G
Guest
I am a Network Operations Manager looking to begin to steer the company I
work for into leveraging their investment in MS products by starting a 2005
skunkworks project in developing custom business process automation.
We are pretty much an all-Microsoft shop - Domain Controllers, A/D,
Exchange, Office, Great Plains - and we're seriously considering getting into
Sharepoint. I am trying to sell our Exec committee on this idea, but there
are some problems...
First, our company has developers, but they're very anti-VB and not
interested in being a part of this project - they develop for outside the
enterprise and are not concerned about existing infrastructure. Second,
anything having to do with the MS infrastructure is generally considered to
be the responsibility of Net-Ops...
Last, and my biggest problem - I am not a developer, and I'm having a nearly
impossible time, even in asking my MS rep, in getting an idea *what's
possible* working with VB.Net and Outlook/Exchange, AD, and the rest. I
haven't been able to find *anyone* who can tell me about that great
customization that joined X to Y and automated an internal business process,
or removed some paper process and cut time-to-completion by 50%, or some
such. Nothing. I know in my gut that starting this project, that getting
under the hood of these MS products and understanding how they're meant to
work together, be extended, is the right path, but I'm having a terrible time
justifying this gut feeling in terms of time and expense to our execs.
*Any* help in the form of narrative of some basic customizations (How you
used Outlook forms and what a huge time-saver it was and how your company
couldn't exist without it now...), or a success story about a small custom
development project that really opened your enterprise's eyes to the
potential of such would be appreciated beyond belief.
Thanks all for any response to this development utter newbie rant.
work for into leveraging their investment in MS products by starting a 2005
skunkworks project in developing custom business process automation.
We are pretty much an all-Microsoft shop - Domain Controllers, A/D,
Exchange, Office, Great Plains - and we're seriously considering getting into
Sharepoint. I am trying to sell our Exec committee on this idea, but there
are some problems...
First, our company has developers, but they're very anti-VB and not
interested in being a part of this project - they develop for outside the
enterprise and are not concerned about existing infrastructure. Second,
anything having to do with the MS infrastructure is generally considered to
be the responsibility of Net-Ops...
Last, and my biggest problem - I am not a developer, and I'm having a nearly
impossible time, even in asking my MS rep, in getting an idea *what's
possible* working with VB.Net and Outlook/Exchange, AD, and the rest. I
haven't been able to find *anyone* who can tell me about that great
customization that joined X to Y and automated an internal business process,
or removed some paper process and cut time-to-completion by 50%, or some
such. Nothing. I know in my gut that starting this project, that getting
under the hood of these MS products and understanding how they're meant to
work together, be extended, is the right path, but I'm having a terrible time
justifying this gut feeling in terms of time and expense to our execs.
*Any* help in the form of narrative of some basic customizations (How you
used Outlook forms and what a huge time-saver it was and how your company
couldn't exist without it now...), or a success story about a small custom
development project that really opened your enterprise's eyes to the
potential of such would be appreciated beyond belief.
Thanks all for any response to this development utter newbie rant.