Let’s be honest and call a spade a spade. The ECM market is being redefined by SharePoint. Many organizations are embracing SharePoint to satisfy their ECM requirements. It has launched data collaboration and records management into the limelight, highlighted the importance of image and data capture tools, and turned ECM into an infrastructure play. But we all know that SharePoint alone can’t meet all of the ECM needs of an enterprise. Microsoft’s strategy has always been to build platforms which satisfy the majority of common requirements but to leave open a pool of other requirements that are addressed by third-party products. In the case of SharePoint, it needs third-party applications to fill in a number of voids by supplying key ECM capabilities (such as data capture and transactional content management).

Integration is an important item to keep in mind with SharePoint. People who are not familiar with the content management space may think that SharePoint’s integration with other Microsoft products provides an easy way to meet their IT requirements for a cohesive solution. In reality, the only complete solution is for SharePoint to integrate with other legacy systems such as HR, accounts payable, or accounting. Consequently, in most cases SharePoint can solve the problem but not without customization.

SharePoint on its own and out of the box is not likely to give you an ROI either. You will still need to invest money into the infrastructure in order to see it.

Finally, the capturing of paper documents into SharePoint must be handled by a separate solution. Paper documents need an efficient way to get into the SharePoint repository. This includes accurately building index data and correctly storing the documents within the associated SharePoint library. None of these tasks are handled out of the box by SharePoint.

This is where UFC can help. We can fill in your SharePoint holes. Take a look at our offerings below and then contact us (sales@ufcinc.com or 248-447-0100) to discuss how we can meet your needs and produce a winning combination for you. When SharePoint is combined with other document management tools, the end result is a rapid ROI and a better end user experience for everyone in the organization.

For more information on how Laserfiche and SharePoint make a winning combination, please click on this brochure titled “SharePoint/Laserfiche Integration Brochure".

Winning Combinations:

Laserfiche

Laserfiche has always developed on top of Microsoft technologies to simplify system administration. Laserfiche and SharePoint takes this tradition to a new level, with support for developers who need to control content, extend collaboration and tailor specialized business processes to departmental needs, without interfering with centralized administration and control.

SharePoint Interoperability:

For more information on how Laserfiche and SharePoint make a winning combination, please click on this brochure titled “SharePoint/Laserfiche Integration Brochure”.

ABBYY

As much as SharePoint is seemingly proliferating as a content management program, it is dependent on leading data capture application like ABBYY to be able to on-ramp documents and data into it. Being able to easily and efficiently convert and index high volumes of paper products directly into SharePoint is critical. By combining a data capture engine like ABBYY with a backend repository like SharePoint, you have a winning combination. For instance, ABBYY’s Recognition Server can publish output files (images and recognized documents) directly to a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server library. The following versions of SharePoint Server are supported:

If ABBYY applications are connected to SharePoint Server 2007, then it is also possible to select a Content type for the output documents and export document metadata (such Author, Title, Subject, Keywords, or the separation barcode value) to document properties columns in the SharePoint library.

Quillix Capture

As a browser based capture application, Quillix Capture allows resources in your organization to capture information at their desktop or on the other side of the world. Quillix Capture works seamlessly with a number of applications, including Microsoft SharePoint. Quillix Capture, like ABBYY, can publish output files (images and recognized documents) directly to a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server library. By combining a data capture engine like Quillix Capture with a backend repository like SharePoint, you have another winning combination.