New Release of SharePoint Connection from Appian

Appian have announced a new release of the Appian for SharePoint module. The new release features ease-of-use enhancements, including Form Pickers and new packaged Appian Smart Services, as well as updates to the Appian for SharePoint Web Services interface.

In my BPMS Market Update, I talked about how MOSS had achieved the status of Word in terms of being the default portal that all vendors needed to work with. What we are seeing is a number of vendors who already had an interface strengthening these additions. All provide to MOSS users the ability of using more sophisticated process management capabilities such as orchestration of system and human events, detailed tracking and Business Activity Monitoring of all actions that are available in the product itself.

The new module from Appian allows users to easily track process performance, handle tasks, and escalate actions from a Microsoft SharePoint dashboard. In addition, Appian can bring process orchestration to the management of sites, folders, documents and permissions. Appian for SharePoint includes native service interfaces to control common SharePoint actions in a structured process to facilitate the automatic construction and destruction of SharePoint content. The new release of Appian for SharePoint includes the following enhancements:

• Users can now add a SharePoint document picker to an Appian Form, allowing them to browse and select documents from SharePoint while inside Appian. Additionally, Appian provides the source code to enable users to extend this picker to other SharePoint elements, such as Lists and Sites.
• Most web services actions within Appian for SharePoint are handled through Appian’s Web Services node. However, for a select set of actions handling file transfers between SharePoint and Appian, packaged Smart Services will be made available that are tailored to these transactions out of the box using some Smart Services.
• The web services interface to SharePoint has been extended to support user context passing. This ensures that no passwords are required to be passed over the Web Services connection, and that SharePoint change logs will accurately show which user changed a SharePoint object.

Matthew Calkins, president and CEO of Appian, said. “Appian for SharePoint plays a critical role in helping companies extend the value of their entrenched Microsoft Office environments. With easy process mapping, rapid development of automated processes, and no coding required to produce process applications, Appian for SharePoint continues Appian’s mission to offer the most flexible, easy-to-use, and comprehensive BPM suite on the market.”

Appian are one of the best innovators in the BPMS market at the moment. This new module shows their understanding of the needs of their customers and provides some much needed specialised process expertise for financial service users of MOSS.