Sharepoint Integration
Many Lucidity clients use Sharepoint side by side with Lucidity. Sharepoint is best viewed as a platform, rather than a software application, and offers useful day to day tools and collaboration opportunities for an organisation as part of the broader Microsoft ecosystem. There are a couple of very simple and useful integration opportunities between Sharepoint and Lucidity.
Launching Lucidity from Sharepoint
In order to use Lucidity as your Risk, HSEQ and Digital Forms / Mobility solution, it is useful to insert a link into Sharepoint on an appropriate page to launch Lucidity. Whether the link is branded with any reference to Lucidity or not is a business decision. Your instance of Lucidity will be company branded, so there is complete freedom.
If Single Sign On (SSO) is enabled, then the user will not need to re-authenticate after following the link to open Lucidity. Note that SSO is available on the Lucidity App as well as the desktop (browser). Both Azure AD and ADFS are supported.
Sharing Sharepoint Documents within Lucidity
One of the key aspects of Lucidity Intranet is its flexibility to share the documents that form your IMS, no matter where they are stored. An example of a process-oriented Management System page within Lucidity Intranet is illustrated below. Within these pages, Administrators can insert links to documents that are stored within your Sharepoint document repository.
This gives you the freedom to keep your existing document management within Sharepoint including version control and publishing, and share the current version of the document to your stakeholders via Lucidity. It's possible to blend documents and electronic forms from multiple sources within a single, coherent Lucidity interface.
Other Considerations when using Sharepoint
Lucidity has some experience working with Sharepoint to create workflows and other bespoke functionality to meet business needs, including HSEQ. There are a few considerations when evaluating Sharepoint as a solution beyond document management and collaboration in the MS Office environment. Below are some of our experiences and observations.
Sharepoint is a Platform - not a Solution. A Software Developer is required .
Sharepoint doesn’t have any useful HSEQ or Risk functionality out of the box. A software developer is required to implement the sort of functionality required to provide meaningful and effective HSEQ functionality. Backing up the developer needs to be a project sponsor who is responsible for design and user acceptance.
Mobility / Apps
While Sharepoint offers mobility solutions, the mobility aspect of Sharepoint doesn’t provide any specific HSEQ functionality. Getting the best out of the mobility features from Sharepoint will require the skills of a developer, both initially and then to maintain the solution as operating systems on handsets evolve.
Offline functionality is another layer of complexity that requires skill to deliver effectively via Sharepoint.
Remote Access Isn’t Automatic
Depending on the Sharepoint implementation, users in the field may not have easy access to the system. Web applications by their nature offer seamless web access, however that cannot be taken for granted with Sharepoint implementations.
Contractor and Customer Access may not be Possible (licensing considerations in general)
Sharepoint isn’t particularly designed for contractor access to submit and manage documents, nor for self-service induction type applications. It is really designed to service the needs of employees, while many businesses actually need a system that provides for the management of subcontractors and their employees.
Depending on the licensing arrangements, it may be necessary to purchase user licences for each employee and contractor that is going to need to submit an incident, complete a form or undertake e-learning.
Sharepoint Doesn’t Manage Training & Induction Very Well
Managing training and induction via Sharepoint is quite ineffective. Due to the bespoke workflows and automation that is required, such as user roles automatically populating a TNA and then triggering e-learning, through to self-registration for inductions and colour coded training matrixes (not just excel lists), training is one area where its extremely difficult to achieve in Sharepoint what a modern Learning Management System (LMS) provides out of the box.
Sharepoint Isn’t an Ecosystem
The functionality that each customer builds into Sharepoint is theirs and theirs only. As Sharepoint is really just the platform, individual customers aren’t part of a larger ‘solution’ where the software vendor and others are contributing to new features, functions and capabilities. Everything that a customer builds into their Sharepoint is a result of their own effort, both initially and ongoing.
As a result, many Sharepoint implementations that go beyond basic document management run a risk of ‘withering on the vine’ after time. The software developer that was contracted or hired to do the initial implementation, as well as their sponsor can move on or are re-tasked. Over time the organisational knowledge and enthusiasm is lost, and after a couple of years the business can find itself reviewing the market for a specific solution to their area of need as the Sharepoint implementation has stagnated.
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