The Insider's Guide to Business and IT Agility
07/16/2008
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 can offer very useful business forms creation and processing services -- but those capabilities tend to get soft-pedaled in the platform as a whole, according to research undertaken by CMS Watch, a vendor-independent analyst firm that evaluates content technologies.
ebizQ received the following:
Electronic forms can replace paper- and e-mail-based processes for more efficient processing of structured business data. Although sometimes lost amid broader SharePoint hype, the platform delivers solid capabilities in this area, especially for those customers who upgrade to the full MOSS platform, where SharePoint's "Forms Services" obviate the need to install the Microsoft InfoPath client on every desktop.
Unlike some of the more complicated configurations required for content management and search in SharePoint, businesses can create basic forms and define associated routing with comparative ease. An administrator or developer creates forms using InfoPath, or via web-based interfaces for defining basic fields. SharePoint's Forms Services then automatically translate these definitions into the appropriate web-based form.
"You can easily set up an approval process for a travel expense form, sparing the employee and supervisor from bouncing Excel files back and forth via e-mail," notes CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne. "That's very handy, and not always so simple in competing systems."
These findings come from CMS Watch's SharePoint Report 2008, a 190-page evaluation of SharePoint from an enterprise perspective, which assesses the platform's suitability for eight different business scenarios across various customer tiers. CMS Watch evaluates technologies from a buyer's perspective, testing tools and debriefing licensees about actual implementation experiences.
The report also found:
"If for example that handy expense form needs to be routed to different internal systems with rules governing how it's processed based on expense totals, you will need to engage in substantial custom SharePoint development -- in effect coding a rules and integration engine that isn't there," notes Byrne. "At that point, you'd do better with a third-party BPM tool that can expose various services through Web Parts."
The SharePoint Report is available for purchase online from CMS Watch (http://www.cmswatch.com/SharePoint/Report/).
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ebizQ is very interested in what you have to say. To contribute an article, an opinion, or to become a blogger, please contact Peter Schooff.
June 3, 2009
One of the most compelling trends in the enterprise business technology space over the past year has been the emergence of cloud computing. In ebizQ’s upcoming Qcamp virtual un-conference, leading industry experts and practitioners will explore the role of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management (BPM) in supporting cloud-computing initiatives. Additionally, the new skills that developers and IT managers need for successful cloud development will be discussed.Register
Date: Aug 26, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM
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Date: Sep 30, 2009
Time: 12:00 PM
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Date:Aug 26, 2009
Time:12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
Date:Sep 30, 2009
Time:12:00 PM
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