How SharePoint is Being Used to Manage Content at the World’s Largest AirlineDenise WilsonSenior Manager, Collaboration ServicesUnited Airlines
Brian CulverSharePoint Solutions Architect, MCMUnited Airlines
SPC295
United Airlines – Who we are
New United: Merger of two carriers Continental (5th largest) United (4th largest)
World’s largest airline 5,800 flights per day 371 global airports ~ 87,000 employees
CEO: Working Together culture is number one success factor
SharePoint directly supports the unification process
United AirlinesHighly distributed operation to coordinate
Evolution of SharePoint 2010 ECM at United
Genesis of ECM effort was eDiscovery and record retention
Plan was to upload 10TB from file shares and tag in SharePoint
Ops dashboard and alert system - very successful (demo)
ECM rollout in process when merger announced Will SharePoint survive merger consulting ‘swim lanes’ and
‘wall walks’? VP-level request: consulting eRoom to SharePoint Trust established between networks Can instantly collaborate on SharePoint
United Airlines – Why SharePoint 2010?
Tier I redundancy The next phase of a global-scale SharePoint
implementation: Improved OOTB functionality and administration BCS to easily leverage existing data sets Single-source content types and site columns Social Search to link people together Greatly improved search with FAST (demo) Improved record centers and content organizer
rules (demo)
GovernanceHow did we get here?
Adoption: Empower users (Must allow user discovery process and mistakes – yes, we have backups)
Training resources – CBTs, FAQs, brown bags, community
Guiding user behavior with structured templates and defaults On upload, prompted for metadata. Many defaults are populated based on the site, but user can
change. Site provisioning:
2007: Singular, inflexible site definition 2010: Easily create new web templates to help govern new
site types
United AirlinesWhat is ECM?
Must effectively manage content to allow business to achieve its goals. ECM tools help manage the complete lifecycle of content Phases of creation, use and disposal
Taxonomy: Building a framework for organizing data “Formal structure for information, based on the individual needs of a
business” “Categorization tools automate placement of content for future
retrieval.” 1
Structured content types, DIPs, templates, info policies (demo) Now defining for combined companies
Unifying AD Site structure across both airlines Airport data: SharePoint composite of technology and user data
(demo)1(http://www.aiim.org/What-is-ECM-Enterprise-Content-Management )
Content ManagementTaxonomy and naming convention Start by classifying things based on what you already
have 2010: Single-source Managed Metadata Fields 2010: Single-source Content Type Hub Use for parent content types and columns. Define others at site
collection level.
Standardize Content TypesSite collection-specific content types
Document Information PanelDropdowns Promote Standardization
DIP and Word template per content type User entry in DIP
populates control in Word doc template
Build standardized .docx file name by concatenating metadata
Content Types and Site ColumnMMS for enterprise-wide fields
Site Collection level Content Types Enterprise-level Managed Metadata Field
Airports Data Composite
demo
Slice and Dice Normalized DataRe-usable Data Produced Through ECM Process
1 Ref: Blogs by Jon Campbell and Greg Chan of SharePoint Designer Team
• Select an airport via city code or Bing map
Slice and Dice Normalized Data
• ECM-derived data can be expressed in different ways
• “Show me everything about Beijing”
• Detail of airport data from sites composite
Enterprise Content ManagementOur approach
Business challenges overcome in our 2010 implementation Security – Restructure content to usage patterns Improving user metadata entry Improving governance Improving navigation Leverage SharePoint 2010 ECM features Preserve and improve user adoption … empower users
Key: Understanding our content and how we work with it
Enterprise Content ManagementOur approach
Separate Content by Usage Per Web Application Publishing sites per department (portal.united.com) Working sites per department (team.united.com) Formal Project sites with project number (project.united.com) Ad-hoc collaboration sites (collab.united.com) Application sites (services.united.com)
Technology Project Review Process: Business request through technical delivery
Operations Dashboard : real-time status and alerts of all flight and airport events
Talent Selection Process: Job description approval workflow for 87,000 employees
Record Centers (records.united.com) My Sites (mysite.united.com)
Web ApplicationsGroup usage patterns, security, and content structure
SharePoint 2010 ECM at United Airlines
Content Type Hub syndicates policies to subscribing sites (all)
Active policy drives “recordization” process
Records are routed to proper divisional Record Centers
Record Retention Policies applied at target libraries
Other Record Centers used for archiving of other content
2010 Upgrade ProcessReplace custom 2007 with OOTB 2010 ECM features
Updated governance for SharePoint 2010 capabilities – web templates
Used similar branding to lessen impact of upgrade for users
Apply “new” 2010 branding and navigation to 2007 ‘Visual upgrade’ - Gradually train users on the ribbon to ease
adoption Aligned site provisioning with governance
CBT training for compliance New site types with web templates New web apps per type of content and usage patterns
Implemented Content Type Hub CT feature activated at each site collection. Update via MMS
Site Provisioning as a Key to GovernanceHigh, medium and low service level sites Approval process for provisioning at proper business
impact Drives automation of the taxonomy. Helps the user
classify and manage their content
Records Management
demo
Records Management – Active Lifecycle Active Document Policies
defined via the Content Type Hub
Policies applied on each Content Type
Child Content Types inherit Parent Content Type Policy
Records Management – Active Lifecycle Sites subscribed to
the Content Type Hub get Policy changes
Policy implements the Active Document Lifecycle
Per the legal record retention definition, documents that need to become “records” are sent to the primary record center
Records Management – Retention Lifecycle Content Organizer Rules Configured to route all
documents to the proper divisional record center
Also, aggregates the content types into the proper current content type
Records Management – Retention Lifecycle Documents entering the
primary Record Center Content Organizer routes
documents to proper Divisional Record Centers
Records Management – Retention Lifecycle Converted the “Coair
Document” content type to “UA Document”
Records Management – Retention Lifecycle Chained Content
Organizers route to proper Library with Library Policy
Record Retention implemented via targeted Library (Library Policy)
Using ECM to Improve Search and eDiscovery
Empower record managers and end users FAST Search
Improved Knowledge and Expertise Phonetic Matching Keyword Management Deep Refinements
Contextual Search - People Search (Enterprise Search)
Term Store – standardizing keywords and dropdowns
Legal holds in Record Centers
United AirlinesWhat it takes to make it happen - Resources
Starting point: 2 people part time – “server under the desk” Agile: Build it and see what works Engineering design review process
Contracted consultants to assist with 2007 rollout: Roll out enterprise-class platform and ECM
Post-merger, 4x FT Engineering resources Dedicated app support, help desk and server
management Additional contract resources on a per project basis ROI on one of many current projects is estimated at
$1 million
United AirlinesWhat it takes to make it happen – Lifecycle management
Full Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Development -> Stage -> Production Coding standards, code reviews Proper QA testing TFS source code control
Hyper-V 2012 VMM Virtualized development machines Support various groups and sandbox site efforts
Farm solutions: core SharePoint team Sandbox solutions: Business unit development teams
United AirlinesDeployment – Key Learnings
Implement in Phases – Evolve as you go: Operations Dashboard: Phase I: Log e-mails to SP document library
No change for users, but can log and centralize existing content
Phase II: Create structured SharePoint lists for users to create list items Click “New”, select from dropdowns: create log and send
targeted alerts Content type allows automated expiration of list items after 13
months Phase III: Integrate Mainframe Ops Data
Web service: SharePoint list item when gate to takeoff > 90 minutes
Avionics systems on the aircraft -> Data Warehouse - > SharePoint
Avionics to SharePoint – The Ops Dashboard and Alert System
demo
United AirlinesOperations Home Page
System Operations Coordination Center Home Page
United AirlinesOperations Logs
Operations Managers create logs using list items
United AirlinesOperations Dashboard
Metrics from list items
Per flight, per date, per airport
United AirlinesOperations E-mail Alerts
User can sign up for all alerts or customize alerts based on their own view
United AirlinesRedundant farms - primary and standby
OPC MDF Production LAN
SQL Server 1HP BL 460c2x4P, 96G RAM, 2 x 146 HD
FiberSwitches
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
HeartBeat
vIP: VOPCPSPCLUST11
SharePoint SQL
SharePoint Front End
Application Server
SQLServer 2HP BL 460c
2x4P, 96G RAM, 2 x 146 HD
App ServerVirtual4P, 16G RAM, C: 80G D: 66G
Web Front EndVirtual4P, 16G RAM, C: 80G D: 66G
Web Front EndVirtual4P, 16G RAM, C: 80G D: 66G
App ServerVirtual4P, 16G RAM, C: 80G D: 66G
22TB STORAGE(5TB primary SQL Instance, 5TB log-shipped SQL instance, 12TB Backup)
vIP: portal.united.comF5 Load Balancing Network Appliance
SQL Server 1HP BL 460c2x4P, 96G RAM, 2 x 146 HD
HeartBeat
vIP: VOPCPSPCLUST11
SharePoint SQLLog Shipping with 2 hr delay
SQL Server 2HP BL 460c2x4P, 96G RAM, 2 x 146 HD
SQL Instance 2
SQL Instance 1
Backup Server BL 460cC
Previously experienced system failure from data
Bad code in a 3rd party product
Allowed user to inadvertently create catastrophic condition
To prevent: Secondary log-shipped instance (with 2-hour delay) in each data center
United AirlinesFrom concept to reality - Tier I topology
Log-ship between farms across WAN
High / med SLA (‘services’, ‘team’) log shipped
Low SLA sites (‘collab’) use backup
Fail over between data centers with scripts in about 15 minutes
United AirlinesDesign decisions – Key learnings
Simplified security model Separate site collections by security boundaries and SLA Grouping data logically by site collection type allows easier
management of content and security Supportability
Synchronize with Microsoft’s roadmap Implement functionality supported by object model
(otherwise, small functional gains increase support costs)
United AirlinesDeployment – Key learnings
Fully review custom code and third party tools Know how it is deployed and how it is supported Know how to back it out. All solutions custom or third party must be deployed as ‘wsp’
Understand what is content and what is code Governance: Site Provisioning Automate with PowerShell
United AirlinesDeployment – Key Benefits Paperless
Scanning closets of documents into record centers (Aircraft Engineering) Save paper and printing costs (Environmental)
eDiscovery Users find what they need quickly and accurately on a security-trimmed
basis (Legal) Record Retention Policy
Preserve records per the Legal policy (compliance) and controls growth (Ops)
Productivity and Cost-Savings ROI Ops Director: Dashboard paid for entire 2007 implementation Saved 20+ hours weekly copying mainframe logs Auto expire list items instead of annual file cabinet cleanout – FAA
compliance Millions in ROI replacing legacy and paper systems (Ops, HR, Training)
Cataloged 36,000 paper ‘bankers boxes’ with SP list – disposal reduced costs by 80%
United AirlinesSharePoint Roadmap
What's next for United Airlines - Where are we going with SharePoint? Migrating collaborative content from Intranet sites to SharePoint High-ROI applications
Business-critical compliance (DOT, FAA, EPA) Migration from legacy document management systems
Green initiatives: Scanning and disposition of paper records to SharePoint
Automated request and build of virtual machines - Hyper-V and PowerShell
United.com: ECM workflow and publishing of partner and flight specials
United Airlines – What’s NextEnd-to-End Technology Project Process
Have developed each of these pieces over time
Content Types and workflows
DIPs and InfoPath forms
Current work on integrating additional phases such as:
Funding Asset management
United Airlines – What’s NextBusiness Connectivity
Three sources of data for network sites – e.g. Airport, Maintenance, Cargo
Each site has an AD Site, Circuit ID, Physical Address, Router Name
All three data sources have entry point through InfoPath – standardize input and workflow
With BCS, we can synchronize the data and create Composite view across all three systems for all global locations
UA Oracle database becomes source for Managed Metadata Field of airports
Questions?
Where Do You Want to Go to Today? ®
anaheim, ca
Conference 2011october 3–6 th
2011
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