You probably have an awesome Document Management System and don’t even know it...
The dream of a paperless office is now becoming a reality and you can move your company further in that direction (saving both time and money) using a solution that many companies own but don’t even know it.
The solution that I am referring to is Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). WSS comes with Windows Server 2003 and 2008 and unless you know to look for it, you probably never knew you had it. WSS is two things: a workgroup collaboration platform and a development platform for business solutions like business reporting tools (dashboards, key performance indicators, real-time charts and data from multiple systems, etc).
Workgroup Collaboration
Think of SharePoint and WSS as a web portal that can store documents, images, and other files that individuals and groups can access through a web browser. Beyond file storage, WSS has some very cool features that you do not get with the traditional file system on your network. For example, you can automatically save multiple versions of documents to provide both an audit trail and a roll-back solution as a document evolves—no more saving the file over and over again with different names. Additionally, if you are working collaboratively with another person or a team, the person editing the document can “check it out” and you can be automatically notified when the work has been completed and “checked back in.” You can also be automatically notified whenever a new document is saved into a document workspace (say when a new quote has been created in Excel, or an employee handbook has been updated). All documents saved in WSS are full-text searchable (including the content of PDFs!) and can be sorted and filtered using any number of criteria including date, author, version, or any other attribute that you would like to add to a document. My favorite feature is the ability to access and work on any document that I need remotely without the need for VPN or other complicated technology.
Reporting Platform
This is my favorite part of WSS and SharePoint. As some readers know, I also own and run an online bike clothing business (www.veloclothes.com). Running a second company requires me to split up my time and know what is going on in both companies. We have developed a reporting dashboard that pulls in data from three different sources (E-Commerce Engine, QuickBooks, Exchange) and presents them in a way that makes sense to me, so I can see the health of the company at a glance. From one screen, I can review how many orders we have, how long they have been in the system (with color coding so that I can see the ones that need attention), our sales to date compared with the same time period last year, our most popular items (with images), my email, and other business metrics that I need to know on a daily basis. No longer do I have to log in to multiple systems, run reports, and then mentally process the information—it is all served up to me in real time whenever I want it. It is not an overstatement to say that this solution completely transformed how we do business.
WSS is a hidden jewel that can completely change the way you do business, share information, save paper, and provide you new visibility into other business systems without spending a bunch of money on software.
If you would like to see how we use WSS and SharePoint, give me a call at 503-241-3499 and I will give you a peek.
The most common response that I get when people see what can be done is “Wow—can you turn that on for us?” Δ