How SharePoint is Being Used to Manage Content at the World’s Largest AirlineDenise WilsonSenior Manager, Collaboration ServicesUnited Airlines

Brian CulverSharePoint Solutions Architect, MCMUnited Airlines

SPC295

United Airlines – Who we are

New United: Merger of two carriers Continental (5th largest) United (4th largest)

World’s largest airline 5,800 flights per day 371 global airports ~ 87,000 employees

CEO: Working Together culture is number one success factor

SharePoint directly supports the unification process

United AirlinesHighly distributed operation to coordinate

Evolution of SharePoint 2010 ECM at United

Genesis of ECM effort was eDiscovery and record retention

Plan was to upload 10TB from file shares and tag in SharePoint

Ops dashboard and alert system - very successful (demo)

ECM rollout in process when merger announced Will SharePoint survive merger consulting ‘swim lanes’ and

‘wall walks’? VP-level request: consulting eRoom to SharePoint Trust established between networks Can instantly collaborate on SharePoint

United Airlines – Why SharePoint 2010?

Tier I redundancy The next phase of a global-scale SharePoint

implementation: Improved OOTB functionality and administration BCS to easily leverage existing data sets Single-source content types and site columns Social Search to link people together Greatly improved search with FAST (demo) Improved record centers and content organizer

rules (demo)

GovernanceHow did we get here?

Adoption: Empower users (Must allow user discovery process and mistakes – yes, we have backups)

Training resources – CBTs, FAQs, brown bags, community

Guiding user behavior with structured templates and defaults On upload, prompted for metadata. Many defaults are populated based on the site, but user can

change. Site provisioning:

2007: Singular, inflexible site definition 2010: Easily create new web templates to help govern new

site types

United AirlinesWhat is ECM?

Must effectively manage content to allow business to achieve its goals. ECM tools help manage the complete lifecycle of content Phases of creation, use and disposal

Taxonomy: Building a framework for organizing data “Formal structure for information, based on the individual needs of a

business” “Categorization tools automate placement of content for future

retrieval.” 1

Structured content types, DIPs, templates, info policies (demo) Now defining for combined companies

Unifying AD Site structure across both airlines Airport data: SharePoint composite of technology and user data

(demo)1(http://www.aiim.org/What-is-ECM-Enterprise-Content-Management )

Content ManagementTaxonomy and naming convention Start by classifying things based on what you already

have 2010: Single-source Managed Metadata Fields 2010: Single-source Content Type Hub Use for parent content types and columns. Define others at site

collection level.

Standardize Content TypesSite collection-specific content types

Document Information PanelDropdowns Promote Standardization

DIP and Word template per content type User entry in DIP

populates control in Word doc template

Build standardized .docx file name by concatenating metadata

Content Types and Site ColumnMMS for enterprise-wide fields

Site Collection level Content Types Enterprise-level Managed Metadata Field

Airports Data Composite

demo

Slice and Dice Normalized DataRe-usable Data Produced Through ECM Process

1 Ref: Blogs by Jon Campbell and Greg Chan of SharePoint Designer Team

• Select an airport via city code or Bing map

Slice and Dice Normalized Data

• ECM-derived data can be expressed in different ways

• “Show me everything about Beijing”

• Detail of airport data from sites composite

Enterprise Content ManagementOur approach

Business challenges overcome in our 2010 implementation Security – Restructure content to usage patterns Improving user metadata entry Improving governance Improving navigation Leverage SharePoint 2010 ECM features Preserve and improve user adoption … empower users

Key: Understanding our content and how we work with it

Enterprise Content ManagementOur approach

Separate Content by Usage Per Web Application Publishing sites per department (portal.united.com) Working sites per department (team.united.com) Formal Project sites with project number (project.united.com) Ad-hoc collaboration sites (collab.united.com) Application sites (services.united.com)

Technology Project Review Process: Business request through technical delivery

Operations Dashboard : real-time status and alerts of all flight and airport events

Talent Selection Process: Job description approval workflow for 87,000 employees

Record Centers (records.united.com) My Sites (mysite.united.com)

Web ApplicationsGroup usage patterns, security, and content structure

SharePoint 2010 ECM at United Airlines

Content Type Hub syndicates policies to subscribing sites (all)

Active policy drives “recordization” process

Records are routed to proper divisional Record Centers

Record Retention Policies applied at target libraries

Other Record Centers used for archiving of other content

2010 Upgrade ProcessReplace custom 2007 with OOTB 2010 ECM features

Updated governance for SharePoint 2010 capabilities – web templates

Used similar branding to lessen impact of upgrade for users

Apply “new” 2010 branding and navigation to 2007 ‘Visual upgrade’ - Gradually train users on the ribbon to ease

adoption Aligned site provisioning with governance

CBT training for compliance New site types with web templates New web apps per type of content and usage patterns

Implemented Content Type Hub CT feature activated at each site collection. Update via MMS

Site Provisioning as a Key to GovernanceHigh, medium and low service level sites Approval process for provisioning at proper business

impact Drives automation of the taxonomy. Helps the user

classify and manage their content

Records Management

demo

Records Management – Active Lifecycle Active Document Policies

defined via the Content Type Hub

Policies applied on each Content Type

Child Content Types inherit Parent Content Type Policy

Records Management – Active Lifecycle Sites subscribed to

the Content Type Hub get Policy changes

Policy implements the Active Document Lifecycle

Per the legal record retention definition, documents that need to become “records” are sent to the primary record center

Records Management – Retention Lifecycle Content Organizer Rules Configured to route all

documents to the proper divisional record center

Also, aggregates the content types into the proper current content type

Records Management – Retention Lifecycle Documents entering the

primary Record Center Content Organizer routes

documents to proper Divisional Record Centers

Records Management – Retention Lifecycle Converted the “Coair

Document” content type to “UA Document”

Records Management – Retention Lifecycle Chained Content

Organizers route to proper Library with Library Policy

Record Retention implemented via targeted Library (Library Policy)

Using ECM to Improve Search and eDiscovery

Empower record managers and end users FAST Search

Improved Knowledge and Expertise Phonetic Matching Keyword Management Deep Refinements

Contextual Search - People Search (Enterprise Search)

Term Store – standardizing keywords and dropdowns

Legal holds in Record Centers

United AirlinesWhat it takes to make it happen - Resources

Starting point: 2 people part time – “server under the desk” Agile: Build it and see what works Engineering design review process

Contracted consultants to assist with 2007 rollout: Roll out enterprise-class platform and ECM

Post-merger, 4x FT Engineering resources Dedicated app support, help desk and server

management Additional contract resources on a per project basis ROI on one of many current projects is estimated at

$1 million

United AirlinesWhat it takes to make it happen – Lifecycle management

Full Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Development -> Stage -> Production Coding standards, code reviews Proper QA testing TFS source code control

Hyper-V 2012 VMM Virtualized development machines Support various groups and sandbox site efforts

Farm solutions: core SharePoint team Sandbox solutions: Business unit development teams

United AirlinesDeployment – Key Learnings

Implement in Phases – Evolve as you go: Operations Dashboard: Phase I: Log e-mails to SP document library

No change for users, but can log and centralize existing content

Phase II: Create structured SharePoint lists for users to create list items Click “New”, select from dropdowns: create log and send

targeted alerts Content type allows automated expiration of list items after 13

months Phase III: Integrate Mainframe Ops Data

Web service: SharePoint list item when gate to takeoff > 90 minutes

Avionics systems on the aircraft -> Data Warehouse - > SharePoint

Avionics to SharePoint – The Ops Dashboard and Alert System

demo

United AirlinesOperations Home Page

System Operations Coordination Center Home Page

United AirlinesOperations Logs

Operations Managers create logs using list items

United AirlinesOperations Dashboard

Metrics from list items

Per flight, per date, per airport

United AirlinesOperations E-mail Alerts

User can sign up for all alerts or customize alerts based on their own view

United AirlinesRedundant farms - primary and standby

OPC MDF Production LAN

SQL Server 1HP BL 460c2x4P, 96G RAM, 2 x 146 HD

FiberSwitches

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

HeartBeat

vIP: VOPCPSPCLUST11

SharePoint SQL

SharePoint Front End

Application Server

SQLServer 2HP BL 460c

2x4P, 96G RAM, 2 x 146 HD

App ServerVirtual4P, 16G RAM, C: 80G D: 66G

Web Front EndVirtual4P, 16G RAM, C: 80G D: 66G

Web Front EndVirtual4P, 16G RAM, C: 80G D: 66G

App ServerVirtual4P, 16G RAM, C: 80G D: 66G

22TB STORAGE(5TB primary SQL Instance, 5TB log-shipped SQL instance, 12TB Backup)

vIP: portal.united.comF5 Load Balancing Network Appliance

SQL Server 1HP BL 460c2x4P, 96G RAM, 2 x 146 HD

HeartBeat

vIP: VOPCPSPCLUST11

SharePoint SQLLog Shipping with 2 hr delay

SQL Server 2HP BL 460c2x4P, 96G RAM, 2 x 146 HD

SQL Instance 2

SQL Instance 1

Backup Server BL 460cC

Previously experienced system failure from data

Bad code in a 3rd party product

Allowed user to inadvertently create catastrophic condition

To prevent: Secondary log-shipped instance (with 2-hour delay) in each data center

United AirlinesFrom concept to reality - Tier I topology

Log-ship between farms across WAN

High / med SLA (‘services’, ‘team’) log shipped

Low SLA sites (‘collab’) use backup

Fail over between data centers with scripts in about 15 minutes

United AirlinesDesign decisions – Key learnings

Simplified security model Separate site collections by security boundaries and SLA Grouping data logically by site collection type allows easier

management of content and security Supportability

Synchronize with Microsoft’s roadmap Implement functionality supported by object model

(otherwise, small functional gains increase support costs)

United AirlinesDeployment – Key learnings

Fully review custom code and third party tools Know how it is deployed and how it is supported Know how to back it out. All solutions custom or third party must be deployed as ‘wsp’

Understand what is content and what is code Governance: Site Provisioning Automate with PowerShell

United AirlinesDeployment – Key Benefits Paperless

Scanning closets of documents into record centers (Aircraft Engineering) Save paper and printing costs (Environmental)

eDiscovery Users find what they need quickly and accurately on a security-trimmed

basis (Legal) Record Retention Policy

Preserve records per the Legal policy (compliance) and controls growth (Ops)

Productivity and Cost-Savings ROI Ops Director: Dashboard paid for entire 2007 implementation Saved 20+ hours weekly copying mainframe logs Auto expire list items instead of annual file cabinet cleanout – FAA

compliance Millions in ROI replacing legacy and paper systems (Ops, HR, Training)

Cataloged 36,000 paper ‘bankers boxes’ with SP list – disposal reduced costs by 80%

United AirlinesSharePoint Roadmap

What's next for United Airlines - Where are we going with SharePoint? Migrating collaborative content from Intranet sites to SharePoint High-ROI applications

Business-critical compliance (DOT, FAA, EPA) Migration from legacy document management systems

Green initiatives: Scanning and disposition of paper records to SharePoint

Automated request and build of virtual machines - Hyper-V and PowerShell

United.com: ECM workflow and publishing of partner and flight specials

United Airlines – What’s NextEnd-to-End Technology Project Process

Have developed each of these pieces over time

Content Types and workflows

DIPs and InfoPath forms

Current work on integrating additional phases such as:

Funding Asset management

United Airlines – What’s NextBusiness Connectivity

Three sources of data for network sites – e.g. Airport, Maintenance, Cargo

Each site has an AD Site, Circuit ID, Physical Address, Router Name

All three data sources have entry point through InfoPath – standardize input and workflow

With BCS, we can synchronize the data and create Composite view across all three systems for all global locations

UA Oracle database becomes source for Managed Metadata Field of airports

Questions?

Where Do You Want to Go to Today? ®

anaheim, ca

Conference 2011october 3–6 th

2011