[Innota: Dan l-artikolu cross-stazzjonati biex End User SharePoint hawn: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/2009/09/09/sharepoint-a-case-study-in-ask-the-expert/]

Kultant, meta inti qed jaħdmu bħala konsulent (bħala professjoni, jew fi rwol konsultattiv fil-kumpanija tiegħek), you find yourself living in an Onion story. The Onion has a series of articles called “Ask an [espert] dwar [xi problema]". This follows the famous “Dear Abby” format where a concerned person is asking for personal advice. The onion’s “expert”, madankollu, 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, imma aħna jiġu f'kuntatt ma 'nies li huma professjonisti serji fir-rwol tagħhom stess, but are not consultants. They don’t have the same need or training to do otherwise.

Last week, I kiteb dwar wieħed mill-klijenti tal-kumpanija tiegħi u proġett li għaddej 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:

• Ftit ta 'individwi fi prattika tat-tobba differenti "li jistgħu jidħlu spejjeż fuq il-linja.
  • Hemm aktar 40 prattika tat-tobba.
  • Fuq xi prattiċi, it-tabib tuża s-sistema direttament.
  • Lejn prattiki ħafna, persunal tat-tabib tuża s-sistema direttament.
• A amministratur finanzjarja (li taħdem għal klijent dirett tiegħi) li jirrevedi l-ispejjeż għall-preċiżjoni u l-relevanza, tapprova jew jċaħħadhom fil-livell organizzazzjonali.
• 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, I spjegat il-ħtieġa li l-kumpanija pagabbli kontijiet:

• Siti studji kliniċi (prattika tat-tobba) spejjeż relatati mad-istudju jġarrbu.
• They log onto the “web site” and enter their expenses using an online form. F'dan il-każ, the “web site” is hosted with SharePoint and the expenses are entered into an InfoPath form. Expense receipts are scanned, uploaded u mwaħħla direttament mal-formola.
• An proċess workflow awtomatizzati ifittex l-approvazzjoni mill-amministratur finanzjarja xierqa.
• 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 (fil-raġuni).Fuq dan il-punt fid-diskussjoni, 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.

Meta I spjegat il-ħtieġa, il-parti 3 ħa adsa fond fil intern mumbo Jumbo Lingo tagħhom dwar il-proċessi ta 'approvazzjoni spejjeż, Kodiċijiet Oracle, firem presidenzjali viċi, 90 jum dawran arounds, eċċ. 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, ħlief li inti ma ruined għall-ħajja wara l-esperjenza (though entering the mind of an AP manager isn’t a walk in the park 🙂 [ara n-nota importanti hawn taħt ***] ).

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, bħala dak li jħallas finali, tara d-dettalji kollha ta 'l-ispiża? 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? Nista tirrevedi din l-ispiża sena wara jekk u meta I nikseb verifikati u l-ħtieġa li jiddefendu l-ħlas?

Billi n-nies SharePoint, we can see how to answer those questions. In my client’s case, aħna risposta aktar jew inqas bħal dan:

• Forma InfoPath biex jippermettu siti biex jirreġistra l-ispejjeż tagħhom u jippreżentawhom għall-approvazzjoni.
• Siti jistgħu jirritornaw għall-sit biex tara l-istatus tar-rapport spejjeż tagħhom fi kwalunkwe ħin.
• Hekk kif iseħħu l-avvenimenti sinifikanti (e.g. l-ispiża huwa approvat u sottomessa għall-ħlas), is-sistema b'mod proattiv tavżahom mill email.
• Is-sistema tinnotifika lill-amministratur finanzjarju ladarba ir-rapport ġie sottomess għall-approvazzjoni.
• Amministratur finanzjarja japprova jew jiċħad it-talba.
• Fuq approvazzjoni, l-ispiża hija marbuta biex jiffurmaw email u mibgħuta lill-organizzazzjoni 3 pagatur parti.
• Min iħallas parti 3 jkollha l-informazzjoni li jeħtieġu biex tirrevedi l-ispejjeż u jistgħu jaċċedu għall-ambjent SharePoint biex ħaffer fil-dettalji (primarjament verifika istorja li jivverifika l-"verità" ta 'l-ispejjeż).
• 3rd party payer can approve or reject the payment using their own internal process. They record that outcome back in the SharePoint site (li jitfa 'n-notifika email lil nies xierqa).
• Fil-futur, ikun sbieħ li maqtugħa dan il-proċess email stilly u minflok għalf l-informazzjoni spiża direttament fis-sistema tagħhom.

Bħala konklużjoni, hemm stil ta 'ħajja hawnhekk li I jiddeskrivi mill-punt tal-konsulent professjonali ta' opinjoni, 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, aktar spiss milli le, inti ser tkun kapaċi twieġeb tħassib u joffru modi biex itejbu kuljum ħidma ta 'kulħadd lieva karatteristiċi ewlenin SharePoint.

***Nota importanti: I really don’t mean to compare AP people to serial killers. Madankollu, 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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Abbona għall-blog tiegħi.

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