​Business Situation
ETAS is a premium tool supplier to the automotive industry, wanted to expand its position as a premium tool supplier and decided to renew parts of its exisiting IT. ETAS’ existing Lotus Notes® environment no longer met the company’s requirements.  It was hard to maintain and cumbersome to extend. ETAS decided to switch from a Lotus Notes platform to the Microsoft® SharePoint environment.

Solution
A pilot started in November 2008 with the first workflow for the complete package.  Input screens for the interaction with the new workflows were developed entirely in InfoPath®, as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the platform for all future applications. The Workflow Engine is K2 blackpearl®.  K2 is completely based on the Microsoft technology stack.

Results
ETAS benefits from a simplified maintenance through the new development of workflows, with standard Microsoft technologies and K2 blackpearl, because adjustments can now be implemented much faster.  In addition, the new solution provides a better performance, particularly in locations with a low band width. It is not only the management and IT which are provided by the new solution with a fast way of verifying and/or searching for projects.   Now, the end user too has extensive possibilities to define their own filters and display overviews of their projects.