SharePoint
Blue Net delivers SharePoint consulting for Minneapolis businesses, as well as implementation services that drive operational success.
Profile and Industry
The mission of Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeast Michigan is to provide households with access to nutritious food and related resources. They do this through collaboration, efficient operations, education, and innovative solutions, leading to a hunger-free community in southeast Michigan.
Project - Create a delivery management system to track the constituents who are enrolled in the program, along with deliveries, surveys and call logs.
Technologies - SharePoint Lists, PowerApps, and Power Automate.
The Challenge - Gleaners created a new food delivery program and was using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to track all data points. This process was hard to manage and make visible to the right people. Automated processes were also virtually impossible to trigger and manage due to the static nature of Excel.
BlueNet’s Solution - We built a complete SharePoint solution using only out-of-the-box features and functionality. The solution has multiple components:
All data points are now tracked individually, making automation and reporting a breeze. The flexible nature of SharePoint allowed Gleaners to make multiple enhancements after going live without any impact to their process.
Summary - Gleaners Delivery Management System created a flexible and efficient platform to track all information in one place. They can now spend more time serving people and working towards their mission of ending hunger in southeast Michigan instead of spending time and energy trying to manage backend data.
Profile and Industry
Our customer is a specialty law firm specializing in many different loan transactions including real estate acquisition, real estate development, asset-based loans, and construction loans.
Project - Create a loan package generator that automates and streamlines the process of creating and manipulating legal documents for certain loan packages.
Technologies - SharePoint and Power Automate
The Challenge - Johnson Bealka PLLC had a labor-intensive process for copying legal document template files and populating customer-specific data in dozens of places in each file. The process was tedious to perform and susceptible to mistakes.
BlueNet’s Solution - We built a complete SharePoint solution using only out-of-the-box features and functionality. The solution has multiple components:
Every task in the process is now automated with one central form to fill out. Once filled out, it generates all the documents for that specific loan package. This populates documents that used to be filled out manually.
Summary - Our customer’s loan package generator allows for much greater efficiency in the process, quicker turnaround time for the production of documents, and cost savings to the law firm and its clients.
Profile and Industry
Turck USA is a specialty manufacturer of sensor, fieldbus, and connectivity products. They’re also known for interface technology, human-machine interfaces (HMI), and radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. Turck offers efficient solutions for factory and process automation applications.
Project - Create a tracking system to monitor and manage ISO training completed by employees.
Technologies - SharePoint and SharePoint Workflow
The Challenge - Turck did not have an effective method of keeping track of who completed training for their ISO 9001 certification. Training was tracked in a master Excel list and the process was completely manual. They were looking for a solution that automates the process and is more efficient and effective.
BlueNet’s Solution - We built a complete SharePoint solution using only out-of-the-box features and functionality. The solution has multiple components:
Every task in the system is now automated. When a document changes, a workflow will start and check to see if training is required. If so, it automatically creates training due tasks for each employee with a job role that requires training related to the document.
All documents are tagged with job titles so that the workflow can loop through the employee list and auto-assign training.
Dashboards were created for supervisors and managers, so they can log in and see at a glance what training is required for the employees they manage. They are able to mark off and complete training in bulk. When training is completed, they are moved to the employees history for auditing purposes.
Summary - Turck now has an automated way to keep track of and assign training to all employees. Audits can be completed in a fraction of the time now that everything is stored and organized more efficiently than in the previous master Excel spreadsheet. Built-in time stamps are used to keep track of completion dates, and managers can save time by going to their dashboard to get quick views of what is outstanding vs trying to make sense of a possibly outdated spreadsheet.
Profile and Industry
Impact Innovations, Inc. was founded in 1968 in Maynard, Minnesota. The company provides seasonal wholesale décor, fabric, and paper products to retailers. The company also provides custom marketing and merchandising products, in-store signage, merchandising displays, and loyalty card production for customers throughout North America.
Project - Develop an internal/external portal for Impact Innovations to manage jobs, while also allowing clients into the portal so they can collaborate on documents, images, and the production process.
Technologies - SharePoint and SharePoint Workflow
The Challenge - Impact Innovations, located in Clara City, Minnesota, needed a way to effectively track and store data related to each job and order that a client placed.
BlueNet’s Solution - We developed a portal using SharePoint Online that allowed access by Impact Innovation’s clients.
The base site was saved as a template and a new subsite gets created for each client, so it can be customized with the client’s logo and handle other unique needs.
Summary - Impact Innovations now has a one-stop shop for orders, artwork files, and accounting files for their clients. It provides both Impact Innovations and their clients with a flexible and portable platform to collaborate and transfer data. This solution has eliminated hundreds of emails with attachments and potentially secure information. Impact Innovations and their clients now get alerts when key events happen and can visit their portal daily to see new information that needs their attention.
Profile and Industry
The City of Burnsville’s goal is to provide quality services and amenities for residents and visitors to enjoy.
Project - Create a new intranet platform.
Technologies - Microsoft 365 and SharePoint
The Challenge
Blue Net’s Solution
Search and Usability: Blue Net created a custom employee directory. The employee directory, by default, lists all the employees in the organization with refinements to filter by department, job title, ask me about, etc. This directory also uses full search to look up keywords that might be in that person’s profile.
Summary - The City of Burnsville now has an organization-wide intranet that is more dynamic, more appealing, and much easier to manage. It offers document management, workflow processes, and more.
Profile and Industry
Medtronic’s medical technologies make it possible for millions of people to resume everyday activities, return to work, and live a better and longer life. We’re able to do this with the help of some very special people around the world:
Project - Customize the home page and a subsite for the Neuromodulation Sales Training department at Medtronic.
Technologies - SharePoint
Business Challenge - Blue Net was asked to customize the home page and a subsite for the Neuromodulation Sales Training department at Medtronic.
Blue Net’s Solution
Profile and Industry
Since 1910, Berger has been delivering quality transportation services to individuals, corporations, and government agencies. Berger has over 100 years of experience as a one-source provider of transportation and storage needs.
Project - Develop a purchase order submission and management system to replace an outdated purchase order (PO) process.
Technologies - SharePoint and InfoPath
The Challenge - Berger’s previous PO system was built on a platform requiring ongoing expenses. It was also outdated and difficult to change. Berger was already using Microsoft 365, so leveraging SharePoint for a new PO system had no extra infrastructure cost.
BlueNet’s Solution - The PO system we designed was almost an exact replica of their old system. Their old system wasn’t broken, so we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. We created lists to store branch, department, vendor, and general ledger information. A forms library in SharePoint was used to create the PO request form. It was customized in InfoPath and has data connections to the lists to provide filtered dropdown values in the form. The form has a user entry view and a print view that can be saved as PDF for long-term storage.
Summary - Berger now has a PO system that is integrated with their Microsoft 365 tenant and intranet, meaning they are no longer paying extra fees for the solution. It’s also easier to access since it is in Microsoft 365. Users can access the PO request form from wherever they have an internet connection.