Combining SharePoint and Web Content Management to manage web publishing, data capture and collaboration

We’re finding many organisations are adopting Microsoft SharePoint 2007 as their platform for managing documents, collaboration and processes.

As this adoption continues we’re seeing a growing requirement to ensure that other online services can integrate successfully with SharePoint.

We’ve recently been working with several clients to integrate web content management systems with SharePoint, enabling documents and list data to be viewed and manipulated within their wider website and extranet environments – The big payback here being the centralised management of extranet and website communication from within SharePoint.

It’s an interesting technology because it lets you combine the powerful document and list management capabilities of SharePoint with the excellent web publishing, standards compliance, site optimisation and interactive services provided by a good CMS – Useful if you don’t want to go to the development, infrastructure and license expense of delivering a full SharePoint environment to clients (or a particular group of employees).

We thought we’d share some of our experiences of how the SharePoint Connector for Alterian CMC (previously called Immediacy CMS) is being used and the value it can deliver, which you'll find interesting if you're currently using Alterian CMC and reviewing SharePoint, or are a SharePoint user interested extending SharePoint's reach out to your web and extranet sites.

Features overview

The main functionality provided by the SharePoint Connector for Alterian CMC is the ability to display and collect SharePoint lists data within your website, intranet or extranet environment.

The connector works in either live or disconnected mode to:

• Export list data and documents from SharePoint and transfer them to your web environment
• Transfer updated information from your web environment back to your SharePoint server and import it

Scenarios

Here are a few scenarios showing how we’ve used the technology:

1. Client extranet: Publishing, receiving and collaborating on documents

If you regularly collaborate or share documents with clients / partners outside your organisation you can manage this via a SharePoint document list exported to your extranet.


Screenshot: An exported SharePoint document list within an extranet environment.

Document lists can be displayed on your website or extranet and, if you let them, clients can also upload new documents or download, amend and return documents to you.

You can then use the notification and workflow features within SharePoint to be informed of items needing attention and manage any workflows or processes associated with a document.

You can also associate comments or other information with a document by adding custom fields to the SharePoint document list.

2. Form data management

Submitted website forms can be placed directly into SharePoint making the information easier to manage, process and audit.


Screenshot: An example event registration form based on a SharePoint list.


Screenshot: Results come directly into SharePoint and can be filtered by their status and contain additional fields to allow for internal processing.

Completed forms often have internal processes associated with them which can be managed within SharePoint, e.g.

• Lead processing: you can use SharePoint to manage the contact process for new leads coming in from the website.
• Event registration: you can export a view of a registration list from SharePoint to your website for completion by web visitors. You then use additional internal fields in the list and SharePoint Workflow to manage your internal processes on the completed registration forms, such as tracking follow ups, sending confirmation letters and printing attendee badges.

Screenshot of an exported SharePoint list being used as the basis of an email merge in word

3. Client extranet / intranet: Providing information and status updates

If you work with clients in situations where you need to provide regular status or performance updates these can be exported directly from a SharePoint list.

For example: project status updates can be delivered to clients by exporting a custom view from a SharePoint task list across to your extranet.

4. Custom development: Extranet user management

The SharePoint Connector for Alterian CMC provides a development interface that enables us to develop additional functionality and integrate it with SharePoint.

Example: extranet user management – One of our clients operates a range of extranets for several different user groups. New groups are added on a regular basis. Approving access requests from new applicants was a complicated process because each extranet is managed by a different person.

Solution: We developed a .Net role provider for the extranet that utilised the SharePoint Connector to enable extranet user accounts to be managed via SharePoint.

Access requests from new users are automatically added to a custom SharePoint list, enabling SharePoint workflows to route approval requests depending on the specific group access requested by the registrant.


Screenshot: Extranet user requests now come in to SharePoint for approval.

The biggest payback: streamlining website and extranet management

If your organisation has taken the strategic decision to use SharePoint internally then we're finding the biggest payback from a CMS based SharePoint Connector is coming in the form of streamlined site management. Managing your extranet becomes integrated into the flow of daily work processes, making it more straightforward to maintain larger extranets.

It will be interesting to see how the capabilities of SharePoint Connectors evolve, especially with the iminent arrival of SharePoint 2010.