Beyond Search » Enterprise

Don’t Panic! Relax, SharePoint Is Easy with the Right Knowledge

Stephen E. Arnold — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:54:34 +0000

Let’s say you’re an IT professional, but you were just given your first SharePoint project. You have a general knowledge of the collaborative content platform, but not enough to tackle a project blindly. The most important thing is to not panic, take a deep breath, and check out CMSWire’s article, “Wrapping Your Head Around the SharePoint Beast.” The title rings true for many professionals who have never handled the content behemoth before. The article reads more like an advice column for handling personal problems than SharePoint, but then again you could apply the advice to your romantic relationship.

Moving on to the article’s meat, we are advised to learn SharePoint’s basic structure. Take a look at the code, visit the farm, and then migrate over to learning platform basics. You’ll be useless as a developer unless you know how the product works. Also don’t forget that the Internet provides a bevy of SharePoint communities willing and eager to provide support and talk shop.

Here’s what I take as the best advice:

Any developer who wants to stand above the fray will invest time and effort into learning the different options for SharePoint development and when to use each option. You don’t need to be an expert in every option, but you should at least know there’s a better way.

It’s true that there are many ways to arrive at the same solution and some of them are better than others. Learn what works best for different types of problems. Another thing that new SharePoint people won’t know is that the out-of-the-box search platform isn’t the best. SurfRay’s Ontolica Suite is an option if professionals are seeking a high-quality IVP search partner. It doesn’t require any programming. All you have to do is configure it in the administrator interface and it is automatically deployed to users with the options for custom searches, filters, search suggestions, and much more.

Whitney Grace, February 11, 2012

Superheroes and Sidekicks: PLM Implementation in Gotham City

Catherine — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:14:10 +0000

BAM! POW! BOOM! The most famous superhero with a sidekick certainly is Batman and Robin. Stephen Porter of Zero Wait State thinks there is a sidekick to the PLM superhero who is often forgotten. His blog post The PLM State: Don’t Sleep on Robin – the Hidden Value of Project Management focuses on the importance of the project management role.

Porter suggests that impeccable planning and project management is necessary for any successful PLM implementation.

“Marrying vision with discipline is the optimal approach for deploying strategic solutions like PLM. The marriage of purpose and goals with the pragmatism of execution keeps things from being too ambitious and ensures that the project will be completed in a reasonable amount of time.”

Without Robin – a.k.a. the project man – there is “no balance and things go awry.” He is the key to making sure everything goes as planned.

Attention to detail and precise planning are the keys to success – with or without superpowers. In fact, that is what PLM is all about. Some companies like Inforbix are taking it a step further. With their data access solutions, Inforbix offers manufacturers those details that make all the difference. Their software is quick to deploy, easy to use and affordable for all. Forget Batman and Robin, it sounds like Inforbix is Superman!

Jennifer Wensink, February 11, 2012

Learn How To Fix the Most Common SharePoint Mistakes

Stephen E. Arnold — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:54:45 +0000

It has been a while since I have written about a top ten list, ladies and gentlemen, but I am so glad that I found another SharePoint top ten list to share with you. The list comes from SharePointProMag.com, it is by Todd O. Klindt, and the title is, “Top 10 SharePoint 2010 Configuration Mistakes—And How to Fix Them.” What I like about this article already is that instead of simply listing the mistakes Klindt has given us the solutions, so we can also use this piece as a repair manual as well. It starts off with a basic mistake: “Scrimping on SharePoint’s RAM or Hard Disk Space.” We all know the solution for that one. Moving on we find the usual advice about only following basic setup models, using a single account, running apps in separate pools, and caching.

Here’s one I haven’t considered, however:

Mistake #10: Not Pointing Your SharePoint Servers at Themselves

When SharePoint works, it is magnificent. When it doesn’t work, it can be a nightmare to fix. For this reason, anything you can do to ease troubleshooting is time well spent. To that end, I make sure that every server in the SharePoint farm points to itself for all web apps. If I get sporadic reports about SharePoint not responding, I can easily use RDP to log into each server and try to pull up SharePoint. If this attempt works, then I know that the server is working. If SharePoint does not come up, then I know in exactly which Microsoft User Location Server (ULS) logs to look for the relevant errors.

It makes sense when you think about it, but the logical answer isn’t something we usually think about first. It reminds me about telling end users to restart their computer to fix a problem. It’s the easiest thing to do, but not many do it. I am surprised that Klindt didn’t mention augmenting SharePoint’s out-of-the-box enterprise search with a heftier product. SurfRay’s Ontolica Enterprise Search is a SharePoint search enhancement that can be deployed across many departments and configured to each department’s individual needs. Similar to the impracticality of using only one SharePoint account to administer all activity, Ontolica can be altered to fit any and all search and permissions structures.

Whitney Grace, February 10, 2012

When Disaster Strikes – Loss of a SharePoint Farm

emily — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:14:35 +0000

Most SharePoint developers and administrators have nightmares about losing their content. Any number of things can go wrong when one deals with fragile electronic data storage and retrieval. Quite frankly, it is a miracle that data disasters do not strike more often. Our blog author, Paul, describes his terrifying account in “Five Things I Learned From Losing My SharePoint Farm.”

He recounts his thoughts and actions immediately after the loss:

I went home and made the first sensible decision of the evening. I went to bed. Partly I thought I should stay up and work on the problem but I was shattered and I wasn’t going to solve anything in the state I was in. When I woke up – at 5:00AM, screaming – I got to work and thankfully by midday I had the farm back in a working state and all the data accessible. During those painful hours I learned 5 valuable lessons that I thought were worth sharing for relative newcomers – like me – to SharePoint.

Paul goes on to suggest some practical solutions so that others do not suffer his same loss. Ideas include regular SQL backups and details documentation that is stored outside of the SharePoint installation itself, outside being the operative word there.

Many organizations are turning to smart third party solutions to help make the backup and restore process much simpler. Add automatic backup to the features of the Cloud and SharePoint administrator nightmares could be greatly reduce in frequency and severity.

One alternative that many organizations are turning to is Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Their comprehensive suite of solutions can stand alone or compliment an existing SharePoint infrastructure. Particular attention is given to their backup and restore options here.

Emily Rae Aldridge, February 10, 2012

Oracle’s PLM Summit Focuses on Profitability

Catherine — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:14:16 +0000

The 3^rd Annual Oracle Agile Product Lifecycle Management Summit just wrapped up in Santa Clara, California. The focus this year was to Optimize Your Product Value Chain for Increased Profitability.

The attendees were introduced to “trends, challenges and best practices that are helping organizations to:

Accelerate innovation through ideation management and collaboration, product portfolio management and analytics, data consolidation and cleansing, and a rich enterprise product record.
Design for supply with product cost management, outsourced manufacturing and product collaboration, product supply risk analytics, and spend consolidation.
Align the value chain through integrated portfolio and business planning, enterprise quality management and analytics, accurate and clean product data publishing, and rapid product commercialization

There were general sessions discussing everything from profitability to optimization; as well as break out session and industry focus groups.

Oracle is not the only company “turning innovation into a competitive advantage.” Technology companies like Inforbix may not be as big, but are offering companies, big and small, the same advantages. Inforbix is designed to simplify data access, increase profitability, and yet be affordable for manufacturing companies of all sizes. Who knows – may be next year Inforbix will be holding a summit of their own!

Jennifer Wensink, February 10, 2012

Numbers Show Increase in Cloud-Based PLM Usage

Catherine — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:14:51 +0000

Although everyone working with product lifecycle management (PLM) suspected the numbers for 2011 would show a definite shift toward the cloud and new PLM solutions the numbers are finally proving it. A recent press release titled, Arena Grows New Business 19% in 2011, on Marketwatch, tells of how a leader in cloud based services for small to mid-sized businesses exploded in growth due to the release of their latest creation, PDXViewer, cloud based app for viewing PDX files.

To explain the 19% growth the press release said,

“Helping drive that growth were increases in annuity bookings — up nearly 15% for the year — and an increase in subscriptions coming from new strategic partnerships. New customers were up 18% for the quarter compared to the same quarter in 2010. In addition to 2011′s strong subscription and renewal numbers, Arena fulfilled its commitment to expand the company by building out its software, infrastructure and partner community.”

What these numbers signify is that there is a new trend for companies to move to cloud based PLM solutions. As data continues to grow, expenses continue to be cut and a new technologically savvy workforce demands the latest in cloud technology and access to company data companies of all sizes are turning to new data management solutions.

As Arena is proving with their impressive numbers companies of all sizes are looking to unify departments by making data accessible and manageable by all. This unification in the form of cloud based PLM not only reduces overlap between design and production but eliminates redundancies that only serves to cost more money.

Catherine Lamsfuss, February 9, 2012

Enterprise Search Meets the Cloud in 2012

emily — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:14:37 +0000

In “2012 – Ready or Not,” Mike Alsup, Senior Vice President at Gimmal Group, lays out a summary of 2011 and speculates on 2012 in the world of SharePoint and content management. Of course, 2011 was another growth year for the ubiquitous SharePoint platform. One estimate puts SharePoint users at 125,000,000 and counting. Although, Alsup says, many of these SharePoint sites are collaboration sites, intranet, and other lightweight knowledge management, meaning lots of room to grow and innovate among the users.

Otherwise, 2011 is noted for lots of infrastructure consolidation and lots of waiting to see what happens with SharePoint Records Management. And for 2012? Alsup gives somewhat lengthy explanations on Records Management 2.0 and content enabled vertical applications. Of course, 2012 speculations are not complete without mention of the Cloud. Here’s what Alsup says,

In the world of SharePoint, the product is different in the cloud and on premise because of limitations on what can be deployed in the cloud and how it needs to be deployed. There are many SharePoint applications that provide great value that can’t be deployed in the Microsoft Clouds (Microsoft private cloud solutions, Windows Azure, Office 365) because of product limitations. If Microsoft enabled these applications to be more easily deployed in their clouds, and their customers could deploy their SharePoint applications similarly in each of the three environments, then the decisions on how and where to host would be based on economics and deployment strategy instead of the limitations of SharePoint in the clouds.

While SharePoint is a powerful and complex system, we know there are limitations when the Cloud is introduced. For a Cloud solution in your SharePoint environment, check out Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Here you can read about the power of information pairing.

Fabasoft Mindbreeze . . .

smoothly integrates itself into your website so that the user doesn’t even realize that Cloud services are working in the background. Furthermore, InSite always knows what a user is interested in. Navigation behavior on the website serves as the basis for recognizing their interests. If the user finds themselves on one of your sub-pages on the topic mobility, for example, even at this level Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite still displays further information such as blogs, news, Wikipedia etc. on the relevant topic.

Check out the full suite of solutions at Mindbreeze to see what works for you.

Philip West, February 9, 2012

Before They Come to Your SharePoint Site Know This

Stephen E. Arnold — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:57:07 +0000

Do you ever wish there was a checklist of things you need to know before you start a new SharePoint project, like building a web site? This is when you usually turn to a search engine and hope for the best, but Fear and Loathing: Gonzo blogging from the Annie Leibovitz of the software development world consulted his friends and gathered all their collective knowledge in “The Big Dummies Guide to Building a SharePoint Internet Site.” While the name is blatant copyright infringement on the popular series, the information is something you wont find unless you visit several different SharePoint blogs or buy a couple books on the same topic. Save the time and money and read the article instead. It breaks down all the necessary components with links to references that will help you understand how and what to do with SQL, SEO, hardening, multilingual support, HTML/HTML5.

One thing you need to remember is that this is still a work in progress and only provides you with a basis to jumpstart your SharePoint web site:

This list is far from complete and should be an evolutionary thing as it’s just what I’ve collected myself.

One thing the author failed to compile information on was SharePoint search, a vital key for any SharePoint web site. SurfRay Ontolica Suitecustomizes and increases findability and gives instant previews without downloads.

Whitney Grace, Febuary 08, 2012

A Developer Takes on SharePoint

emily — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:14:32 +0000

Wendy Neal recently shared some highlights of the SharePoint experience in her piece, “The Top Ten Reasons Why I Love SharePoint.” Neal, a SharePoint 2010 Developer/Architect for GreatAmerica Leasing Corporation, created the list so to articulate exactly why she loves to work with the ubiquitous collaboration software.

Neal cites the time and money saved due to Microsoft handling most development processes as just one of the reasons she found SharePoint to be the right system. Organizations can spend more time on configuring the technology, rather than developing and testing it. The SharePoint community, complex technology potential, and Microsoft Office integration are also discussed.

In terms of the SharePoint potential, Neal also explains the ability to easily build up your system with third party products integration.

One of the really great things about SharePoint is that if something can’t be done out-of-the-box, and if you don’t want to build it yourself, chances are that someone else has. Whether it be vendors who specialize in SharePoint add-ons, or something you find on CodePlex or other code sharing sites, there are a ton of great solutions or tools that can integrate with SharePoint. In addition, many other CMS or storage systems have created web parts that will interface with SharePoint, so that you can keep your content where it is yet still access it through the SharePoint interface.

A quality third party solution, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, can really get you the most out of your enterprise search investments and extend the capabilities of your SharePoint system. For a deep solution that connects your business information with the Cloud and gives your users the search and navigation experience they need, check out Mindbreeze.

Philip West, February 8, 2012

PLM Leader Introduces Online Training for Engineers

Catherine — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:14:18 +0000

As technology continues to evolve large companies struggle with the demands of training of their employees, especially engineers. Tata Technologies has developed i GET IT, an online training program aimed at engineers. The article, Tata Technologies Plans to Market Online Self-Paced Training Solution for Engineers, on Telecom Tiger, explains how the self-paced training program is expected to be received with open arms in India’s growing engineering industry.

As the article explains of the new program,

“Some of the key factors that have led to growth in the demand for online training solutions can be attributed to the professionals being either too busy, inability to leave the office for several days and attend regular courses for advanced trainings. The increasing demand for local talent has lead to engineering colleges and institutions leaving no stone unturned to sharpen the skills of their students with the very latest course material, whether through text books or online training courses.”

Tate Technologies is best known for their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Enterprise Search solutions making them the perfect company to develop a training program for busy employees in the engineering industry. As data continues to grow and change and more types of data enter into a company’s database new data management solutions must be adopted. Enterprise search must also be updated to include this new data. Engineering companies unable to integrate such measures will get left beyond in a struggling, yet competitive, world economy. We not only predict that more online training programs like Tate’s i GET IT will enter the engineering industry market, we believe smart companies will gladly accept them and take the first steps toward cloud services and new PLM solutions.

Catherine Lamsfuss, February 7, 2012