We at M4 Systems advocate that it has, or at least that the potential for it exists. Sadly, the enduring reality is that many businesses have yet to make the leap of faith into the digital world of electronic data capture, storage, communication and collaboration.
Are you one of those businesses still trapped with one foot in the past and the other hovering over the threshold of the digital era? Are you still impeded by any of the following?
Manual or paper-bound processes that are difficult to navigate and to audit
Laborious data entry routines
Functionally disparate filing systems
Time-intensive searching of disconnected paper-based and electronic systems and time-consuming retrieval of structured and unstructured information
Duplication of effort through inability to share and collaborate on documents and communication records
High costs associated with hording mountains of paper to ensure that content retention, auditing and other compliance regulations are met
With the advent of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and the ability of Microsoft accredited software development partners, such as M4 Systems, to integrate this technology with Microsoft-based ERP and CRM systems, there is now a recipe for businesses to dramatically transform and improve their business processes and significantly enhance business performance. Increasing numbers of forward-looking companies are ready and committed to embracing this combination of technology not only because it makes sound commercial sense, but also because it delivers environmentally. From a commercial vantage point, companies can make rapid savings in direct costs and recover a simple payback in typically less than six months. Environmentally, companies will be fulfilling their corporate social responsibilities by playing their part in reducing the paper mountain and their carbon footprint.
How does MOSS 2007 deliver on such claims?
Essentially, MOSS 2007 delivers because of its collaborative, search, content and document management features and based on its tight integration with Microsoft Office and increasingly its adoption into Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM products.
Figure 1: MOSS represents the next generation of SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) built on top of Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). An easy way to understand how MOSS and WSS work together is to refer to the pie chart above. The yellow shaded areas are provided by WSS and since MOSS builds on WSS, the entire pie is delivered by MOSS. MOSS specifically provides the portal, search, enterprise content management, business process and forms, and business intelligence pieces.
In practical terms, these features translate into the following benefits.
Consider the following statistic (Source: http://www.ideamountain.com in part based on Wall Street Journal research and Bureau of Labor Statistics):
6 weeks per year are wasted searching for misplaced information from messy desks and files. This equates to 5 hours per week or one hour per day. One hour wasted a day, 240 workdays in the year, is over £2,000 per person in the company (based on a basic secretarial wage).
MOSS in conjunction with scanning and indexing devices can convert paper flows to digital methods of storage and communication which saves time and space whilst boosting productivity and service levels. In no other case is this of more value than when applied to a financial management system, such as Microsoft Dynamics GP. And why should the deployment start with the finance department? Because it is here that there is an abundance of external documents, where documents key to the running of the business are housed, and where legal requirements prevail to preserve accounting records. It is here where there is perhaps the biggest potential for a rapid Return on Investment.
For example, scanned images of supplier invoices and delivery notes can be retrieved from within the accounting software using a number of search criteria, such as date ranges, unique supplier or transaction reference and be presented, published and delivered in any number of ways using MOSS. The same applies to output documents, such as sales invoices, remittance advices and statements, whereby these can be automatically, and against prescribed timetables, distributed to the appropriate recipients in their preferred format and by their preferred delivery method, with full batch handling and control. The savings in manual effort and direct costs for paper, postage and delivery can be phenomenal, especially if receiving and generating multiple hundreds or thousands of invoices a month.
Moreover, with the growth in the size of hard drives and explosion of data storage as well as the difficulty in trawling through unstructured data repositories, such as Web sites, Exchange Server and Lotus Notes, the need for an intelligent and efficient search engine is vital to recovering valuable time and improving worker productivity. MOSS 2007 trawls these unstructured repositories as well as structured data warehouses, such as ERP and CRM databases. This ability is driven by a new technology called the Business Data Catalog (BDC). The BDC enables business data held within such databases to be viewed by the Web-based interface of SharePoint without writing any code.
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Figure 2: this is a customised profile page that returns both business data and other information from a a backend system. SharePoint includes a number of Business Data Web Parts that allow you to display BDC data in your pages and also optionally filter data on those pages based on available metadata. Since the business data is mapped to SharePoint, you can access your data inside SharePoint lists using the new Business Data column type. There are no more data entry errors and data cleansing since the data contained in the list is coming from the authoritative backend system.
Having electronic records and being able to share them using a central repository such as MOSS not only eliminates the need to produce duplicate records and photocopies, but matching captured documents with an integrated accounting system can yield significant cost savings in data entry whilst simultaneously reducing error rates by automatically identifying and posting financial values. Establishing such a unique link and deeply embedding document management functionality in the accounting records enables users to retrieve and view the original images of all documents associated with a transaction from within the accounting system. But integration does not need to be limited to the financials. MOSS can also provide links to other applications, such as Dynamics CRM and its constituent data and records if required (such as customer quotes, knowledge articles and customer service histories).
Consider the following statistic (Source: http://www.ideamountain.com in part based on Wall Street Journal research and Bureau of Labor Statistics):
280 hours (7 weeks) per year are lost by workers seeking clarification due to poor communication.
MOSS 2007 introduces a significant number of new features to its predecessor, SharePoint Server 2003, particularly with regard to the addition of Web 2.0 collaboration functionality, such as blogs and wikis, the incorporation of a Web Part for publishing and receiving RSS feeds, and the ability to take content/document library and lists offline with Outlook 2007 (with synchronisation of data updates occurring upon reconnection to network). When electronic information becomes accessible across an entire organisation (whether at multiple office locations or remotely) and more amenable to ad-hoc queries, an organisation can vastly improve its productivity and responsiveness to customer demands. Bi-directional synchronisation of collaboration data (such as calendar, tasks and contacts) between Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint makes for a strong collaboration platform. Making a change in one environment (Outlook or SharePoint) will automatically update the other.
In these days of expanding business complexity, regulation and compliance the amount of information that businesses are required to retain seems to grow exponentially. Managing and maintaining the 'paper mountain' takes up precious office space and increases the cost of on and off-site storage and archival facilities.
Workflow technology and secure electronic storage of documents (with on premise and online backup) foster a better control environment, improve regulation compliance and safeguard against and assist recovery from unforeseen disasters.
MOSS has a number of workflows ‘out-of-the-box’, such as document approval and document signature. It adds the new Windows Workflow Foundation features of the .NET Framework 3.0, which means that workflows can be custom-built. Also, with MOSS’s deep integration with Office, users can trigger workflows inside their Office applications and can also see when workflow tasks have been assigned to them, without having to leave the particular Office application they are working in.
Figure 4: this shows how to configure an ‘out-of-the-box’ workflow in MOSS.
The current version 10.0 of Dynamics GP embraces MOSS 2007 technology and the embedded Windows Workflow Foundation. There are six pre-configured workflows which leverage MOSS’s integration with Outlook. A typical workflow in the finance system could be one relating to approvals of documents (such as invoices) or batches, whereby approval is sought from one or more individuals. The approval workflow uses notifications, such as e-mail or Dynamics GP desktop alerts to notify a user of an action that they need to perform (tasks) or to provide information regarding the object that is in the workflow. Approval granted signifies that the document/batch has been reviewed and can continue to be processed. By allowing a user to see and act on tasks within Outlook and viewing documents and document workflow history prior to approval through a SharePoint link, there is no need for the reviewer/approver to be a full finance system (Dynamics GP) user. Outlook 2007 integration grants the ability to approve, reject, delegate or request a change to a document/batch from within Outlook as well as afford task synchronisation through co-ordinated scheduling and tracking within users’ calendars.
MOSS extends its reach to business intelligence portals. An example of this is the Business Portal in Dynamics GP which contains reports, charts and tables or data that you can sort and filter and feature graphics to visually facilitate presentation of data. Using Excel Services and its constituent Excel Web Access in MOSS, a user can publish spreadsheet or chart data extracted from the finance system to a trusted location in SharePoint which other users can then view and filter on via a Web browser. Similarly, SQL Server generated reports and charts in Dynamics CRM could also be published to a chosen location in SharePoint for collaborative viewing and review.
MOSS therefore makes it easier to draw out key metrics from your business systems and present these in a collaborative framework such that decisions can be made more effectively, in terms of accuracy and timeliness of source data and driven by consensus from key decision-influencers and decision-makers (and across relevant functional departments).
Web content management spanning intranet to extranet to Internet-facing sites (MOSS 2007 replaces Microsoft Content Management Server 2002)
Electronic "InfoPath" forms which can be viewed, edited and submitted via a Web browser using InfoPath Forms Services capability in MOSS 2007
"MySite" personalised view of information which has a public and private view with permissions to access various items of information held in MySite assigned according to privilege rights of colleagues, manager/s or indeed the entire organisation. MySite provides new Web Parts for organisation hierarchies and colleague tracking, including alerts when metadata for colleagues change (eg telephone number, title, office location or similar information)
Opt-in Knowledge Network – MOSS provides a facility to set up and crawl a social map of your organisation and staff and their respective expertise and knowledge, such that you can tap into the right resource to help you solve a particular problem or dilemma in real time. Knowledge Network provides a rich security and privacy model to allow full control as to what is displayed and to which parties in the network
Implementing a sophisticated content and document management solution, such as MOSS 2007, in a finance setting requires an understanding of accounting processes in order to fully take advantage of the unique benefits that an integrated finance solution can provide. Similarly, an understanding of sales, service and marketing processes across a broad spectrum of industries is important in understanding how best to integrate a CRM system, such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, with the capabilities of MOSS 2007 to maximise on functionality and value for money.
M4 Systems has introduced many of its Dynamics GP and CRM customers to the benefits of SharePoint technology, whether in the guise of a Business Portal or as a full-blown MOSS integrated and enhanced system. We can demonstrate a long track record in delivering working solutions both in the finance function and in the sales/marketing arena in a variety of industry sectors.
