Solution for workflow automation
Posted on November 27, 2010
Customer
Our customer — business and industry company with 1 500 employees had obtained the certificate of conformity to the requirement of the international standard ISO 9001-2000 in 2005 and since then has made a number of unsuccessful efforts to create a functioning system of electronic workflow.
The company generates a large number of documents which are stored on users’ desktops and are exchanged between employees through MS Outlook if required. Taking into consideration such way of storing and sending documents, as well as the fact that part of documents were in a paper form, the problem of systematizing, exchanging and searching for documents has become really nagging. Many departments were interested in getting a viable workflow scheme that would satisfy the requirements of ISO certification and in deployment of a solution that would help to automate the workflow process.
Tasks
- To build an efficient document management system required for the implementation of quality management system complying with ISO 9001 requirements.
- To develop a corporate portal to help employees, working in different departments, participate in the process of creating, editing and approving documents.
- To make workflow process as simple as possible for the company employees.
- To develop an information database in conformity with the modern safety and reliability requirements.
In spite the fact that at first glance the tasks seemed to be quite simple, the realization happened to be demanding as it required not only our experience as an IT integrator but also our deep understanding of company’s business processes.
Task Solution
It was not a mere fluke that we decided to build the corporate workflow on Microsoft SharePoint.
- The cost of the license on SharePoint Server is not very high, but at the same time the usage of SharePoint technologies guarantees quick implementation of the solution.
- SharePoint Server offers flexible tools for deployment, development and management allowing the portal to expand with the growing demands of your company.
- Minimal deployment time and minimal time required for the employees to master the principles of working with it.
- Possibility of simultaneous work over documents directly from Microsoft Office applications, as well as downloading documents and editing their properties.
- Effectiveness increase of business processes on a corporate scale.
- Compliance to ISO 9001 requirements for storing and routing documents.
- Usage of corporate portal allows significant decrease of expenses on buying information systems. A trivial web browser is enough to get access to the necessary functions of the applications used.
Results
HardPoint has successfully completed implementation of corporate workflow system for a client – ISO 9001-2000 certified company. As a result of the implementation of the system based on Microsoft SharePoint technology, our customer has got a freedom to automate documents’ lifecycle starting at its creation up to the moment document is moved to archive or deleted. To simplify the management of this cycle and business processes in the company there were “routs” defined for the documents, i.e. their properties (who should review a document, approve, edit or initialize the process of reviewing, etc.).
The following server functionality has been realized for our customer:
- Possibility to keep all versions of a document.
- Notification system informing users about changes made in documents.
- Possibility to access documents located on SharePoint Server from Internet.
- Possibility to build up the roll of documents.
- Electronic storefront (library) of documents available for the local net users depending on the department they are working in or their work status.
- High level of confidentiality (for example, copy or sending via e-mail protection).
- Setting the periodicity for such processes as filling in certain documents like statements or register forms.
- Possibility to view linked documents.
- Document search on various parameters (type of document, keywords, level of document, subdivision, date of revision, approval or implementation, etc.).
Work with the corporate portal
Our specialists have prepared a short manual for the employees explaining how to work with documents saved on SharePoint Server. There was no need for any specialized training as the Portal’s interface based on SharePoint Server is intuitively clear to any user who has at least a minimal experience with Microsoft Office applications. Also the implementation of the solution has not required installation of any additional client programs on users’ desktops as only standard Microsoft Office programs are used while working with documents on the Portal.