Most companies managed to get their Business Applications (ERP; CRM; …) under control after high investments and large efforts. You may now be confused on how to position this system against new upcoming platforms like MS SharePoint 2007. 

MS SharePoint 2007 provides Portal technology, Collaborative Workspaces, Document Management and Web Content Management.  All these new concepts are situated in the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) area. 

Business Applications versus MS SharePoint 2007 

Only about 20 % of the information in your business processes is structured, the remaining 80 % is unstructured (letters, e-mails, documents,...). Your Business Application system is designed to manage the structured information; with platforms like MS SharePoint 2007 it is easy to manage the unstructured information. The unstructured information is most valuable when it is directly accessible in its related (structured) context. This is only possible when both systems are integrated. 

10 reasons to integrate MS SharePoint and your Business Application  

1.    To bring application information to other user groups (E.g. to ERP data consumers and contributors that are no ERP users and have been working until now with paper documents or MS Excel based reports/input forms)

2.    To work in role based portals via SharePoint rather than process oriented via the Business Application (E.g. Customer / Product / Sales / Purchase / Project / … - Portals) 

3.    To insert & update application data via user friendly SharePoint screens 

4.    To tag your documents with business application data 

5.    To use SharePoint workflows based on business application data  

6.    To extend business processes beyond the Business Application (E.g. to involve suppliers or customers in your process flow and approve or confirm via the Extranet) 

7.    To use tools like MS Excel and SharePoint KPIs to create dashboards based on business application data 

8.    To include business application information in your SharePoint Search 

9.    To keep your business logic in the business application and avoid reprogramming in the Portal 

10.  To build custom web applications using your business application data (E.g. CRM / HR / Contract Management / Project Management / …  - applications) 

How to integrate? 

Microsoft SharePoint is a framework that uses building blocks, called Web Parts. They provide the necessary functionality to build SharePoint Portals.  

Ometa has developed a set of Web Parts and connectors that discloses data from your Business Application via the APIs to SharePoint.  

Beside the Web Part to disclose info, Ometa has also developed a unique way to integrate the data into SharePoint lists and Libraries. The advanced of the total SharePoint integration is that all SharePoint functionality (version management, audit trail, workflow,..) becomes applicable on your ERP application dataset. 

Typical Customer Cases 

  • Inserting and updating (new) customer/ supplier data in the ERP system via a single SharePoint screen (instead of going through multiple ERP screens) 

  • Inserting sales/purchase orders in the ERP system via a single SharePoint screen (instead of going through multiple ERP screens) 

  • Approving new customers/suppliers via SharePoint workflows (instead of routing the request forms to the approvers by fax or mail) 

  • Decentralized time entries in the ERP system via a SharePoint portal (instead of doing it via Excel sheets that are routed to a central person for entry in ERP) 

Proved Results 

  • High reduction in process elapse time

  • Higher data quality in the Business Application 

  • Less administration 

  • Better communication 

  • Faster access to information, enabling faster decision making 

  • High user-friendliness improving user satisfaction 

Business Application independent 

Your SharePoint Portals can remain unchanged, even if your Business Application is replaced. There is only a new setup of the Ometa framework required. 

In case your process is spread over different Business Applications, SharePoint becomes your single user interface. 

Business Application always ‘leading’ 

An asset of the Ometa WebPart is the ‘TWO-PHASE COMMIT’ concept.  It means that any change of business application data in your SharePoint Portal will first be changed in the Business Application before SharePoint will accept it.  

So, it is committed in both applications via one user handling. In this way your Business Application keeps the lead.  Any message given by your Business Application API layer will be displayed in SharePoint. 

Ometa provides a solution to use MS SharePoint as a presentation layer on top of your Business Application keeping the logic and process validation in your application and replacing GUIs by Portal solutions. 

Ometa has built connectors for SAP, BaaN-Infor, Movex and other applications. The Ometa framework supports various versions of each application, including the customizations.