Colin Phillips :: SharePoint Consultant with
Introduction to Nintex Workflow 2010
Profile: Colin Phillips
Who I Am : Colin Phillips My Experience : 12 Years in Technology
Today: IT Consultant/SharePoint Consultant (with itgroove)Originally: 7 Years Developing Software - 5 yrs at Cognos (Now IBM) in OttawaMost Recent 5 Years Have Been A Mixture of Software Development, IT
Systems Management, and as a Client Consultant (for Systems Integration, Including Automated Workflows)
VCP, B.Sc. in Computer Science from UVic My Blog – mmman.itgroove.net
Where to learn more: [email protected]
SharePoint is Amazing, Why Nintex?
We don’t. SharePoint workflows are great, and you never need anything more Of course, you’ll probably need to hire a developer to be able to do them right Or you simply don’t care about being able to read and interpret what you’ve produced and
pass that knowledge along to the maintainer And you probably need to have a PhD just to translate something simple into SharePoint
“Nintex Workflow 2010 looks good, but how much of it is just a nicer reworking of functionality that SharePoint already provides (e.g., site workflows, reusable workflows, the use of InfoPath for workflow startup forms and task forms)?”
Everything you’re about to see on the upcoming slides: Is not delivered by SharePoint out of the box Is not offered by SharePoint Designer Is not offered by Visio
Nintex to the Rescue
Design, Deploy, and Manage Everything from within SharePoint Start in SharePoint, stay in SharePoint while designing Draw and configure at the same time
Easy to Learn, Master, and Use Easy drag-and-drop graphical designer One ribbon to set everything in an action Lazy Approval™ lets you complete a task with an email reply (even via mobile email)
Track and Analyze Everything Workflow progress & performance statistics Step-by-step profiling Complete audit trail - Audit completions & cancellations
Easy Work Reuse Can easily import/export workflows and parts of workflows (easily migrate from Dev
to QA to Production)
Nintex’s Logic & Connectivity
Real-World Workflow Logic Loops ForEach Iterations State Machines Switches Conditional start rules Scheduled workflows
Reach More SharePoint Functions, External Applications (Most are Enterprise only) Word & Excel Services User Profiles Business Connectivity Services Exchange Server Windows Server Active Directory Microsoft CRM And Many More
Nintex Workflow’s Contribution
What Nintex Adds to SharePoint Workflow
• Graphical designer• 100+ actions• Management tools• 20 Pre-built WF Templates
What Nintex Does to SharePoint Workflow
• Makes it truly easy• Makes it truly powerful• Lets it model “real” work• Makes it governable• Brings it to everyone
This tool can be used by anyone from an admin assistant, to an experienced developer (and anyone in-between)
Put another way, if you take Nintex Workflow away from SharePoint, you can’t…
Implement “real” workflow logic without code Start workflows based on conditions See all workflow activity across multiple sites See which users have the heaviest workloads Put workflow changes though an approval process Approve requests/complete tasks while offline Complete tasks from a mobile device without development Change a workflow without returning to one or more extra apps Keep your workflow from looking like a code flowchart Save and reuse pieces of one workflow in another Schedule workflows Reach out to external data or SharePoint service apps Design workflows quickly and easily Offer workflow to everyone
Demo – While You Were Out
Demo - Requirements
- Take a message for a user (add this to a SharePoint list)- List Fields include:
- Recipient- Contact details (phone number, address, etc.)- Contact by (email, phone, etc.)- What is the message- If it’s business related
- Send an Email to the recipient notifying them of the message- Have them respond to the message with “Thanks” to acknowledge receipt of the
message- If the email isn’t handled within 1 hour, and it’s business related, inform the
manager of the message
Editions & Pricing
Approximate pricing for Nintex Workflow 2010
Examples of “Enterprise only” features include: Word & Excel Service Integration User Profile Management & Account Provisioning Business Connectivity Services
Edition Licensing Rules List Pricing (Approx) – Must also buy Software Assurance (1 yr @ ~20%)
Workgroup Licensed per server (WFE), Max of 5 sites (not site collections)
$3,000 (USD)
Standard Licensed per server (WFE), Unlimited sites
$8,750 (USD)
Enterprise – Includes many “Enterprise only” features
Licensed per server (WFE), Unlimited sites
$17,500 (USD)
Exchange Server Integration Windows Server Active Directory Microsoft CRM Integration
In (Brief) Summary…
Nintex Can: Implement “real” workflow logic without code Save and reuse pieces of one workflow in another Change a workflow without returning to one or more extra apps
Nintex Enables Workflows in SharePoint to: Be truly easy and powerful Be governable Bring workflow to everyone