Learning SharePoint and PowerShell is Worth It
May 25, 2012
In “Getting to Grips with PowerShell,” Robert Schifreen continues his SharePoint 2010 odyssey series by taking a closer look at the importance of PowerShell. The powerful scripting language may leave many users baffled, but Schifreen explains the benefits of being well-versed in PowerShell:
Although you can do all your SharePoint admin through the web interface via something called Central Administration, getting to grips with doing things in PowerShell is well worth the investment in time. For example, instead of sitting in Central Admin creating dozens of departmental site areas, you can take a CSV file of your department names and quickly turn it into a PowerShell script that does the job for you. If the resulting site structure then doesn’t look quite right, just alter the script, delete all the sites you created (using PowerShell, naturally), and run the script again. So being a good SharePoint admin means learning SharePoint and PowerShell. That’s just the start.
Schifreen also suggests investing in a decent book on the topic, and if you want enterprise-level search, he suggests adding a book on FAST, InfoPath, Business Intelligence connectivity services, Visual Studio, SharePoint Designer, and more. While enterprise-search is an investment, there are out-of-the-box solutions out there that can save you valuable training and setup resources.
To bypass the need for some expensive or time–consuming training, consider a third party solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, which extends the capabilities of your SharePoint system. Their Web Parts based information pairing capabilities give you powerful searches and a complete picture of your business information, allowing you to get the most out of your enterprise search investments. And your end users will benefit from the fast and intuitive search with clearly displayed results and simple navigation.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise gains each employee two weeks per through focused finding of data (IDC Studies). An invaluable competitive advantage in business as well as providing employee satisfaction.
Mindbreeze’s intuitiveness means less training required. They also have tutorials and wikis that are easy to use and more efficient. Here you can browse Mindbreeze’s support tools for users, including videos, FAQs, wikis, and other training options. Check out the full suite of solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, May 25, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Jetbox Introduces Enticing Solution to Old Problems
May 25, 2012
Finding the right balance between easy to use and robust enough to handle a company’s data is a problem with which many traditional product lifecycle management providers struggle. A new company, Jetbox, has just recently entered the PLM field and promises that their solution is unlike any before. The article, “Introducing Jetbox(TM), Inc., a Company that Has Reinvented the Way PLM Is Sold, Deployed, Used, and Maintained”, on Market Watch, announces all the ways Jetbox is not the same old, same old when it comes to PLM solutions.
The article describes the company:
“Included in its ground-breaking software is iC5(TM) Turbo, a comprehensive sales and implementation toolset that dramatically slashes the time and eliminates the expertise required to sell, plan, install, configure, document, test, deploy, train, use, support, and upgrade a PLM system. This powerful software toolset helps companies eliminate the need for a customized solution and a team of consultants, keeping within the constraints of an out-of-the-box approach.”
Jetbox’s approach at making PLM accessible to more people within an enterprise while keeping costs affordable and making it easily integratable with existing platforms is exactly the direction PLM needs to be moving. Other providers, like Inforbix, are also realizing that a PLM solution that is too difficult to operate and requires a lot of money to install and maintain does more harm than it does good. We look forward to what Jetbox and others similar come up with next.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 25, 2012
SharePoint Options for iPhone and iPad
May 24, 2012
Mobile devices are moving from a business necessity to a formal mandate. While apps exist for most major functions, tackling mobile access to SharePoint is a bigger creature to tame. We may have a breaking development in, “Use SharePoint on your iPad or iPhone,” by Dave Johnson.
Collaborating with an iPad in a corporate environment is sometimes challenging, because the ubiquitous tablet hasn’t had the same access to SharePoint as laptops and desktops. Sharing a document, then, has meant sending attachments, and iPads were blocked from accessing the vast stores of corporate documents already archived in SharePoint. Now harmon.ie delivers substantially the same SharePoint experience as your desktop PC provides.
The free harmon.ie app offers an upgrade to a premium addition for a slim $20. And while accessing an existing SharePoint infrastructure via an iPad or iPhone is now possible, the usability and efficiency is still in question. How much work can actually be accomplished by forcing SharePoint to fit the mobile mold?
For those who are high mobile users, we would recommend a smart third-party solution that integrates a mobile offering into their primary solution. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile is one such option.
Smartphones and tablets are constant companions, indispensable in the business world. Information needs to be able to be exchanged at all times and wherever you are. Easily. Quickly. Securely. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile makes company data available on all mobile devices, regardless of whether you have a BlackBerry®, iPhone®, Windows Phone or Android™ Smartphone or a tablet such as the Apple iPad, Samsung Chromebook/GalaxyTab or Blackberry Playbook. You can act independently and freely – yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in.
Perhaps most importantly, security is never compromised with the Mindbreeze compliance and industry-vetted solution. So while some apps will let you access your SharePoint installation, Fabasoft Mindbreeze is built to make your mobile access fully functional.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 24, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Tips for Implementing PLM for SMEs
May 24, 2012
Now that cloud based technology has lowered the cost of implementing product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms to a level to which most small and midsized enterprises (SME) can take advantage many are still gun-shy when it comes to actually pursuing a suitable PLM solution. A recent article, “Ten Tips for PLM Success”, on CADalyst, helps direct such companies in choosing a PLM solution.
One of the best tips is to hire a professional. The analogy is made that PLM is like a do-it-yourself home repair project. Most of the time one gets in over their head and are forced to call a professional to clean up their mistake making the project more expensive and time consuming than necessary. As for PLM, it explains,
“PLM is no different. You need very specific expertise for these types of deployments, and many companies — out of a desire to save money and reduce the initial investment — think they can manage it internally with their IT team. Without the right level of knowledge on hand, however, deployments can take a lot longer and have a lower chance of success.”
All ten tips are great for small and midsized businesses intimidated by PLM solutions and the entire culture surrounding the once impossible notion of having one’s own PLM platform. Choosing the right professional for the job can be tricky which is why we recommend that companies look for providers with a proven record in customer service. As the article also explains, implementing a PLM solution that no one understands or can use is worthless.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 24, 2012
Working with SharePoint Active Directory
May 23, 2012
Continuing to following the excellent SharePoint series by Robert Schifreen, our current focus leads us to a discussion of Active Directory. Read Schifreen’s full piece at “Active Directory: Tips from the front line.”
SharePoint can’t look up users’ information in Active Directory (AD) on the fly. Instead, it has a User Profiles database which, alongside each person’s username, holds their full name, job title, location, photograph, boss’s name, and dozens more attributes besides. You need to set up AD Sync to regularly and automatically copy everyone’s up-to-date details from AD into the User Profile database. Unfortunately, despite this being one of the key facets of running a successful corporate SharePoint installation, it’s also buggy as hell.
All of these quirky pieces of SharePoint are what makes it what it is, quirky. However, they are also necessary. That does not mean that they are effective or intuitive. Smart third party solutions such as those offered by Fabasoft Mindbreeze may prove a less painful option that allows the user to achieve the same result.
Consider the federated search options of Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise:
You can use the Account settings to activate data sources from a source directory. If a federated data source needs authentication a dialog will appear. Each user can activate and deactivate the data source he/she needs. Your administrator defines a source directory and everything else is up to your users. No domain level trusts have to be established.
News pieces such as this one by Schifreen are important to keep a running dialogue about the progression of SharePoint and how to make it more usable for a wider audience. However, for many organizations, a smaller, more intuitive solution is more approach. Such organizations should consider Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its suite of solutions.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Cloud SaaS Is as Good as It Seems
May 23, 2012
Anyone can hear companies groan when replacing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is mentioned and for good reason. Replacing software (recommended every seven to ten years) is a costly and difficult process. All that is changing however thanks to the cheapening-down of PLM solutions and the cloud according to the Works Management article, “Not Brain Surgery”, which asserts that cloud based SaaS solutions are not only trendy but practical.
PLM and ERP’s complicated relationship is explained by the article as:
“PLM for the masses may have taken about a decade longer than most pundits predicted, but it’s here now, and manufactures jumping on board will benefit from lessons learned, and improvements in technology and implementation thinking throughout that period. And did you note that reference to cloud computing as an enabler? If you want to improve the cost/benefits ratio, how about considering a sexy new cloud solution for most of your business, engineering and manufacturing software – including ERP? Not long ago such a suggestion would have been laughed out of court. But now?”
As cloud based PLM solutions are proving themselves across industries and enterprises of all sizes more and more are jumping on board. As the article points out when one stops to think about all the benefits of new technologies it just makes sense. PLM providers basing their solutions on cloud technology are creating affordable, customized platforms for their clients that would have been just a dream a decade ago. It’s time more companies realize their dreams.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 23, 2012
Building a SharePoint Farm
May 22, 2012
Continuing our coverage of the SharePoint series by Robert Schifreen, we turn our attention to, “Building the Farm: From learning to Testing,” on ZD Net UK Edition. (See our coverage of Robert’s first installation in the series, “SharePoint Deployment: Pitfalls of a Pioneer.”) In this piece, Schifreen discusses the details and hardships of starting the actual SharePoint farm.
You’ll need servers set up, SAN storage provisioned, new domain accounts created, DNS entries adding, access to your Active Directory database, firewall holes punching, server licences purchasing, Active Directory security groups creating, installation DVDs downloading, workstations being put into domains for testing, access to VM management consoles granting, servers adding into the load balancer pools, IP addresses allocating, users’ home drives re-mapping, SSL certificates applying for, login scripts amending, and more.
All of the necessities listed above are quite overwhelming. Schifreen goes on to mention the value of expert advice, including paying for outside consulting. For many organizations, expert advice is a sound investment. However, we have another suggestion.
Among the leaders in third-party enterprise solutions is Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise. Mindbreeze can work alongside an existing SharePoint installation, or as a standalone solution. Implementing any new infrastructure will take planning, but a smart third-party solution has built-in customization options, making it a much smoother and intuitive process than trying to get SharePoint to the point of viability.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or to be more precise, understands what the most important information is for you at any precise moment in time. It is the center of excellence for your knowledge and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud data together.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze also offers a suite of complimentary solutions to link together all aspects of an organization’s information management: mobile solutions, cloud, email management, web site search, etc. While SharePoint is capable of these auxiliary features, too much time and attention has to be devoted to customization.
So if your organization is looking for an effective but less painful way to manage information storage and retrieval needs, consider the offerings of Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Siemens Invests in Tomorrow’s Manufacturers
May 22, 2012
The manufacturing industry has relied largely on labor to function. As technology grows more complex and the average age of the American manufacturer creeps higher a new breed of worker must be developed and trained. In an effort to train the next generation of manufacturing laborers in emerging technology Siemens has begun partnering with community colleges for training as discussed in the Bloomberg article, “Siemens PLM Software Launches New Community College Best Practice Program to Revitalize U.S. Manufacturing”.
The article describes the partnership by saying,
“The program, developed in conjunction with Iowa Western Community College (IWCC), provides resources to interested community colleges and local manufacturers including a recommended associate’s degree curriculum, a guide for obtaining in-kind software grants to provide the technology needed for implementation, and a detailed white paper, titled Community Colleges Revitalize manufacturing, outlining the process for building a successful academic, government and business partnership for the program’s execution.”
The idea behind such training is that as technology becomes more refined so must the laborers using it. Siemens, known for their product lifecycle management solutions, understands the value of highly-trained workers. Their teaming up with community colleges is a great investment in tomorrow’s workforce. PLM solutions are being adopted across all industries, not just manufacturing, as an efficient way to reduce costs and streamline processes.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 22, 2012
Inteltrax: Top Stories, May 14 to May 18
May 21, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, how unstructured data is shaping the way vendors operate.
In “A Mountain of Unstructured Data” the problem of collecting tweets, posts, pictures, videos and more and making analytic sense is laid out.
“Unstructured Data Investment on the Horizon” shows how many companies are investing in solving their own unstructured data crises.
Finally, “Another Analytics Partnership is Born” showed companies joining forces to tackle this massive problem.
We’ve talked about unstructured data before, but we keep returning to the well because it’s such a massive concern for companies. Thankfully, those problems are being solved and we’re monitoring it every step of the way.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
May 21, 2012
TIBCO News: Hadoop Support added to Spotfire Analytics
May 21, 2012
Organizations around the globe are experiencing challenges with managing the explosion of big data and meeting the demands of digital consumers. Tech entities are eagerly stepping up and collaborating to develop solutions for these big data challenges, including innovative alternatives to industry standards, like SharePoint.
TIBCO Software Inc. is a provider of infrastructure software for companies to use on-premise or as part of cloud computing environments. Chris Kanaracus recently discussed some TIBCO news in the ComputerWorld.com post, “Tibco adds Hadoop Support to Spotfire Analytics Tool.” The new release is explained:
Spotfire 4.5 will become generally available this month and features a data service connector to Hadoop, which is known for its ability to handle unstructured data such as weblogs, sensor information and text. The connector will allow users to combine and analyze information from Hadoop clusters along with structured data from business applications such as an SAP or Oracle ERP (enterprise resource planning) system.
But some analysts, such as Boris Evelson of Forrester Research, are less than giddy. Evelson adds, “However, other aspects of the release, such as the management tooling and iPad support, are less than earth-shattering.” According to Evelson, mobility has become a basic requirement of any BI platform.
TIBCO’s new partnerships are another indication that enterprise search is the hot new market for competition and development. While acquisition and development news is exciting, you may want to turn to an established search solution that already understands the value of federated search and mobility. We like the feedback we’ve seen about Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Here you can read about the mobility solutions from Mindbreeze,
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile makes company knowledge available on all mobile devices. You can act freely, independently and yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in. Full functionality: Search results are displayed homogenously to the web client with regards to clear design and intuitive navigation.
And with information pairing of your cloud and on-premise data, users can easily access important business information on the go from their smartphones and tablets. The well-established and cost-effective solution is worth a second look at http://www.mindbreeze.com/.
Philip West, May 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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