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.