Transcript 9th Club Meeting. Zuerich.

Dudok de Wit David
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Documents management in a deskless company

SharePoint Online as a solution
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Redesigning the documentary organization

Interoperability with the existent infrastructure

Extending SharePoint Online's functionality
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Bachelor’s thesis project
Deskless company day-to-day work
 Remote collaboration with classic Office tools
 Coordination via a custom made CRM
 Multiple distributed documents versions, not always
accessible
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Typical questions about documents
 Do they exist?
 Where are they?
 Which ones should be used?

Slows the company expansion

Document Management System Criteria
 Centralized solution
 CRM interoperability
 Microsoft Office interoperability
 Reasonable pricing

Microsoft SharePoint Online
Web Services, WebDAV, SharePoint Designer, Etc.
Most used applications at ISMAT
ISMAT CRM

General comparison
Monthly costs*
MOSS 2007
• + Custom code
• + Optimal integration with MS Office
• - Too expensive
CHF 537.+ installation
Alfresco (hosted by an ISP)
• + Open source, highly customizable
• - Expensive to configure and maintain
• - Reduced ecosystem
Microsoft SharePoint Online (hosted by
Microsoft)
• + The best of MOSS 2007, only less expensive
• + Optimized for deskless workers
• - Custom code is not possible
CHF 395.+ installation
CHF 153.*for 15 users, including
maintenance,
July 2009 numbers
Before:
After:
No common tree logic
between workers
Tree logic redesigned with
SharePoint in mind
• Mixed private and professional
folders
• Duplicate files and folders
• Scattered files
• Irrelevant documents that
needed to be deleted
• Added meta-data to documents
which allowed:
• easier sorting
• views creation
• grouping
• Implemented a rights strategy
• Linked documents with clients
How to keep clients information consistent between the existing
CRM platform and SharePoint Online?
Using SharePoint Online’s Web Services and PHP5’s own SOAP
implementation
Zonezone
ISPISP
Server
Collaborator
zone
Microsoft SharePoint
Online zone
CRM
CRM
New client
Clients list update
with SOAP
POST
Web Services
ASMX 2.0
«New client»
form sent
Identified user on
the CRM
Clients table
update with
PHP
MySQL
DB
Clients lists is
read only
from the SharePoint
user interface
Business process
Select and personalize
generic consulting
material for customers
 Productivity objective
Reduce human actions
 reduce errors
 Technical objective
Copy multiple
documents between
lists and add client
metadata

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JavaScript / jQuery plugin
Works with the Document Library Web Part
Uses Web Services and information available
in the HTML code

Adding functionality in the user interface

JavaScript plugins installation methods
 Store the jQuery library and the plugin in a Document
Library in the root of your Site Collection and reference it
from the ASPX page
▪ Best practice compatible with code auditing
▪ End-users can’t manipulate it
 Use a Content Editor Web Part with the script reference in
it
▪ Only a browser is needed
▪ Easy to try out

Use a configuration file

Advantages
 Executed on the client side, no risk to break the
server
 Visually integrated with SharePoint’s GUI
 Can support real business processes

Portable
 Easy configuration (GUIDs input not obligatory)
 Only one script reference to add

Compatible with IE,FF, Chrome, Safari, …
 Thanks to the jQuery API

Official documentation
 Microsoft Open Specifications Center
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecifications
 Microsoft Interoperability Webcasts
http://www.microsoft.com/france/interop
 SharePoint Online Standard Developer Guide

SharePoint / Office Live JavaScript API
 http://darrenjohnstone.net
David Dudok de Wit
MScIS Student at HEC Business School Lausanne
Email: [email protected]
IT blog: www.dudokdewit.net