A technical case study to present a Hybrid solution I Architected for a customer in Hospitality Sector where we used SharePoint Online to interface with end users for bespoke task management system, KPI reporting using excel services (that are prepared on-premise using SSIS/SQL) and mobile forms using Nintex Mobile for O365.
This is a highly customised real world business application we rarely see in SharePoint online environment. The number of rows in some of the list exceeds 1.5 million.
The presentation covers three parts of the productivity solution:
1) Task management solution to manage 1600 outlets using SharePoint Online and SSIS
2) Compliance system using Nintex mobile, SharePoint Online and SSIS
3) Dashboarding using line of business data by using excel services
5. Mitchells & Butlers owns around 1,600 outlets (pubs, bars and restaurants) throughout the UK.
They own around 17 brands with separate marketing campaigns and operating models
Each outlet is managed by a General Manager
Collection of outlet are overseen by Regional Business Managers (RBMs) with remit to:
increase profitability and reduce losses
enhance efficiency
increase process compliance
7. Business Challenges
Inflation of raw materials
Customer price
sensitivity
Property Rental and
Maintenance Costs
£
Economic Pressures
Health & Safety
Food Safety
Employment Regulation#
Increasing Regulation
Cheap off-trade prices
Highly competitive
market
New entrants, mergers &
acquisitions
%
Competitive Pressures
Smoking ban
Decline in drinking
Increasing food vs drink
sales
@
Social Changes
8. Operational Challenges
Paper based Business
Checks for compliance
• Food temperature check / Delivery
checks
• Can be done by GMs at the end of
day or next day
Email or phone based
communication between
head office
• Wastage of human resources
across 1600 outlets / 17 brands
No centralised task
management system
• Task were send by emails
• Legal or emergency task were
tracked by phone or email
responses
Absence of KPI based
reporting
• Reports were send out as PDFs
• Separate packs prepared for GM,
RBMS, Retail and Business
Directors
11. Solution Building Blocks
User friendly mobile
application to complete
business checks
Centralised Task
Management
System to assign
trackable tasks to all
outlets
✓
KPI based reporting
system to aggregate
data from LOB
systems to present
ONE view
Enterprise
collaboration
platform and social
network
12. Technology Building Blocks
Hybrid SharePoint / SSIS
application for task management
Task Management
SharePoint Online Team sites and
Yammer
Collaboration
Nintex mobile app to submit online
and offline forms
Business Checks
SSIS, SQL DWH and Excel Services and
SharePoint Online for KPI Reporting
KPI Reporting
15. Business Checks
Requirements
• 1600 outlets* 365 days * 15 checks * 5 times
per day ~ 4 million rows per year
• Forms need to be mobile friendly and user
friendly
• Most outlets have Wi-Fi black out zones
• Business checks forms to be designed by
business users
• SharePoint Power User
• WYSIWYG
Solution Approach
• Compared Nintex, Formotus and Custom
Development options to choose Nintex
mobile forms:
• Highly customisable forms using WYSIWYG
editor
• Different layout for different form factors /
resolutions
• Data submitted to SharePoint list that power
user can instantly view
• Cost of per user licence
• 1 list per business check
• Created a bespoke solution to drain data
from SharePoint list to on-premise SQL
Data Ware House using:
• SSIS
• CSOM API
16. Business Checks
Create SharePoint List
•Site Content Types
•Site Columns
Design Form Layout
•Web based Form Designer
•Layouts for different form factors
Publish Form
•Form for different devices
18. Business Checks
End to End
Outlet completes the
check on Tablets
using Nintex Mobile
App
Data saved in
SharePoint list
SSIS Package drains
the data from
SharePoint list
Data validated and
completed and
moved to SQL DWH
SSIS Package
aggregates the data
across outlet and
region
SSIS creates an
excel report based on
excel template per
region and outlet
Report uploaded to
SharePoint document
library
Report viewed by
RBMs and GMs
using connected
WebParts and
business data viewer
webpart
21. Task Management System
Requirements
Tasks
• 1600 outlets* 365 days * 2 tasks per day
~1m rows per year
• Task can be assigned to collection of
pubs, regions, brands
• Emergency task need be highlighted
• Planned tasks are part of brand calendar
• Tasks must be tracked and reported on
Brand Calendars
• Outlook calendar were used
• Brand Calendar are distinct for each
brand / 17 brands
Solution Approach
Tasks
• Created a bespoke system using
SharePoint lists managed metadata, SSIS
packages and excel services to assign
and track tasks
Brand Calendar
• Used out of the box calendar list template
with calendar overlays and filtered views
to display brand activity calendars
22. Task Management System
End to End
GM and RBMs view aggregated reports and KPI using connected
and JQuery webparts
SSIS package aggregates data into excel services report and update
KPI in SharePoint list
SSIS package downloads the completed tasks
Outlet views the tasks using visual JQuery WebParts and completes
the task
SSIS package drains the tasks to on-premise database and assigns
the tasks by creating assignment tokens in SharePoint lists
Comms teams creates tasks and assigned to distributions list in
SharePoint
ATC Team
Outlet
Tasks
Groups
Task Tokens
DWH
SSIS Data Load
Package
SSIS Data Model
Processing Package
RBM
On Premise Business Intelligence EnvironmentSharePoint OnlineActors
Task Exception Report
Task Exception Report
23. Task Management System
Tasks
• Comms team assign about 5 to 10 thousands tasks in week
• Emergency task are highlighted on Outlet home
24. JQuery WebPart
Visual Webpart for SharePoint Online
1. Develop the HTML and upload into the html folder in site asset library
2. Develop the CSS and upload the file in CSS folder in site asset library
3. Develop a simple JS file with following code and upload the file in JS folder
in site asset library
4. Edit a page and add script editor webpart to add code similar as below
5. From here one can use JSOM skills, JavaScript, JQuery skills to pull data
from SP lists and present in what ever way they like
https://winaygandhi.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/traditional-style-web-part-for-sharepoint-online/
27. Reporting
Requirements
• Data from 10 lines of business applications
• All the existing systems are on-premise and
can produce data feed
• Single view of data
• Aggregate data to present KPI figures for
RBMs and Regional Directors
• People, Guest, Sales and Waste
• Dashboarding capability with ability to drill
down
Solution Approach
• Data sources will produce consistent timely data
feeds in CSV format
• SSIS will run the ETL process to transform the
database for reporting purpose
• SSIS scheduled package will create the report
for based on excel template
• Excel report uploaded to document libraries
• KPI figures for regions and outlets are directly
updated in SharePoint lists
• Connected web-parts and Visual JQuery
webparts are used to view the excel services
dashboards and KPI measurements
34. Summary
Nintex Mobile Forms
SharePoint Online lists can handle large volume of data
Visual Webpart for SharePoint Online
Hybrid BI solution with on-premise database and integration services
