KLST has completed many successful SharePoint 2010 and more recently SharePoint 2013 Customizations projects, helping organizations realize the full potential of SharePoint via extending SharePoint Features to meet business goals and objectives. Find below a recent case study where KLST was engaged in building complex customizations on the Microsoft SharePoint 2013 platform (we have changed the name and industry of the client case study to protect its privacy)
Case Study – Leading Software Giant Redesigns Internal Partner Sales Portal Using Windows Azure and SharePoint 2013 to improve reporting and ubiquitous access across mobile devices.
Key Client Challenge
- Account Managers and Business Development Executives were mostly on the road and needed access to the Partner Portal on their mobile device prior to meeting the partner. Account Managers needed a way to understand all the different partners within a 50-mile radius of their current location.
- Ability to lookup Microsoft Dynamics CRM opportunities or enter a new prospect into Microsoft Dynamics CRM using mobile-friendly forms in SharePoint 2013 optimized for Windows Phones, iPhones, iPad, and Android phones.
- A clean simple Bing / Google-type Search that could search all the relevant knowledge base stored in SharePoint 2013, Dynamics CRM, and a custom ERP backend application.
Our Solution
- KLST built a single, integrated solution for Opportunity Tracking and “Location-Based” Lead Management on Windows Azure cloud development environment, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 platform. We developed responsive forms using HTML5, CSS3, and JQuery, and Bing Maps API for Location-Based recommendations.
- Custom Visual Studio workflows were developed using C# .NET 4.0 to dramatically reduce the time, effort, and potential for error in processing and analyzing Sales Funnel Reports. It also automated communication with partners, resellers, and system integrators, to further increase efficiencies and reduce software sales lifecycle times.
- A Customization Plan ensured that any “bad code” and poorly thought out changes are phased out in an agreement between IT and business stakeholders, especially those that could be risky to uptime and ongoing operational management of the Sales Portal. Any new code was forced to undergo a structured quality assurance process.
- Various Sales Analytical reports by geography were automatically generated and made available via the SharePoint 2013 portal for account managers and business development managers to prospect, qualify, and close software deals quickly. The manual effort was limited to handling inbound calls, which left Account Managers with more time to focus on account nurturing and growth.
Key Benefits
- Increased Return on Investment: The improved user experience directly led to an increase in user adoption, time saved in fewer helpdesk calls, better utilization of resources and reduced code problems led to a marked increase in ROI.
- Increased User Adoption: The SharePoint Intranet Information Architecture was fine-tuned to meet business needs that meant business users spending less time on business processes like tracking documents, policies, drawings, campaigns, reporting, and efficient contract management.
- Improved Data Security: By helping IT define and implement robust Operational Concerns Framework, business users were assured of data protection.
- Increased platform performance: Improved document storage, relationships between suppliers and vendors, predictable growth of global server farms ensured drastic improvements to the SharePoint platform performance.