Visión global

Esta entrada describe un estudio de caso describindo un MRO real (Mantemento, Reparación e Operacións) proceso de aprobación de fluxo de traballo aplicado en Moss.

Esta non é unha discusión aberta técnico, pero serve para dar un exemplo do mundo real que demostra como a plataforma MOSS atendeu a unha necesidade do mundo real.

(Esta entrada é cruzar publicado entre http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com e http://blogs.conchango.com)

Fondo

Proceso de MRO do cliente fora caracterizada pola seguinte

• Proceso de aprobación manual.
• Algún soporte usando follas de cálculo Excel.
• Irregular approval process. The same MRO purchase approval process would vary day to day, persoa por persoa.
• Lotes de papel e sinaturas escritas á man — solicitudes de compra necesarios ata 3 subscricións por escrito antes da aprobación final.

Os obxectivos deste proxecto incluíu:

• Totalmente automatizar o proceso.
• Facer cumprir as normas da empresa para a súa aprobación.
• Proporcionar visión consolidada de MRO adquisitivo para varios xerentes.
• Detailed audit trail.

As a side effect of the solution, subscricións escritas non eran máis necesarios.

Proceso de Aprobación

The approval process consists of four "swim lanes": Originador, Director directo, Director funcional e director de división.

Originador:

Sees the need for the purchase and starts the process. Note that the originator may or may not actually enter the purchase requisition, but instead direct another staff member to do so. Algunhas veces, the originator does not have the technical expertise to fill out the PO requisition. Por exemplo, un usuario pode querer solicitude dun novo portátil, pero non sabe o mellor vendedor, Patróns de TI, etc. Neste caso, the originator works with IT and IT actually fills out the requisition.

Director directo:

Este é o director directo do autor (que pode ser distinta da persoa que realmente entrou na petición de po en Moss). Direct managers must approve the PO requisition before the system seeks approval further down the line.

Xerente Funcional:

The functional manager is the individual responsible for ensuring that the proposed purchase conforms to enterprise standards within the scope of a particular corporate function. Por exemplo, IT purchases are approved by an IT functional manager.

Director de División:

Division managers approve purchase requisitions strictly by dollar amount. Division manager approve purchase requisitions in excess of a configurable dollar amount.

A solución

We used the following tools and components to implement the solution:

Moss: Serves as the platform off which everything else "hangs". MOSS provides bedrock services for security, datos mestre, rutas de auditoría e outras características.

InfoPath Forms Services: Un compoñente Moss, Isto permite aos usuarios cubrir solicitudes de compra a través dun navegador web.

SharePoint Deseño (SPD): Usan SPD para aplicar o proceso de fluxo de traballo automatizado.

Servizo web: A c# web service enhances the user experience by enabling cascading selections lists in the InfoPath form and provides better performance with respect to filtering data. Ver aquí a un profundo mergullo técnico sobre o tema e as nosas razóns para usalo.

Listas personalizadas: MOSS user profiles provided a given user’s direct manager, but did not provide most of the data that controlled workflow decisions (e.g. O director divisional é necesaria para aprobar a petición PO). We used custom lists in an "Enterprise Data" site to maintain data such as "Divisional Manager Approval Dollar Amount", "Functional Area Manager" and so forth. Lists integrated very nicely with InfoPath and also provide create/update/delete (CRUD) función con auditoría e seguridade para fóra da caixa.

Casos de uso

Este caso ilustra a forma na que o uso da solución encaixa:

1. Paul wants a new laptop. He describes his needs to Vivek, unha persoa de TI familiarizado cos estándares portátiles corporativos, provedores preferentes, etc.
2. Vivek conéctase Moss, accesses the PO Requisition form and enters the requisition on behalf of Paul. The form prompts Vivek for a purchase category which then uses the web services to populate a drop-down list of company-approved vendors. Vivek also specifies the corporate functional area of this purchase (e.g. "IT" or "Finance").
3. Fluxo de traballo baseado en SPD comeza, director e encamiña a petición ao seu director directo de determina Paul, Stacy.
4. Stacy aprobar a solicitude de compra.
5. SPD workflow inspects the requisition and determines it’s an IT purchase. It routes the workflow to the IT functional manager, Wonson.
6. Wonson aproba a petición.
7. SPD fluxo de traballo inspecionar novo a petición e determina que o valor de compra supera un valor en dólar maxium e encamiñar-lo para o director da división de aprobación.
8. O director da división de aprobar a solicitude de compra.

Notas

• The use case demonstrates a "clean" run with no rejections or jumps.
• Every approver has the ability to approve or reject the requisition as well as provide written comments. These are logged in the audit trail.
• Se un director responsable rexeita a petición de compra en calquera punto, the PO requisition is "dead" and the process must be started from the beginning.
• Fluxo de traballos notifica o autor, a cada paso do proceso de.
• Non sinaturas manuscritas — cliente determinado (despois dalgunhas recomendacións fortes) que a banda de auditoría, tal como previsto vía historia de fluxo de traballo, cumpriu a súa auditoría que.
• Esforzo — it took approximately three man weeks to implement this solution.

Conclusión

This solution leverages MOSS as a development and run-time platform. The client was able to leverage core MOSS features to automate a routine business process that affected nearly every employee in the company. With the exception of a simple web service (que se aproveita Moss), almost no actual "programming" foi necesaria.

The solution also serves as a "showcase" ao cliente, demonstrating how different MOSS features can be combined to create a fully featured business application and generate new consulting opportunities in the future.

Glosario

MRO: Mantemento, repair and operations. These purchases typically include items such as notepads, cadeiras, ordenadores persoais, impresoras, teléfonos móbiles e similares.