Microsoft SharePoint – IBM Filenet Integration

Unified multiplatform document management

Companies using Microsoft’s Sharepoint file sharing and workflow management solution often run into the problem of needing increased storage space to store documents. Microsoft Sharepoint stores unstructured data, including document files (Office files, PDFs, images), in MS SQL Server relational databases in BLOB binary format, which is not the most cost-effective technology choice. In this way, SQL databases can quickly grow to huge sizes, requiring extra work and, in many cases, unjustifiably excessive costs in terms of time and money to maintain.

The Microsoft SharePoint – IBM FileNet integration developed by Barre Technologies offers a solution to this problem by replacing the Microsoft SharePoint content storage solution based on binary SQL content with a storage solution based on documents stored in the IBM FileNet ECM file system, without users noticing. IBM FileNet enables efficient storage of documents either on hard drives or on slower but cost-effective sequential access storage infrastructure. From a technology perspective, multiple levels of integration are possible:

• In the simplest case, the IBM FileNet ECM system is only used to store data, in which case IBM FileNet does not store any metadata about Microsoft SharePoint documents or binary data.
• In our enhanced solution, MS Sharepoint documents can appear in an IBM FileNet ObjectStore, a folder structure stored in Sharepoint. In this case, an IBM FileNet client can be used to view the documents stored in Microsoft Sharepoint in the same structure as they are visible with a Microsoft Sharepoint client. It is possible to inherit the metadata of Microsoft Sharepoint documents into the IBM FileNet document(s) after matching certain metadata. This allows for full document search and management.

The Microsoft SharePoint – IBM FileNet integration offered by Barré Technologies is an excellent solution for large enterprises which:

• use IBM Filenet ECM for centralized document storage and filing and want to move the data storage of individual business units using Microsoft SharePoint, even in a self-service manner to serve their simpler processes, to a centrally managed, fault-tolerant, high-throughput document storage infrastructure in a way that is almost invisible to business users.
• would like to extend the enterprise document management capabilities offered by IBM FileNet – e.g., document management automation, extreme scalability and load balancing, built-in integrations (e.g., Maximo, SAP, etc.), auditable and cost-effective document sharing capabilities with a substantial number of external users – to their Microsoft Sharepoint-based file sharing solution.