently while keeping all data within its system of record, whether SAP software‐based, in a CRM solution, on SharePoint, or in any other system. This is just one process, but Donna can leverage the same solution and some of the workflows and forms to build hundreds, if not thousands, of business apps to solve complex processes, such as expense claims management, customer and client onboarding, capital expenditure management, and new matter intake, to name a few.


Getting Started with Business Apps in

SharePoint and Office 365In This Chapter

▶▶ Understanding your business app needs

▶▶ Taking advantage of the cloud

▶▶ Knowing when to look for a third‐party SharePoint application vendor

I n this chapter, you explore areas to consider when build-ing SharePoint‐based business applications and when it

might make sense to evaluate third‐party SharePoint vendors to add additional capabilities.

Thinking “Outside the Box” about SharePoint and Office 365

According to a 2015 SharePoint user survey conducted by AIIM, more than 90 percent of customers are using SharePoint to handle team collaboration and document‐management needs within their organizations. This survey result should come as no surprise because those two capabilities have been a core focus since the first release of SharePoint.

Chapter 4



However, those two functions make up a relatively small por-tion of the functionality available in the SharePoint platform. If you’re still using SharePoint for collaboration or document management alone, it may be time to think “outside the box” about what SharePoint can do for you.

As I discuss in previous chapters, SharePoint provides a great platform for building web‐based applications, but you need to consider several things — which I describe in the following sections — as you get started with SharePoint.

Understanding Your NeedsAs mentioned previously, SharePoint can be used for many different types of applications, from simple forms for gather-ing information to mission‐critical applications that are core to your business. That being said, you want to start with a project that will result in success quickly. Look for opportuni-ties to implement applications in SharePoint that offer high value without the problem of long delivery times because of very complex technical or business needs.

Also consider your business requirements and what SharePoint can do out‐of‐the‐box versus what may require a third‐party tool to help augment your solution. Requirements like data integration across multiple line‐of‐business (LOB) systems or “always‐on” mobile connections for your employ-ees may require features that are best handled by third‐party tools. Understanding these needs up front will save you time and money as well as ensure that you don’t spend a lot of time customizing SharePoint with code that will be difficult to maintain in the long run.

Planning for the FutureUbiquitous connectivity, cloud computing, and “bring your own device” (BYOD) trends are changing the way companies do business as well as user expectations.

When planning your SharePoint application needs, it’s impor-tant to understand today’s requirements but also look at what

33 Chapter 4: Getting Started with Business Apps in SharePoint and Office 365


might impact your needs in the future. Consider questions such as the following:

✓ Is your workforce becoming more mobile?

✓ Do you need to think about providing mobile access to your SharePoint‐based applications?

✓ Will mobile users have network connectivity or is offline access important?

✓ How will cloud computing affect your application needs?

✓ Do your applications need to access LOB systems that are moving to the cloud?

✓ Do your users rely on cloud‐based services like Dropbox or OneDrive to get work done?

Many organizations are also looking to move their SharePoint environment from on premises to Office 365 and SharePoint Online. Understanding your needs and how moving to the cloud may affect your applications are important steps to ensuring a successful implementation of your SharePoint‐based applications.

Making the leap from server to cloudAre you considering a move to Microsoft SharePoint in the cloud? If so, you aren’t alone. In a January 2015 AIIM survey of information pro-fessionals, 34 percent responded that they were considering moving at least some SharePoint content from an on‐premises environment to the cloud — double the number from just two years earlier (http://www.aiim.org/Research‐a n d ‐ P u b l i c a t i o n s /Research/Industry‐Watch/SharePoint‐2015). This rise

in cloud adoption is not surprising given the benefits:

▶✓ With Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint Online, you always have the latest features and security updates.

▶✓ SharePoint Online can help reduce management costs because you don’t need to maintain costly hardware infrastructure.

▶✓ Expenditures are more predict-able with a subscription model.

(continued)








(continued)

For many organizations, those ben-efits are persuasive. But how do you migrate your SharePoint environment if you already have an on‐premises deployment with extensive infra-structure, add‐ons, and customiza-tions? The answer is to carefully plan ahead. Begin with an assessment of your tools and content, and then

choose an appropriate strategy and time frame. By investing a few hours to map out a plan now, you can save considerable time and frustration later.

Here are some steps to help ease your transition to a cloud deployment of SharePoint.

Assess your current content

Begin by determining what content is actually used and what can be retired. There’s no point migrating stale content that will just add to your subscription fees and eat up migration hours. You should also take stock of the workflows and forms that make up business process apps in your existing environment to identify which ones you need to migrate. In addition, which of your business apps need to move to the cloud and which can stay on premises? To make that determination, you need to identify who is using the apps, where the users are located, and what permis-sions they need. For example, do you need to share content or functionality with external users? If so, a move to the cloud could make that easier.

Review your integrated apps and systems

Identify the existing third‐party apps and systems in your workplace that

integrate with your on‐premises configuration, and verify through research or testing that they will continue to work with SharePoint Online. You might need to set aside additional time and resources for testing.

During your inventory of apps for compatibility, remember that there are differences between subscrip-tion plans for the online versions of SharePoint. Some third‐party apps and features might not be supported at all, and some might work on only one of the cloud‐based platforms. See the Microsoft website for a detailed list of which features are supported on each platform.

If some of your systems are not sup-ported in the cloud, you might need to configure a hybrid environment that continues to run third‐party apps and systems on premises. However, maintaining a hybrid‐cloud environment can add to your overall



costs and extend your return‐on‐ investment (ROI) time frame, so you should make the decision carefully. As an alternative to a hybrid‐cloud configuration, you might be able to migrate other systems to the cloud, along with SharePoint. Even if you need to use a hybrid cloud initially during your SharePoint transition, you can make long‐term plans to migrate other platforms to the cloud in the future.

Plan your new SharePoint architecture

To plan your new SharePoint site structure, assess your current con-figurations and customizations and then make a plan for how you want to set up each new site. Rather than mirror your existing sites, you might find that you can expend less time and effort by reducing the number of customizations your sites use. You should also consider the future needs of your organization. Will your current or planned SharePoint envi-ronment be able to grow with you when your business requirements change?

Migrate critical sites first

After you have your new structure mapped out, don’t move everything at one time. Start by migrating the site content for a single business unit or team to test the transition. This way, you can verify changes in a con-trolled manner that lets you respond quickly to problems. Begin with a site for one of your critical business func-tions, such as accounting, finance, legal, or human resources. Nearly

everyone in the company needs to access information, forms, and apps from those departments on a regular basis, so you want to make sure that they’re available and working prop-erly before you move on to less criti-cal departments.

Move content in stages

During the transition, use a hybrid approach with some SharePoint sites on premises and some in the cloud. Continue to migrate sites for the other critical business functions first, but do so gradually to avoid massive disruptions and to give yourself time to solve problems in a measured way as you go.

Consider a fresh start

It might seem counterintuitive, but it could be easier to build new SharePoint Online site collec-tions, projects, and workflows from scratch, instead of trying to match the functionality of existing ones that require extensive customizations. If you think that starting fresh is more efficient, ask each business unit to provide an assessment of its needs. Use those assessments to create the new sites and then copy users and content from the on‐premises version, as needed, using a phased approach.

Similarly, you might want to rebuild business process applications from scratch if a complex workflow requires major changes to work properly in the new cloud‐based deployment.



Determining When a Third‐Party Vendor Can Help

Given the challenges presented in the previous chapter, it should come as no surprise that, according to a study by Forrester Research called “SharePoint Enters Its Awkward Teenage Years,” 65 percent of SharePoint customers turn to third‐party tools to help meet their app development needs. Many different situations and business needs may call for a third‐party tool, but here are some of the most common:

✓ Nontechnical user support: One way to ensure success in building SharePoint‐based apps is to involve your busi-ness users in the creation of the application. An easy way to involve users is to find a vendor who has tools that both technical and nontechnical users can easily use and don’t require coding expertise.

✓ Secure applications: If you’re building SharePoint‐based applications that connect with several different LOB sys-tems or you need to ensure that only certain users have access to certain information, you might want to evalu-ate third‐party vendors. Finding a vendor with tools that allow you to keep existing security measures in place while still accessing the data needed for your application is key.

✓ Intuitive interfaces: Giving users access to interfaces that are intuitive to use and provide access to informa-tion they need will not only improve user adoption but also result in a more efficient business. Mobile require-ments or form needs that go beyond the basics may require additional tools. Find a vendor who makes it easy to build interfaces that span any device, without the need for a lot of complex code.

✓ Workflow to fit the business: Although SharePoint pro-vides out‐of‐the‐box workflow capabilities, it is focused mainly on simple approval‐type processes. When your workflows move beyond simple approvals to more com-plex workflows with automatic escalations, or to busi-ness routing logic, for example, a third‐party vendor is a must.



Ascendas uses K2 to change the way its employees work

Ascendas is Asia’s leading provider of business space solutions. With key markets in Singapore, China, and India, its core business includes real estate products, services, and fund management; its portfolio includes award‐winning science, business, and industrial parks as well as customized developments for a host of industries.

Challenges

Ascendas runs its real estate busi-ness in more than 30 cities and 10 countries. Managing business pro-cesses for an organization this large and spread out can be extremely complex. Historically, many of its internal requests have been manual in nature and relied on back‐and‐forth emails for processing.

Numerous issues arose. Requests were overlooked, approvals were delayed, procedures were incon-sistent, and key processes provided inefficient tracking mechanisms and limited visibility.

Solution

Ascendas looked to K2 for workflow business applications that could be paired with Microsoft SharePoint to simplify the way employees inter-act with their work and ultimately increase productivity across the organization.

Now users can access all their tasks in a centralized K2 worklist. Requests are automatically routed to the appropriate parties in a timely manner, based on built‐in rules and

policies. Notifications alert users of pending tasks and ensure that requests don’t get stalled.

Processes complete faster, with fewer errors and in full compli-ance with the organization’s busi-ness requirements. K2 visibility and reporting capabilities also provide Ascendas employees with a com-plete real‐time view into the status of any process and allow bottlenecks to be easily identified.

With a savings of about 30 minutes per staff request, and an estimated 1,800 requests per year, the imple-mentation helps save an estimated 900 work‐hours per year.

With the success of its initial K2 business applications, Ascendas has now automated more than 30 internal processes with K2 — to centralize work items, speed routing, eliminate errors, and improve audit-ing capabilities.

Benefits

▶✓ Centralized worklist

▶✓ Consistent processes

▶✓ Clear audit trail and real‐time visibility

▶✓ Error prevention through rules and policies

▶✓ Greatly improved customer ser-vice, accuracy, and responsive-ness

▶✓ Drastic time savings


Ten Features to Look for in a Third‐Party SharePoint

SolutionIn This Chapter

▶▶ Empowering business users with no‐code, visual workflow, and form tools

▶▶ Enabling real‐time mobile access and custom reporting capabilities

▶▶ Using best practices to integrate on premises and in the cloud

I f you’ve used Microsoft SharePoint, you know about its many great features. But why, then, do three out of five

SharePoint users purchase a third‐party solution? It’s not because they don’t like what SharePoint has to offer out of box; they just want more. The capabilities of SharePoint are often limited when it comes to mobility, forms and workflows, management, and data integration.

A third‐party solution can overcome these limitations by help-ing SharePoint integrate its services across other systems. But it’s important to find a solution that will meet as many of your needs as possible so you can maximize the return you’ll get from your investment. Use the following criteria when evaluat-ing third‐party vendors to find a solution that will provide you the most value.

Chapter 5



Robust Workflow and Form Capabilities

When it comes to workflows and forms, the key word is reus-able. Without the hassle of code, you want to build workflows and forms that are not subject to SharePoint limitations and can be reused across the entire SharePoint environment.

Reusable building blocks help with standardization. With reusable components, for example, after a connection to an external system such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been established, that integration point can be reused across any number of interfaces and processes so that developers don’t have to build a new integration point every time a new application is built that requires access to that particular system. You can quickly pull together information from disparate systems into a single view for easy approval, analysis, and decision making.

Another advantage of reusable building blocks is that all inte-gration points with external systems look and behave in the same way, easily using data from disparate systems — such as Salesforce, HRIS, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SAP, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle, Box, Google Drive, and more — without having to learn the nuances that pertain to a particular technology. Business users can then access critical information from these systems without ever having to access them or learning how these systems operate. Interfaces and process designs can be reused across multiple applications as well, ensuring that as technical assets are developed, applications become faster and easier to build.

Visual ToolsA third‐party SharePoint solution must provide easy‐to‐use visual design tools that enable subject matter experts (SMEs) and business users to quickly and easily build automated forms and workflows themselves, without extensive — and expensive — IT development.

Look for a solution that has simple visual tools that allow users, even those without technical skills, to build complete workflow and form solutions without writing code.

41 Chapter 5: Ten Features to Look for in a Third‐Party SharePoint Solution


No Code RequiredUnless you really love writing code, find a solution that lets you have all the features mentioned in this chapter without writing any code. If you’re like most line‐of‐business (LOB) managers, you’ve never learned code, so a drag‐and‐drop environment is the way to go.

Mobile Access from AnywhereToday’s business users expect to be able to work from any-where, at any time, on any device — whether it’s a laptop computer, smartphone, or tablet.

Beyond simply downloading a printable form from Box or Google Drive, a third‐party SharePoint solution should enable a sales rep, for example, to quickly and easily complete an online form, such as a sales order or credit application, on a mobile phone and automatically route it to the appropriate managers for approval.

Be sure that your solution fully supports mobility. You want all your SharePoint users to have access and the capability to view reports and dashboards from any device, anywhere.

Real‐time, Secure Access to LOB Data

Security is the primary concern slowing down enterprise cloud adoption, according to the Open Data Center Alliance Cloud Adoption Survey 2014 (www. opendatacenteralliance.org/docs/2014MemberSurvey04.pdf). Cloud security for the Microsoft SharePoint environment is a huge concern for many organizations. But so is the need to accommodate an increasingly mobile workforce by making SharePoint available to users both on premises and in the cloud. How can you walk that line?

http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/docs/2014MemberSurvey04.pdf

http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/docs/2014MemberSurvey04.pdf



If you are considering moving your SharePoint environment to the cloud, these concerns might sound familiar:

✓ How can I make sure that the right people have access to only the apps and data they need?

✓ Can I encrypt my SharePoint data in the cloud?

✓ How can I ensure that my data is stored and handled in a way that meets compliance policies and government regulations?

✓ Will my applications built in my on-premise SharePoint environment move to the cloud without re‐creating?

Search for a third‐party SharePoint solution that uses a data‐integration framework, meaning that data stays protected within its native system and can be accessed in real time. Other questions to consider include:

✓ Does the solution provide a secure way for users to inter-act with business‐application data stored in the cloud?

✓ Can I securely manage authentication and authorization for my business applications in the cloud?

✓ Will my business applications have encrypted transac-tions in the cloud?

✓ Can I maintain regulatory compliance and security gover-nance in the cloud?

Custom Reports and AuditsA third‐party SharePoint solution should connect disparate systems, applications, and data throughout the organization and in the cloud to enable powerful insights and better deci-sion making. Intuitive, graphical dashboards and reporting capabilities are a must.

Look for built‐in reporting and audit features that allow users to customize reporting dashboards. These dashboards pro-vide visibility into bottlenecks and inefficiencies and allow users access to designated information.

43 Chapter 5: Ten Features to Look for in a Third‐Party SharePoint Solution


Capability to Integrate with Line‐of‐Business (LOB) Apps and Data

Your business users must be able to easily access data from multiple sources, thereby eliminating the need to have lots of technical knowledge to access source systems of record, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.

Choose a solution that supports out‐of‐the‐box integration with LOB systems and lets you build apps that cross multiple SharePoint lists, libraries, sites, or environments.

Apps that Function the Same on Premises and in the Cloud

Look for feature parity between SharePoint Online and SharePoint on premises. This helps ensure a seamless transi-tion between on‐premises solutions and the cloud so that reusable workflows will work in both environments.

Adherence to Microsoft SharePoint Best Practices

Implementing a third‐party solution that conforms to Microsoft SharePoint best practices gives you the peace of mind that the solution will run smoothly, even when Microsoft releases updates.

A Single Product SolutionSome solutions on the market require purchasing more than one product to meet your SharePoint needs. That’s not good for anyone’s bottom line. Look for an all‐in‐one solution.


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