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July 12 , 2006
INTERNETWEEK
INFORMATIONWEEK
INTERNETWEEK |
FEATURE STORY: When first implementing SharePoint, most organizations focus on creating ad hoc team sites or building somewhat passive layouts such as a departmental Intranet. While these initial SharePoint deployments can help improve how users find, use, and share information, your SharePoint environment provides a great foundation for creating “workstream” applications that drive information and activity across your SharePoint environment. Workstreams are a subset of workflow. They take their name from the “workstream” processes in manufacturing where materials are run through a process or assembly line that transforms material into final product. The workstream concept has great applicability in the SharePoint world, particularly given the new capabilities offered by Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007. To better understand the power that workstreams have in driving business value, let’s look at some examples: From Event Registrations to Contacts to Sales
New Hire Process  A new hire process would follow a somewhat different type of workstream. When new hires start work, they are typically required to fill out many forms. Instead, you could develop a workstream where the new hire could fill out a single comprehensive form in a single list. Some of the information could be “pushed” to a Company Employee List, other information to the Announcements on the Intranet home page, and other pieces of information could be “pushed” to kick off internal HR processes such as Asset Tracking, Payroll Processing, Training Management, etc. |
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In both of these workstream applications, information is flowing across the workplace. As it moves, it is transformed. Different processes are initiated. These workstream applications differ from standard structured workflow in a number of ways:
In contrast,
Applying Workstream Applications to Your SharePoint Environment To apply workstream applications into a SharePoint environment, you need to see your overall SharePoint environment as a blueprint. You then use workstream capabilities to define how various types of information flow across this environment and how one item initiates and relates to other items. These workstreams will typically run across your full environment, from department to department, from site collection to site collection and from virtual server to virtual server. A classic example of this is a Customer-Sales-Partner workstream that cuts across extranet, intranet, and internet “zones.” Typically, a workstream is a broad design. At a given stage in the process, you may have one or more item specific workflows, such as a document approval process. The workflow capabilities of Windows Workflow Foundation in Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 will provide the ability to drive the discrete workflow within a given stage. CorasWorks offers even broader capabilities that support workstream application designs on SharePoint. For instance, CorasWorks’ “push” Actions which are a part of the CorasWorks Workplace Suite™, can be easily defined to drive information flow across the SharePoint environment on SharePoint 2003 or 2007. CorasWorks offers examples of various workstream applications on SharePoint 2003 and SharePoint 2007 within their online Showroom – simply click on the “Workstreams” tab. Workstream applications are the next step in the evolution of collaborative applications. If you already have your basic SharePoint environment in place, now is the time to explore how you can start to drive business activity across your environment. |
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common workstream starts when prospects register on your web
site for an event. The registration data is moved into a
Sales Contact database, since these contacts are considered
leads. Then, as the leads are worked, they progress into
your Sales Pipeline. At each step, the information is
stored in a database or list. When it “moves” to the next
step, the item doesn’t move, it actually is transformed.
Some of the information from the event registration is used
in the Sales Contact, but at the “Lead” stage, more
information is added. Additional information is added as it
“moves” to the Sales Pipeline. Effectively, one item is
kicking off a workstream that drives other different but
related items.