SharePoint is a great productivity tool with almost endless
possibilities in customizations and flexibility even for end users.
This is exactly what end users want, because they have lot of
ad-hoc requirements besides the strict processes and
core-it-systems.
SHAREPOINT IS EASY TO DEPLOY, EASY TO USE AND EASY TO
ADAPT!
So, a lot of companies started with SharePoint years ago without
regarding concerns of a lot of IT departments, that moaned
about possible problems with “manageability of such a tool, where
everybody can do what he wants” – but as IT is known to always have
pessimistic thoughts about risk and flexibility or unplanned and
ad-hox usage of tools,, a lot of companies started SharePoint on a
broad base with optimistic estimations and hopes.
It took no wonder that SharePoint spread in a lot of departments
and gained appreciation by end users, as the collaborative
abilities of SharePoint are really useful in daily business and
especially in conjunction with the usage of Office-Documents and
“Daily”-Workflows.
“THE DAY AFTER” – REALITY PROVED THAT IT HAS BEEN RIGHT…
Even though most IT guys are not proud about their abilities to
foresee disasters, it is sometimes a good feeling, when finally
reality confirms the prognostics.
Most “early-bird” companies learned the hard way, that the
creativity of their users need not only strict governance rules in
creating sites, there are several dimensions more, that should be
taken into account to ensure a durable usage of SharePoint.
PATTERNS, NON-FUNCTIONAL-REQUIREMENTS, SCALABILITY,
AVAILABILITY, PERMISSIONS…
Uuh.. Sounds like in earlier days without SharePoint. The IT
guys are back and want to control everything.
Yep, that’s true for the important governance relevant things.
But even those IT guys are “new generation” guys, that understand a
lot about the needs in the business departments… and IT staff has
been cut down so severely in the last years, that there are
probably few guys out there, that produce more IT load then truly
necessary.
Because IT and Business are much closer today than years before,
there is a good common understanding available, that IT needs some
strictness and Business needs some flexibility.
BUSINESS AND IT IN PERFECT HARMONY – CUSTOMIZATION
GOVERNANCE
With SharePoint, the IT has detected a brand new way to answer
the challenging paradigm between strictness and flexibility:
Business-frameworks for SharePoint, like the BPA xRM Framework from
BPA Solutions
governance on business level becomes much easier even in large
corporations, because the business framework enhances SharePoint
natively by features and functions, that have been missing until
now and that enables end users to model their business needs one
level above the SharePoint layer in a consistent set of allowed
features and permissions.
IT can decide about the level of freedom on SharePoint level to
model new objects (like Sites, tables, libraries..) and the
business-framework allows end users to model their needs without
programming, just by configuring the relations, functions and
permissions on business level.
One of the really great features of the BPA xRM framework is,
that BPA Solutions provides “Ready to Run” application templates,
that can be provided as is or that can be customized by IT or end
users themselves without programming.
By this useful option, the business-framework is not just a
“framework, but it is a ready-to-run pattern, that helps companies
to support departments with a whole set of supported processes,
like CRM, QM, PM and many more, which all work with the same
usability and a smooth and seamless integration into each
other.
RESUME
By this, SharePoint business governance can be designed by IT
and business together.
And that at no risk, as the SharePoint layer may be under full
control of IT (if wanted), whereas the business flexibility in
using data, processes, relations and functions is kept in
full.
And that as free and flexible as end users and business expected
from beginning on with SharePoint.
Finally, SharePoint governance, business compliance and business
flexibility are no longer a vision, but a matter of the decision to
use a business-framework with SharePoint.
AUTHORS PROFILE:
Rüdiger Gros, CEO EFEXCON AG, www.efexcon.com
I am in the IT and Software-Development business since 1989 and
my role has passed all steps from software developement over
it-integration up to business consulting. With deep knowledge in
ERP, DMS and BI-Systems, I started to use SharePoint from
2001.
With more than 350 successful lead projects, people rate me as
professional project manager and I have been awarded several times
for innovative software solutions and project turnaround success in
big software projects.
Today, I lead a company fully dedicated to SharePoint, BPA xRM and
project management services.
Come to the European SharePoint Conference in Berlin. Register
Now:
