1. SolidWorks Enterprise PDM and Microsoft SharePoint Interoperability
Marc Young
xLM Solutions, LLC.,

2. Contents SharePoint on the Rise Usages and Advantages
Document Management and Data Presentation
EPDM in Collaborative Environment
Integration: the Best of Both Worlds
EPDM-SharePoint Integration (Data Presentation) Approaches
SharePoint DataView Control
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) with Business Data Catalog
Custom Integration Web Part Solution
Application Scenarios
Integration Examples (Demonstrations)
Considerations
Integration Benefits
Conclusions

3. SharePoint on the Rise
Companies are…
Deploying Microsoft Windows SharePoint as cost-effective and simple internet and intranet solutions:
WSS (Windows SharePoint Services): included in Windows 2003 and 2008 (no additional licensing costs)
MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) 2007 contains additional corporate level support and templates
SharePoint 2010
Increasing demand for accessing PLM/PDM data and functionalities from within SharePoint

4. Why SharePoint?
Provides focused and integrated browser-based workspaces for
Facilitating collaborations within and across units, departments, and sites
Sharing documents and other essential information
Implementing business processes and intelligences
Searching for and utilizing information on organizational and technical resources
Adding values to existing Office and PLM/PDM applications
A set of services and tools for easy construction and management of purpose-specific web sites and collaboration portals
A cost-effective platform for building scalable and robust web-based applications 4

5. SharePoint: Enterprise Portal & Collaboration Environment
Organize and manage meetings
Share and manage documents, contacts, tasks, calendars, and announcements
Develop repositories of knowledge and information through wiki sites
Allow easy participation in discussions, meetings, and document creations
Manage projects with task and participant lists
Share ideas with blogs
Provide mobile access to contents 5

6. The SharePoint Advantage
Present data- and user-centric experiences similar to other Office system products
Already familiar with and preferred by most users
Web sites may be easily created for long or short term applications:
Corporate internet and intranet portals
Individual-, meeting-, project-, team-, and division-based, or other special purpose web sites
Custom web parts may be developed to provide specific functionality or feature 6

7. SharePoint Document Management Features
Metadata shared with document contents
Customizable Document Information Panel for entering and displaying document metadata
Granular Security with Inheritance
Security may be set for a document, folder, or library, with inheritance
Auditing—Create and Analyze Audit Trails for Document Libraries Events:
Open, download, edit, view item in lists, view item properties, check-in, check-out, move, copy, delete, and restore of documents
Document Protection Outside of the Repository
If an Information Rights Management (IRM) policy is set on a library, any document leaving the library is encrypted and only accessible (viewing, printing, etc. with expiration periods) after user validation and for the approved action.
Support for Major/Minor Versioning
Built-in Document Workflows
Content Types Definitions
Support definition of templates for specific document types to standardize associated metadata, business rules (e.g., workflow), and type-specific actions

8. Document Management Key Component: SharePoint List
Is an OOTB (out-of-the-box) component of SharePoint
Is a collection of similar items (that share the same metadata schema)
Contains columns or fields that define the item data or metadata schema
May have documents attached to the columns/fields
Resembles a database table in structure and behavior
Supports various fields or data types
Provides various methods of visualization in entering, editing, and displaying of item data
May be queried--supports filtering, sorting or grouping based on item data or properties
May have triggers that react to list events such as creating, updating or deleting items
Supports workflows
Supports content types

9. SharePoint as a PLM or Document Management System
Pros
Built upon robust Microsoft technologies
Vest support and resource bases
Tight integration with other Microsoft Office products
Cons
No document level options
Does not support document markups
Relies on Microsoft Office suite for document manipulations
Documents are housed within database
Traditional PLM/PDM and document and content management system house documents and contents on external storage medium for efficiency
Many options, not enough functions (offering is broad but not deep)
Not a true PLM/PDM system
Need for heavy customizations
Not aligned with most business processes and models OOTB
Performance limitations in SharePoint 2007:
15 simultaneous workflows per library
2000 lists per web site
2000 items per view using ListView

10. Disadvantages of Managing SolidWorks Data in SharePoint
Lack of Native SolidWorks Integration with SharePoint*
No SolidWorks toolbox support
No SolidWorks configuration support
No interrogation of SolidWorks relationships and dependencies
No SolidWorks BOM modules
No SharePoint interface for PDM functions in SolidWorks
Non-Ideal Solutions:
Use SharePoint to manage SolidWorks files but not contents
Disregard SolidWorks file relationships and dependencies
Manage PDF files of released SolidWorks Drawings
Does not support content revisions directly
*Third-party solutions exists for SolidWorks and SharePoint integration

11. Customer Requirements
Customers with EPDM and SharePoint environments are seeking solutions to:
Provide customer-specific EPDM functionalities in SharePoint
Ensure data consistency and document lifecycle integrity
Eliminate redundancy and potential complications from user ad-hoc solutions 11

12. Integration…The Best of Both Worlds!
Provide selected and focused EPDM features in the SharePoint environment
Easily extend EPDM to SharePoint users
Familiar, intuitive, and customizable browser-based user experience
Minimal EPDM concepts and skill set required
Add values to both investments 12

13. Integration Advantages
Excellent access and utilization of EPDM and SharePoint data:
Expose side-by-side data previously available only in separate environments
Facilitate business and engineering processes by combining data from both platforms in a single business process, while maintaining data integrity
Preserve and utilize existing data—no need for large-scale data migration or duplication across platforms
Exposes EPDM data to mobile users 13

14. SharePoint Primer: SharePoint Components
Shared Documents
Summary of Active Web Parts
Purpose-Specific Workspaces
Team Announcements
Useful Links
A web part is:
- a component, ASP.NET server control
can be added or installed to a web page at run time
performs a predefined, specific set of functions
may be customized by either the end user or administrator, or both 14 14

15. EDPM-SharePoint Integration Approaches
Three Integration (Data Presentation) Approaches:
SharePoint DataView Control
Available with WSS or MOSS
MOSS with BDC (Business Data Catalog)
BDC is available with MOSS
Custom EPDM-SP Integration Solution (e.g., EPDM-SP Integration Web Part)
Licensing required
Minimal to no customization required 15

16. SharePoint DataView Control
No addition cost or licensing requirements
Requires editing SharePoint content in XML; or
Use Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 (free download at: keyword: SharePoint Designer)
Requires extensive customization 16

17. SharePoint DataView Control
SharePoint Designer 2007
EPDM Data in a SharePoint DataView Control
WSS Site
Sorting Support
Sorting Support
EPDM Data in SharePoint DataView Control
DataView Control
Customizable Paging Support 17

18. MOSS With BDC MOSS with BDC (Business Data Catalog)
MOSS requires licensing
BDC is available as part of MOSS
Required extensive customization
Administrative action is needed to setup the data source as a shared data provider in SharePoint 18

19. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server With Business Data Catalog
Minimal query flexibility supported
Example BDC web part
EPDM Data in BDC
EPDM Data in MOSS with BDC
Minimal User Action Supported 19

20. Custom EPDM-SharePoint Integration Web Part
EPDM-SharePoint Web Parts
are constructed to present EPDM data and functionalities to SharePoint users
may be hosted in SharePoint sites and portals
may become standalone web applications if desired
interact natively with both EPDM and SharePoint
provide customizable document level accesses (e.g., downloading, viewing, and editing contents) 20

21. EPDM-SharePoint Integration Web Part
Customizable Query Attributes
EPDM-SharePoint Integration Web Part
Sortable Columns
EPDM Data
Multi-page query results

22. Statistics of File States

23. Summary of Integration Advantages: Centralized Data Access
Exposing a list of selected documents from EPDM in SharePoint
The document list is formed from the results of a EPDM query
The site administrator governs the syntax of the query, thus the contents of the SharePoint web part
The document list is invalidated and refreshed according to a policy set forth by the administrator
EPDM data statistics may be exported and displayed in a graphical web part
Additionally Advantages of a Custom EPDM-SP Web Part Solution:
When the user selects a document, it is retrieved from the EPDM vault and optionally displayed using an appropriate viewer (e.g., eDrawings Viewer)
The menu of functions supported on an EPDM Document may be customized and expanded 23

24. Application Scenarios

25. Application Scenario I: A Joint Meeting Between Engineering and Sales
A SharePoint Meeting Workspace is created as the centralized resource repository for the meeting
A web site is set up for participants to view the agenda, previous meeting minutes, and all related technical and business documents
PLM data from EPDM is referenced in the portal
EPDM data is live: data changes (revisions) are reflected immediately
The web site and shared workspace may persist to support future meetings and collaboration projects, or may be removed when no longer needed 25

26. Application Scenario II: Centralized Data Access
EPDM is tightly integrated into product development and other business processes
Corporate IT Department deploys SharePoint Services to support manufacturing, business , and other non-technical collaborations
Non-technical departments may require access to technical data
For example, the Purchasing Department may require access to EPDM (as well as other ERP) data from a central location or application
PLM data access across the two systems is inefficient, time-consuming, tedious, and may jeopardize data integrity and consistency (e.g., when copying data across systems)
The EPDM-SP integration solution allows user accesses to selected EPDM data and functionalities in SharePoint without requiring extensive EPDM knowledge
The solution provides a familiar, easy-to-use web-based experience for the SharePoint users
The integration increases efficiency while maintaining data consistency 26

27. Application Scenario III: Supply Chain Collaboration
A SharePoint Site is created as the centralized resource repository for collaborating and sharing data with the supply chain (suppliers, vendors, etc.) and customer communities
The SharePoint site is located outside of the corporate firewall to provide controlled access to data
Suppliers and customers may access product specifications, data sheets and manuals; participate in workflow (e.g., design outsource); and access technical and business documents through the SharePoint site to support design and production outsourcing
Live EPDM PLM data is referenced in the SharePoint site: data changes (revisions) are reflected immediately 27

28. Application Scenario IV: Project/Upper Management data access
SharePoint Web Parts are configured to access various project- and data- related information in EPDM
For each web part, a custom query is created to expose the data of interest (e.g., the status of documents for a project, the duration of the workflow stages)
Data may be exported and shared with other web parts or Microsoft Office applications
Data may also be displayed visually using a graphing web part 28

29. Other EPDM-SharePoint User Scenarios
Solution can be expanded to many other corporate-specific scenarios… 29

30. EPDM-SharePoint Data Presentation Demonstrations

31. Considerations Generic vs. Specific Solutions DataView/BDC
View data only—no file access support
Difficult to change view contents
(BDC) Requires administrative action to instigate site-wide shared data resource changes
Requires knowledge of XML and familiarity of additional authoring tool(s)
EDPM-SP Web Part
Supports item/file access for viewing, editing, printing, etc.
Easy to update view contents
Customized item-level actions through configurable menus
Automatic Notifications
SharePoint Users
EPDM Users
Licenses
DataView (free), MOSS/BDC (required), EPDM-SP Web Part (required)

32. Integration Benefits
Extends the reach of product lifecycle and document collaboration across boundaries
Leverages existing IT strategy and infrastructure
Connect people, resources, and knowledge base for better and faster accesses
Optimizes team performance and synergy for maximum project, product, and program achievements 32

33. Conclusions
A EPDM—SharePoint integration harnesses the powerful features from two complementary collaboration systems to provide a rich user experience
The integration facilitates the adoption of EPDM by SharePoint users
The integration also expands product and document management options and ultimately simplifies both engineering and business processes
The EPDM-SharePoint web part provides the most practical, flexible and powerful solution—the best ROI 33

34. Thank You! Questions? For More Information… Marc Young
xLM Solutions, LLC