SharePoint Not on the Radar
September 26, 2013
Microsoft recently updated its SharePoint Cloud services to include more options that allow more flexibility for mobile users. While the PR for this update has been well received, “AIIM Research Indicates SharePoint Has A ‘Cloudy’ Future” says PRWeb. This reminds me of something Stephen E Arnold of Arnold IT notes in many of reports about how upgrades may be good, but they do not solve the underlying problems, such as implementation and security.
AIIM conducted a survey and found that only 6% of its respondents found their deployments successful, while 43% are struggling with implementing SharePoint, and another 28% say that progress has stalled in their SharePoint projects. That only touches the shallow end of the SharePoint pool. Many companies are also running multiple versions of the software, which can only lead to compatibility issues.
And how is SharePoint Cloud security viewed?
“ ‘There are many benefits to tapping into the power of SharePoint 2013, specifically the mobile and social aspects, yet as our research indicates, many business and IT leaders are wary of security issues around cloud technology,’ said AIIM President John Mancini. ‘While using SharePoint can help companies of any size, as a collaborative platform and even a records management tool, it’s clear from our research that, based on a variety of factors, deployments and adoption of the technology has not reached its original goals.’”
SharePoint is a viable solution, but behind the shiny labels and screensaver there are many, many problems.
Whitney Grace, September 26, 2013
Comperio 2013 SharePoint Seminar to Charge Extra for No Shows
April 17, 2013
Held in Oslo, Norway, this year’s Enterprise Social and Search with SharePoint seminar promises its usual diverse audience and tech-based discussions. It will take place on May 14, 2013 from 9:00-11:30. Although official events begin at 9:00, show up early for breakfast and networking at 8:30.
The seminar is free, unless, of course you do not show up without providing advanced notice.
According to the seminars registration page, the audience will include the following:
“CIOs, IT Directors, Collaboration Leads, SharePoint Leads, Social Networking Leads, Enterprise Search Leads, Big Data Leads, Business Intelligence Leads, Communication Directors, HR Directors.”
Technology discussed includes SharePoint 2010 and 2013, FAST Search for SharePoint, Comperio FRONT, Hadoop, HD Insight, and Yammer.
Not a bad line up for a free seminar in Oslo. However, those who register but do not attend (and do not provide notice) will be charged a fee of kr. 200, or about $30 US dollars. Considering the expenses Comperio will shell out for each attendee, this no-show charge is an interesting approach to guaranteeing attendance and accounting for wasted expenses.
Samantha Plappert, April 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Top 25 Most Influential People in the Microsoft SharePoint Community
November 28, 2012
In “These are the Top 25 Microsoft SharePoint Influencers for 2012,” Mark Fidelman discusses the community around SharePoint and those influencers leading the way. The top 25 were chosen based on the social scoring system outlined in the book, Socialized!. Numbers one and two on the list are discussed:
Joel Oleson (number one on the list this year) created a public facing micro-community on Yammer called SPYam to discuss and support SharePoint and Yammer. The community rallied around the Microsoft acquisition and in an attempt to learn about it – then quickly started using it in a highly visible way. You can’t buy community members like him.
Mark Miller number #2 on the list, helped organize a world SharePoint promotional tour which helped to expand the community base.
The SharePoint community is a major benefit of the software platform. The article points out that the community has grown stronger and more influential given increase in numbers and strength from year to year. Along with using the SharePoint community, you may also want to use a third party tool to fill in any gaps in the software. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers a proven enterprise search solution with the benefit of a SharePoint Connector. The Connector links systems for enterprise-wide information access with faceted search, a familiar user interface, search results that can easily be processed into actionable information, and more.
Philip West, November 28, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Zeppelin looks to enter the Ring with Other Social Business Tools
October 19, 2012
In “Yammer, Jive, Microsoft SharePoint are ‘Blank Pieces of Paper,’ says Zeppelin,” Meghan Kelly relays comments from Zeppelin on the social business tool’s potential to connect employees in the workplace. Zeppelin co-founder Anze Vodownik voiced opinion at the DEMO Conference that Yammer, Jive, SharePoint, and the like claim to be a new Facebook or Twitter but are installed in a company and become underused. She had this to say about the Zeppelin service:
Zeppelin lets employees put quick blurbs about their day in front of coworkers. It connects with Google Analytics, Basecamp, Microsoft, and customer relationship management systems, and allows employees to upload files and photos. You can also sign up for a daily or weekly summary of what is happening on your team.
The company launched its private beta today. Right now, Zeppelin is only going after the small to medium-sized business market.
SharePoint is a ubiquitous platform that is only increasing adoption rates. When it comes to encouraging collaboration in the business environment, consider a third party application that also taps into all of your information, including social media channels. Mindbreeze facilitates the comprehensive incorporation of all electronic data repositories and connects seamlessly with SharePoint. Social business and employee collaboration fueled by efficient and comprehensive access to information is possible with Mindbreeze.
Philip West, October 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Familiar Architecture and Improvements in SharePoint 2013
October 11, 2012
J. Peter Bruzzese, a writer for InfoWorld’s Enterprise Windows blog, takes a look at what he terms welcome enhancements for SharePoint 2013 in his InfoWorld post, “SharePoint 2013: A Low-Key Update You’ll Love.” Bruzzese first points out that architecturally, the upcoming SharePoint release is similar to its predecessor, but with added benefit of increased support for touch based devices. He has this to say about the overall improvements:
SharePoint 2013’s social networking enhancements provide more interaction options for people in a company, such as via community sites and portals that offer a forum-style experience within SharePoint. The My Sites user interface…has been streamlined. New microblog and newsfeed features allow for shorter conversations and quick updates, similar to what Yammer provides.
He adds that overall SharePoint 2013 is an improvement, but also has this to say:
I only wish that SharePoint was released more frequently, not tied to the three-year cycles of the Office and server lines, so it could better keep up with the rapid changes in social networking, mobile, and other user technology spaces.
Bruzzese points out that greater scalability and integration of FAST Search, rather than being a stand-alone program, are also two improvements. But when it comes to taking advantage of social capabilities and search, we know that FAST has its gaps and users need efficient and easy access to information. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers Enterprise Search with SharePoint Connectors so to easily snap into your existing farm. In addition to all-inclusive search, Mindbreeze creates relevant knowledge by storing data according to type and relevance while processing data in a comprehensible form.
Philip West, October 11, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
SharePoint Training Videos: Useful but Often Not Enough
October 10, 2012
The long-awaited preview for SharePoint 2013 has arrived and SharePoint gurus are on their way to exploring the collaborative content management platform’s new potential. The new SharePoint does have new strange twists and turns that could confuse even the most experienced SharePoint developer, which is why we are so thankful for Web sites like Microsoft’s TechNet that provide official reference material. Recently, TechNet has launched a series of videos on “SharePoint 2013 Training for IT Pros:”
“Find IT pro-focused how-to training and walkthrough videos with this interactive course about SharePoint 2013 including changes and new features for search, social, plus deployment and performance/scalability.”
Each of the new videos is a training module that focuses on a different aspect of the new SharePoint 2013 deployment. There are a total of fourteen training modules and each has videos and presentations about new features and concepts. For example, Module 1 focuses on a basic overview of the 2013 version with key changes to the SharePoint 2013 Server and SharePoint Foundation 2013. All of the modules cover areas that IT professionals will have questions about, server farms, architecture, social features, customization options, upgrading from older versions, etc.
Module 7: SharePoint 2013 Enterprise Search Overview is the lesson that really caught our attention:
“Learn about the redesigned Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2013 including architectural changes to physical and logical topologies, details about configuration options for crawling, content, and query.”
In the past, SharePoint’s out-of-the-box search solution was not the best search application. The best way to make it work was to rely on ISVs with products designed to augment and enhance SharePoint search. Generally the third-party software was a vast improvement over Microsoft. The new SharePoint search makes the same promises to fix problems from past versions and upgrade it with better features. Module 7 promises to teach about:
“Learn about the redesigned Enterprise Search in SharePoint 2013 including architectural changes to physical and logical topologies, details about configuration options for crawling, content, and query.”
As SharePoint has moved from its old role solely as a collaborative content management platform to a more robust platform with more social features and Web tie-ins, there will be much more for the search engine to peruse.
However, in our experience, a training video is a useful adjunct to other types of professional support. For example, Comperio, a firm with deep experience in search and related activities, offers a range of services that can be tailored to meet the needs of an organization implementing SharePoint and SharePoint search. The company offers search consulting, development, application management services, and “consultants for hire.” To learn more about Comperio’s services which bridge the gap between an instructional video and hands-on implementation, we suggest you check out Comperio services at http://www.comperiosearch.com/services/.
Understanding how SharePoint 2013 has integrated a more powerful enterprise search is the first step to harnessing its new capabilities and empowering the user. Search is a key function that powers many other features on SharePoint. If users cannot find their data, then SharePoint 2013’s key purpose has been lost.
Stephen E Arnold, October 10, 2012
Increasing SharePoint User Adoption with Easy to Understand Training
October 5, 2012
Chris Wright, founder of the technical copyrighting company Scribble Agency, discusses SharePoint end user adoption issues in his CMSWire post, “Driving Adoption: Three SharePoint Concepts End Users Need to Understand.” Wright explains that because SharePoint is such a complex system, end user training is a necessity, even if it is simply a newsletter with tips and tricks. He has this to add:
There are three core SharePoint concepts that you need to explain to your end users, to give them any chance of sticking with SharePoint in the long term. These are Sites, Lists and Webparts. For those of us in the know this is basic stuff, and of course there are a ton of other things you could educate users about. But I firmly believe teaching these three things to the man or woman on the street will give them a huge head start.
Wright goes on to share in a little more detail each of the three core components and how he has found success in relaying the concepts to his users. He suggests starting with a discussion on sites using a ‘container’ metaphor – that sites contain all the content that will eventually be displayed somehow. He adds that lists can be explained in Excel terms of columns, rows, and cells and that Web parts are the main way to surface list data onto a page.
A third party application can also simplify SharePoint for end users while maximizing return on investment in the product. One worth looking at is Fabasoft Mindbreeze’s Enterprise search and SharePoint Connector. The Connector adds a powerful search to increase the findability of documents in SharePoint with the benefit of a friendly user interface.
Philip West, October 5, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Empowering your SharePoint User Base
October 4, 2012
CMS Wire brings the article, “SharePoint: Empowering Your User Base,” to discuss how to get the most out of your SharePoint solution by getting the most out of your user population. The author begins by framing her argument:
In previous articles, we have covered the different solutions that can be built using SharePoint. But even the best of features are no good if they aren’t being fully utilized by the organization. One of the best features of SharePoint is that with the right expectations, training and guidance your internal Information Workers can be empowered to build solutions without having to work with IT or have IT build it for them. There are endless possibilities for the potential solutions that can be implemented.
The author then goes on to discuss how the empowerment happens, particularly through training. While training is important in any organization for a number of functions, most SharePoint analysis would show that the learning curve for SharePoint is steep enough that most end users will never harness its full potential. For that reason, many small or medium organizations are turning to intuitive third-party solutions to optimize their enterprise solution without a huge investment in time or training. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is one such solution that optimizes efficiency simply by an intuitive interface and ease of use for the end users.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 4, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Coming Article Series to Focus on SharePoint 2013 Features from the Executive Perspective
September 24, 2012
Descriptions and highlights of the coming SharePoint 2013 features have been a hot topic in the community. Symon Garfield takes another look at how these features might be used in the organization in his upcoming series of articles on the topic at CMSWire.com. The series starts off with, “The Executive’s Guide to SharePoint 2013: Understanding Communities.”
Community Sites provide a forum experience in the SharePoint environment which enables members to contribute information and ask for help from fellow members, according to the Microsoft TechNet Web site. Garfield explains that communities of purpose share a common objective while networks share loose associations with the main goal to just stay in touch. And with a community of purpose, members can make contributions and develop ideas and solutions for the purpose. Garfield explains how it relates to SharePoint 2013:
SharePoint 2013 includes a template to use as the basis for creating community web sites. At the heart of a community site is a discussion board which members can use to begin conversations on a specific topic, or to post questions to the rest of the community. Site moderators can create categories to organize the discussion threads. This supports the contribution element of the community process. Members can post replies to topics, or to other replies, and they can rate topics and replies…This facilitates the feedback element of the community process.
Collaboration capabilities are imperative as businesses develop rich community cultures. To tap into the new possibilities, consider a third party solution to complete your enterprise search system. Fabasoft Mindbreeze provides comprehensive access to business knowledge for everyone on the team and is backed by a customer focused support team that shares your purpose.
Philip West, September 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
SharePoint Cannot Meet All Enterprise Needs
September 19, 2012
For all of the talk about what SharePoint can do, sometimes it is good to know what SharePoint cannot do. Avoid an unnecessary expense as well as wasted time and frustration by exploring the BetaNews article, “3 Things Not to do With SharePoint.”
The author begins with an analysis of what SharePoint can do well:
I’m a big fan of SharePoint. I’ve worked with it for years, right back to SharePoint 2001. It does a lot of things very, very well (Since you ask — document management, collaborative working, and increasingly social networking functionality). However, SharePoint also does lots of things, its feature set is simply huge. Not all of these features are as mature as others, and as a result it is easy for SharePoint systems to end up feeling a bit mixed and matched. Some things work well, some less so, and some should have been avoided altogether.
The author then goes on to list the three things you should avoid doing with SharePoint: 1) creating a public facing Web site, 2) customizing graphic design, and 3) treating it like a database. For each of these functions, a smarter choice is to find a third party solution that can work with SharePoint or an existing infrastructure to seamlessly accomplish that goal. For public facing Web sites, we recommend Mindbreeze InSite, a solution that will automatically set up intuitive search on your Web space.
Emily Rae Aldridge, September 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
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