by Matt Lane,
Director, Consulting Services

Engineering-Capable Data Management and Microsoft SharePoint

The purpose of this article is to provide a high-level overview of the differentiation between Microsoft SharePoint and more engineering-capable data management solutions such as Autodesk® Vault, Synergis Adept and InnoCielo Meridian. Finally, this article will discuss how Microsoft SharePoint can seamlessly integrate with these solutions via tools embedded within the engineering-capable data management (ECDM) solutions.
 
About Microsoft SharePoint:
As many of you may already know, SharePoint is Microsoft’s web-based tool for basic document/content management and collaboration.  More and more companies today are implementing SharePoint as a low cost and easy to use tool for sharing information between team members.  SharePoint also includes out-of-the-box capabilities for task management, contact management, calendar sharing, collaboration tools including wikis, blogs and discussion boards, and rudimentary/unstructured workflow management.
 
Since SharePoint is built on the Microsoft .NET foundation, experienced programmers can also fully customize SharePoint using Visual Studio to add functionality to do things such as display data housed in other systems, publish data to other systems, create more complex/structured workflows built on the Windows Workflow Foundation or integrate with messaging systems.  For some customers, SharePoint can be seen more as a platform for the development of a customer solution rather than a final solution itself.  In this way, SharePoint is somewhat similar to Microsoft SQL Server which is typically used as a foundation for a customer solution rather than as a complete solution in and of itself.  Companies should consider their exact needs and requirements and whether they have the programming staff to develop and maintain such a custom SharePoint solution (if needed).
 
Some other key points about SharePoint include:

About Engineering Data Management:
Products like the ones we handle at Hagerman & Company including Autodesk Vault, InnoCielo Meridian and Synergis Adept provide a number of features not included in Microsoft SharePoint that are required for anyone working with CAD including:

Depending upon the Hagerman system you select, other engineering-related features available can include:

Other more general reasons to standardize on a system like Vault, Meridian or Adept instead of SharePoint could include:

In any event, it is our experience that virtually all companies that use 2D CAD and definitely all companies that use 3D CAD need an engineering-capable data management (ECDM) solution like Vault, Meridian or Adept rather than just a generic document management solution like SharePoint.
 
Engineering Data Management and SharePoint Together:
For some companies however, using SharePoint as an enterprise tool is definitely the right choice.  It may be that SharePoint is already in place as a company standard or SharePoint might represent a much more overall cost-effective solution to spread everywhere throughout the organization.  In that case, a company will need to provide a way to use both an ECDM system for CAD and structured workflow tasks so those departments’ and users’ needs are met and have that system in turn co-exist seamlessly with SharePoint.  Currently, there are three options available:

Due to the popularity of SharePoint, Vault, Adept and Meridian now all have tools for publishing data from their respective vaults to SharePoint.  Depending upon your needs and the solution you select, this publishing can:

For the second option described above, BlueCielo ECM Solutions (the company behind Meridian) offers the unique ability to let SharePoint users see inside the Meridian vault in read only mode from within their SharePoint client via a custom SharePoint “web part” developed by BlueCielo. In this case, nothing would be published from Meridian to SharePoint so that all data and files created, edited and approved in Meridian always stay within Meridian, but become accessible and viewable via SharePoint.
 
In the third option as with the second, no data will be published from one system to another. Customers would determine what types of data and workflows would best be owned by and contained within the ECDM system and what types would best be owned and contained within SharePoint.  Data consumers would then utilize a simple custom developed interface or a low cost product such as Hagerman’s QVP Connection software to seamlessly and simultaneously query both the ECDM system and SharePoint and retrieve needed data and files for viewing and printing.
 
Conclusion:
We expect to see Microsoft SharePoint gain more and more widespread usage due to its low cost, ease of implementation and ease of use.  At some point, we may even see ECDM solutions based on SharePoint to become widely available and popular.  While it can be much more convenient for IT departments and IT budgets already stretched to the bone to try to use only SharePoint throughout their organization, it is important to understand what SharePoint is designed for and what it is not designed for so that the needs of all users, departments and the entire organization are fully met.  Some companies may end up deciding to go with an engineering-capable data management system only since it can serve as a single system that meets all users’ needs.  Other companies may decide to use an ECDM system in conjunction with SharePoint. The good news is that even in this case, the two systems can co-exist with one another in a seamless manner so that all users within the organization have their needs met and have access to the latest data.