[Tabhair faoi deara: An t-airteagal tras-phost chuig Úsáideoir SharePoint Deireadh anseo: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/2009/09/09/sharepoint-a-case-study-in-ask-the-expert/]
Uaireanta, nuair a bhíonn tú ag obair mar chomhairleoir (mar ghairm, nó i ról comhairleach laistigh de do chuideachta), you find yourself living in an Onion story. The Onion has a series of articles called “Ask an [saineolaí] faoi [roinnt fhadhb]". This follows the famous “Dear Abby” format where a concerned person is asking for personal advice. The onion’s “expert”, áfach,, is so focused on his/her area of expertise and current problems that the expert ignores the question entirely and rambles on about his area of expertise. As consultants, we need to keep that in mind all the time and avoid falling into that trap. It’s classically described like this – “when you use a hammer all day long to solve your problems, everything starts to look like a nail.” We professional consultants are always on guard against that kind of thing, ach thiocfaidh muid i dteagmháil le daoine a bhfuil gairmithe tromchúiseach ina ról féin, but are not consultants. They don’t have the same need or training to do otherwise.
An tseachtain seo caite, Scríobh mé faoi cheann de na cliaint mo cuideachta agus tionscadal ar siúl go leanúnach we have to enable high quality collaboration between various eye doctors in the US and Canada performing clinical research on rare disease. In addition to leveraging core SharePoint features to enable that collaboration, we’re also working an expense submission and approval process. It’s complicated because we have so many actors:
- A handful daoine ag cleachtais dochtúirí éagsúla 'ar féidir leo speansais ar líne isteach.
- Tá os cionn 40 cleachtais dochtúirí '.
- Ag roinnt cleachtais, Úsáideann an dochtúir an gcóras go díreach.
- Ag cleachtais go leor, Úsáideann an fhoireann an dochtúir an córas go díreach.
- A riarthóir airgeadais (a oibríonn ar feadh mo chliant díreach) a dhéanann athbhreithniú na costais atá le cruinneas agus ábharthacht, a fhaomhadh nó a dhiúltú dóibh ag an leibhéal eagrúcháin.
- A 3rd party accounts payable group. These people pay all of the bills for out client, not just bills coming out of the rare disease study.
The Accounts Payable group has been a challenge. Working with them yesterday reminded me of the Onion series. In my role as business consultant, Mhínigh mé ar an ngá atá leis an gcuideachta cuntais iníoctha:
- Láithreáin staidéir chliniciúla (cleachtais dochtúirí ') costais a thabhú staidéir a bhaineann le.
- They log onto the “web site” and enter their expenses using an online form. Sa chás seo, the “web site” is hosted with SharePoint and the expenses are entered into an InfoPath form. Expense receipts are scanned, uaslódáil agus ceangailte go díreach leis an bhfoirm.
- An automated workflow process seeks approval from the appropriate financial administrator.
- You, dear 3rd party AP company – please review and approve or deny this expense. I’ll send it to you any way that you want (within reason).At this point in the discussion, I don’t really care how it needs to be bundled. I want to work with the AP group to understand what they need and want.
When I explained the need, the 3rd party took a deep dive into their internal mumbo jumbo lingo about expense approval processes, Oracle codes, vice presidential signatures, 90 day turn-arounds, etc. And panic. I shouldn’t forget about the panic. One of the bed rock requirements of the consulting profession is to learn how to communicate with people like that who are themselves not trained or necessarily feel a need to do the same. Among other things, it’s one of the best parts of being a consultant. You get to enter a world populated with business people with completely different perspectives. I imagine it’s a little bit like entering the mind of a serial killer, ach amháin nach bhfuil tú scriosta don saol tar éis an taithí (though entering the mind of an AP manager isn’t a walk in the park 🙂 [féach nóta tábhachtach thíos ***] ).
One of the great things about our technical world as SharePoint people is that we have ready-made answers to many of the very valid concerns that people such as my AP contact have. Is it secure? How do I know that the expense was properly vetted? Can I, mar an t-íocóir deiridh, féach ar na sonraí go léir ar chostas? How do I do that? What if I look at those details and don’t approve of them? Can I reject them? What happens if the organization changes and the original approver is no longer around? Can we easily change the process to reflect changes in the system? An féidir liom a chaitheamh ar an chostas in aghaidh na bliana ina dhiaidh sin má agus nuair a rachaidh mé iniúchadh agus is gá a chosaint ar an íocaíocht?
Mar dhaoine SharePoint, we can see how to answer those questions. In my client’s case, freagra dúinn iad níos mó nó níos lú mar seo:
- Foirm InfoPath chun ligean suímh chun a gcuid costais a thaifeadadh agus iad a thíolacadh, lena bhformheas.
- Is féidir le Láithreáin filleadh ar an suíomh d'fhonn stádas a n-tuarascáil chostas ag am ar bith.
- Mar a tharlaíonn imeachtaí suntasacha (e.g. Is é an costas ceadaithe agus curtha faoi bhráid le haghaidh íocaíochta), an córas in iúl go réamhghníomhach leo trí ríomhphost.
- In iúl an córas an riarthóir airgeadais nuair a bhfuil tuairisc curtha isteach lena cheadú.
- Ceadaíonn riarthóir Airgeadais nó denies an t-iarratas.
- Ar cheadú, Is é an costas cuachta suas i ríomhphost agus a sheoladh chuig an 3ú eagraíocht íocóir páirtí.
- Tá an t-íocóir 3ú páirtí an fhaisnéis go léir is gá iad chun athbhreithniú a dhéanamh ar an gcostas agus is féidir rochtain a fháil ar an timpeallacht SharePoint chun tochailt isteach na sonraí (príomha iniúchadh stair a fhíorú ar an "fhírinne" de na costais).
- 3rd party payer can approve or reject the payment using their own internal process. They record that outcome back in the SharePoint site (a chuireann tús le fógra ríomhphoist le daoine oiriúnacha).
- Sa todhchaí, Bheadh sé deas a ghearradh amach an próiseas r-phost stilly agus ina ionad sin beatha an t-eolas chostas díreach isteach ina gcuid córas.
Mar fhocal scoir, níl a stíl saol anseo go cur síos mé ó thaobh an comhairleoir gairmiúil dhearcadh, but which applies almost equally to full time employees in a BA and/or power user role. Work patiently with the experts in your company and extract the core business requirements as best you can. With a deep understanding of SharePoint features and functions to draw upon, níos minice ná a mhalairt, beidh tú in ann a imní a fhreagairt agus a thairiscint ar bhealaí chun feabhas a chur ar gach duine lá oibre a ghiaráil croí gnéithe SharePoint.
***Nóta tábhachtach: I really don’t mean to compare AP people to serial killers. Mar sin féin, I could probably name some AP pro’s who have probably wished they could get a restraining order against me stalking them and asking over and over again. “Where’s my check?” “Where’s my check?” “Where’s my check?"
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