Case Studies

Portal Enhances Workflow, Document Management, and Collaboration

Project at a Glance
RDA provided architectural guidance and helped our client develop a roadmap for the successful implementation of a portal using Microsoft SharePoint. Users of the system now enjoy improved capabilities related to document management, search, governance and security.

About Our Client

Our client provides customized, innovative, and timely reinsurance and insurance solutions to the global market.

Background

RDA's client had recently upgraded their intranet portal from SharePoint 2003 to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. The company was experiencing a variety of issues associated with their intranet portal, including:

• Poorly organized content
• Lack of current and relevant information
• Limited search capabilities
• Confusing navigation
• Manual document versioning
• Problematic business data collection via InfoPath forms
• Inconsistent company branding

Solution Detail

RDA performed an inception that created an architectural document (with a phased road map) and then implemented the first phase of the project. As part of the inception, RDA interviewed a cross section of the functional groups at the company to understand their needs with respect to communication, collaboration, information creation and consumption. We then analyzed the results to determine the common business needs and designed an appropriate solution, using a multi-phase roadmap approach. RDA also documented our recommendations and the risks that had been identified.

RDA provided recommendations on how to re-architect the site to make the best use of MOSS 2007 features, how to reorganize the site hierarchy as per our client's organization structure, and how best to use the built-in workflows or to develop custom workflows as per their requirements.

The new MOSS portal includes the following elements:

• Corporate communication site
• Company communication sites, IT and enterprise repository
• Enterprise repository for cross functional sites
• HR, management, and division collaboration sites
• Division collaboration sites that could publish content to the enterprise repository

Benefits

The solution includes the following features and associated benefits:

Document Management	Provides users with collaboration, versioning, and publishing
Enterprise People Search	Users may locate people based on skills, projects, interests, and location.
Enterprise Repository	Publishing area for cross-functional areas, such as: Corporate, Legal, General Secretary, Finance, UW, and Modeling
Enterprise Search	Enterprise search allows users to search Public Folders, Email, and MOSS from a single solution. This feature crawls any content that exists in external locations to provide a single solution to search for content.
Governance	There is a consistent user experience through IT and Site Owner administered corporate and division sites. Self service model for administration of project, team, and meeting sites.
MySites and User Profiles	Provides users with a personal workspace area to manage documents, content links, links to colleagues, tasks, and calendar. MySites are returned as results in people search to provide the searcher with the users’ profile, location, and contact information.
Navigation	Consistent navigation provides ease of access to content.
Security	Secures content by providing access to the appropriate personnel (Leverages existing AD information).
Site Architecture	Intuitive organization of corporate content