SharePoint Users Remain with Older Versions
October 9, 2014
Although SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 have been all the rage in the blogosphere, it turns out that a relatively large percentage of users remain with older versions of SharePoint. CMS Wire covers the phenomenon in their latest article, “SharePoint Users Stick with Older Versions, Eye Hybrid Cloud #SPTechCon.”
The article begins:
“When we caught up in Boston a year ago with SharePoint Technology Conference Chair David Rubinstein, SharePoint 2013, Office 365 capabilities and mobile were all the rage. Same conference, next year at the Boston Park Plaza hotel? The cloud. SharePoint Online. When’s the big move coming? The truth is, for most organizations — at least those among the 1,000 at the conference this week — they’re still flying in 2010 and even 2007 air space when it comes to SharePoint technology.”
Stephen E. Arnold devotes a lot of attention to SharePoint on his Web service, ArnoldIT.com. He reports that most users find SharePoint to be overwhelming and somewhat hard to navigate. It is no wonder that once an organization makes peace with its current implementation (no doubt costing considerable time and resources) they are less than eager to leave it behind for new features that may cause great headaches. His SharePoint feed provides a lot of tips, tricks, and news regarding SharePoint, and may be helpful for anyone considering making the upgrade leap.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 09, 2014
SharePoint Potential for Surface Pro 3
July 8, 2014
Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 made waves as one of the first high profile enterprise ready tablets. Mobility is no longer a trend, but a necessity, with mobile search set to surpass desktop search this year. SharePoint needs to keep itself in the mobility game, and Surface Pro 3 may be one way to do that. Redmond covers the story in their article, “Why SharePoint Admins Should Check Out Surface Pro 3.”
Tamir Orbach, Metalogix’s director of product management for SharePoint migration product, gave his opinion on the new device:
“’Pretty much all of us professionals want or need both a laptop or desktop and a slate,” Orbach said. ‘It’s so light that you can carry it anywhere you want and you would barely even feel it. And the screen is big enough, the resolution is good, the functionality is powerful enough to be used as our day-to-day computer.’”
Stephen E. Arnold has made a career out of following all things search. Enterprise is particularly affected by search, good and bad, and SharePoint is unequivocally the biggest player in the enterprise game. However, it has struggled with mobile functionality. And while critics will not be completely satisfied if Microsoft claims SharePoint’s mobile struggles must be settled with another Microsoft product, it does show some movement in the right direction. Keep an eye on Arnold’s SharePoint feed on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com, for the latest news, tips, and tricks.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 8, 2014
Opportunities Intersect Challenges with SharePoint
June 17, 2014
Probably the most all-encompassing challenge facing SharePoint is the tension between the user experience provided by consumer level technology (mobile, social, cloud, etc. etc.) and the limitations of enterprise level technology. SharePoint knows its weaknesses and strives to overcome them, but change is slow. Read more in the eCommerceTimes article, “Microsoft SharePoint’s Crossroads: Where Opportunities, Challenges Meet.”
The article sums up the problem:
“As consumer-based technologies, which are primarily out in the cloud, have progressed, organizations want to focus less on infrastructure and focus more on actual business systems. End users on the other side of that want their corporate solutions to match more closely to their personal habits, to their personal tools. They’re doing everything in the cloud, everything via a mobile phone.”
And in this current scenario there are lots of opportunities present for SharePoint, and yet within them, many challenges. SharePoint is a large ship, so to speak, and is therefore slow to turn. Furthermore, they are restricted by their update plan, which thus far has provided a major overhaul every 3 years instead of their competitors’ continual, smaller improvements. Stephen E. Arnold knows this strengths and weaknesses well, and reports on them through his Web service, ArnoldIT.com. Having made his life’s work about search, Arnold’s SharePoint feed serves to inform end users and managers about tips, tricks, add-ons, and shortcuts that can make life easier.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 17, 2014
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
SharePoint Integration with MailChimp
May 8, 2014
SharePoint is looking for more ways to increase their influence for businesses of all sizes. The latest announcement seems like great news for smaller or medium sized businesses. Read the full story in the PR Newswire article, “Sharepoint AMS’ Integration of MailChimp to Aid Sharepoint Online Users in Design of High-Caliber Email Marketing Campaigns.”
The article begins:
“This week the innovators of the SharePoint Mobile Sync service released another new service that will help companies using SharePoint Online with email newsletters and marketing campaigns. ‘SharePoint MailChimp Sync’ [the service] auto synchronizes SharePoint lists with MailChimp lists and works with SharePoint 2010, 2013 and SharePoint Online.”
This service is one that will appeal the millions of MailChimp users, many of them small business owners. And it is good news for SharePoint, as they look to appeal to smaller organizations. Stephen E. Arnold has been a lifelong leader in all things search and a frequent contributor to the SharePoint discussion. His Web site, ArnoldIT.com, provides readers with a way to stay on top of the SharePoint feed and manage what is most pertinent.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 8, 2014
Box Claims to be a Better SharePoint
April 18, 2014
SharePoint has an increasing amount of competition in both the mobile and collaboration market spaces. And while most services cannot complete with SharePoint as a complete solution, they do pinpoint select functions in which they believe they can out-perform SharePoint. Read more about Box and how they view their role in the competition in the article, “Box CEO: ‘We’re Sort of Like Microsoft SharePoint Done Right.’”
“Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie on Tuesday took a swipe at Microsoft (MSFT), one of his company’s main competitors in the cloud-based collaboration software market space. During a cloud leadership panel at the Ingram Micro (IM) 2014 Cloud Summit in Hollywood, Fla., Levie promoted the Box platform to more than 1,000 channel partners in attendance by comparing it to Microsoft SharePoint.”
Stephen E. Arnold has made a career out of tracking and reporting on all things search on ArnoldIT.com. SharePoint has become a particular point of interest and is often covered. His findings do prove that users want an improved experience that many smaller solutions can offer, but the drawback to smaller solutions is having to patch together a lot of pieces to even come close to the comprehensiveness of SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 18, 2014
Improvement to SharePoint Records Management
April 4, 2014
Early iterations of SharePoint records management were fraught with shortcomings. But the word has come that SharePoint 2013 offers an improvement on the failings of the past. Read more in the Search Content Management story, “SharePoint Records Management Spans New Forms of Content.”
The article begins:
“In prior releases, SharePoint records management was functional but nothing to write home about. But with SharePoint 2013, it’s time to get excited. The trends of mobile computing, social media in the enterprise, the cloud, and global search have converged and touched just about every business process that depends on IT. Records management is no exception.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and offers up his analysis and opinions on his Web site ArnoldIT.com. SharePoint gets a lot of coverage due to its prominence in the market. But, Arnold consistently finds that the huge platform of SharePoint lags behind the smaller more agile offerings on the market. Only time will tell if the improvements in mobile, social, and records management will increase the overall functionality and user experience of the product.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 4, 2014
Webinar to Improve SharePoint Document Viewing
March 26, 2014
Webinars are a classic professional development option, but can be especially helpful when needing to brush up on the details and ins and outs of SharePoint. CMS Wire offers a good selection and they will be offering a helpful one today. Read more on their event calendar, “(Webinar) Make SharePoint Document Viewing Easier with HTML 5.”
The overview of the program says:
“By integrating an HTML5 document viewer with SharePoint 2013, you enable your users to easily display almost any document file type right from a SharePoint list, through a consistent, easy-to-use interface with search, annotation, redaction, and DRM tools. Your users don’t need any special software on their devices—all they need is an HTML5 browser, even on mobile—and their documents show up fast, through any connection type.”
This type of upgrade to the document viewer could be really essential in improving user experience for your users. Saving users clicks and helping them stay within SharePoint to open documents means saving them time and improving user satisfaction. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime follower of search and reports many of his observations on ArnoldIT.com. He finds that a successful SharePoint deployment is one that is efficient and customized, so taking the time to learn and implement tricks like these really do make all the difference.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 26, 2014
Pleading with Microsoft to Step Up Mobile Development
March 12, 2014
Mobile computing is not just the latest trend. It is here to stay, and users of all varieties are pleading with major platforms to offer more mobile functionality. SharePoint should be used to hearing the pleas of users in this arena, but Search Content Management offers a well-written request in their article, “Dear Microsoft: Step Up Mobile SharePoint Development.”
The article sums up the issue:
“Microsoft now stands at a crossroads, surrounded on all sides by able competitors and imprisoned somewhat between its behemoth server technology stack, the growing cloud and the critical need to reinvent the face of its applications. Microsoft has been dragged kicking and screaming into the mobile era. Now it needs to update SharePoint development to really embrace the mobile revolution.”
Stephen E. Arnold of ArnoldIT.com is a longtime expert in all things search. He knows that the future is mobile and gives a lot of attention to the growing movement. He has found that while mobile is a “want,” security and functionality are “needs” in the enterprise. So Microsoft’s challenge will be to give equal weight to these areas.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 12, 2014
SharePoint Features to Boost Worker Productivity
February 25, 2014
SharePoint is ultimately all about productivity. All the bells and whistles in the world don’t mean anything unless they contribute to improve performance and productivity. The latest Search Content Management free download addresses the issue in their E-Guide, “Complimentary Download: SharePoint 2013: New Features that Could Boost Worker Productivity.”
The synopsis says:
“Microsoft may have been a little slow in enabling SharePoint for mobile. But SharePoint 2013 sports new mobility features that could boost worker productivity, and your bottom line. This complimentary resource is available to you as a member benefit from SearchContentManagement.com.”
So if you are a regular follower of SharePoint, a free membership to SearchContentManagement.com might not be a bad idea. Steven E. Arnold is also a regular follower of SharePoint, and keeps reader informed on his Web site, ArnoldIT.com. His resource is another to bookmark to help you and your organization stay on top of all things SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 25, 2014
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