Spotlight on 2010: Workflow Improvements

By Chris Caravajal

Using workflows to automate business processes has become a common theme for successful business enterprise solutions. This ability to move the responsibility for and management of processes off users and on to an application has allowed users to focus on performing their day-to-day activities without having to worry about the underlying details. In addition to increasing user productivity, this allows for business processes to run more effectively by eliminating human error, tracking each activity, and guaranteeing consistency for each process. With SharePoint, this powerful concept is built in and can be leveraged for a wide range of workflow solutions.

Improving upon SharePoint 2007, the upcoming release of SharePoint2010 provides users the additional tools for creating workflow solutions. In the native application, users are no longer limited to associating workflows with just lists and libraries, and can now also target content types and sites. This allows for more flexibility when creating workflow solutions. If your organization has purchased the enterprise license for SharePoint Server 2010, you will also be able to enjoy full integration with Microsoft Office 2010. This will allow users to start workflows from the Office 2010 application they are working in, rather than opening up their browsers to SharePoint sites and then performing workflow activities. With Outlook 2010, users are able to respond to workflow requests and update items by using various workflow options within the application. This is the beginning of a new trend where everything a user needs can be accessed from the Office Ribbon (all Microsoft end-user applications are incorporating the Ribbon into their solutions) in whatever application they are working in.

Workflows have really burst onto the scene in the past few years and their impact on collaborative solutions has no limits. Keeping up with this growing demand, SharePoint 2010 provides organizations the necessary tools needed to create various workflow solutions, as well as the compatibility to work smoothly with other applications frequently used in the workplace.

Chris Caravajal is a consultant with SharePoint911

Mainsoft Brings SharePoint, Outlook into Harmony

Software integration company Mainsoft today is introducing Harmony, software that will enable users to collaborate on documents stored in SharePoint via Microsoft Outloook e-mail.

The solution replaces document attachments with links to those documents stored in SharePoint libraries, reducing the size of the e-mail and making version control easier, according to Yaacov Cohen, founder and CEO of Mainsoft.

“It’s the evolution of the e-mail experience,” Cohen said. “People want things like SharePoint extended into their day-to-day work. But there is not enough integration bringing SharePoint to the end user instead of making the end user go to SharePoint.”

From within Outlook, users can click on an icon to launch Harmony, and a list of documents appears alongside the Outlook e-mail inbox, Cohen showed SPTechReport in a demonstration of Harmony. Users can then create a new e-mail file, drag a link to the document file into the e-mail, and send it to the user, who then gains access to that document under terms set by the sender. For instance, the recipient of the document might have read-only access to a document for review, Cohen explained. Similarly, Outlook users can take attachments they’ve been sent and drag them into Harmony, so the next time the user wants to share that document with a team member, he can simply drag the link into a new e-mail, Cohen demonstrated.

Harmony also works with Google Docs, Cohen said, and also supports Adobe PDF and Microsoft Word formats.

-- David

Exclusive Webcast for SPTechCon Attendees!

Because of some really bad weather back East during last month's SPTechCon, one of our most popular speakers, Dux Raymond Sy, could not be with us for the first day of classes. So, as an extra added bonus for all of our attendees, Dux will present his session, "Best Practices in SharePoint User Management," via Microsoft LiveMeeting. Join us on March 9, from 2 pm to 3 pm Eastern time. There is no charge to attend, and all are welcome!

TITLE: Best Practices in SharePoint User Management

DESCRIPTION: SharePoint's empowering capability to create collaborative sites allows site owners to define membership and user permissions easily. However, it can be a double-edged sword, especially if these permissions aren't well-managed. In this presentation, you will learn the fundamentals of SharePoint membership and permissions; effective techniques in identifying user communication and information needs; how to map a communications plan to SharePoint site membership; and best practices in managing SharePoint user permissions.

TECHNICAL LEVEL: Basic
AUDIENCE: Project managers, business users, power users, IT administrators

DATE AND TIME: March 9, Tue, 2pm-3pm EST

HERE'S THE LINK TO ATTEND!

Spotlight on 2010: When Is the Right Time to Dig Into the New Product?

By Jennifer Mason

One of the primary comments I heard at SPTechCon last month was that even though people were excited about SharePoint 2010, they had no plans for upgrade and felt like it wasn’t worth the investment to spend time learning about all the new features that they wouldn’t be able to use for a very long time.

While I can see where they are coming from, I definitely view the situation differently. I truly believe that by looking at and exploring what is available in SharePoint 2010 we will be able to build better solutions in 2007 that will help us as we migrate to SharePoint 2010. After all, if information is available today that will make our life easier tomorrow, then we should be soaking in as much as we can.

Among the key reasons to learn about 2010 is that you don’t develop a custom solution today in SharePoint 2007 that can be done out-of-the-box in 2010. Knowledge of 2010 might able you to build 80% of a requested solution in 2007 and then build the other 20% with tools available out of the box in SharePoint 2010 when you migrate. Further, having information on 2010 might be the ammunition you need to present a business case for speeding up migration planning.

I don’t think everyone should invest hours upon hours of learning the new product if they won’t be using it immediately, but I do recommend that everyone at least get started. With the wealth of information available, it shouldn’t be hard for you to start gathering information. Here are some of my favorite places to find information:

• · Office Microsoft SharePoint Site
  

• · Describing SharePoint 2010 in 1 Sentence, 8 Categories and 40 Feature Areas

• · SharePoint 2010 System Requirements

• · Community Forums

• · Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog

• · SharePoint Designer Team Blog
  

• SPTechBlog

If you still don’t know where to get started, I recommend looking at your biggest pain points to see how they are improved or eliminated with the release of 2010. From there I would start looking at your wish list of things you have always wanted to do in SharePoint but just haven’t had time. The third area I would look at would be the list of things that you are currently doing that you wish your users could do for themselves. Just getting started with these areas can help you begin to develop a clear framework that can be used for strategy planning. This framework will help you better understand and plan for both your current and future needs. By starting to gather information now, you can avoid the “I wish I would have known this before I started this project in SharePoint 2007!” scenarios.

Jennifer Mason is a consultant with SharePoint911

Spotlight on 2010: The SharePoint/Office Integration Story

By Laura Rogers

Microsoft SharePoint and the Office Suite of Applications have had integration points with each other for several years, but now with the 2010 versions there have been significant enhancements to this story. Collaboration has become an intuitive part of the user experience, and is a familiar ingredient in all of the Office 2010 Applications. With the powerful combination of SharePoint and Office, not only will individual efficiency increase, but teams will be able to communicate effectively, stay in touch, and of course work on shared content. In this article, some of the major new integration features will be summarized.

Live Co-Authoring

When working in Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, or the Excel Web Application, live co-authoring is now possible. It is no longer necessary to wait and take turns to check out files during the collaboration process. Multiple users can open and work on files at the same time. During this co-authoring process, users see a list of the other collaborators, and can communicate with each other from inside the document.

Backstage View

Think of this view as an augmented replacement for the old “File” menu at the top left corner of previous versions of the applications. There are several common tabs down the left side of the backstage view, with the Info and the Share tab containing the most SharePoint integration functionalities. Quickly save or publish files to SharePoint, look at a list of file versions, or even make Note Board notes from the backstage view.

The Ribbon in SharePoint 2010

The new menu user interface within the Office Applications that was introduced in Office 2007 exists throughout SharePoint 2010. In document libraries and lists, there is a section of the ribbon called “Connect & Export” that contains buttons for connectivity and integration with various Office applications. Some of the more common items are Sync to SharePoint Workspace, Connect to Outlook, and Export to Excel.

PowerPoint - Broadcast Slide Show

A new feature of PowerPoint is the ability to easily broadcast a live slide show of a presentation. On the Share tab of the backstage view, when Broadcast Slide Show is selected, a service is then chosen to broadcast through. By default, your Windows Live ID can be used to broadcast via the Internet. A publicly accessible URL is provided by PowerPoint, which is then shared with colleagues or friends. During the broadcast, viewers see a live view of the slides, as the presenter clicks through them. How is this a SharePoint integration feature? This slide show can be broadcast through a SharePoint site instead of through the public Internet. When the Office 2010 Web Apps have been installed and deployed on the SharePoint 2010 Server, there is a site template called a PowerPoint Broadcast Site. Once that broadcast site has been created, the URL is used as the broadcast service in PowerPoint 2010.

Outlook 2010 Integration

In some SharePoint lists and libraries, there is the ability to connect to the Outlook client. SharePoint items are easily and quickly accessible from Outlook, and available for Offline editing. There are some new integration points in addition to familiar ones like managing SharePoint alerts from Outlook. SharePoint calendars can now be configured to display multiple Exchange and SharePoint calendars in an overlay view in the browser. There is also a new Social Connector in Outlook, which allows users to connect to social networks such as SharePoint and Facebook. It contains an interface to see information on users’ activity feeds and other pertinent user data.

InfoPath 2010 Integration

The InfoPath integration improvements in 2010 are huge. The InfoPath Form Web Part is used to insert an InfoPath form on any web part page. Select from any form that has been deployed via InfoPath Forms Services, or to a library or content type on the site. Also, regular SharePoint list forms can now be customized as InfoPath forms. The previously complex task of modifying the default SharePoint list forms has now been made easier and more accessible to a wider range of users.

Visio Integration and Visio Services

With the new Visio Graphics service application, when Visio diagrams have been created on client machines and published to the server, the client software is no longer needed. Once the diagram has been published to Visio services, the server itself knows how to refresh that diagram and maintain the data connections inside of it. There is a new Visio Web Access web part that can be inserted on any page in SharePoint, to display Visio Web Drawing (VDW) files. The shapes in these files can be connected to live data, and web part connections can even be used for a very interactive experience.

Integration with Microsoft Access 2010 & Access Services

Ever since SharePoint and Access 2003, there has been the ability to connect SharePoint to Access, using the SharePoint lists as tables in a database. This allows for querying between tables, and viewing Access report views in lists. Now with Access Services, entire Access databases can be published to SharePoint. Once this is done, the database exists completely in SharePoint as a sub-site, and forms can be filled out by users without needing the Access client software installed. Also, Access template files can be uploaded to SharePoint as solutions, which means that new sites can be created from these database templates.

SharePoint 2010 Workspace

The SharePoint Workspace desktop application was previously known as Microsoft Groove. SharePoint Workspace is useful for taking SharePoint content offline. With this tool, SharePoint sites become convenient and portable, and can be set up for quick automatic and customizable synchronization. This is a wonderful tool for those of us who are frequently on the go.

Laura Rogers is a consultant with SharePoint911

MindJet Rolls Out MindManager for SharePoint

Mindjet is bringing its core information visualization technology to SharePoint with the announcement today of MindManager for SharePoint. The tool is designed to give SharePoint users a look into tasks and issues while retaining a big-picture view of the overarching project.

“SharePoint is like rabbits. The sites expand out of control,” said Michael Deutch, director of product development. This creates a number of silos, and leaves users searching for information rather than using information.”

Deutch said that large enterprises, with more than 1,000 workers, waste from $2.5 million to $3.5 million searching for non-existent data, failing to find data that does exist, or recreating existing data that couldn’t be found.

MindManager for Sharepoint, which costs $499 in the United States, enables users to update the status of tasks, change work priorities, link to a document or record and update that, with the changes automatically reflected in the map, Deutch explained.

-- David

Is SharePoint 2010 Relevant? I believe so!

On his endusersharepoint.com website, Mark Miller asks if discussion about SharePoint 2010 is relevant yet. He says that after much discussion with users, that SharePoint 2010 uptake won't really happen for about another two years.
I agree in large part with this assessment, but won't overlook that there are plenty of people out there champing at the bit for the general release of 2010.
From my own discussions at SharePoint Saturdays, other events and with attendees to SPTechCon (the SharePoint technology conference for which I am responsible for selecting classes), it is clear that many people are going to be staying right where they are on MOSS 2007.
The move from 2003 from 2007 brought much new functionality, and really made SharePoint an enterprise-class collaboration and document management solution. SharePoint 2010 brings more for developers and on the social side, but much of the heavy lifting for SharePoint already has been done.
After his keynote at SPTechCon, Microsoft's director of SharePoint Tom Rizzo shared with me that he was surprised that so few of the people at his talk were even evaluating SharePoint 2010, and he wondered why that was. Some speculation pointed to the 64-bit requirement that comes with 2010 -- that means upgrading your Windows Server and possibly your SQL Server as well as your SharePoint Server. We also acknowledged that Microsoft did a great job with 2007, which now is a tough act to follow.
All of these factors point to a slow migration to 2010.
Yet, at SPTechCon, we received a lot of feedback from people wishing there was MORE information on 2010. These are folks who view SharePoint as a platform, not just a document repository or collaboration tool. They're bought in to the promise of SharePoint, and want to take advantage of new features such as Business Connectivity Services, FAST search, PerformancePoint reporting and more.
I think a big part of the reason that it's too soon to talk about SharePoint 2010 is simply that is has not been released yet. And, given Microsoft's track record for first releases, most people will wait at least until the first service pack comes out to give 2010 a look. At that time, I believe there will be a greater desire to migrate up to 2010.
As for our SPTechCon (coming to Boston in October), we will again try to provide a mix of sessions that will appeal to both users of MOSS 2007 and folks who want to move to 2010. By then, the new software SHOULD be in general release, and we'll have more information and answers to share. But we also realize a great many of you won't be moving off 2007 just yet, and we'll include a lot of new information for you as well.
Interestingly, looking at the feedback forms form the just-concluded SPTechCon in San Francisco, we heard from some people that the conference was focused too much on SharePoint 2010, and an equal amount from people who felt the conference was focused too much on SharePoint 2007.
To me, that means we hit it just right.
-- David