SharePoint through Rose Colored Glasses
July 1, 2014
SharePoint is definitely a powerful and ubiquitous enterprise tool. However, it is not always efficient and is definitely not easy to use – at least that is what the majority of users would argue. However, every now and then an article wants to paint a “best case scenario” picture of SharePoint. The harmon.ie article, “’Seek and Ye Shall Find:’ Making the Most of SharePoint Search” does just that.
After a lengthy discussion of some helpful SharePoint 2013 highlights, the article sums up the argument:
“A lot of the new functionality in SharePoint 2013 is provided by the previously separate add-on ‘FAST Search,’ developed by a company Microsoft bought in 2008). Until SharePoint 2010, this was a separate product, but Microsoft has now integrated it fully into core SharePoint functionality. With the exciting new developments of Office 365 and the cloud, we expect search to become even more powerful and user friendly in coming years. All of which is good news for the most important SharePoint audience of all – end users.”
But in order to get to that level of usability, most organizations will have to work through Microsoft’s “easy” tips and tricks for customization. We say “easy” because for most people this will be anything but easy. But for many organizations the investment in staffing and time is worth it for the end result. SharePoint is big and powerful, but in order to control this beast many organizations will have to sacrifice ease of use.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 01, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Mobility Functionality Depends on Third Party Solutions
May 15, 2014
By now readers are probably tired of hearing about SharePoint and its evolving mobile capabilities. But the truth is, a lot is written about SharePoint and mobile because it is what users are looking for next in the platform. Business 2 Community gives another spin on the topic in their article, “Third-Party Apps Mend SharePoint’s Mobility Pains.”
The article refers to a survey that was conducted among SharePoint users:
“Seismic, an enterprise mobile content management solution, conducted a survey of the 2014 SharePoint Conference global attendees. The findings revealed that 30 percent of business professionals believe better mobile capabilities will drive the adoption of SharePoint. While SharePoint users are accessing the content management system via computers, smartphones and tablets, they’re continuing to experience pain points with mobile.”
The article then goes on to list the common complaints about SharePoint’s mobile capabilities, or lack thereof. And once again, third party solutions are being pointed out as the relief in this situation. Stephen E. Arnold also covers SharePoint news on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. He has also found that customization and mobile capabilities drive SharePoint adoption and satisfaction, but until SharePoint embeds better abilities, users will continue to turn to third party solutions.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 15, 2014
Security Breaches of SharePoint Users Frequent
April 29, 2014
Security is an obvious concern among any enterprise content management system; but with an implementation as big as SharePoint, it is hard to believe all users would be following the rules. CMS Wire relays the latest research and proves suspicions correct in their article, “SharePoint Users Routinely Breach Security Policies.”
The story begins:
“Research by Cryptzone shows at least 36 percent of SharePoint users are breaching security policies — and another 9 percent admit they have no idea how to prevent sensitive information from being uploaded. The study, conducted among attendees at Microsoft’s SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas in March, is a warning to organizations that it is essential to develop adequate information security policies.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and a frequent reporter on all things SharePoint. His Web service, ArnoldIT.com, often gives attention to the issues surrounding SharePoint security. In this case, abidance by SharePoint rules and regulations can often be improved if users are comfortable with the platform and feel that it suits their needs. Arnold finds that an implementation plan and a good deal of customization go a long way.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 29, 2014
Microsoft Recalls SharePoint 2013 SP1
April 17, 2014
There may be trouble in paradise for Microsoft. After release SharePoint 2013 to a good deal of positive press, there has been some frustration over the wait for the release of Service Pack 1. Now it seems that Microsoft has had to recall the long-awaited update. Read the details in the Redmond article, “Microsoft Recalls SharePoint 2013 SP1.”
The article begins:
“Microsoft on Thursday said it is blocking downloads of the recently released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for SharePoint Server 2013. Microsoft released SharePoint Server 2013 SP1 in late February or early March through the Microsoft Download Center. However, access to the bits has now been ‘deactivated.’ No information was provided about when an updated service pack would be available. At press time, attempting to download SP1 for SharePoint Server 2013 returns a page not found message.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime search expert, and spends quite a bit of attention on SharePoint for his Web service, ArnoldIT.com. He finds that enterprise managers and end users are seeking greater ease of use and customization. Setbacks like a service pack recall must be devastating to enterprise teams that finally started to feel like they were gaining ground with SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 17, 2014
SharePoint Life Cycle Training Webinar
April 10, 2014
Webinars almost seem to be the life-blood of the SharePoint training world. PRWeb covers one of the most recent in their article, “No-Cost Webinar: Make User Adoption a Reality with SharePoint Life-Cycle Training.” And while this article focuses on life cycle training, the importance of SharePoint training is also addressed:
“This combination of instructor-led training and follow-up support helps SharePoint users retain knowledge thus empowering them to be more successful working in SharePoint in their current work environment. In addition, the value of empowering SharePoint users with the know-how can lead to more satisfied, confident workers, reduced work load on support team, and greater return on investment for the organization.”
Stephen E. Arnold also believes training is essential to SharePoint success. He covers all things search, including SharePoint, on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. Broad SharePoint coverage is offered, and a major theme is the importance of training and customization to any organization’s SharePoint implementation.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 10, 2014
SharePoint Adds PDF Converter
April 7, 2014
One of the major complaints about SharePoint is that users often have to leave the platform in order to accomplish basic tasks. SharePoint is getting closer to complete, and Microsoft is making some needed improvements. However, add-ons are also filling an important role in improving the user experience. Virtual Strategy covers one addition in their article, “SharePoint Now More Killer With PDF Document Converter; It’s No Fool’s Joke.”
The article begins:
“Today, PortalFront Tru Apps announces a new ‘Convert to PDF’ feature in SharePoint, bringing SharePoint a step closer to maturity . . . Converting documents from Word (doc, docx), Excel (xslx), PowerPoint and other formats to PDF directly in SharePoint libraries was not possible. The app also allows batch conversion and supports many other file types to PDF.”
Add-ons have been the key to SharePoint satisfaction according to many experts. Stephen E. Arnold is one of those experts, and he puts his thoughts down on the Web site, ArnoldIT.com. He covers a lot of SharePoint news and has found that user experience is highest when customization is at its best. But since many organizations cannot fully support internal customization, add-ons are key.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 7, 2014
SharePoint Best of Breed Organizations Named
April 3, 2014
Focusing on SharePoint organizations worldwide that focus on solving unstructured and semi-structured problems by leveraging SharePoint, the Best of Breed Showcase Initiative recently recognized some winners. The PR Web article, “Concept Searching Clients Represent SharePoint Best of Breed Organizations,” highlights the details:
“Concept Searching, the global leader in semantic metadata generation, auto-classification, taxonomy management software, and developer of the Smart Content Framework, is honored that two of its clients, Nottinghamshire County Council and West Sussex County Council, were participants in the Metalogix Best of Breed Showcase initiative, which culminated at the recent SharePoint Conference 2014.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime search expert, and gives a lot of attention to SharePoint on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. He also tries to find the best SharePoint add-ons that improve the overall user experience. While SharePoint is still the market leader in terms of adoptees, it is still a large and unwieldy platform that needs a lot of customization to make it functional. Effective add-ons can improve that process.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 3, 2014
Documentation Toolkit for SharePoint
April 2, 2014
Documentation Toolkit for SharePoint 4.0 was released this week by Acceleratio Ltd. SharePoint 2007 is supported and new best practices and features were added. Read all the details in the PRWeb release, “Documentation Toolkit for SharePoint 4.0 – New SharePoint Best Practices, Enhanced Permissions Reports and Completely New Interface Design.”
The release says:
“Acceleratio Ltd., an innovative software development company, released a new version of Documentation Toolkit for SharePoint. Version 4.0 comes with improved Permissions Reports, a redesigned interface and an improved compare wizard. New Best Practices were added for more efficient analysis of the SharePoint farm configuration.“
Stephen E. Arnold of ArnoldIT.com has made a name for himself following and analyzing all things search, including SharePoint. But one thing is certain from the coverage; SharePoint gets more powerful and more complicated all at the same time. This opens a wide space for add-ons and value-added software that improve the user experience and customization of SharePoint without adding a lot of hassle.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 2, 2014
Improving SharePoint Ease of Use
March 28, 2014
None-technical users of SharePoint will rarely say that the solution is easy to use. In fact, many will actually circumvent the system, or develop their own ways to share information just because of the perceived effort of SharePoint. But some companies are creating solutions that improve the user interface of SharePoint without asking end users to understand the underlying architecture. Read more in the CMS Wire article, “If You Dress SharePoint Differently, Is it Easier to Use? #SPC14.”
The article introduces Akumina Interchange:
“’Akumina today announced the beta release of InterChange, a persona-based authoring and website management solution for SharePoint 2013. ‘With InterChange, casual content authors no longer need to ‘learn SharePoint’ or understand the underlying information architecture of their site to create and manage content,’ Rogers told CMSWire.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime search expert and gives a lot of attention to SharePoint on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. He has found that customization is an important factor in SharePoint adoption. It would be interesting to see if this type of add-on is just as helpful, since end users would have fewer “unfamiliar” aspects to overcome.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 28, 2014
Compliance Update to SharePoint Could Shake Partners
March 27, 2014
SharePoint Conference 2014 was full of announcements, plans, and projections. Users and managers kept an eye on the program hoping to see updates that would improve ease of use and overall efficiency. One such announcement projected an upcoming unified compliance tool. Read more in the Fierce Content Management article, “Compliance, Video Portals Could Shake SharePoint Partners.”
Developer partners have long enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with SharePoint when it comes to add-ons for the enterprise, but the article says that might be about to change:
“But compliance and video updates unveiled at last week’s SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, could unnerve some of the partners on which Microsoft relies. During the event Microsoft teased its forthcoming Unified Compliance Center, which builds upon compliance tools found in Exchange and allows them to be leveraged seamlessly across all tools in Office 365. The tool will allow for multifactor authentication to facilitate not just eDiscovery but true auditing and compliance enforcement.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and gives a lot of attention to SharePoint on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. He often finds that customization and critical add-ons are key to a successful SharePoint deployment, so this announcement will really up that capability for most users.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 27, 2014
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