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Case Study: A Collaborative Application for Managing Skills Testing
"By migrating an existing Microsoft Excel application to SharePoint immediate benefits
were obtained through allowing multi-user access and reporting."
Building Collaborative Applications with SharePoint 2007
In all organisations, users maintain lists relating to their daily activities in
Microsoft Excel or similar applications. While such Excel solutions are quick and
easy to setup the solution is not suitable for collaborative work because:
- The location of the spreadsheet may be obscure, or perhaps even on the user’s local
PC.
- Concurrent access by multiple users is not possible
- The information contained in the list is not searchable
- Formal process control is not applied to the data
Great benefit can be gained by migrating such lists into a SharePoint site. In this
case, the client maintained information on Pilot examinations in an Excel spreadsheet.
On migrating to SharePoint the following advantages were achieved:
- Multi-user access to data with process control through workflow.
- Live access to KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and summary data for managers.
- Searchable data throughout SharePoint (searching for a pilot in other parts of the
intranet includes results indicating the pilot’s examination status).
- High quality, PDF reports suitable for emailing to interested parties.
- Security for different user roles applied through SharePoint groups and permissions.
Solution Architecture
The following key architectural aspects are described in this case:
- Data Storage
- User Interface
- Reporting
Data Storage
There are two clear choices for where data should be stored:
- Tables in a relational database, such as Microsoft SQL Server.
- In SharePoint lists and libraries.
The prime advantage of relational databases is the ability to apply strict referential
and other integrity rules to ensure the validity of data. However, accessing such
data generally involves writing Microsoft .NET code, although some success can be
achieved through using Web Parts and the Microsoft SharePoint Designer.
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