SharePoint 2010 provides the ability to connect to backend business systems, surface business data in SharePoint and make it accessible by, and useful to, employees across the organization. Almost every company of significant size uses ERP and CRM solutions to run core business processes. Over time, companies have developed detailed practices around using such systems to support vertical disciplines within the organization (e.g. product planning, financial performance management, supply-chain management, etc.), yet challenges remain with regard to driving visibility and collaboration, based on business data, across different disciplines and teams. These challenges stem from the fact that only a fraction of employees are licensed and trained to use those backend systems, and from the high cost and complexity of integrating such systems across different functions and teams.
With SharePoint and SQL, once the relevant business data is surfaced in an enterprise-wide collaboration platform, several benefits can be gained; first and foremost, access to the data that underlines core business processes can now be viewed, analyzed and acted on by any employee in the organization (based on business priorities and permissions granted). With the relevant business data readily available, better decision making, quicker and more effective exception handling, and faster time-to-market can all be achieved. In addition, users are able to interact with the business data through a user interface they are already familiar with instead of having to switch between multiple user interfaces which are oftentimes not as user friendly.
Interestingly enough, training-related cost reductions do not count for the bulk of the TCO reductions that could be achieved by implementing backend data connectivity with SharePoint. The more significant source of such efficiencies is the impact related to reducing business risk; as more functions in the organization are exposed to the business data that is related to their daily responsibilities, and as workflows are implemented to support cross-team exception handling and problem solving, more and more of the risk associated with the underlying business processes can be mitigated, leading to more efficient processes and to reduced operational costs.
To learn more about the benefits related to enable business-critical solutions with SharePoint and SQL, click here.
