Software Innovation
360° vs. SharePoint 2010
An overview of standard 360° compared to standard SharePoint 2010 (out of the box) features
SOFTWARE INNOVATION ASA
General
360° has the following generic features:
· 360° is an application suite that integrates fully in SharePoint 2010 (SP 2010) and extends this platform with a relational object model and features for integrated Case, Records & Document Management as well as (x)Relationship Management that you cannot find in standard SP 2010
· 360° supports out of the box solutions for the above mentioned functional areas
· 360° is a customization platform that can be used in conjuction with SP 2010 and .net development
· 360° works as an extendable custom solution for SP2010. SP2010 can extend 360° – and 360° extends SP2010 capabilities
· While SP2010 is “tabular, page and site”-oriented, 360° is relational and therefore feasible for creating, maintaining and presenting relations between data as documents to contacts, files to documents, documents to cases, cases and documents to projects, cases and contacts to estates, activities to contacts, so forth and vice versa
· The 360° object model and user interface can easily be extended and customized without affecting the 360° kernel
· 360° supports Office 2003/2007/2010 – and 360° can also use Outlook as a user client (OBA)
· 360° supports server-based production of documents using OpenXML
· 360° leverages Windows Workflow Foundation (WFF) as process engine
· 360° supports Microsoft Search Server through OpenSearch XML and federation as well as FAST & SharePoint Search Server through crawling interface
· 360° has an advanced security and object access model where metadata can dynamically change the access regime
· 360° has a well-defined logging/audit trail feature for all objects
· 360° supports reporting through integrated access model for Microsoft Reporting Services securing full access control also when using reports
· 360° is preconfigured for various industries, based on 25 years of best-practices with 800 customers within the respective industry verticals
· 360° is back- and upward compatible with various versions of SharePoint
User Interface
360° Web client
/ 360° Feature / Avail. in std SP2010? / Comments /1 / Quick launch, tree-view, top menus and global search for easy access to queries, lists and commands / Yes
2 / Large work area for presentation of lists, detail views, wizards and “desktop web parts pages” / Yes
3 / Supports “breadcrumbs” for easy navigation to previous pages / Yes
4 / Navigate with the use of keyboard only / Yes
5 / Uses AJAX technology for refresh of data without redisplaying forms and labels / Partly
6 / “One-single-view” of all entities (contacts, cases, projects, etc.) displaying details and related views of data in one single form / No
7 / Wizards for easy registration of new entity objects (using dialogs for easy navigation back to previous form) / No
8 / Context menus available on hyperlinks for easy access to commands and functions for the given entity object / Yes
9 / Personal and global desktops can be created with standard SP2010 desktop designer - all installed web parts available / Yes
10 / Search globally in the relational 360° database, the full-text archive and SharePoint / No
11 / Create advanced queries with operators and fields / No
12 / Save search criterias or query results for later access through tree-view menu or as a web part / No
13 / Subscribe to RSS feeds from 360° web parts and saved queries / Yes
14 / See “presence” indicators for users and contacts to start Messenger/MSN/OCS/Lync functions directly / Yes
15 / Combine standard SharePoint web parts with 360° web parts and create collaboration sites for specific purposes. / N/A
16 / Customize the 360° specific forms, wizards and details views without coding / N/A
17 / Change colors, look and feel with standard SharePoint themes / Yes
18 / All lists and functions in the web client “Quick Launch” menu available as folders in Outlook / Yes
19 / View 360° RSS feeds in Outlook / Yes
20 / Archive an email through the use of drag & drop in Outlook onto “360° Archiving folders” or “right click” menu / No / Can use Exchange Public Folders to a certain extent
21 / Save documents into 360° directly from the Office menu system / Yes / Easy to store files in any document library in SP2010
360° in Outlook
/ 360° Feature / Avail. in SP2010 / Comments /22 / Get access to all 360° functions from “360° Link folders” in Outlook – documents, cases, contacts, projects or all other objects can be accessed / No
23 / Connect any list, query or web part in 360° from Outlook for direct handling of your open cases, your unanswered documents, etc. / No
24 / Archive incoming emails in 360° by using drag & drop onto “360° archiving folders” / No
25 / Use standard Outlook rules for automatic archiving of incoming email messages / Yes
26 / Outbound email messages can automatically be archived and connected to a 360° contact, project or case when using 360° Link folders / No
27 / Attach any document in archive as an attachment of an outgoing email / Yes
28 / Link to any item in instead of attaching a copy of a document / Yes
29 / Metadata automatically extracted from the email message, attachments extracted as separate files in the archive / No
30 / Emails are automatically marked with a unique archiving ID (document number) in Outlook to indicate that it has been archived and for supporting direct access to the archived item from Outlook / No
31 / Use Outlook as client for approval processes / Yes
32 / Use Outlook as RSS consumer for alerts and new information generated in 360° (and other applications) / Yes
33 / 360° contact information can be exported to Outlook/Exchange address book to be used for offline access to contact information, ensure automatic email archiving, and e.g. mail merge functions / No
34 / Use Outlook as offline client for 360° contact information and documents / Yes
35 / Calendar items can be archived in 360° in the same way as email / No
360° in Microsoft Office
/ 360° Feature / Avail. in SP2010 / Comments /36 / Functions to create, open, check-out, and check-in documents to/from 360° available from the Office menu/ribbons in Word, Excel or PowerPoint / Yes
37 / Create OpenXML documents on the server merging data into custom controls and bookmarks. Continue with user editing or check into 360° repository directly / No
38 / Edit content controls in Office and automatically update metadata in the connected 360° document profile when checking into 360° / Yes
39 / To connect fields in a 360° document profile with content controls and bookmarks in an Office template file, a 360° Document Template Designer is available for template design / No
360° Document & Records Management
General Features
/ 360° Feature / Avail. in SP2010 / Comments /1 / Life-cycle management from capture and production to archiving and record management / Yes
2 / Drag & drop archiving of incoming email, relating it automatically to contacts, projects and other object entities. Extraction of attachments and metadata from the message / No
3 / Automatic archiving of outbound mail by simply creating it from the 360° contact, project and case detail views in 360° / No
4 / XML and server-based Office document production (metadata merge with Office templates) / No
5 / Simple to use - all functionality available directly from MS Outlook folders and from MS Office menus / Yes
6 / Advanced rights management with row and even field-level access control / Yes
7 / Search and retrieve through fields or full text, and supporting “global” search across the complete repository / Yes
8 / By storing search criteria as “favorites”, queries can be reused and even used as filters in SharePoint Web Parts for easy access of documents from the archive / Yes/No / Users can create their own views and criteria on lists and libraries
9 / Revision management of document “packages” (e.g. a set of document files) with full version management, check-in and check-out features on file level / Partly / SP2010 has a new concept called Document Sets, but not with the same functionality as a 360° document concerning metadata, revisioning, etc.
10 / Expandable metadata model, no programming required to create new document metadata profiles and archives for different content / Yes / SP2010 uses the concept of columns and site columns for handling metadata. But SP2010 cannot handle relational data, which 360° is optimized for
11 / Records management features included like: handling physical documents, connecting documents to file plans, rendition management, retention control, etc. / No
12 / Compliant with record management standards like MoReq, OAIS, NEN, NOARK, FESD and so forth / No
13 / Supports the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Records Repository API / Yes
Features for Records Management
/ 360° Feature / Avail. in SP2010 / Comments /14 / Registration and retrieval of electronic and physical records / No
15 / Scanning and file import / No
16 / Hierarchical or object oriented file plans with folders for documents/records / No
17 / Administration of the physical archive: lending out documents, periodization of the archive, exporting records to long term storage / No
18 / Administration of electronic archive: format conversion, access control, user administration, quality control of user registrations, audit trails, etc. / No
19 / Production of reports: public journal, sender/receiver lists, arrears control, statistics / No / Only to a very limited extent
20 / Export of public journal and documents to Internet portal for public access / No
Features for Case & Correspondence Management
/ 360° Feature / Avail. in SP2010 / Comments /21 / Creation of case folders and integrated production of documents based on templates / No/Yes / Concept of case folders with metadata and business rules does not exist in SP2010, but you can have folders for grouping documents
22 / Storage of incoming email as documents in case folders / No
23 / Web parts for new cases and incoming documents, unfinished documents, etc. / No / Can create views, but with less flexibility
24 / Management functions for distribution of cases and new incoming documents / No
25 / Workflow functions for comments and approval with audit trail management / Yes
26 / Follow-up functions and reports on status of incoming cases and documents / Yes/No / Only on files - not cases
27 / Integrated functions for journalization and archiving of outgoing correspondence / No
28 / Audit trails and access control for sensitive documents and cases / No/Yes / No event logging but fine-grained permissions in SP2010
29 / Automation of tasks and case processing possible through the integrated 360° Process Manager tool / Yes / But require workflow development
30 / Advanced search and retrieval functions - queries can be set up as portal web parts / Yes/No
31 / Alerts through RSS or email of events like new documents, change of status, etc. / Yes
360° Contact/xRelationship Management
Features
/ 360° Feature / Avail. in SP2010 / Comments /1 / Register basic information about companies, organizations or persons in one database / No / No relationship management model as in the integrated 360° Contact Manager tool
2 / Define relationships between corporation and company departments and employees / No
3 / Define relationships between private persons (like father - son, husband - wife, etc.) / No
4 / Connect personnel in your own organization to external customers and persons describing roles and responsibilities / No
5 / Define any number of additional fields for a contact and make new roles/relationships as needed / No
6 / Complete overview of the customer including all correspondence, cases, activity history and relations between contacts and to your own personnel / No
7 / Integrated with Outlook/Exchange for automatic email and calendar capture / No
8 / Document creation with automatic storage of relationship to correspondence partners / No / Some limited possibilities in Outlook/Exchange
9 / Import/Export adapters for synchronization of contact data from and to external registers in ERP systems or public registers / No
10 / Transparently integrated with other 360° modules, but also with other back office applications through the use of web services or client Web Parts / No
11 / Easy-to-use web client Web Parts for easy integration and creation of collaboration sites / Yes
12 / Advanced access control ensuring privacy and proper handling of sensitive information / Yes
360° Project Management
Features
/ 360° Feature / Avail. in SP2010 / Comments /1 / Electronic project folders bring all project information available in one single view, including documents and records, activities, client information, etc. / Yes/No / SP2010 requires separate sites or pages for each project. Not always feasible.
2 / Define project “types” with different metadata, structure, document templates, etc. / Yes / Can define several site templates in SP2010 web application
3 / Support project collaboration by central access to all project information and by the ability to generate SharePoint workspaces for the project / Yes / But does not support advanced project archiving features
4 / Advanced access control features ensure proper handling of sensitive information / Yes
5 / Integrated document & records management ensures proper handling of project documents and project history / Yes / To some extent; see section for Records Management
6 / Relating projects with external contacts and internal departments and teams provide overviews like: active projects in each department? Which projects with which clients? Who is responsible for what? / No
7 / Cross project reporting, enterprise wide information sharing and status control ensured by having all critical project information in the common 360° database / No
8 / Web client based on SharePoint Foundation featuring Web Parts for work lists and reports (My Projects, My Tasks, etc.) / Yes
9 / Automation of procedures can be implemented by using the integrated 360° Process Manager / Yes / Using Office WorkFlow
10 / Integration with ERP and planning systems for tracking costs and time / No
360° Case Management