Hello World!

July 7th, 2004 by unclaimed blog

Basically, I have been working with SharePoint for over a month. I was unable to spend more time on it, as it was not a priority at that time. But now it is. The major problem is that many of the users are not computer literate or are too old to change their set ways. So most things had to be transparent to them or possible to accomplish in a single click.

My focus was therefore, on these issues:

1. The need to have a document management solution, where users could add any kind of documents in a clean hierarchy and they could do it without much effort or possibly in a click.

The different kind of documents, I needed in the Document library was:  

1. All incoming faxes (conventional method as well as through the system) to be categorized and linked to its appropriate set.
2. All official word/excel docs, again categorized and linked to appropriate sets.

3. Accpac Documents full cycle from all modules OE/AP/AR etc… where usually they print and fax quotations/orders/invoices etc… it was required to be added to the document library under appropriate company, customer, salesman categories etc…
4. Accpac CRM related documents.
5. Emails including attachments / exchange public folder documents
6. Some customized software outputs such as Quotation Register which is an ActiveX Document solution for approvals of quotations.

2. To convert the present static Intranet to be a part of the SharePoint portal (more than 200 Pages)

3. Add OWA into the SharePoint MySite of each user or maybe to the home page of the portal. This was done so that any user logging in would get their details. (Believe me, teaching my users  to click my site, to get their customized information was a tough job. So I tried to compile all the information in the start screen. (However, with the available web parts, I faced a lot of issues)

4. To make a routing / processing engine based on customizable business rules, (not documents) but different forms and to save this data for reporting. I preferred to use InfoPath for this.

5. Think about SQL reporting for removing many old Access / VB applications / ASP pages only to show different reports.

6. Something definitely to check and work on my agenda, was Accpac and Accpac CRM integration and a Single SignOn possibility.

More than all this, it was important to ensure that all functions was available on any device so that the 10% users (top level management and CEO) who know what can be done with computers are could access what they require.

Many more things are yet to come to my attention:

I don't know how far I it will be possible, but I will continue to add my challenges, issues, solutions etc.