Microsoft Office System - Solution Brief
“With a paperless system, built on .NET, InfoPath, and
SharePoint, we can access commitment data at a much
more granular level. This enables teams to align, status, and
share commitments through our tool.”
Dan Perkins, Group Program Manager, HRIT, Microsoft
Human Resources team helps employees align commitments with company
goals using Office InfoPath 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007
Situation
Historically at Microsoft, employees performed reviews by
printing out hard copies of Microsoft® Office Word documents
and then delivering signed copies of the employee reviews to the
Human Resource department. An early solution was created that
included e-mailing Word documents to each other and then
uploading final versions of the Word document to a secured web
site. Although this process used electronic documents and was
effectively paperless, it relied heavily on messaging (e-mail and
messaging-based applications) for sending the reviews between
employees, managers, and the human resources department.
The Microsoft Human Resources Information Technology team
(HRIT) needed to find a better way to uniformly collect, store, and
work with performance review information. This meant finding a
way to take data entered in an offline form and store it in a
structured manner so that it could be tied to other performance
management tools in the future. With a tight deadline for creating
a new commitments tool that would be used at the start of the
new fiscal year, the HRIT team was eager to find a solution that
would efficiently meet the team’s needs and be easy to deploy.
Solution
HRIT documented the process workflow, business requirements,
and technical requirements before they developed a 100%
electronic process that reduced the need for users to schedule
meetings, e-mail reminders, make phone calls, and other
collaborative efforts. The Online Commitments solution not only
notifies users when their intervention is required, but sends
reminders in the event the user does not respond in a timely
manner.
The solution was built using Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007,
Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007, Microsoft SQL
Server™ 2005, Windows® Server 2003, custom-developed Web
services, and custom-developed Web Parts into the Online
Solution.
The Performance@Microsoft tool was completed within just 90
days by seven developers, divided into three development teams
(Web services and database, SharePoint, and InfoPath), that
worked in parallel to create the tool using Microsoft Visual
Studio® 2005 and the InfoPath Forms Designer.
Benefits
 Improved security to protect the highly confidential information
managed by the solution
 Reduced efforts to administer and support the solution
 Provides up-to-date reviews of employee performance
 Reduces the effort to complete or review employee
performance
 Enforces adherence to the business process and policies
 Increased the consistency and structure in the commitment
setting process
 Improves employee satisfaction with the review process
 Ensures employee access to the solution through higher
availability
 Reduces the effort to troubleshoot problems through improved
application logging
For the full story, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/itshowcase
Fast Facts
Team: Human Resources IT Web Site: www.microsoft.com/itshowcase More Information: www.microsoft.com/office
Team Profile
The Human Resources Information
Technology (HRIT) team provides high
quality information systems services
and support to Human Resources and
other divisions within Microsoft.
Software and Services
− Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2007
− Microsoft SharePoint® Services 2007
− Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005
− Microsoft SQL Reporting Services
2005
− Microsoft Windows® Server 2003
− Microsoft ASP .NET Version 2.0
− Microsoft Windows Clustering
− Network Load Balancing
Business Situation Summary
The Microsoft HRIT team needed to find a
more efficient system for collecting and
storing commitment information to make it
easier for managers to align employee
commitments with company goals.
This document is provided for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to this
document or the information contained in it. Microsoft, InfoPath, the Office logo, SQL, Windows, .NET, and SharePoint are either
registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are
property of their respective owners. Document published October 2006.