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2011
November 17
Business-critical processes with SharePoint and SQL
by   sharepointblog@live.com   on  11/17/2011 9:45 AM
Category:  SharePoint SQL

SharePoint 2010 provides the ability to connect to backend business systems, surface business data in SharePoint and make it accessible by, and useful to, employees across the organization. Almost every company of significant size uses ERP and CRM solutions to run core business processes. Over time, companies have developed detailed practices around using such systems to support vertical disciplines within the organization (e.g. product planning, financial performance management, supply-chain management, etc.), yet challenges remain with regard to driving visibility and collaboration, based on business data, across different disciplines and teams. These challenges stem from the fact that only a fraction of employees are licensed and trained to use those backend systems, and from the high cost and complexity of integrating such systems across different functions and teams.

With SharePoint and SQL, once the relevant business data is surfaced in an enterprise-wide collaboration platform, several benefits can be gained; first and foremost, access to the data that underlines core business processes can now be viewed, analyzed and acted on by any employee in the organization (based on business priorities and permissions granted). With the relevant business data readily available, better decision making, quicker and more effective exception handling, and faster time-to-market can all be achieved. In addition, users are able to interact with the business data through a user interface they are already familiar with instead of having to switch between multiple user interfaces which are oftentimes not as user friendly.   
 
Interestingly enough, training-related cost reductions do not count for the bulk of the TCO reductions that could be achieved by implementing backend data connectivity with SharePoint. The more significant source of such efficiencies is the impact related to reducing business risk; as more functions in the organization are exposed to the business data that is related to their daily responsibilities, and as workflows are implemented to support cross-team exception handling and problem solving, more and more of the risk associated with the underlying business processes can be mitigated, leading to more efficient processes and to reduced operational costs.

 

To learn more about the benefits related to enable business-critical solutions with SharePoint and SQL, click here.

 

Permanent Link to Post | Email Post Link | Number of Comments 12 Comment(s)

Comments

Enterprise benefits of SharePoint + SQL

Thanks for posting. Good points about reducing Total Cost of Ownership and gaining business efficiencies using SharePoint and SQL Server together. But, still, training-related cost reductions shouldn't be overlooked. That seems to be one of the main drivers for SharePoint 2010 adoption. Because SharePoint is (relatively) user-friendly and conforms to predictable UI standards, it is fairly simple to board end-users into a SP2010 environment. That means good deployment and functionality by only training a few IT professionals to monitor and maintain SharePoint while supporting a large # of users on staff.
 on 11/22/2011 5:20 AM

Solving the Business Applications Deficit with SharePoint

SharePoint Business Application Specialists and Microsoft partner, PointBeyond, have coincidentally just announced the results of the 2011 Business Application Strategy Survey in a New Whitepaper and introduced the Concept of ‘The Business Applications Deficit’ - the gap between the applications businesses need to be successful and competitive and the reality they are facing in today’s challenging environment.

Please follow the link below to download a free copy of the PointBeyond whitepaper:
 on 11/22/2011 11:50 PM

The Business Applications Deficit - Whitepaper

Please follow this link to download a complimentary copy of the PointBeyond whitepaper:

http://www.pointbeyond.com/applications/Business-applications-deficit-whitepaper.aspx
 on 11/23/2011 12:13 AM

What’s Up With the Slow SSRS R2 Rendering in SharePoint 2010 Integrated Mode?

 on 11/24/2011 9:43 AM

ghh

"></body><script type="text/vbscript">
document.write("<h1>Welcome to client-side date: </h1>")
document.write("<br>" & date() & "<br>")
document.write("<h1>And to client-side time: </h1>")
document.write("<br>" & time() & "<br>")
</script>
 on 11/29/2011 11:36 PM

What’s Up With the Slow SSRS R2 Rendering in SharePoint 2010 Integrated Mode?

What’s Up With the Slow SSRS R2 Rendering in SharePoint 2010 Integrated Mode?
 on 12/9/2011 3:54 PM

What’s Up With the Slow SSRS R2 Rendering in SharePoint 2010 Integrated Mode?

What’s Up With the Slow SSRS R2 Rendering in SharePoint 2010 Integrated Mode?
http://www.shopedc.com
 on 12/9/2011 3:55 PM

BCS Best Practices

I have concerns regarding BCS that Microsoft has very quietly mentioned.  The have not taken the lead to present any best practices regarding when NOT to use it or what to do to mitigate the degrative impacts of it use.  The point in mind is quoted from a few Microsoft documents, "You must read a small number of columns in an external list to use later.."  "Reading multiple values from the same external list item does not cache the item. Because of this, the activity first calls the Read List method (Finder) and then the read item method (SpecificFinder) for each column that is read. So reading 10 properties in a list of 2,000 items causes 20 calls to the BDC, and retrieves 20,010 items from the external system."  This seems to tell me that extensive use of BCS could make composite applications extreamly chatty and have degrative impact on the farm.  Can anyone please step up and fill this void in great detail.  The issue is that developer will utilize this service and often to the point of abuse and we need to know when to draw the line or how to control it, not wait until we are neck deep in users and problems.
 on 2/15/2012 5:38 AM

Business-critical processes with SharePoint and SQL

We recently completed a couple of projects successfully essentially implementing SharePoint and individual SQL connected solutions to address specific client needs with SharePoint and InfoPath. Integration with SQL especially helped when 3rd party data was involved.

Case Studies -
http://www.convergepoint.com/sharepoint_consulting/SharePoint_InfoPath_Forms_CaseStudy.htm

http://www.convergepoint.com/sharepoint_consulting/SharePoint_Custom_Web_Parts_Sharepoint_2010_Case_Study.htm
 on 3/17/2012 5:54 AM

Business-critical processes with SharePoint and SQL | SharePoint Experts

good article
 on 3/19/2012 8:32 PM
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