Real World experience with

SharePoint and K2 Workflows

24 March 2015

© 2015 Serial
 The biggest ongoing
challenges cited by
SharePoint
organizations are:

User adoption

Expanding
SharePoint use to
more business
processes

Source: AIIM Industry Watch Survey: SharePoint 2013,

K2.COM conducted July 2013 n=538
 73% of SharePoint
organizations cite they
need workflow driven
apps
But…
62% cite integration as a
challenge

30% say time & effort to build

business applications is a
challenge

21% End User interface is a

challenge

Source: MPS Partners SharePoint Adoption Survey 2012/2013,

K2.COM n=143
 A PLATFORM to BUILD AND RUN APPLICATIONS
< across multiple dimensions >
Apps across cloud and on-
premises

Apps de-coupled and fully

embedded in SharePoint

Apps that include reports, forms,

workflows and access to
information spanning multiple
LOB systems.

Apps you can access on your Corp

IT asset or BYOD, inside and
outside organizations

K2.COM
 K2 BUILDING BLOCKS FOR APPS

K2.COM

K2.COM
+ + =
BUILD AND RUN BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

DATA

• Create business entities

• Connect to any system
• Leverage Existing Data
• Out-of-the box options
• SharePoint,
• SAP,
• Office 365,
• Dynamics CRM & more
-6-
 SQL

AD

SAP

SHAREPOINT

DATA IS NEVER IN A SINGLE PLACE

MS CRM

K2 PROVIDES A WAY
OF UNIFYING DATA ACCESS

OTHER

ORACLE
WEB SERVICE

K2 PROCESS
INFO

-7-
 FORMS MOBILITY REPORTS PORTALS WORKFLOW

BUSINESS FOCUS
Business Apps

K2 SMARTOBJECTS

Employee Department Clients

First Name Department Name Client Name
Last Name Manager Email
Email HR Manager Telephone
Department Director Web Address

IT FOCUS
SHAREPOINT WEB SERVICE MS CRM K2 PROCESS
SQL AD OTHER
INFO

-8-
+ + =
BUILD AND RUN BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

FORMS

• Drag-and-Drop Design
• Build with rules
• Leverage Existing Data
• Tie to Workflow

-9-
Integration in K2 SmartForms

- 10 -
 Re-use views in several forms

VIE FORMS
W

Employee details

New expense claim Manager approval HR approval

- 11 -
K2 SmartForms are Responsive

- 12 -
Design forms in the browser

- 13 -
+ + =
BUILD AND RUN BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

WORKFLOW

• Deliver workflow to enterprise

• Stay flexible
• Scale to fit
• Intuitively design workflows

- 14 -
 Workflows patterns

PRESCRIPTIVE ASSISTIVE

WORKFLOW BPM CASE

 Document  Business  Core processes

routing application
 Non-linear process
 Approvals  Complex routing
 Visibility by stage
 Simple forms  Dynamic logic
 Performance metrics
 Integrated
reporting  Adhoc
 Audit
 Checklists

- 15 -
 K2 BlackPearl workflow sample

A Process

Is composed of Activities

Containing
Tasks (or events)
Assigned to
Users (or actors)

Following Rules

- 16 -
Multiple workflow designers

- 17 -
+ + =
BUILD AND RUN BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

REPORTS

• Monitor Progress &

Performance
• Deliver Business Insight
• Create reports from both
Process & LOB Data
• Utilize industry reporting tools

- 18 -
OOTB reports

- 19 -
Build your own reports

- 20 -
 Feature Parity

K2 supports hybrid infrastructure and deployment scenarios

• Office 365
• MS CRM
• Salesforce.com LOB & WEB DATA SOURCES
• …and more CLOUD K2 SERVER LOB DATA SOURCES
(ON-PREMISE OR CLOUD-HOSTED) ON PREMISE

MOBILE BROWSER API/TOOLS

- 21 -
Demo
 K2 - Architecture

Standalone farm
For development / Tests / Small Business

- 23 -
 K2 - Architecture

Medium farm

- 24 -
 Different kinds of projects

With or Without SharePoint

With SharePoint 2010 or with SharePoint 2013

Using SmartForms or not

Old projects with InfoPath
InfoPath 2013 is the last version
No replacement from Microsoft (FOSL has been canceled)
“K2 for SharePoint 2010” can generate ASP.Net forms
Be cautious if you have to upgrade to SP 2013
Also projects with other Web technologies (BootStrap, Jquery,
AngularJS)
Serial has developed a Toolbox on top of K2

- 25 -
 Why our customers choose K2 ?
Error repairing
In case of error, a SP Workflow should be restarted

SP Workflows can impact the performance of SP pages

loading
SP workflows are running in the same IIS process

Simple to migrate from SP 2010 to SP 2013

K2 workflows and forms are loosely coupled to SP

Integration with other systems is easier

No usage of BCS
SmartObjects can be re-used across workflows
- 26 -
 Feedback from our experience on K2

Complexity of workflows should be limited

Use « Sub-workflows » launched by the main one

Take care of the formatting of the workflow

Users can see it with the « View flow » feature
Add labels on each transition between activities
Use different colors…
It will be easier to maintain the workflow
To not forget the rules that have been implemented

Think reusability
On SmartObjects, on SmartForms views

- 27 -
 Feedback from our experience on K2

On SmartForms
Only load tab if the user clicks on it
Use asynchronous loading for drop down lists
Difficult to localize labels in forms…
K2 just introduced language packs in 4.6.9

Deployment with Package and Deployment

Not necessary to check all dependances
You can use PowerShell

- 28 -
 K2 AppIt

K2 as a service
Only in the cloud
App in SharePoint Online
Less features than K2 for SharePoint 2013 with K2 On Premises
Not yet available in Europa (in a few weeks)

- 29 -
 K2 AppIt

Access to Worklist
Work on your tasks
Select an action
Redirect
Delegate

Available for
iOS
Android
BlackBerry

Offline forms in K2 4.6.9

- 30 -
Questions