Technical Overview for IT Professionals

Application Template: Business Performance Reporting

Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 is technology in Windows Server® that offers an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services designed to connect people, information, processes and systems both within and beyond the organizational firewall. Now available at no additional cost, Windows SharePoint Services makes it simpler for IT professionals to implement and manage a team collaboration infrastructure. Application Templates are tailored to address the needs and requirements for specific business processes or sets of tasks for organizations of any size. The templates provide out-of-the-box, customizable scenarios which solve business needs as well as providing a starting point for partners and developers looking to build more sophisticated Windows SharePoint Services solutions.

Description of Template

The Business Performance Reporting application template for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 helps teams track customer satisfaction through the use of surveys and analysis tools. The site enables customers to complete Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007 based surveys which can then be uploaded in order to analyze the results in different formats. The site also includes functionality to upload customer names, customer service tasks, calendar items and contacts in order to facilitate a customer service activities related to the surveys. Contacts can also be entered and synchronized with Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 to ensure site users always have the most updated customer and team information.

A powerful element of the Business Performance Reporting site is the business function specific discussions that the site enables. Team members are able to collaborate through the use of newsgroup-style discussion boards on four major business functions: Human Resources, Operations, Financials Indicators and Customer Satisfaction. Each of these discussions categories can be linked to an RSS reader such as the one provided in Office Outlook 2007, which can simplify the process of tracking and replying to discussion threads. The site also includes a Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 template which can be used to facilitate a team’s detailed analysis of survey results.

Activities Performed in this Application Template

Ø Edit or Create a Survey: Site users can use Office InfoPath 2007 to edit or create a survey used to track business performance. By default, the survey is set up to ask a number of key performance questions such as company performance, quality of service, sales effectiveness and reliability. Users have the capability of changing questions, forcing required entry or adding company logos, taglines or information.

Ø Collect Survey Results: Office InfoPath documents can be sent via email to customers who are able to complete the survey offline. When the completed survey is returned, site users upload the document which enters the results into the Business Performance Review site for analysis. Surveys can be accessed individually directly from the site, which stores all surveys received in a document library.

Ø Analysis of Surveys Received. Once surveys have been received, the site provides several methods which can be used to analyze results. By default, the main page of the site provides a graphical display for results of the five core questions asked in the survey, including average response value and number of responses for each response value. Also included are several views which list the quantitative answers to each question in table format by responder. The view also includes links directly back to the source Office InfoPath 2007 document which provides more detail and qualitative information from each responder.

Also included is an Office Excel 2007 template with common methods team members can use to perform more detailed analyses of survey results. Using the capabilities of Office Excel 2007, site users can link directly to the data resident on the Windows SharePoint Services site, minimizing the time required to populate the template. Pre-formatted analysis methods are provided, including summaries and detailed analysis on the main categories such as customer satisfaction, operations, human resources and financial indicators. Versions of the Office Excel 2007 spreadsheet can be saved back to the Business Performance Reporting site to enable team members to view and collaborate on the analysis.

Ø Discussion Management: The site also includes the capability to centrally host discussions regarding a topic that has been suggested by a team member. By default, discussions are organized around business functions departments and can be accessed through an RSS reader such as the one provided in Office Outlook 2007.

Site Lists and Libraries

Customer Satisfaction Survey: Track all completed customer surveys on this page.

Survey Results: Analyze the survey responses and then add your completed workbook to this library.

Templates: Measure your key performance indicators by using the templates in this library.

Calendar: Track team events on this calendar.

Contacts: List the contact information for each team member on this page.

Customer Service Tasks: List the tasks that need to be completed around customer satisfaction.

Customers: List the company’s customers and their contact information.

Discussion Boards: Newsgroup-style discussions for default categories: Customer Satisfaction, Financial Indicators, Human Resources and Operations.

Customizing SharePoint Sites and Templates

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is a Web site development and management program that provides powerful tools to build, customize, and contribute to Windows SharePoint Services sites using the latest Web design technologies and established standards in an IT-controlled environment.

Use Office SharePoint Designer 2007 to create and deploy interactive solutions without having to write code. Automate business processes, such as document approval, custom event notification and other collaboration tasks with the workflow designer. Create reporting and tracking applications using data views and forms to easily gather and aggregate data from outside your site and from lists and document libraries on the Web.

Extend your solution by building advanced interactive Microsoft ASP.NET pages. Insert and edit controls with the same powerful activity menus and control property grids previously found only in the Microsoft Visual Studio® development system.

Technical Dependencies

The Business Performance Reporting application template has the following technical requirements:

Ø Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0*

Ø Microsoft Office Excel 2007

Ø Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007

Ø Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (optional)

*Review Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 system requirements for additional information:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/techinfo/sysreqs.mspx

More Information

For more information on the technologies described in this article, please visit:

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0:

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007:

http://office.microsoft.com/sharepointdesigner

Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services:

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepointapps

The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended or should be inferred.

This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.