http:// meeting # 74 meeting # 74 welcome to the minnesota sharepoint user group january 12 th,...

http://www.sharepointmn.com Meeting # 74http://www.sharepointmn.com Meeting # 74

Welcome to the Minnesota SharePoint

User GroupJanuary 12th, 2011

SharePoint Implementations:When to Crawl, Walk or Run

Wes Preston, Raymond Mitchell


Agenda

• Introductions• Overview• Part 1• Break• Part 2• Q & A• Free stuff! online too!

http://www.sharepointmn.com


User Group Goal / Objectives

Develop and support a local community focused on Microsoft SharePoint Technologies

• Educate user group members about SharePoint Technologies• Transfer knowledge within the community• Communicate best practices• Introduce new products / solutions


Introductions – MNSPUG Sponsors

Avtex (www.avtex.com) • Technology consulting company• Microsoft Certified Partner• Practice area focused on SharePoint

Benchmark Learning (www.benchmarklearning.com)• Microsoft Certified Partner• Training on many technologies

Microsoft (www.microsoft.com)


http://www.avtex.com/

http://www.newhorizonsmn.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/


www.sharepointmn.com

• Website for user group• SharePoint resource documents• SharePoint resource links• RSS Feeds • Meeting Schedule• Past User Group Presentations

• [email protected]

New year = new site? We hope so!

www.sharepointmn.com


http://www.sharepointmn.com/

mailto:[email protected]



Social Networking• Linked In group – The most interactive… includes job postings…

– http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1878792

• Facebook group– http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=27333305456

• Twitter: @MNSPUG and #MNSPUG


http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1878792

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1878792

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=27333305456

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=27333305456


Upcoming Schedule

• Next Meeting • February 9th 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM

• Microsoft’s Bloomington Office

• Topic: [TBD]

Check www.sharepointmn.com for updates!

• Ongoing Schedule• 2nd Wednesday of every month

• 9:00 to 11:30 am

• Microsoft’s Bloomington Office



http://www.sharepointmn.com Meeting # 74

Local Events

Manage Projects with SharePoint 2010 and Project 2010 – Presentation and Hands-on Workshop – January 19, 2011By Microsoft, BrightWork and Aspecthttps://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=152081

SharePoint Saturday – April 9, 2011Normandale Community CollegeCall for Speakers coming soon!http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/twincities/default.aspx

https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=152081

http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/twincities/default.aspx

http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/twincities/default.aspx


Conferences

Best Practices Conference – Week of March 7th, 2011http://www.bestpracticesconference.com/La Jolla, CA

SharePoint Connections – March 27-30th, 2011http://www.devconnections.com/conf/default.aspx?s=162Orlando, FL

Next Microsoft SharePoint Conference … October 3-6, 2011http://www.mssharepointconference.comAnaheim, CA

http://www.bestpracticesconference.com/

http://www.devconnections.com/conf/default.aspx?s=162

http://www.devconnections.com/conf/default.aspx?s=162

http://www.mssharepointconference.com/


Books

coming soon!


SharePoint Planning



Why are we talking about this?

• What is the difference in effort to go from this:• To this:• Because the effort is not the same and generally isn’t trivial…


Why is this important? - Management

• What are typical examples of how SharePoint is used• Develop a roadmap or a platform strategy that

matches organization’s strategic direction– What features get implemented when– Where are resources focused (limited capacity) – Set user expectations– Set budget estimates


Why is this important? - Project Managers

• Ensure timely delivery of functionality• Create project timelines• Estimate budget needs• Forecast required resources and availability


Why is this important? - Users

• Set expectations for what functionality will be available and when

• Reduce requests for functionality • Identify training efforts• Provide feedback to prioritize feature deployment


Why is this important? - IT Pro

• Develop hardware, configuration and growth plan• Defining governance plans• Identify training plan• Define integration plan


Why is this important? - Developers

• Identify training plan • Identify projects, staffing and timelines• Development focus areas

– Forms / InfoPath– Workflow– Web parts– Integration


Assumptions:

• You can’t do everything at once – recipe for failure

• Each project is different• Each organization is different• Available staffing resources have different strengths

• This presentation isn’t about deployment details, each topic has enough content on its own…


Key Categories



Key SharePoint Topics/Categories

• Intranet/Portal Solutions, Content Management• Department/Team/Project Collaboration• Business Process, Workflow, Digital Forms• Business Intelligence, Composite Applications, Dashboards• Search• Extranet Solutions• Social Networking• Internet Solutions• Branding• Customization• Do you have others?


Intranet/Portal Solutions, Content Management

• Corporate intranet/portal• Divisional portals• Topical portals• Document and Records

Management Repositories

• Communication• Platform for enterprise

content and functionality



Crawl:• Use out of the box features to make content management

easier and isolated from branding/styles– Foundation – List and view-managed content on pages– Server – Publishing features, page layouts and more web parts…

• Wiki and blog templates (all versions)• Create specific topical portals to bring related sites together. • Allow linking between SharePoint and Document and Records

mgmt tools.



Walk: • Increasing the quantity and complexity of content

– Content Query Web Parts and Data View Web Parts surfacing content

• SharePoint Designer customized pages• Add features and functionality to topical portals• Provide integration between SharePoint and Document and

Records management tools



Run: • Replace existing intranet portals with SharePoint-based

solutions• Replace existing Document and Records mgmt tools with

SharePoint-based solutions• Customized web parts and controls added to pages and

interface (also see Branding)



Other Notes:• Not intended to replace ‘Best-in-breed’ document

management or records management products• Storing Customer/Client data• Aren’t a lot of features added as you get more difficult, just

adding more content and complexity• If you have existing systems, complexity goes up as you decide

to integrate and/or replace them


Collaboration

• Hierarchical teams• Cross-functional teams• Projects


Collaboration

Crawl:• Only use out-of-the-box site templates and branding• Centralize site administration (SharePoint team still

administers sites) • Manage site growth using smaller quotas• Integration with Microsoft Office Suite, Exchange, Lync (IM

and Presence)


Collaboration

Walk: • Add site and list templates, organizational branding• Add 3rd Party web parts• Train site administrators and decentralize site administration• Automate site lifecycle (request, creation, archival, etc…)• More complex list views

– Filtering, sorting, grouping


Collaboration

Run: • Add more robust site and list templates• Advanced workflows and policies• Even more complex list views

– Location based views


Collaboration

Other Notes:• Not recommended just for replacement of file shares• Do not create a site for every list/library • Not intended for storing customer/client data


Business Process, Workflow, Digital Forms

• Replace paper forms with digital forms• Replace manual business processes or steps with automated

steps and flows



Crawl:• Introduce simple list and InfoPath forms• Customize list forms with SharePoint Designer (2010)• Use out of the box workflows



Walk: • Introduce SharePoint Designer workflows• Introduce 3rd Party workflow tools• Use more complicated InfoPath forms



Run: • Develop more robust workflows, .NET workflows, integrated

systems• Advanced forms

– Digital signatures, external systems, offline use

• Use Visio Services to visualize business processes



Other Notes:• Don’t attempt to fully automate every step of every business

process. Evaluate which steps are appropriate and stop there. • Don’t force InfoPath to do too much. Understand when to

use custom web forms.• Take the time to analyze potential ROI from process

automation


• BI Dashboards• Excel Services• Ad hoc Reporting• SharePoint Designer

Business Intelligence, Composite Applications, Dashboards


Crawl:• Expose existing reports using web parts, minimal integration

points• Advanced Web Parts – connections, filters• Build dashboards using wizards and out of the box tools



Walk:• Introduce connections to data external (BDC/BCS) to

SharePoint• Build customized Data Views

– Leverage conditional formatting

• KPIs based on data surfaced by Excel Services



Run:• Leverage Performance Point, data cubes, 3rd party BI Platforms• Introduce customized BI web parts as needed



Other Notes:• Don’t introduce new data sources within SharePoint when

existing repositories exist (SharePoint is for surfacing the information, not storing and processing)

• Don’t create extreme reporting solutions – too general to meet all needs or too specific



Break



• Index and search SharePoint content• Index and search file share and external system content• People and profile searching

Search


Crawl:• Index out of the box content sources (SharePoint content, file

shares, other web servers)• Use out of the box search results pages• Provide People Search

Search


Walk:• Customize search results pages• Add more scopes, results pages, Best Bets• Add Federated search results

Search


Run:• Build solutions based on SharePoint search• Build more complicated search architectures to accommodate

remote data• FAST integration• Extend search beyond SharePoint

– Browser search provider, Windows Search, Custom applications

Search


Other Notes:• Do not index EVERYTHING. Be wary of indexing whole file

shares or other large repositories. • Using FAST for all SharePoint environmental search

functionality• Administrators should not be the only ones configuring search

- delegate to content owners (best bets, keywords)

Search


• Collaboration point with external audiences– employees, vendors, clients, partners

• Personalized portals for external users

Extranet Solutions


Crawl:• Simple collaboration sites (e.g. Financial Advisors and their

customers)• Focus on internal users + 1 audience

Extranet Solutions


Walk:• Add features, functionality, and personalization to external

portals and sites• Expand to support multiple audiences

Extranet Solutions


Run:• Deeper integration with other systems and processes• Advanced personalization

– Audience + location / role– User specific personalization

Extranet Solutions


Other Notes:• Do NOT leap into a full solution without understanding the

security, regulatory and policy implications• Do NOT manage on the same hardware/architecture as

internal-facing solutions

Extranet Solutions


Social Networking

• My Sites as personal dashboard

• Profile pages and people search

• Blogs, Wikis, Forums, Notes, Ratings and Tagging


Crawl:• Enable profile information from AD to be exposed via people

search and profile pages• Use Wiki site and list templates as part of out of the box

functionality

Social Networking


Walk:• Enable full My Site functionality as replacement for personal

file shares• Allow blog template usage as part of My Sites• Add custom user profile properties and modify

privacy/display policies• Expand user profile content sources to include data stores

other than AD– LOB/HR application, other directories

Social Networking


Run:• Enable and train users on Notes, Ratings and data Tagging

throughout the environment• Customize My Site and User Profile experience to include

external sources (facebook, twitter, flickr)• Expand functionality with 3rd party applications

– NewsGator, custom

Social Networking


Other Notes:• Not for: Do not roll out My Sites without governance,

extensive user training and communication• Do not roll out without dovetailing with existing social

policies, acceptable use, etc…

Social Networking


• Public-facing Internet sites for corporate marketing• Blog / Wiki / informational site

Internet Solutions


Crawl:• Build Internet presence with minimal branding and out of the

box capabilities• Limited system integration with external data and systems

Internet Solutions


Walk:• Additional functionality, integration and deeper branding• Broader and deeper content with multiple content managers• Publishing content approval• SharePoint Usage Analysis / Web Analytics

Internet Solutions


Run:• Extensive branding, custom functionality and personalization

features• E-Commerce, Visual Search (FAST), etc• Advanced Web Analytics (WebTrends, etc)• User Personalization

Internet Solutions


Other Notes:• Not for replacing existing solutions without extensive

evaluation of required capabilities, expectations of branding and user experience for both content managers and customers

Internet Solutions


• Required for client-facing solutions like Internets and Extranets

• Highly recommended for internal solutions such as Intranets• Collaboration – Optional, but usually minimal branding

applied.• Different solutions within an organization (collaboration,

intranet, special, etc…) should be consistency, but still have enough UI design differences for users to know what kind of site they are on

Branding


Crawl:• Configure site logos• Out of the box themes (limited)

PowerPoint 2010 themes (New!)• Site Collection theme configuration (in the UI)• Content Editor Web Parts• Adding graphics directly to pages

Branding


Walk:• Limited customization of required pages, sites and templates.

Behind the scenes pages and unused templates (at the time of design) may not be branded.

• CSS changes, MasterPages, Layout Pages

Branding


Run:• Full customization of each site type and page for a complete

UI experience. • Sites that users may not immediately identify as SharePoint• Advanced customizations

– Masterpage/Layout page customizations– Delegate controls

Branding


Other Notes:• Have governance in place to discourage poor photo choices

and random theme selection

Branding


• SharePoint is a Platform• Where does SharePoint fit with other development platforms

and approaches within the organization• Governance

– Who can do customizations– What training is required / available– What standards are in place

Customization


Crawl:• Use the out of the box building blocks

– Web Part Pages, Web Parts, Lists

• Simple SharePoint Designer– Custom List Forms & List Actions, Simple Data Views, Workflows

• EUSP solutions (Content Editors + CSS, JavaScript, jQuery)– Easy Tabs (http://blog.pathtosharepoint.com/2010/07/26/easy-tabs-version-5-is-out/)

Customization

http://blog.pathtosharepoint.com/2010/07/26/easy-tabs-version-5-is-out/


Walk:• Install 3rd party solutions & templates / Web Parts

– Fab 40 in 2007– Bamboo Solutions

• Advanced SharePoint Designer– Advanced Data Views (XSLT), BCS

• Visual Studio Solutions– Visual Web Parts, Event Receivers, Features

Customization


Run:• Install 3rd party Applications

– Advanced workflow: Nintex, K2

• Advanced Visual Studio Solutions– Custom SPD Workflow Actions, Application Pages, BCS

• Integrate custom applications into SharePoint

Customization


Other Notes:• Many development/customization paths

– Identify customization focus areas and plan training accordingly– Carefully consider architecture paths – lots of ways to solve problems

Customization


Now What?

• Align your business priorities to platform capabilities• Develop a roadmap or platform strategy

• Do you have business needs that align well with ‘Crawl’ and ‘Walk’ capabilities?

• Which longer term business goals overlap with short-term capabilities that can be built on?


Q & A



Thanks for coming!


http:// meeting # 74 meeting # 74 welcome to the minnesota sharepoint user group january 12 th,...

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