The Laserfiche and SharePoint
integration (LfSPI) maximizes the strengths of both
systems to enhance the utility of your SharePoint solution.
While SharePoint adds collaboration portal functionality
to Microsoft Office, Laserfiche provides best-in-class
document imaging and content management. By combining
the two, users get a complete information management
system that allows users to easily and securely work
with documents throughout their life cycle.
The two keys to the success of the integration are
data synchronization and accessibility. With data synchronization
between the two systems, a variety of tasks—such as
moving documents, preserving links, limiting copies
and removing deleted documents—are handled automatically,
without administrative intervention. Thanks to this
improved data accessibility, users do not have to know
which system stores the document they need.
The integration has four aspects:
Laserfiche Web Part for SharePoint
The Laserfiche Web Part for SharePoint is key
to bringing imaging functionality to collaboration
portals in SharePoint. Once the component is added
to the SharePoint server farm, it can be added
to any SharePoint portal the same way any web
part is added. It enables users to browse any
part of the Laserfiche folder structure through
SharePoint. You can think of it as putting the
folder browser that is part of the Laserfiche
Client in the SharePoint interface.
The Laserfiche Web Part
within the SharePoint interface.
The component has a number of parameters that
can be defined. One of these is the ability to
point the web part to a specific folder in Laserfiche,
which makes it easy to include imaged documents
in any collaborative process. Suppose a team of
people is working on a new contract. It’s extremely
likely that some of the documents they need to
work with are paper, and SharePoint does not offer
a simple way to handle scanned paper. Thanks to
the LfSPI, however, it’s straightforward. On the
project portal, add the Laserfiche Web Part and
point it to a folder in Laserfiche. Launch Laserfiche
Scanning directly from a button in the Laserfiche
Web Part interface and upload your newly scanned
document. It’s now safely stored in Laserfiche
and available to your team right on your SharePoint
site.
Documents scanned into
Laserfiche are also accessible through SharePoint
with the Laserfiche Web Part.
This functionality helps make accessing needed
content simple for the user, because the relevant
information is presented to them in a single,
uniform interface and they don’t have to try to
determine where the document is actually stored.
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SharePoint Records Center Integration
with Laserfiche
Another cornerstone of the LfSPI is the ability
to store SharePoint documents in Laserfiche once
the collaboration phase is finished.
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From any document library in SharePoint,
a user can bring up the context menu for a document
and have it sent directly to Laserfiche. Administrators
can configure the integration to automatically
pull metadata from the content library into
the document’s template when it is moved to
Laserfiche, without user intervention.
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To keep the system from generating a copy
of a document when it is moved into Laserfiche,
users can replace the document in SharePoint
with a URL that points to the document’s location
in Laserfiche. Users can also choose to keep
copies of the documents in both systems or delete
the document from SharePoint entirely. Because
of Laserfiche’s tight integration with Windows
Active Directory, document security is not compromised
at any step in the process.
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Creating a URL placeholder in SharePoint
keeps the data in the two data stores synchronized.
One risk of sending a copy of the document into
Laserfiche and keeping another in SharePoint
is that users could end up making further modifications
to the document in SharePoint, so the version
in Laserfiche would be out of synch. Moving
the document from SharePoint to Laserfiche and
replacing it with a link in SharePoint avoids
this issue, while also preserving easy access
to the document.
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SharePoint Search Protocol Handler
for Laserfiche
SharePoint includes the ability to extend its
search handler so that it can understand other
sources of data, such as a Laserfiche repository.
The LfSPI takes advantage of this functionality
to allow users to seamlessly search both SharePoint
and Laserfiche at the same time, or just search
Laserfiche, from the SharePoint interface. Again,
the LfSPI makes document access a smooth process
that doesn’t require the user to know where the
document is stored.
Integration allows users
to search documents
in both SharePoint and Laserfiche seamlessly.
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Laserfiche Workflow Activities
for SharePoint
The SharePoint functionality available with Laserfiche
Workflow is one of the most exciting aspects of
the LfSPI. Not only do Laserfiche Workflow activities
enhance synchronization between the two systems,
but they also offer possibilities for extending
the integration even further.
One activity monitors the Laserfiche repository,
so whenever a document is deleted, it checks to
see if that document was originally sent from
SharePoint. If so, it removes the link from the
relevant SharePoint document library, which helps
preserve data synchronization between the two
systems.
Another activity creates a task in SharePoint
on the basis of documents meeting conditions in
the Laserfiche repository. For example, you might
create a workflow that automatically creates a
task in SharePoint when a user receives a fax
that is imported into Laserfiche from a fax server.
This automation is underpinned by Laserfiche Workflow,
which is built on the Microsoft Windows Workflow
Foundation.
Here’s an example:
Suppose that a purchase order is imported into
Laserfiche (below left). Further suppose that
this purchase order has received the necessary
approvals, meaning the order is ready to ship.
Laserfiche Workflow detects this and automatically
generates a task in SharePoint.
Here is the newly created task in SharePoint
(above right), with a link to the document’s location
in Laserfiche. With this uniform interface, users
can always access documents, regardless of whether
they’re located in Laserfiche or SharePoint.
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