Extracting Gold from SharePoint 2010 Managed Metadata

Posted on February 29, 2012 by mikeb

DocPoint Solutions and ConceptSearching announced a partnership on February 28, 2012 that http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120228005402/en/DocPoint-Solutions-Partners-Concept-Searching is intended to “bring together DocPoint Solutions’ expertise in designing content and information management solutions using the SharePoint platform and the only Microsoft Managed Partner within the SharePoint environment delivering taxonomy management and auto-classification.” The short term area of opportunity targeted by this partnership is the US federal sector. This announcement is indicative, we think, of the substantial value that corporate and public sector users of SharePoint 2010 can capture through mastering Taxonomy and Term Store.

We like this announcement. We, ourselves saw great value for SharePoint users in Managed Metadata through SharePoint 2010. Mike Doane an expert and adjunct faculty member at the University of Washington authored this unique series of tutorial videos. As is our style, each video tutorial is heavy on communicating the precise computer operations required to derive best value from Term Store and Taxonomy for SharePoint 2010, and light on the personality of the trainer. Therefore, plan on lots of screen recordings, and an audio track rich in guidance from an expert in the field.

Corporate and public sector users with lots of data who need to closely manage information should seriously consider following the route of peers in the US Federal sector who have opted for ConceptSearching and DocPoint’s solution. It is worth adding to the note that we provided on their partnership announcement that an area of DocPoint’s strength is training. Once again, we think this is great and are heartened to note the attention paid to training in Term Store and Taxonomy as fundamental cornerstones of value for their solution. Our unique instructional videos on SharePoint 2010 managed metadata are a perfect complement to in person, instructor lead training on the same topics. It is worth noting that the unique features of instructional video tutorials on SharePoint:

that they are available on demand
and in context

provide the necessary support for users who truly do benefit from repetition and pervasive availability of training content.

The inherent features of SharePoint 2010 for managing metadata make it a near perfect option for the type of business and public sector users that we have described. Further, successfully building a managed metadat framework with SharePoint 2010 will contribute lots to magnetizing user interest in the platform, which interest often serves as a prerequisite for IT processes achieving mission critical status for groups of users. Therefore, we welcome opportunities to speak with groups interested in extracting value from SharePoint 2010 in these areas. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Attendees at SPTechCon San Francisco Look to Use SharePoint for Mission Critical Applications

Posted on February 28, 2012 by admin

We are attending SPTechCon in San Francisco. Yesterday we were fortunate enough to speak at some length with more than 25 attendees. We were impressed with the general size of the business enterprises represented by attendees. Many Fortune 100 businesses have sent staff to this year’s show. What pervade our conversations was a general intention to implement SharePoint for higher levels of utility than we presumed would be the case. For example, we heard from one transportation company of their interest to dispense with BI tools from a plethora of third parties in lieu of maximizing the value and usefulness of SharePoint’s BI module. From an educational institution that virtually connects first responders across the country we heard of an interest in implementing secure data communications over SharePoint. Finally, two large pharmaceutical companies expressed an interest in globally implementing SharePoint for multi faceted plans that will need to pull on several features simultaneously.

Therefore, its safe to say that SharePoint users have grown up. Implementation plans no longer fixate on plugging in SharePoint simply for the fun of it. Real needs are on the table presently in 2012. Commensurate plans are in the conception stage as to just how to extract desired functionality from SharePoint.

Of course we are gratified to see this new maturity pervade big businesses using SharePoint. On SharePoint-Videos dot com we offer the essential SharePoint 2010 training to support SharePoint as a mission critical feature of the business computing landscape.

What is doubly gratifying is the sense that most of the SharePoint proponents with whom we spoke will probably succeed at their plans. The delivery gap seems to have vaporized. Better tools are at hand, which promise success for customer objectives. Further, customers themselves have watched the evolution of SharePoint over the last half decade and more. 2012 looks like the year for this application to find a permanent place within the computing infrastructure of larger groups of users than was the case in the past.

As ever, we maintain a very keen interest in collaborating with users of all types from an equally diverse range of organizations who look to extract very high value from SharePoint from a mission critical role for the enterprise. We are comfortable that we hace precisely the training required to empower development efforts to achieve ambitious goals for SharePoint. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

A Free to the Public Webinar on Project Management Using SharePoint Foundation 2010 is Now Available

Posted on February 27, 2012 by mikeb

A useful overview of utilizing SharePoint 2010 Foundation to manage a range of IT projects is now available for public viewing on SharePoint-Videos dot com as a webinar. This webinar, over an hour in length, is full of highly useful observations about how to manage projects with SharePoint 2010 Foundation. For viewers with SharePoint Foundation already in place, this webinar points out specific features of the product that can be easily (and quickly) used to start managing projects.

Most mid to large size businesses require that a formal project management tool be utilized for IT projects. Where SharePoint Foundation 2010 has already been purchased, and implemented, significant hard and soft costs can be saved as long as a standard, approved project management platform (other than spreadsheets, etc) has not been implemented. Further, the approval of any/all non IT participants in a formal project management process (typically Finance) should be secured prior to moving forward with SharePoint 2010 Foundation for the project management task.

Where the above mentioned criteria have been met, the hard cost savings amount to dispensing with the need to spend precious IT budget funds on yet another piece of new software. The soft cost savings amount to pocketing the funds that would otherwise have to be spent training staff in a new enterprise tool, as well as dispensing with any/all further delay that would otherwise be required prior to implementing a formal project management process, complete with an audit trail and governance. After all, time does amount to money.

Not only is SharePoint 2010 Foundation an economical approach for managing IT projects, it also constitutes a valuable method of collecting historical project information–costs, time lines, personnel demands, etc–that can be successfully utilized in a Business Intelligence (BI) process. After all, with SharePoint Services for Access and Business Connectivity Services (BCS), SharePoint can be successfully utilized as a forms-rich front end to MS Access and SQL Server Databases as well as comparable offerings from third parties such as Oracle Corporation and/or SAP.

Please do take us up on our invitation to review this webinar which is knowledge heavy and certainly worth the time of administrators, developers and motivated business heads who need to explore every cost effective avenue for formal IT project management. For corporate users and other large groups we are confident that this tutorial video set can be just the ticket. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Learn Project Management with SharePoint 2010 Video Tutorials

Posted on February 24, 2012 by mikeb

SharePoint 2010 includes features that can be utilized to manage all types of projects. Eric Eaton, a SharePoint architect, MCSE, MCTS, MCP for SQL and a Certified Microsoft Trainer has authored a set of highly useful video tutorials on Project Management with SharePoint 2010. Please note that a subscription to our site is required to view this tutorial video.

As Eric points out, enterprise-class project management tools like Oracle Primavera or Microsoft Project Server may not be an ideal solution for project teams with a clear picture of deliverables and a low tolerance for the complexity that is inherent to these market-leading project management tools. As well, some organizations have not purchased these tools. In this latter case project managers have had to rely on spreadsheets to record project plans and deliverables. Of course, tracking projects with spreadhseets constitutes a substantial amount of manual work. Worse yet, spreadsheets are very short on collaboration features. Let’s face it, tracking project deliverables requires a lot of collaboration; therefore, utilizing tools not designed for collaboration doesn’t make much sense.

SharePoint 2010 offers many native features that can be successfully utilized to fill in the gap between managing projects with spreadsheets and managing projects with enterprise-class tools. In this first of several tutorials on how to successfully utilize SharePoint 2010 to manage projects, Eric points out that SharePoint 2010 has the ease of use of a spreadsheet tool. However, SharePoint 2010 has native collaborative reporting features that go a quantum step further than spreadsheets as well. By learning how to integrate these great features of SharePoint 2010, project managers working with projects that fit the criteria laid out above, specifically:

Objectives and deliverables are clear
Project Teams include members light on experience with enterprise class project management tools
Licenses for enterprise class project management software are either not in place, or not planned
SharePoint 2010 server has been implemented

stand to extract great benefit from SharePoint 2010 as a highly useful project management tool.

Please contact us if you have a need for project management and would like to explore how SharePoint 2010 can provide you with the features to get your management overhead under control. For corporate users and other large groups we are confident that this tutorial video set can be just the ticket. We will be happy to schedule a webinar to show you short clips from Eric Eaton’s video tutorials. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Video Tutorials for SharePoint Access Services Training

Posted on February 23, 2012 by mikeb

SharePoint-Videos offers a set of video tutorials for SharePoint Access services training. Our intended audience for this set of tutorial videos are SharePoint and/or Access administrators, developers and architects. Our approach is to emphasize codeless development options, which we think will appeal most to citizen developers who need to implement SharePoint Access Services. Further, this codeless approach provides the most economical method that we know of to provide required systems development without reliance on specialized software coding.

Our tutorial set is authored by Bruce Herz. The set includes a technical introduction to SharePoint Access Services that emphasizes how Access 2010 Services can be used with SharePoint Server 2010 to create a SharePoint sub site for an access database. Access Services provides a highly useful feature to support browser based management of Access 2010 databases. In addition, as Bruce points out in his introduction to the topic, end users can perform database operations from web browsers, leveraging the security features offered by SharePoint Server 2010, Enterprise edition.

When one considers the various conversions automatically processed by Access Services for SharePoint, one gains an excellent view of some to the cost savings to be realized by utilizing this tool. Consider that Access Services will transparently convert Access 2010:

Tables to SharePoint Lists
Forms to aspx web pages
Macros to SharePoint Workflows
RDL format and displayed using SQL Reporting Services and
UI Logic to JavaScript

As is the case for our entire set of video tutorials for SharePoint, our approach is light on product abstraction and heavy on the specific technical procedures required to perform key operations with Access Services. The specific operations presented by Bruce Herz in this set include all the computer procedures required to create and modify Access 2010 database tables, building and using macros, and several methods of creating database forms. In short, this set of tutorials cover all of the essential operations, thereby empowering users to derive optimum benefit from Access 2010 Services for SharePoint.

Once personnel are provided with the type of training content that we offer via our tutorial video set on Access Services an opportunity is created to improve the capabilities of specific staff members without recourse to new hiring. Further, the training cost that may otherwise be necessitated should an in-person training class be considered as a method of delivering the same objective of internal staff improvement would be far greater than is the case for accessing our video training set. Finally, on-demand access and limitless viewing, as required, round out a powerful feature set for this type of tutorial video training.

We would be happy to discuss our tutorial video set on Access 2010 Services for SharePoint directly with you. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Training SharePoint End Users Is a Sensible Investment

Posted on February 22, 2012 by mikeb

A substantial portion of the technical support burden for SharePoint can be alleviated by training end users who usually utilize SharePoint simply to perform computer operations mandated by management. This type of superficial utilization of SharePoint is best supported through the acquisition of video instructional tutorials that cover any/all required procedures. The best approach for this type of instructional tutorial is to limit content to no more than recordings of computer procedures (typically so called screen shots that demonstrate mouse movement, selection of hot links, etc) with an audio track comprised of human instruction. Finally, including transcripts of spoken instruction in on-screen text boxes will be of further help to this class of SharePoint users.

We provide customers with the content they need for training SharePoint end users in a set of 105 tutorial videos that adhere precisely to the editorial guidelines we just described in the paragraph above. None of the tutorials in our collection exceeds an approximate length of 2mins. The technical content is limited strictly to the steps required to successfully execute procedures. Cursor movement is highlighted to facilitate ready comprehension by end users. The audio track is comprised of verbal instructions spoken by subject matter experts who have been publicly recognized for their technical expertise. In all, a perfect combination to satisfy end users while support overhead is kept to a bare minimum.

The acquisition costs for our complete set of 105 end user tutorials, for a group of 10K SharePoint users, amounts to an approximate one time cost per user of $1.50. Compared to the cost of supporting this size community the acquisition cost for our content is a substantial bargain. The likelihood that provisioning our end user tutorials will successfully alleviate support demands is high when you factor in two important features of our video tutorial collection:

We provision the collection to customers on a DVD for installation on corporate intranets. We recommend that the content be added to a SharePoint sub site. For customers who follow our recommendation, the training is, effectively, available on demand. Instructions can be repeated as frequently as required and whenever required, making for a high likelihood of user absorption of our instructional content
In addition, with our content added to a sub site, training material is truly available within the workspace context, which constitutes a substantial advantage that furthers the likelihood that instructional efforts will be successful

We would be happy to elaborate on the training recommendation that we have just made for SharePoint end users. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Deciding on the Most Effective Tutorial for SharePoint Designer 2010

Posted on February 21, 2012 by mikeb

Individuals, groups and even entire businesses looking to implement SharePoint Designer for the versatility of its functions should decide on the type of tutorial that makes the most sense. The fact is that not all tutorials are created equal. For the purposes of this discusson we would like to briefly consider three different tutorial flavors:

In Person, Instructor Lead
Video Recorded, Instructor Lead
Video Recorded, Computer Operations Tutorial, Lead by a Subject Matter Expert

We think that an instructor lead, in person tutorial for SharePoint Designer 2010 makes the most sense for individuals and/or groups using SharePoint who will combine this type of tutorial with other types of learning aids, for example, technical manuals, company specific technical guidelines, and/or computer operations specific video tutorials. An in person, instructor lead tutorial is, largely, a synchronous training resource: students must attend the tutorial at a specific time and place (often it will not make financial sense to host this type of tutorial on site, therefore travel costs should be factored in to any evaluation of the usefulness of this training approach). Recordings may be distributed at the conclusion of this type of tutorial, but a complete video recording of a 2hr tutorial has limited utility when one needs to find a specific technique to manage a specific function within the 2hrs of video material. Rather, student recollection of the tutorial, together with any/all notes taken, will provide the best possible recurring benefit that can be derived from this type of training aid.

With regard to video recordings of instructor lead tutorials, parties considering this type of tutorial should ensure that the recordings are segmented into easily accessed sections, based upon technical feature, to ensure that the task of finding useful instruction is not a lengthy undertaking. Further, care should be taken to ensure that training content is as specific as possible with regard to technique and procedures with minimal abstraction. Granted, abstractions have their place, but in our experience that place is rarely the day to day SharePoint Designer 2010 workplace.

The final option, video recorded tutorials specifically focused on computer operations with no more personal touches than an audio track spoken by a subject matter expert and text boxes populated with a tutorial transcript, constitute the best option for groups that have a specific implementation plan in hand and are poised to implement this plan within the context of a broader plan for SharePoint. We specialize specifically in this type of tutorial for SharePoint Designer 2010. We are confident that our genre of video tutorial delivers very high value for appropriate individuals and groups.

We welcome opportunities to elaborate on the points we have made above. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Instructor Lead SharePoint User Training and Video Tutorials Produce Knowledgeable Users

Posted on February 20, 2012 by mikeb

Instructor lead SharePoint training, together with on demain, in-context access to video tutorials make for a compelling combination of educational content for SharePoint users. Once trained, SharePoint users are better positioned to derive important and valuable benefits from SharePoint. It is encumbent on IT and/or MIS functions in global businesses and other large organizations to take the necessary steps to train SharePoint users. Training provides a useful method of ensuring that SharePoint delivers high value and return on investment (ROI).

There is no overlap between instructor lead SharePoint training and the training content transferred to users through instructional videos as long as instructional videos are limited to:

no more than recordings of computer screens that depict SharePoint operations, and
audio comprised of audible presentation of SharePoint operations by a human voice

Our entire collection of SharePoint user training, presently 396 video tutorials that uniformly conform to (1) and (2) above, is a perfect complement to instructor lead end user training, regardless of whether or not the instructor lead training is offered in person, via a webinar (or a series of webinars), or even via instructional videos of a different variety, meaning presentations by human instructors who communicate most, if not all, of specific instruction via the spoken word, facial gestures, etc. This latter category of training content is often referred to as “bobbing heads” training, a training medium that is very different from our offering.

We think it is possible to implement simply video tutorials, like the instructional videos offered on SharePoint-Videos dot com without recourse to in-person training. Further we think it is difficult to dispense with our type of video tutorials for SharePoint, despite provisioning in-person training. Effective training is built on repetition of precisely the same instruction by SharePoint users. We do not know of a better way to deliver just this type of facility than to offer on demand access to video tutorials within the context of the SharePoint workspace.

Nevetheless, where resources exist to provision an effective training facility for SharePoint users, regardless of cost, a combination of in-person training and access to instructional videos like ours makes the most sense. We welcome opportunities to show you how a SharePoint training regime as we have described will empower your team to deliver on your objective. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Office 365 SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics Make for a Winning Combination

Posted on February 18, 2012 by mikeb

Microsoft Office 365 has created an opportunity for small to medium businesses to embrace SharePoint. For monthly costs as low at $10 per user per month Office 365 users obtain SharePoint and, thereby, the ability to craft highly specialized applications that promise to deliver enormous value.

It should be noted that Microsoft Dynamics CRM is also available via Office 365. The combination of Dynamics and SharePoint empower users with important tools for gathering business intelligence, managing customers and prospects and, generally, offering superior service to their own markets.

Rehmani Consulting Inc offers valuable instructional video tutorials for SharePoint–literally sets of recordings of computer procedures, including human audio narrative and text box transcripts entirely specific to SharePoint 2010– that can be exploited quickly, correctly and powerfully to extract gold from SharePoint Online.

It is important to understand that SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Online are entirely comparable. Procedures for SharePoint 2010 out of the box will work for SharePoint Online. Utilizing video tutorials to master technical features constitutes a much faster path than training manuals or user guides. If business opportunities can be captured via a rapid implementation of SharePoint, then video tutorials are the best method of getting to the goal. Having a running instance of SharePoint Online adds the icing to this cake.

We are confident that Microsoft’s Office 365 offering, complete with SharePoint Online, has already expanded the horizontal “width” of the SharePoint user community in ways that promise to make this software useful for a wider range of applications than would be the case if markets had remained restricted to global businesses and other large organizations. Of course, recasting the market in this manner has also increased the likelihood that SharePoint will “stick”. Therefore, it is clearer now that ever that SharePoint is an application that certainly will be around, with a substantial footprint, over the next near term.

If you would like to utilize SharePoint as a method of delivering a core business application and now see the ability to act on your interest via Office 365 and SharePoint Online, then we would like to speak with you to let you know why training and, specifically, video tutorials on SharePoint, represents a sensible investment. We can show you how this SharePoint training will empower your team to deliver on your objective. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Short video recordings of computer operations provide users with a highly efficient SharePoint tutorial

Posted on February 16, 2012 by mikeb

Short video recordings of computer operations, including screen shots, human technical instruction captured via audio recording, and text transcripts of key points of software operation make for the most efficient SharePoint tutorial for users at all levels.

We offer a very broad set of precisely this type of video instruction for SharePoint from a set of now in excess of 370 video tutorials, any one of which can provide precisely the needed SharePoint tutorial to facilitate successful completion of required tasks.

When coupled with the unique features of recorded technical instruction:

Availability On Demand, whenever a requirement emerges for specific SharePoint technical operation, and
In-Context access, within the SharePoint workspace so that required instructions can be juxtaposed directly within the specific SharePoint environment

the combination of features implicit to video tutorials makes for an unbeatable offering certain to deliver very high value. Simply consider that empowering a SharePoint community with technical training in the form of video tutorials is certain to

Reduce human support requirements for popular needs easily addressed with short video tutorials
Empower users with the information they need to exploit the very rich and diverse feature set of SharePoint to deliver potentially mission-critial applications at a fraction of the cost that would otherwise be required for the acquisition of need-specifi proprietary applications

With substantial benefits at hand it makes total sense to expend the funds required to empower SharePoint users at global businesses and other large organizations. These funds actually work out to a very low cost per user when the community size exceeds 5K licensed SharePoint enterprise clients. In addition, these per user costs are a mere shadow of the comparable costs for in person training services for the same size community.

As well, and where it makes sense for global businesses to continue with in person training plans, access to video tutorials provides a perfect complement that is “ever ready” and effective as a method of reinforcing instruction.

If your SharePoint community is large then it ought to make sense to empower users with training to ensure maximum value from your acquisition of this ambidextrous software. We are knowledgeable on this subject. We would welcome an opportunity to demonstrate why video tutorial training for SharePoint makes total sense. Therefore if you would like to explore this topic at greater length, then we would welcome an opportunity to speak with you. Please either call us at (630) 786-7026, or Contact Us. We will be happy to discuss this topic at greater length.

Blogging Thoughts on SharePoint

Thoughts, Conversations, Interviews on SharePoint & Its Movers & Shakers from Rehmani Consulting

Monthly Archives: February 2012