Using workflow functions in sharepoint

One of the ways in which sharepoint does its productivity-boosting magic, is that it uses something called workflows. The way I personally would describe workflows is simply as a set of rules and guidelines on how work gets done inside of your organization.

Workflows can seem complex and overwhelming at first glance, and they are unless you're an expert at designing them. This is why I'd personally suggest hiring an outside sharepoint consultant to help create them for you.

A good example is let's say you want to define a certain task type inside your organization. For example, your manager needs to give out tasks, and his team members need to finish them.

With a sharepoint workflow designed properly, what will happen is that the manager first logs into the front-end of the sharepoint server. He finds a document he wants to be worked on, and he chooses a workflow for it, let's say "review article for readability and grammar".

What then happens is that Jane (the default proofreader set in the workflow) is automatically assigned the document and a task of proofreading it.

What happens next, is that sharepoint automatically emails jane a link to this document and her task. She can click on this link, and do her job.

In the meantime, the manager is notified that Jane has commenced work on the document, and he is even notified when the document has been finished. He even gets an option to approve, or reject the final result. These are all rules defined within the workflow he chose.

Now, the way you design workflows for sharepoint is by either using Microsoft Visual Basic or The Sharepoint Designer. As I said before, in my mind its just best that you hire a consultant or a workflow expert to do these designs for you. Sharepoint consultants can also help you do this much quicker.

Testing If A Consultant Is Right For Your Team

Sharepoint is pretty much a perfect solution in pretty much any business environment, in fact Microsoft develops this software with a goal and purpose of making it the best in the world. It is however not as as user-friendly as other software because it really requires the user to be much more versed in the technical aspects on the front end of implementing it. This is the very reason for why there are sharepoint consultants, to help and assist firms and other companies in their business needs for this software with the objective of meeting the criteria and goal of the firm while using this business solution.

Now how can you choose the best Sharepoint consultant? Don't skip this part and be lazy, picking the first person that you find. Its crucial to do a lot of research and get the best person for the job. Its not something you can afford to mess up or get lazy on, as it will cost you a lot in terms of money, effort and energy on the backend.

1. You have to consider the background of the consultant, find out his/her accomplishments in the past and his track record, this will be helpful to know how he can be of help to the company.

2. Treat him as part of the team, for instance you may have brainstorming with your technical department, to know how well he can help you in that aspect.

3. Create a feedback mechanism so that you'll know how else he can be of help to the company even after the project is done, you can also asses if the company will be much better and profitable using this business solution.

4. Lastly, their goals and objectives should coincide with company mission and culture, this is very important so that you'll walk in the same path. This is why you want to see how well he works and vibes with the other team members. So introduce him to everyone before hiring him.

Hiring a Sharepoint Consultant?

There are four easy steps to find out all you need about sharepoint consultants.

These steps might seem common sense, and like you already know them, but do not be fooled. You want to really focus on these, exactly as I lay them out if you really want to choose the best possible consultant for your sharepoint implementation.

First, inquire about their past status. You can do this inside of an interview by yourself or through a reference customer. You can even get together on a call conference with the consultants and some past clients of theirs. It will help you to decide if you want to buy a solution from them. Don't push too hard on either side, just ask polite questions of the past client and the consultants, and see how it goes.

Secondly, You should introduce your IT team with the consultants. This is so that they can get you more information about working with the sharepoint consultant. It will be better if your IT manager asks the consultants on the phone about their familiarity with SQL,Windows server, directories etc.

The third step is the most important! Ask them... After the project is completed, what would they suggest for your business and its sharepoint use? To do this properly and give you solid recommendations, they will have to ask you some questions. Answer their questions in full and be sure to answer them properly. It might require that you survey your business, but it will really help assess the sharepoint consultants.

The last step, after finding your consulting team that suits to your technical needs, evaluate them and also see how see if this team can deal with the company culture. You need to make it effective because this team is going to work with your business user team and your IT teams. So its important that they are able to work and sync together nicely.