SharePoint kot poslovne aplikacije okvir

Predstavitev

Opisali smo že , da si je treba gledanje SharePoint kot "vloge" okvir poslovanja, ne le kos programske opreme, ki "upravlja svoje dokumente", ali kot sem nekoč slišal, da ti "it's just medmrežni program!

Dejansko zagotavlja osnovno razvoj aplikacij in "gostovanje" okolje, v katerem je potrebno zagotoviti skladišče za shranjevanje organizacijam informacij. Kot podoba prikazuje nasprotno, prihodnje postaja latenten izpust od platforme (SharePoint 2010) je veliko več kot dokument, skladišča, It's a močan okvir za izgradnjo in gostovanje močnih poslovnih aplikacij, izgradnjo skupnosti in zagotavlja bogato skladišča za vaše informacije organizacijah.

Zato je priložnost za vloge, ki jih je treba kupiti, konfiguriran ali razvitih v SharePoint na način, da rešiti veliko vaše poslovne izzive, izboljšati učinkovitost s tem, kako vaši zaposleni sodelovati skupinskemu in potencialno znižanje stroškov, povezanih z vašim IT proračunov.

'Notranjo moč SharePoint je, da lahko zagotavlja shranjevanje podatkov (v obliki vsebine baze podatkov shranjene v Microsoft SQL Server) za veliko vaših poslovnih aplikacij, (obstoječi in nove šteje) zmanjšanje potrebe po vlaganju v ločenih strojne opreme, licenciranje in da podpirajo.

SharePoint aplikacije

Na splošno, skupaj z običajnimi aplikacije SharePoint uporabljamo, kot intranet, ekstranet in internet spletnih strani s katerimi se sooča, lahko prav tako šteje za naslednje, če jih naštejemo le nekaj navpične in vodoravne poslovnih aplikacij:

• Projektov in programov za upravljanje aplikacij
• Marketing akcije aplikacije
• Katalogov
• Forumi
• V raziskovalne namene,
• Poročanje workspaces
• Document Imaging uporabo (z uporabo skenerji)
• Usposabljanje in samopomoč portali
• * Seznam aplikacije (odjemalca stike in aplikacij za upravljanje znanja, na primer)
• * Workflow aplikacij
• * Na podlagi obrazcev za vnos podatkov aplikacij.

* Vsaka aplikacija, ki lahko privede do ustvarjanja ali posodabljanje "več ali posameznih sezname" podatkov lahko tudi potrebno, da ima iskanje ali filtriranje mehanizem uporabili. Veliko obstoječih Lotus Notes ali druge tako imenovane zahtevne aplikacije, ki temelji na teh treh vrst, v takšni ali drugačni obliki zato bi bilo treba upoštevati in za prehode med v SharePoint.

Vloge, ki jih preskrbi obstoječe Dogovorili "odjemalec strežnik" arhitekture je lahko tudi gostuje v vašem okolju SharePoint. Odobrena, stopnja kompromisa je nekaj pogosto potrebno, vendar pa je vsaj vredno preiskovanje z vašim zainteresiranimi stranmi o tem, ali bi bilo prednosti selijo ti zahtevki in ki jih bolj dostopen in verjetno zmanjšanje splošne stroške na dolgi rok z uporabo o "skupnih služb, ki jih SharePoint.

Zato je pri iskanju specifičnih ali po meri aplikacij za izpolnitev določene niz poslovnih zahtev, je vredno videti v vaših obstoječih naložb v SharePoint da vidim, če se to lahko razširi na zagotavljanje funkcionalnosti, ki jih potrebujete. Ali celo, da uporabite SharePoint kot svojo enotno osnovno izhodišče za uvedbo več zahtevkov, ki jih morda razmišljajo o izvajanju neodvisno drug od drugega.

Real primeri svetu

Primer 1:

Primer tega je mogoče videti z združevanjem obstoječih rešitev slikanje dokument v vašem okviru SharePoint. Vaših obstoječih tiskalnih & skener oprema se lahko uporabljajo za zajemanje, shranjevanje njihovo vsebino (ponavadi tiff ali pdf datotek) v vašem okolju SharePoint. Ti pa lahko samodejno označena z metapodatki, indeksirane in rezervacije preko iskanja ali filtrirane vmesnik, ki je na voljo za širše občinstvo, z uporabo dela, itd Tak primer realnem svetu, pri vključevanju tehnologij, bi bilo pregledovanje stranke korespondence, dohodna pošta ali drugi ad-hoc skeniranje zahteve. Ta ponovna uporaba vaše naložbe v obeh skeniranje in SharePoint je dober primer združevanja komplementarnih tehnologij "

Primer 2:

Drug primer bi bil, da od prenosa vaše Lotus Notes aplikacij v vaš intranet SharePoint. Veliko jih je zahtevalo "ugotavlja vlog, tako" so v resnici le seznami podatkov, shranjenih v opombe. Ti se lahko selili, sedi zelo dobro, v primerljivih nabor funkcij v SharePoint. To je dejal, da ne podcenjujejo izzivov, ko gre za "dokument migracije" iz opombe, kot svoj 'notoričen težko, še posebej pogosto zapletenih potekov dela za selitev. Obstaja 3. stranke izdelki na voljo tukaj pomagali, kot so AvePoint , Mainsoft in Quest .

V idealnem primeru SharePoint arhitektura mora imeti svoje prvotne šteje, da je treba zagotoviti dodatne prijave in bila zato zgrajena, da s takimi spremembami. Če ni, potem boste morali opraviti popoln pregled in načrt arhitekturnih sprememb, potrebnih za njihovo namestitev - Ne na podlagi ocene vprašanj tukaj in raziskave na tem področju temeljito, kot bi to lahko pripeljalo do dodatnih splošni arhitekturne spremembe, strojne opreme in ali so nakupi programske opreme.

Zaključek

Torej, v povzetku, SharePoint je veliko več kot skladišče dokument, to je močan okvir za izgradnjo in gostovanje močne poslovne aplikacije, ki bodo pomagali vaši zaposleni upravljati svoje informacije bolje in učinkoviteje, pomagajo vašemu podjetju, da doseže svoje strateške cilje. Torej, ali je njen 2003, 2007 ali celo kmalu se bo začela 2010 različico SharePoint, načrt uvajanja ali spremembe tudi v naprednih tako, da podpira vaše poslovne potrebe v prihodnosti.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Direktor, WorkShares

Naj bo vaš SharePoint in IT strategije v sinhronizacijo

SharePoint razvil v zadnjih letih postala zelo dobro si za "vse stvari, ki ljudem" platformo vse, ali kot bi raje da se sklicuje na to kot "vloge" okvir poslovanja.

Uvod v SharePoint 2003 za "Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), ki imajo licenco kot del operacijskega sistema Windows Server 2003 operacijski sistem, kot" zastonj "download, je bila tudi jasno mojster kap za izdajo dovoljenj, ki jih Microsoft.

WSS določa, verjetno dober, močan in bogat nabor vseh je preprost storitev za upravljanje z dokumenti, ki bi služila številnih malih, srednjih in do neke mere velikim podjetjem podjetje tudi sama. Dejansko je to, če veliko podjetij začela v uporabo starejše različice programske opreme, ne da bi zares vedel, kaj so se vpletal v.

"Leto 2010 bo še naprej zagotavljala SharePoint nujni" ena velikost za vse "pristop s svojo privlačno nabor funkcij, da se kosi med obema intranet, extranet in internet meje"

To "vse stvari, da ljudem" tema vse se bo nadaljeval z naslednjo izdajo, SharePoint 2010. Namenjenih času sprostitve spomladi, bo še naprej opravljanja storitev in funkcionalnosti, ki bodo izpolnjevale po mojem mnenju velik del organizacije, generična vloga rešitev potrebuje zelo dobro, čeprav drugih, bolj specifičnih zahtev, očitno ni tako.

Tako kot njegov predhodnik v SharePoint 2007, naslednje različice (imenovano SharePoint 2010) bo zagotovil nujni "ena velikost za vse" pristop s svojo privlačno nabor funkcij, da se kosi med obema intranet, extranet in internet meje. Ne smemo pozabiti s to izpust je prepričljiva, če je nezrel, Online "oblakov Microsoft na" služba, ki se posodablja na hrbtni strani njihove začetne leta 2009.

Vendar pa je "vse stvari, ki ljudem" izjavo, vse je čas, da se od časa bilo njegovo 'Ahilova peta ", saj tega ne naredi eno funkcijo in kot kupci pričakujejo ali potencialno need; Kot so upravljanje dokument, obvladovanja poslovnih zapisov v wiki' J, blogi, potek dela in upravljanje vsebine spletne, itd Verjetno te in druge temeljne SharePoint's lastnosti so splav konkurenčnih proizvodov, ki, če se uporablja samostojno, so veliko bolje.

Ampak to je pomembno vedeti, da SharePoint ni bil in ne bo mogel zmagati na tak drug ob drugem primerjave. Prav tako je bilo načrtovano, da tekmujejo za "vertikalne" temelji poslovne aplikacije ali drug strokovnjak "line poslovanja" programske opreme. Točka pogosto izgubil v razpravah in izbirnega postopka, ki pri izbiri IT rešitev za izpolnitev vaših potreb.

"SharePoint je, če že ni, del teh gradnikov"

Da bi se izognili teh scenarijev in zagotoviti SharePoint se šteje v pravilni kontekst, je pomembno, svojo strategijo za njeno uvedbo, sprejemanje in vodenje je dogovorjeno in razume ne le tisti, ki so odgovorni za izvajanje in podporo, ampak vseh visokih zainteresiranih strani, odgovornih za IT storitev .

Poleg tega bi se zavzemam ohranjanje tega in splošno strategijo IT v sinhronizacijo. Zakaj? Ker bolj pogosto kot ne vaša organizacija bo s narašča mešanico IT aplikacij, strojne in programske opreme, in zbirajo vrsto znanj in izkušenj, da se vaša ključno osebje obdržati in vzdrževati kot del njihove vloge.

Zato vaš IT funkcija je lastni interes pri upravljanju z njimi povezani stroški s tem heterogeno okolje. Poleg tega obstaja, ali pa bi bilo treba vedno večje želje za poenostavitev, bo bolj odziven in uvesti operativnih in strateških "gradniki", ki se lahko pomoč, posli, ki jih bo doseglo strateške cilje. SharePoint je, če že ni del teh gradnikov. Tudi če se uporablja taktično zdaj kot "točka rešitev" za določene funkcije, kot intranet, je širina SharePoint zmogljivosti verjetno zahteva, da bi bilo obravnavati v širšem kontekstu strateškega vašega gradnikov.

V mojem naslednjem članku bom pisal več o tem, zakaj je uvedba tehnologij SharePoint v svoje strategije je pomembno, in kako lahko dodatno podaljša naložb ste jih naredili v SharePoint 2007 ali pa da morda bi v SharePoint 2010 letos.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Generalni direktor

Zanima SharePoint 2010?

Sem imel privilegij (in obdržati več brazgotin!) Z dne delala s SharePoint, saj je najprej začela v letu 2001 in so videli zaporednih posodobitvah platforme v zadnjih letih, kot tudi priča rasti podjetja prevzamejo kot eno od ključnih " gradniki "tehnologije, ki se izvajajo za zagotavljanje strateških in operativnih ciljev IT.

Kot naslednji blog delovnih mest je upodobljen ( post 1 in post 1 ), je bilo to po mojem mnenju večinoma "razvoj" skozi leta v smislu izdelkov platforme funkcionalnosti in arhitekturi.

Poleg tega je sodišče videl veliko zanimanje in investicije iz leta v leto, ne nazadnje z najnovejšimi načrtovano sprostitev proizvoda, imenovanega SharePoint 2010. Več podrobnosti o tem tukaj načrtovanih posodobitev: SharePoint Sneak Peak

Kaj me je presenetilo do neke mere, je raven zanimanja in razpoložljivosti tečajev, dogodke in druge takšne materiale na "kako umestiti", "ključne odločitve, da razmisli", itd In to je še preden izdelek je bila sprostitev v beta širši javnosti! To zagotovo ni bil na voljo za prejšnje različice za vse velike globine.

To je dober znak zdravega podporo Skupnosti, in Microsoft, ki jih zagotavljajo veliko bolj v načinu obveščanja in vnaprej navodila o svoji prihodnosti časovnega načrta za to ugotovitev in drugih tehnologijah.

Lets upanje zagon še za takrat, ko se ne začne prihodnje leto. Takšna živahno skupnost in pomoč iz Microsoft, pomaga nam vse "prišli do hitrosti" z novo tehnologijo in nam omogoča, da se bolje pripravijo na izzive, ki jih bo brez dvoma zagotovila. Ta bo koristil vsem, saj omogoča tudi Microsoft partnerjev, kot so WorkShares, zagotavljanje pravočasnega svetovanja in usmerjanja okoli strateških odločitev podjetja, ki imajo, da bi za prihodnje naložbe v letu 2010 in pozneje.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew

Generalni direktor

Michael Deller pridruži WorkShares

Veseli smo, da sporočamo, da je Michael Deller pridružil WorkShares. On je pridružil kot naše Tehnični direktor in bo še naprej v vlogi svetovalca dozorel SharePoint in arhitekt, med drugim njegove vloge za WorkShares.

Z več kot 6 let izkušenj pri delu z tehnologij SharePoint z nekaterimi od vodilnih Microsoft partnerje iz VB v tem prostoru, Michael s seboj bogate izkušnje in znanje tekmeca na tem področju.

Michael je delal z nekaterimi najbolj odmevne SharePoint projektov ter panožne izkušenj, vključno z javnim sektorjem, ki niso za dobiček, javne službe in izobraževanje.

's ozadja Michael pred SharePoint in Information Worker prizorišču sledi nekaj let v odjemalec Microsoft / strežniško infrastrukturo polje z močno ozadje v infrastrukturo, pošiljanje sporočil in odpravljanje težav.

Imenovanje Michael bo okrepilo naše višje uprave in skupnih dobavnih zmogljivosti. Njegova nedavna udeležba na začetek najnovejše posodobitve Microsoft za platformo (SharePoint 2010) na konferenci v Vegasu , bo prepotrebno "glave gor" o posledicah, izzive in priložnosti za obstoječe in nove uporabnike tehnologije SharePoint.

Ob delal z Michaelom za več let na številnih projektih SharePoint, sem zelo zadovoljen, da se zagotovi svoje storitve in se veselim svoje dragocene prispevke za WorkShares z našimi obstoječimi in prihodnjimi strankam.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew

Generalni direktor, WorkShares.

Potek migracije v SharePoint: Razmišljanja

Ozadje

Sem omenil v moj zadnji post z naslovom " Potek migracije v SharePoint - Vaše možnosti ", da obstajata 4 glavne možnosti so vam na voljo pri odločanju, ali za selitev vsebine iz datoteke delnic in drugih zbirkah. Če povzamemo:

• Selijo v celoti v SharePoint
• * Delna selitev podmnožice vsebine v SharePoint
• ** Pustite, kjer je in še naprej ohranjati obeh odlagališč neodvisno
• *** Pusti, kjer je in še naprej ohranjati obeh zbirkah, vendar uporabljajo SharePoint na indeks vaše staro vsebino in tako nudi zmožnost, da jo iskati.

Eden ali več teh možnosti je lahko pot boste na koncu izbrali glede na svoje potrebe in zahteve.

* Starejšo vsebino lahko pa je treba arhivirati ali pa samo črta.

** Razmislite stroške in tveganje tukaj vzdrževanje staranja opreme

*** To je omejene možnosti, razišče temeljito in test zlasti rezultati iskanja, zato previdna.

Naslednji koraki in premislekih

Da bi vam pomagali skozi ta proces odločanja za določitev, ki je pot najboljša za vaše okoliščine, sem spodaj napisal nekaj nasvetov za vas, da preuči in razpravo znotraj vaše jedro projektne skupine in zainteresirane strani podobni. Te pripombe so na voljo več let za vodenje različnih projektov SharePoint, tako da upamo, boste izognili nekaterim bolečih izkušenj, da smo našim strankam in šla skozi! To je verjetno ni vse, kar potrebujete, da razmišljajo o, vendar dober začetek z nekaj misli, da vam pomaga vzdolž vaše poti.

"Migracije lahko drago še posebej, če menite, da je obseg informacij, ki jih nameravajo preseliti, dejanske stroške poslovanja in tehničnih sredstev (notranje in zunanje), ki jih nameravate v razpored za pomoč pri migraciji napora"

Vprašanje svoje interesne skupine in višje uporabnike glede na to, ali res potrebujejo, da se preselijo čez vse tiste dokumente in intranet strani, slike, video, itd Na do neke mere na nezanesljivih in empiričnih, moje izkušnje kažejo, znova in znova, 80 - 90% vsebine je redko, če sploh dostopate preko 12-18 mesecev po tem, ko je bila ustvarjena. Torej bi lahko bila vzpostavitev gora dela, za zelo malo vrne vrednosti.

Zato predlagam poskušal najti ustrezna dokazila, da ga potrdite je (ali ni), dostop do pogosto ali druge izjave, ki podpirajo ali drugače migracij zahteva. Ugotovite, zakaj je zdaj "treba seliti", skoraj kot dajanje skupaj poslovni primer mini postopek odločanja. Pogosto poslovne enote bodo šele rekli, da je, da bi se izognili tem delu preiskave ali migracije v prvi vrsti zato, ker imajo drugi (seveda tako) prednostne naloge. Resničnost je dobra stara jasno določeno pogosto dobrodošel in dobra priložnost za osvežitev vsebino gor, arhiv starejših elementov vsebine ne potrebujejo več.

Prav tako sem močno priporočamo vam opraviti pregled vsebine, ki je bila nabrale v preteklih letih. Morda boste presenečeni, če želite izvedeti, koliko je v resnici ni več potreben, relevantno ali primerno, in dejansko se prepozna vsebine, ki jih je treba nekako osveži.

Ne pozabite tudi obstaja subtilna, vendar pomembno razliko med pri čemer je "na voljo", da poslovanje in da bi bilo izselili in na voljo v SharePoint. Na primer, jo lahko vodijo stran od SharePoint v manj na voljo, vendar še vedno dostopnih medijev, brez povezave ali druge morda cenejše oblike shranjevanja.

Če boste to storili določi, da boste imeli veliko vsebine za migracijo, res ne vzpostavi "načrt" za migracije skupine (skupin) si mobilizacijo, se prepričajte, vsakdo se zaveda svoje vloge, njihove naloge in če so naj bi jih počne in zakaj. Prav na kratko je treba v celoti na ladji s tem, kar je bilo storjenega.

Prav tako je treba "dokazati proces dela pred dokazuje zmogljivost" za vaš migracije ekipe. To velja za ročno, avtomatsko ali kombinacija obeh pristopov. Bodite velikodušni v vašem ocen za migracije, ki temelji na rezultatih svoje ugotovitve. To vam bo dal, interesne skupine zaupanje v svoje ekipe sposobnost projekta, da izpolnjujejo migracije roke.

"Vpliv na celotni strukturi SharePoint je treba načrtovati v skupno sestavo"

Upajmo, da ste bodo pokrivali del ali večino tega v svoje prvotne arhitekture načrtovanje SharePoint ... Pomislite povečanje obremenitev vaše fizično okolje strežnik, načrtovanje kapacitet vprašanja, vpliva na rezultate iskanja, splošno plovbo in uporabnost vsebine, če naštejemo samo nekaj področij, ki potrebujejo misel in vrednotenje pri obravnavanju migracije obstoječe vsebine v SharePoint.

Na primer, če boste do prostega gibanja in ali indeks koli zunanje shranjene vsebine v vaše okolje SharePoint, menijo, vpliva na povečanje za shranjevanje, ki jo želite dati na vaše okolje. Nenazadnje zato, ker je povečanje v velikosti, ne samo za neobdelane podatke za shranjevanje vsebin, ki se doda v vašem SQL podatkovnih baz, pa tudi nove skladiščne opravka s povečano velikost datoteke indeks.

Nato preučila dodatne obremenitve ki ste ga pravkar dajejo na vaši rezervni & obnoviti procese! Morda vam bo prinesla možnemu pritisku na vašo sposobnost, da izpolnjuje vaše SLA za dostopnost storitev v primeru izpada. Na primer še vedno lahko obnovite vaše novo povečana vsebnost baz podatkov v roku, v SLA?

"Ocenite 3. stranka rokodelsko orodje, ki vam pomaga z obsegom podatkov"

Veliko 3. stranka izdelkov delati a velik Job v razsutem stanju, vam bomo pomagali seliti / upload vsebine v vaše okolje SharePoint. Vendar pa se mnogi ne bodo izpolnili vaše zahteve v celoti, zato jih skrbno pregleda in načrtovati njihovo uspešnost (ali ne) z migracijami in stroški v vaši načrti in proračuni. Pomembno je, da pozna svoje omejitve, kot tudi svoje prednosti. Lahko se zgodi, se selijo veliko, vendar ne vse vaše vrste dokumentov. Prav tako pogosto boste izgubili nekaj pomembnih lastnosti dokumenta ali drugih podatkov, povezanih z meta dokument ali strani, ki jih poskušajo seliti.

Poleg tega lahko izgubite celovitost podatkov, na primer timestamp informacije. To je ponavadi nekaj, kar so lahko pomembni z vidika upravljanja zapisov, saj se ne sme izvršiti preko na novo okolje.

"Zagotoviti boste dobili podjetja, ki prevzame vodilno vlogo pri migracije"

Z vsemi sredstvi zagotoviti načrt (pristop), orodja in metode, ki zagotavljajo vsebino lahko izselili. Navsezadnje pa je poslovnim uporabnikom je treba "lastnih" dejanskih migracije in je v celoti vključeni v ta del projekta od začetka. Ti so v najboljšem položaju, da vedo, kaj je vsebina oziroma se ne zahteva, kako bi bilo videti, se zahteva dostop, itd Prav tako se zgodi, da je eden od najboljših načinov za izobraževanje svojim končnim uporabnikom pri uporabi zmogljivosti SharePoint ste zagotavljajo, da jih na splošno.

"Razmislite regulativne obveznosti za hrambo podatkov"

Več sektorjih podjetja, zlasti vlada / javni sektor, finance, zdravje in dobrodelne organizacije so zlasti regulativnih pravil, ki jim morajo slediti za shranjevanje podatkov, razpoložljivost in dostopnost (vprašanja o varstvu podatkov kot celote). Te bo treba vključiti v vaše načrte.

"Disinvest in / ali ponovna uporaba stare strojne opreme"

Migracije iz starega intraneta, file delnic ali drugih aplikacij potencialno vam omogoča, da disinvest strojno opremo (ali vsaj nekaj od tega). Načrt za ta prizadevanja, tudi če samo želite izvedeti, kako se boste za recikliranje komplet ali pa so odstranijo iz strežnika prostorov. Ali menijo, dobrodelne organizacije ali šole, ki ima lahko koristi od stare opreme, namesto da bi damping na odlagališčih.

", Niso vsi podatki bi morali spominjati ali se lahko shrani v SharePoint"

Res je, SharePoint lahko indeks različnih vsebin virov. Vendar boleča resničnost je to redko doseže rezultate prvotno želeno, deloma tudi zaradi ne zaradi okvar izdelka, ki sama po sebi, ampak zato, ker splošno vzdrževanje iskanja SharePoint temelji sprejeti veliko stalnih prizadevanj, da se pogosto pozablja, ali izpusti v oblikovanje ali na stalno vzdrževanje.

Pogosto je to enostavno pot do vaše indeks staranja in izbuljene datoteke delnic, vendar bi si zares želite rezultati iskanja, da vsebuje podatke iz virov, ki je tako star in zastarel? Brez skrbno načrtovanje na začetku, fine tuning in redno vzdrževanje iz pogosto jo na koncu s slabo izkušnjo z vidika uporabnikov.

Torej z vsemi sredstvi, menijo, indeksiranje vaše vire, ampak res ne razumem posledic oblikovanje, načrtovanje in sprotno vzdrževanje vidika nenazadnje uporabnikom izkušnje z rezultati iskanja. Na ta opomba, upoštevati vse iz škatle možnosti, ki jih imajo z iskanjem in tudi o uvedbi filtriranje za vaše rezultate iskanja vsebin (po meri ali 3. stranka poti).

"Razmislite odhodu vsebin, kjer je to"

Poskusite razumeti tako materialnih in nematerialnih koristi odhodu vsebine na kraju samem, in morda bi vsebina "se glasi le" za čas, medtem ko se vam zdijo vaše možnosti in ali izvaja svoje migracij, tako da ne omogočajo povečanja, ali spreminjanje vsebine, shranjene na tem področju.

Zaključek

Obstaja veliko stvari, da razmisli, kot del vaše razprave za odločanje pristopa k migracijam in zgoraj, so le nekatere od tem, ki jih morda imate, da razmisli.

To je pogosto politično "pot najmanjšega odpora", da samo seliti vse vsebine, ne glede na tehnična in včasih finančna racionalno za to nekaj drugega. Če tega še niste storili, razmisli o uvedbi arhiviranje, kvote in ohranitev politike za nadzor nedvomno povečuje količino podatkov v vašem okolju.

Ali sodeluje z vašim zainteresiranimi stranmi in dobiti svoje buy-in, da ima v lasti migracije kos. Pogosto strategijo zagotoviti, poslovni izvaja ta prehod bodo ti mislijo drugače, ko je svoje vire, da se sprejmejo zunaj njihovih običajnih vlog, da to storite.

Končno, po mojih izkušnjah se selijo in osvežujoča majhno podmnožico izvirno vsebino v SharePoint, plus arhiviranje ostalo je primeren pristop za večino okoliščinah. Vklop zmogljivosti SharePoint indeksiranje za datoteko delnic, vendar le v majhnih in merijo okoliščinah je tudi nekaj, kar bi morala razmisliti.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Direktor, WorkShares

Potek migracije v SharePoint: Vaše možnosti

Pregled

Kot sem omenil v mojem zadnjem post obstajajo številne vgrajena orodja in druge možnosti, ki vam pomaga selijo svojo vsebino v in okoli vašega okolja SharePoint.

"SharePoint je naravna zamenjava za vaš staranje datoteko delnic in drugih zbirke podatkov"

Zelo realne in pomembno vprašanje, kaj storiti s svojim zgodovinskih podatkov, shranjenih v teh zbirkah, kot so datoteke in omrežja delnice, intranet in drugi silos. To zagotovo ne bo v celoti nadomestiti datoteko / omrežja delnice.

To je dejal, s tem in naslednjem članku sem načrt za pisanje namerava vam z glavne možnosti odprte za vas, kot tudi nekatere koristne napotke iz izkušenj, ki smo jih pridobili v zadnjih letih z dela s strankami velikih in majhnih, da poda intranet, internet, extranets in drugih rešitev, ki temelji na točki Microsoftovih tehnologij SharePoint.

Možnosti

Vanj so naslednje možnosti, da natančno preuči, eden bo vsaka imela posledice, ki se bo razlikoval glede na svoje potrebe in okoliščine:

• Selijo v celoti v SharePoint
• Delna selitev podmnožice vsebine v SharePoint
• Dopusta, če je to in še naprej ohranjati obeh odlagališč
• Dopusta, če je to in še naprej ohranjati tako skladišča in uporabo SharePoint indeks vaše staro vsebino in tako nudi zmožnost, da jo iskati.

Vsak ima pro in con's, ki ga boste potrebovali za pot do, da bi odločitev, ki je pravi za vas. Na koncu eni ali več zgoraj, lahko primerna za vaše potrebe, vendar pa je na prejšnji blog delovnih mest, da boste proračuna in načrt ustrezno, saj bo Garantiram, da bo vaš dlje, da vi mislite!

Bom napisal nekaj nasvetov za vas, da v teh razpravah z zainteresiranimi stranmi in vašo odjemalcev v naslednjem post.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Direktor, WorkShares.

Migrate or move content inside SharePoint

Predstavitev

Migration is always a thorny topic that comes up on a project at the beginning in terms of scoping a project,  towards the end during rollout or adoption phases, or once the project is closed and users are left on their own. The activity of migrating or moving data into or between team sites, mysites, or from network drives and systems like Notes can be considerable.

There is however unfortunately no one answer to meet all types of scenarios and by enlarge I recommend businesses consider strongly the need to migrate in the first place from a bulk migration perspective. Consider if it is practical and possible leave where it is and or use it as an exercise in 'cleansing' your data before migrating or indeed moving it into SharePoint or possibly cheaper storage mediums. More on this topic in a future article.

For this article I want to provide some guidance to end users and their options. I frequently come across end users from both former or current clients asking me on how best to approach the moving content from one site to another or how to move a whole team site (sub sites included) from one location to another or even content from network drives during a migration or adoption phase. There are a whole range of scenarios and methods/tools here, but hopefully I will be able to provide you with some options to help educate and set you on the right path.

Prvič, da je vaša pričakovanja od samega začetka ... do migracije v ali okoli SharePoint ni enostavno doseči, zlasti z uporabo iz škatle metod in zahteva kar nekaj korakom. To je predvsem zato, ker o tem, kako smo ponavadi shranjevanje našo spletno stran vsebini ekipo (v veliko tako imenovanih zbirk mest - Top Sites ravni, običajno), ki pa so shranjeni v notranjosti SQL podatkovne baze. Ampak tudi kot posledica pomanjkanja podpore na splošno v uporabniškem vmesniku v SharePoint zagotoviti ustrezen nadzor in mehanizme, ki omogočajo kopiranje ali premikanje vsebine. This is probably why there are lots of 3rd party tools out there to help you.

In any case, make sure you plan carefully your site design and naming conventions to avoid such a need to move your content later!

Glossary of Terms

A few pointers firstly on terminology before we continue:

• Site Collection – Top most repository and security boundary for the storage and management of content. SharePoint can contain many hundreds or even thousands of these in a deployment. Top level team sites are often site collections.

• Team site – A top level site that is created at the very beginning to store and or share content. Typically a site collection can contain many tens of thousands of team sites and or sub-team sites in one site collection each containing many hundreds of thousands of documents or greater if structure properly.

• Sub-site – Are basically team sites that sit under the top level site in a site collection and have been created by users to store further content away from the top level site. They have more or less the same functionality, but are/can be considered 'children' of the top site and will likely but may not necessarily inherit permissions and can link between each other, etc

• Content – Any Office documents, PDFs, images, discussion lists, calendars, contact lists, or text that you have stored in your site.

• List – Calendars, contacts lists, document libraries, discussion boards are all examples of 'SharePoint lists' and can contain a mixture of content items.

Methods & Tools

The following are some real world end user driven methods and tools in which to consider for your content migration into and of team sites in the main, but also will work for mysites, and publishing content.

1. Creation of site 'templates'

For any team site that you have content in, there is an ability to save the entire site, its document libraries, meta data and content (up to a size of 1O megabyte only) as a re-usable template. This now becomes a portable site template to re-use on other sites. With this you can now create repeatable sites that contain the same structure and or content.

To do this, under the Site Setting you will find a feature called 'Save Site as Template'. This will allow you to save just the structure AND OR the content as well – Though because its limited to a maximum of 10 megabytes in size. It's not ideal and will depend on the size of your content as to its relevance or not as a tool for you to use.

Once you have saved the site as a template, (give it a familiar name) you can go under Site Settings to your 'Site template gallery'. Your newly saved site template will be there. Now, this can be downloaded to your desktop, (“site templatename. stp”) and basically uploaded in to your new site into the destination 'site template gallery'.

What happens now is that when you go to your new site and attempt to create a new site,  the template will appear an 'Custom' tab option on the 'select a template page. Hence its important to call it something familiar on the previous steps! Once this is chosen, your new sub-site (and content if you ticked this option) will be there in the new site!

Pro's

• Quick and easy method to get small sub-sites migrate from one location to another
• Useful for creating different site templates for different audiences/needs
• Maintains branding/look and feel
• No admin or code deployment required
• End user friendly.

Con's

• Cannot be used for creating top level sites (unless uploaded to centrally 'master gallery'.
• Loses security permissions
• Loses item level security
• Limited to 10M in size
• Does not save sub-sites as part of the site, only that one site

2. Creation of list 'templates'

Basically for each list or library you have created on your site (this means any calendar, document library, contacts list, or other generic list) you can actually save each individual list including any additional columns you have created inside AND documents/content inside them, as a reusable 'list template'. As with 'Save as a site template' mentioned previously, this now becomes a portable list template to re-use on other sites.

To do this, under the list or document library settings, you will find a feature called 'Save as template'. This will allow you to save just the structure AND OR the content as well – Though again it's limited I to a maximum of 10 megabytes in size, so not ideal and will depend on the size of your content as to its relevance or not as a tool for you to use. At the very least you can get the list structure, then maybe use Option 3 below to bulk move your content.

Once you have saved the list/content as a template, (give it a familiar name) you can go under Site Settings to your 'List template gallery'. Your newly saved list template will be there. Now, this can be downloaded to your desktop, (“ listtemplatename. stp”) and basically uploaded in to your new site into the destination 'list template gallery'.

When you go to your new site and attempt to create a new list or library,  the template will appear an option in which to create from – hence as before, call it something familiar. Once this is done, your new structure (and or content if you ticked this option) will be there in the new site!

Basically repeat this process for all your other libraries or lists until you have copied your content across to your new site.

Pro's

• Quick and easy way to move/copy list based content and structure including meta data
• No admin or code deployment required
• End user friendly

Con’s

• Resource intensive
• Loses security permissions
• Lose item level security
• Limited to 10M in size

3. Explorer view 'quick and dirty -  copy, cut and paste'

This method only works for document libraries or picture libraries. Basically if you open up your picture or document library using 'explorer view', (Choose Actions, Open in Windows Explorer) then do the same in your destination library, you end up with two explorer windows. Make sure you can see these side by side. You can manually select all your documents, copy/paste from one location to another or drag and drop in the same manner.

This is particularly useful for moving data from network drives (but is very very slow!) or other areas that support a protocol called Webdav.

Note: Any meta data won't be copied and you lose time stamp and other original owner details. DO NOT move or copy the 'Forms' folder! This is a systems folder needed by SharePoint.

Pro's

• Quick and easy way to move/copy content between libraries
• No admin or code deployment required
• End user friendly

Con's

• Resource intensive
• Slow moving lots of content
• Need to setup security permissions again on destination library
• Ignores any metadata you have setup!

4. Export to Excel

As you might expect, this is only useful for lists (not document libraries).

On any given list you have the option to 'export to excel' or 'export and link to excel'. This can be used to provide an export into excel, then save/re-import back into another list.

Note: This can be quite painful as your origin/destination lists need to have the EXACT columns and metadata setup. Otherwise it will through up lots, (read huge!) amounts of data integrity errors that you will need to work through. Not recommended for the faint hearted, but does work, with limitations.

Pro's

• Quick and easy way to move/copy content between lists
• Good for limited offline working
• Good for large lists (Better use Access for lists with thousands of entries)
• No admin or code deployment required
• End user friendly

Con's

• Limited to one list at a time
• Not very robust
• Potentially resource intensive when uploading new data
• Need to setup security permissions again on destination library

5. Third party tools and server side tools

There are a mass of third party tools out there and too many to mention specifically on here. Ultimately many do however require a level of access (read server level permissions or server side code updates) you might not be allowed to have, so be aware of this 'show stopper' before you go out and buy something from Bamboo, Quest, Metalogix, Kwizcom or some other freeware on the internet! And before you go ahead and install a 3rd party product, read this article I wrote a while back.

For large migrations of data, the above methods 1-4 are simply not scalable and hence such products will be needed to make migration that much easier to manage.

Be aware however that some products may sound cheap, easy to install but can wreak havoc on your precious data and platform. I have come across many 3rd party web parts (free and chargeable) that have caused the project more problems, so caution should be taken. Areas such as not respecting origin and destination metadata, preserving file time/author stamp details and in general just overall robustness and performance issues are the main areas I have found to be areas in most need of improvement.

There are in addition some server side tools (basically command line tools) which are available to copy/move content between site collections (and different databases which the site collections are often stored within if need be). These are only for use by your system admins however, but can/should be consulted if you have a particularly large amount of content that you need to move from one site to another.

Conclusion

If your site has relatively very little content, its often quicker/easier to manually re-create the data or site you need to move, rather than actually move it using the above methods

For individual migrations its worth try the above options to gain an understanding of what you can do without purchasing 3rd party products or deploying server side code. Though the above examples are not 'bullet' proof or without limitations so do experiment and try before you settle on the one that will work for you.

There are a lot of 3rd party tools out there that can and do help. But as with any software purchase don't load it on our production environment without first demonstrating it is fit for purpose. I'll write some more soon on the topic of migration in general, so watch this space!

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Did you achieve your SharePoint ROI (Return on Investment)?

The 'solid' business case for SharePoint

When was the last time you read a business case which contained tangible (specifically financial) cost savings for recommending Microsoft SharePoint to be deployed into your organisation?

If you're one of the few that I have come across, I often wonder just how well the numbers 'stack up' both when they were written in terms of the criteria used and how they have fared since it was deployed?

I am sure many were 'successful', even if the financial statistics were not available to support this statement, as often its not just about the financials and can be more about introducing a change a way of working, ie collaboratively as opposed to in 'working in silos'.

Even so, over the last couple of years of working with the latest version of SharePoint with our existing (and new) customers, whereby we have returned to carry out additional work or for new consultancy pieces of some kind, I often enquire how the original business case was first of all agreed and secondly, (if one was produced!) how the deployment has lived up to it's original goals.

Predictably, it's a mixed response but overall business cases are increasingly being used, (which is a good thing) but rarely do they in my opinion, consider the long term financial savings nor are they revisited to confirm expected financial savings were achieved.

How well did the deployment go?

So did the deployment meet or exceed original financial savings?

Are the executive, steering group or IT dept. who signed off on the project happy with the financial cost savings or delivery in general? I suspect quite a few responses would be not so positive, decisive or along the lines of 'could have gone better'.

Depending on whom you spoke to in the business the reasons for this would typically fall into the following statements:

• 'No estimate of financial cost savings were produced in the beginning, so I can't say whether it saved us money or not'
• 'Bad advice from our SharePoint partner led us into a 'square peg, round hole' scenario, ie They decided to force (read bespoke code!) the hell out of the platform into something it just wasn't meant or designed to do and hence costs more than we budgeted for'
• 'It was deployed but it did not have stakeholder support, proper governance or adoption plans and hence wasn't really used by the business and so stagnated'
• 'The project was managed poorly by IT, ran over budget, took a lot longer than they said it would. Any identified cost savings has been lost getting it delivered'
• 'The new intranet was deployed, but I was offered no training or support and I can't find anything I need so rarely use it. There was nothing wrong with the previous application…'

Etc, etc…

As I posted a couple of years ago with my “ Microsoft ROI Calculator for Windows SharePoint Services ”, there are some useful resources out there to help, but these tend to be a bit of a 'black art' and should in my view be used with caution. There's one also from HP and others, but my thoughts on these are that it's a bit overkill in its recommendations, (perhaps to sell more hardware…?!) though useful I think for the wider awareness you need when carrying out such capacity and performance planning activity.

Why some SharePoint business cases often miss a trick

Most business cases I have read consider typical issues such as costs of maintaining existing application that are 'not fit for purpose, together with potential replacement application costs for licensing and hardware costs. Fine.

But rarely do they consider the financial savings of delivering additional applications on top of SharePoint beyond what they were originally introduced for (typically your intranet/extranet scenarios).

Not so easy to put down on paper in terms of financial savings, as such applications may not even be known about or requirements scoped in enough detail to make an informed decision. But nevertheless such a statement should be in your business case as a strong 'intangible' business benefit and support your strategic reasons for using SharePoint.

SharePoint 2010 is just around the corner …

The simple fact is SharePoint 2007 is already a good platform for delivering  applications upon. SharePoint 2010 isn't so far away and first signs are that it will build upon its success with the current version and become a great platform in which to host applications upon.

Whilst SharePoint may not be optimised for heavy transactional based applications, very few of your line of business applications (small, medium and large) will be of this kind anyway. Think about your existing applications (or planned) that provide your users with product catalogues, knowledge base applications, record management, document imaging repositories and consider them for inclusion into your SharePoint environment. Such additions will bring yet more value to the original (or new) business case.

Organisations must not miss this opportunity to bolster their business cases for SharePoint 2010 adoption, by looking at their 'line of business applications' they were considering introducing or replacing legacy applications, to see if they can realistically be 'consumed' by the SharePoint environment. I think you will be pleasantly surprised just how many can.

Important Note: Its imperative those doing so now with SharePoint 2007 or in future with SharePoint 2010 factor such things into their high level architecture designs. Most architecture designs I have come across fail to consider such requirements or plan for their inclusion. Introducing such things later will potentially cost you in redesign of your design in particular capacity or performance related areas.

With SharePoint 2007 available now and the soon to be released SharePoint 2010, it's even more critical to  increasingly view the strategic nature of your decisions and how operationally you can derive more value out of your investment in SharePoint platform.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Director, WorkShares

Update June 15th 2010

A report commissioned by Microsoft from Forrester provides useful insight into the potential value in deploying Microsoft SharePoint 2010. The report can be found here and highlights several supporting statements others will find useful when putting together your business case for deploying the latest version of Microsoft SharePoint.

Microsoft BPOS – Business Productivity Online Standard – First Thoughts.

Ozadje

We were experiencing some issues with our hosted email provider through 2008 and were looking to move away from them at some point this year.

Together with our own business strategy of providing hosted solutions we were keen to continue 'consuming our own food' so to speak. Hence we were on the look out for a smaller number of service providers for our core service of email, conferencing, collaboration and instant messenger/presence.

Having signed up as a partner of Microsoft Online late last year, we also felt we needed to experience first hand what some of our future clients would go through and decided to move to Microsoft Online service when it became more widely available.

Microsoft Online – http://www.microsoft.com/online/solutions

We moved our organisations email services to the recently launched Online Services offering. There are several services available including:

• Dynamics CRM – Customer relationship management

• Office Live Meeting –Conferencing/live online meetings

• Exchange Hosted Services – Virus software protection, encryption and filtering for Exchange

• Exchange Online – Exchange email, calendars and contacts

• SharePoint Online – SharePoint (Windows SharePoint Services v3)

• IM & Presence – Office communication for instant messaging and presence

• Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) – encompasses Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, IM & Presence and Office Live Meeting services 'all in one' package.

All of the above have been available predominantly in the US during last year and are now in UK and other parts of the world. There are also dedicated offerings for the larger customers available whom wish to move perhaps their 'on premise' solutions into the cloud.

We opted for the “Business Productivity Online Standard Suite” over a month ago now and though we didn't replace all our services in one go, it nevertheless provided us with a useful insight into the challenges presented to businesses when moving from either 'on premise' or existing hosted service.

At this stage we have only moved our email and live meeting services over – though arguably our most critical application and service, (email) we felt comfortable with doing so based upon research with other beta users, demo's I had seen plus existing experience in general with hosted exchange providers.

In addition to email and live meeting we were was also provided with these additional services as part of the package.

• Exchange Storage of 100gb (for all mailboxes)

• SharePoint – 5GB of Windows SharePoint Services

• Live Meeting Office Communications.

Migration and Setup

So far so good. As you can see from the screenshots below, once you have the service up and running, the administration console is a clean intuitive interface with various options presented in tab like format.

The migrating and setup of the Outlook 2007 client was fairly straight forward, though migration from hosted email provider isn't particularly well catered for in terms of migration tools. This is to be expected I guess as there are so many configuration options here and many would need the server level access, ISP's wouldn't be willing to provide.

Not the same however for your 'on premise' based solutions it has to be noted, as Microsoft has provided several options in this arena for you to consider as part of your migration planning. As you can see from the image below, we have several options to consider and plan for.

Once you're email has been migrated you have access to your email either from your Outlook 2007 client. In addition you can access to your mail via the web browser in 'Outlook Web Access' shown below, which is great way to access your emails on customer or client sites.

Single Sign On

The Single Sign On application provided is a neat piece of software and very easy to use giving the user a single console like interface in which to launch their applications.

User Portal

The single sign on application will take you to your personal user portal. You get a number of different screens within your administration center, but the user portal is specifically personalised for your users and importantly has a lot of help already built into the site.

Live Meeting

We have not done much here other than to see 'it just works' and provides usual features to allow for live meeting to take place.

Office Communicator

Not something we have played around with much either, but again it just seems to work as expected. We've only just loaded this up, but will consider migrating to it once things have bedded down a bit. It's basically an instant messaging application which will evolve into a 'unified comms' platform by 2010 supposedly.

SharePoint Online Features Table

Here is a table with the features provided by the SharePoint Online service, which is part of the BPOS offering. Again, we haven't done much in this arena as we have other providers for this at the moment, but it pretty much does what you would expect. Note: It's based on Windows SharePoint Services not MOSS for those interested.

Support during migration

Responses in general to queries being raised were provided to us in a timely manner, either by way of updates to the support area and or by way of telephone during office hours.

Our planning was thorough having gained experience in upgrades/migrations of Microsoft products with our day jobs, but we still came up with a few issues/challenges around email.

We particularly like the online support area, which is much improved from our old provider and keeps you easily up to date as to progress with your support requests.

Zaključek

The Good

• Setup was ok as we mentioned, though not really for the 'none techie' or individual whom isn't used to migration issues with Microsoft based technology. You do need to plan your migration carefully as there are many permutations to consider, especially for your 'on premise' existing email providers and or SharePoint content migrations – more on this for a later post.

• SharePoint Online support changes made by SharePoint Designer and forms introduced by Infopath

• Mobile access to email via Windows Mobile devices is simple to setup

• Fantastic value for money with email, SharePoint, live meeting and instant messenger applications all neatly tied into one cloud based platform

• Highly resilient platform 99.9% plus secure https (only) traffic for all users

• Support via email and telephone was excellent.

Not so good

• It's basically Windows SharePoint Services functionality, not MOSS

• Migration tools from hosted Exchange providers are none existent. Which we guess is ok, as you have the option to migrate/import your old PST files – but you do need to plan in time for this. For large scale migrations, you need time to do this and plan in appropriate with the user as they may well be without their mail during this time. Though with the migration tools available, you won't lose any email

• Unfriendly URLs with all services – Apparently plans to improve on this area, but expect very long URLs and no way to change them

• Doesn't support bespoke code within SharePoint Online (that requires server side additions or changes) but will allow SharePoint Designer based changes

• Arguably the lack of ability to support custom modifications is a 'Bad' but feel we have a good compromise here. Besides which, the dedicated offering from Microsoft will allow this. This position will probably changed for the better with SharePoint 2010….

Bad, needs improving

It's early days yet, and perhaps we will post back after a month or so of using it in anger! Otherwise, it just works from our experience to date.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

WorkShares Team.

Accessing Office 2007 formatted documents in SharePoint with older versions of Microsoft Office

An ongoing challenge for some of our customers and no doubt many others out there is the inability of older versions Microsoft Office  (Namely Office 2000, 2002 (Known as OfficeXP) & 2003) to open/edit the newer formats created in Office 2007.

The Office 2007 applications by default have document extensions typically found with an 'X' on the end – .DOCX, .XLSX and .PPTX, etc. Though it should be noted that this can be changed to default back to the original formats, if you need too.

In any case, Microsoft have recently release a free download called “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats”.

This downloadable installation will update your existing Office installation and allow it to open/view/edit/save the documents in the newer formats. Great!

Link to software download found here .

With further information found here relating to the knowledge base article.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

www.workshares.co.uk

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