| Many customers have referred to SharePoint as a corporate virus. This is of course a complement to the compelling features and capabilities that customers are drawn to within SharePoint. |
| |
| Unfortunately, uncontrolled creation of SharePoint sites will ultimately decrease the effectiveness of SharePoint within the organization. Without strategies to control taxonomy usage and the basic concepts of relevancy and expiration, users will become frustrated with the SharePoint experience or it will simply become a sophisticated file store. The ability to track and audit the SharePoint site request, creation and modification activities allows customers to place simple yet automated processes around creation of site assets within SharePoint. This in turn allows IT departments to control SharePoint taxonomies, apply standards and guidance to ensure that SharePoint continues to be a favored destination within the organization's domain. |
| |
|
|
 |
Capture a standard taxonomy of information for each requested site
The introduction of process brings visibility, reporting and metrics which underpin capability within the organization to report and manage their SharePoint assets.
In an uncontrolled environment, ad-hoc site creation by empowered users will generate significant site volume. Unfortunately many of these sites will quickly fall into dissue or never be used at all. Furthermore, when site provisioning is not part of a pre-defined and digitized process, activities like site creation, roles association, setting permissions and list creation takes place in a non-standard way, making the administration, migration and information security management difficult to manage. Formalizing the site creation process provides the mechanism to incorporate taxonomies and standards. This approach creates consistency and control which in turn improves knowledge management. SharePoint moves beyond a sophisticated file repository into a true collaboration asset. |
|
| |
|
Keep track of key metrics regarding site creation and management
The K2 and SharePoint Site Management Framework allows organizations to build automated site-creation processes that enforce standards in a predictable way and provide the capability to associate service levels, notifications and escalations. K2-based solutions can be fully embedded within SharePoint and include deep visibility so that so that customers and staff have an immediate, real-time, visual representation of every process and its status.
Rules and policies are built into every K2-based solution to regulate permissions, associate roles and rights, provision sites in a consistent way, and to ensure compliance with organizational standards and templates.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Provide a dashboard giving all stakeholders information they need to make effective decisions
Importantly, the K2 and SharePoint Site Management Framework is visual and configurable. K2 Events that ship out of the box allow administrators to completely configure the site-provisioning process to comply with the requirements of any organization, at a very detailed level.
As sites are created, all stakeholders can be automatically notified, and Outlook reminders (calendar entries) can be generated, to allow users to request renewal, reactivation or deletion of a site.
|
|
| |
|
FAQ
Q. What is a K2 solution framework?
A. K2 is creating a number of horizontal and vertical solution frameworks to show "what is possible" on a process-enabled platform. The K2 and SharePoint Site Management framework is not an out-of-the-box, plug-and-play solution. It is a combination of best practices, configurable processes, ASP.NET pages and reports that provide a foundation for a configurable SharePoint solution.
Q. What version(s) of SharePoint are supported with this framework?
A. SharePoint 2010 is the target environment for our K2 solution frameworks, but they can be reconfigured for SharePoint 2007.
Q. To what extent is the site management solution framework configurable?
A. This site management framework is fully configurable and delivered using a visual model which is editable with the K2 visual designers. The following are examples of extensibility that can be added:
-
Creation, deletion or modification of activities/steps in the workflow
-
Creation, deletion or modification of approval steps
-
Creation, deletion or modification of notifications, escalations and rules
-
Configuration of SharePoint site settings
-
Logging of custom data into a SQL store for transactional or Business Intelligence use
-
Application of company templates and standards
-
Creation and updating of lists
-
Creation of calendars
-
User provisioning
Q. To what extent are the forms and notifications configurable?
A. All forms and notifications (email, tasks and calendar entries) are configurable.
Q. What level of auditing exists?
A. Date/time, requestor details and any metadata related to the site request is captured. Task allocation, execution of tasks, as well as any metadata captured during that process is audited as well. Details around escalations, notifications and system events (for example, permission setting, site creation and site deletion) are captured, as well.
Q. How is the solution licensed?
A. For new customers, licenses must be purchased for each K2 server, which can support multiple SharePoint web front-end servers. Once you have purchased the K2 server, the site management framework will not have an additional cost. In addition, you will have the ability to design and build process-centric applications for any area of your business, including HR, finance, operations and sales.