For all of us, compiling notes goes back to school days where we couldn’t write down fast enough important tidbits about key topics that were to be included on the next exam.  In today’s fast paced business environment, it is no different:  taking good notes is a starting point for documenting, understanding, and improving execution for a given initiative.

A classic inefficient business case we frequently see is project team meeting notes.  Here is the scenario:

Someone is designated as official scribe for a given meeting.  It is up to that individual to capture all important notes/items from that meeting, and circulate these amongst the project team for review/comment.

We all can guess where this is heading.  Meeting happens, initial draft version is compiled (hopefully electronically), and then circulated (typically via email with attachments) to the project team to see if there are any edits/comments/omissions, etc.  So eventually (assuming people respond), there will be a final version of the meeting notes for that meeting, usually some days or even weeks later.  By then, most people have possibly forgotten many of the details of that meeting, or in most cases the next meeting for the project team is already in process.

The final conundrum is where to put those final project team notes.  Usually, they end up in various multiple places (email, local drives, file shares, etc.), with most users having challenges to find the right version or simply have the time to review and make any use of these notes.  The notes end up being nothing more than an archive, and probably not ever referred back to unless someone is interested in reviewing the history of the initiative.

Starting with OneNote 2007, OneNote Notebooks could be stored in a Shared Document Library on SharePoint.  With SharePoint as the central collaboration tool, project notebooks in a document library can easily be accessed, reviewed, searched, edited and managed by project team members.  Search capabilities are readily available (either in OneNote or SharePoint) to quickly surface any specific details someone may be looking for in the notes.

But what if you are remote and not necessarily connected (on-line) to SharePoint during a meeting?  Enter OneNote and its powerful synchronization process.

OneNote always keeps a local  copy of every notebook on the device where the OneNote application is installed.  This allows for disconnected note taking without missing a beat.  Once the device (e.g. laptop) again has access to the original library on SharePoint, notebook section changes are automatically synchronized.

Setting up a new OneNote Shared Notebook on SharePoint is very straightforward.  From the File Tab (menu) in OneNote, File –> New –> Network, enter name for new Notebook, and SharePoint URL (Network Location) for your document library, click Create Notebook and off you go.

Once the Notebook is created, it can be accessed either directly from the SharePoint Document Library, or from the OneNote application itself.  Using search (either OneNote or SharePoint) allows for quick access and surfacing of important note information.  Synchronization between Master copy and local copy can be manually started with the shortcut keys of Shift-F9.

It is worth mentioning that OneNote 2010 offers additional greater capabilities for sharing and central storing of notebooks including Windows Live SkyDrive.  This allows for free cloud storage and sharing of documents through Microsoft.

And for those who have advanced to doing most everything via a smartphone, a OneNote Mobile application is also available for both Windows Phone and iPhone platforms.  Thus providing easy and efficient access to Notebook content any place, any time.

Microsoft OneNote is a powerful application and business tool, and using OneNote in combination with SharePoint is definitely recommended to help solve everyday inefficiencies around taking, collaborating, finding, and researching Notes.

Interested in learning more? Contact SBS Group here or email info@sbsgroupusa.com to learn more about Microsoft SharePoint.

By: SBS Group New England – Massachusetts SharePoint, Microsoft Dynamics ERP & CRM and Microsoft Master VAR

Improving Collaboration with Microsoft OneNote and SharePoint is a post from: SharePoint Blog

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Office 365, which is essentially the cloud version of the office and collaboration software programs you have come to know and love, is priced just right for small businesses that may have difficulty paying for on-premise deployments and the tech support that inevitably comes with any locally-installed software. For as little as $6 per user per month, businesses can unlock the power of Microsoft Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync. For those who only need a professional-grade email plan, they can pay as little as $4 per user per month.

By delivering all of these quality online apps at an affordable price, Microsoft has positioned itself to be a serious competitor to other cloud office services like Google Apps. It also announced plans to introduce 22 new markets, from Taiwan to South Africa. It will also add 30 new product enhancements to its already impressive list of features. Some of the features include support for Windows Phone 7.5 in SharePoint Online and improvements to Office file sharing in SkyDrive, its cloud storage service.

Microsoft Office 365 also offers plans for educational organizations, midsized businesses, and enterprises. Plans range from $10 to $27 per user per month. It includes 24-hour, 7 days a week support, 25 GB of email storage, and unparalleled cloud security on Microsoft’s trusted servers.

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SharePoint is the dominant intranet platform within Fortune 500 companies. The release and adoption of SharePoint 2010 has signified that  Enterprise Social Computing is the present and future of how we collaborate. SharePoint
is more than just a web based location to collaborate on Office documents. Organizations now have the tools to empower their user communities to rate documents, apply specific notes, create unique tags, and search for specific
expertise and locate individuals within the organization who can deliver this capability. Implementing a social media strategy represents new challenges for many organizations.

 Here are 3 tips for ensuring that your organization can meet the challenges of deploying social features within your environment:

1.) Ensure your organization has a written Social Media Plan.

Documenting your Social Media plan provides many advantages. The main benefit is that it provides objectives for social features being deployed within the organization, safety issues, education and resources, and mitigating
concerns with data leakage, and intellectual property. In addition to the organization’s technical team, the following groups should also review and provide additions to the Corporate Social Plan.

1.) Legal team

2.) Compliance Team

3.) Executives

4.) Human Resources

Your Corporate Social Media Plan is a part of a solid governance strategy to ensure that your organization is leveraging social features in a safe and effective way.

 2.) Leverage the success of popular platforms to introduce SharePoint’s social
features.

The easiest way to educate employees is to relate concepts that the target audience is already familiar with. Facebook has over 700 million registered users. SharePoint’s MySites deliver many similarities to Facebook’s Wall.
Using Facebook references serve as a great starting point for training and End User education. Tags and Notes are also common to several other popular social platforms. Introducing these concepts in the context of relating them to popular platforms will enable your users to enjoy a shorter learning curve due to the fact that they are leveraging several other popular platforms that are familiar to them.

 3.) Ensure that your user community has a firm understanding of SharePoint lists
and libraries before introducing social features.

It is important that your employees understand the core features and functionality of SharePoint. Understanding how to add, edit, delete, list and library items, and utilize Search effectively are essential to leveraging key social capabilities. Keep in mind trhat the social capabilities of SharePoint 2010 provide new ways to share the base features that SharePoint offers, so understanding them is key to successful adoption of Enterprise social features.

 By following these 3 tips, you can ensure that your user community will have a greater understanding and experience leveraging the social capabilities that SharePoint offers.

 Written by: Shadeed Eleazer, Planet Technologies SharePoint Architect, Microsoft Dynamics SharePoint Partner

3 Tips to Leverage SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Social Computing Features is a post from: SharePoint Blog

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It is quite common for businesses to want their public-facing websites to be customized, and SharePoint is designed to make that as easy as possible, but some also feel the need to customize internal corporate portals as a way of showing a unified company look and feel throughout the organization. This may be a mistake.

According to SharePoint Pro there are two types of branding. The first type only makes changes to the general graphics, fonts, and colors while preserving the standard SharePoint UI and features. To outsiders, it would still be easy for them to walk right in and get working. The second type of branding revamps everything, creating a completely new UI, and may even involve hiring an outside firm to create the new interface.

In the end, the company who pays for this type of graphic design will have something completely unique, but there are plenty of disadvantages you should consider before doing this.

1.    Beyond appearance, what is the practical benefit? Creating a new UI is not something you would ever consider doing with other apps like Excel or Word. Why do that to SharePoint?

2.    Consider your users. There is a good chance many of your employees have used SharePoint with other companies and may even be experts. If you present them with a completely new frontend, they will need training and extra support, likely from the people who did the redesigning. You could then find yourself locked into a support contract with a third-party vendor. That is more money down the drain, and that third-party vendor may not be as reliable as your Microsoft partner. Is that a risk you are willing to take?

3.    Is it sustainable? Rather than having something manageable with a standard set of support tools and documents, you will have essentially created a new program, one that you are now responsible for supporting. That means it will cost you more than the standard SharePoint implementation, and you will have to do it all over again when the next version is released.

4.    Money is useful and can be useful in other areas. It is doubtful that your business revolves around SharePoint. It has other needs. You can spend that extra money on other tools or even more practical tools that will make your SharePoint system more productive for your specific industry.

In the long run, the disadvantages of branding internal SharePoint sites far outweigh the benefits. It will cost you more and simply give you more headaches. A simple logo change and a few color adjustments are enough and probably more than your employees will really notice anyway. That is money and time you could spend on actually making your company perform better rather than just looking better.

By SharePoint Blog Editors, Find a Local Microsoft SharePoint Expert

4 Points To Consider Before You Decide to Brand an Internal SharePoint Site is a post from: SharePoint Blog

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Because a business-critical application can have a far-reaching impact on the success or failure of a business, it is extremely important to have something reliable, something that is durable enough to withstand the highs and lows a business may experience.

A new white paper by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) highlights many of the reasons Microsoft SharePoint has become a business-critical application for numerous organizations and how it will increasingly become more of a mainstay in the business world. This ubiquity will make businesses better, but it will also require them to adapt and develop new ways of thinking about business collaboration.

51 percent of businesses consider SharePoint one of their top 5 applications, and a whopping 80 percent place it within the top 10. Over the next couple of years, 63 percent expect it to move into their top 5. More businesses are recognizing SharePoint as a critical application, one that is necessary to maintain a consistent flow of data and keep up performance levels.

Part of the reason for this recognition is that businesses have evolved and changed the ways in which employees interact with one another. You may go an entire day without someone dropping a file folder on your desk, but you may get emails from multiple colleagues, each with attached documents. File sharing, document management, and centralized storage are all tools businesses need and ones SharePoint delivers.

Moreover, these businesses now operate around the clock, with employees working from home, at other businesses, or even in other countries. They need sustained access to shared resources and the ability to collaborate with others in real time. As this new shape of business begins to solidify, SharePoint will play an increasingly critical role in that reshaping.

By SharePoint Blog Editors, Find a Local Microsoft SharePoint Expert

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Business Connectivity Services (BCS)

All Office 365 midsize and enterprise customers worldwide have access to BCS in SPO which enables them to connect to external data sources via Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Web Services endpoints in both read and write modes.  What that means is that you can design solutions that extend collaboration capabilities that include external business data, such as line-of-business (LoB) applications that sit behind customer firewalls, or are being transitioned to the cloud (think SQL Azure).  Best yet, you can download SharePoint Designer 2010 for free to help make the connections.

External Sharing

Now you are supported when working with people who are not part of your company, such as vendors, business partners, and customers. Leverage these external sharing capabilities to invite external users to view, share, and collaborate on your SharePoint Online sites. Although this feature is turned off by default, a SharePoint Online Administrator can enable external sharing for the whole company enabling individual site collection owner administrators to decide if they wish to share externally.

Improved Connections

It’s easier than ever to connect to your own SharePoint Online sites now that more browsers are supported.  In addition to earlier versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox, SPO now officially supports Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome.

SPO is also better connected with other LoB applications like Microsoft Dynamics CRM, giving CRM users access to rich, SharePoint Online document management functionality directly within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. Users can create SPO Document Libraries dynamically within CRM—when and where they are needed as well as adding Document Management capabilities to entities such as Accounts, Opportunities, Cases or even custom entities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Start a Free 30-Day Trial of SharePoint Online Today!

By Socius, an Ohio SharePoint Partner

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 1.    Social Communications – Despite the implications of the name, social media is not all about socializing. Many businesses have become very successful using it as a marketing tool, while others have used it to increase collaboration and communication within their companies. SharePoint has gradually implemented social media tools that many businesses already use, but there are still plenty who are reluctant to give it a try. Expect the gradual adoption of social media to continue in 2012.

2.    Cloud Adoption – Perhaps the only thing with more hype in the business world than social media is the cloud. From the amount of press it receives, one might assume that companies are moving to the cloud in droves. The reality is a little less dramatic, but 2012 should see an increase in cloud adoption. Microsoft unveiled its new cloud offering, Office 365, in 2011, and many customers will not be able to resist its charm and affordability.

3.    Governance – Even if your SharePoint implementation takes advantage of social media, it is still not a free-for-all. Someone has to be in charge and keep track of all of it. The scope and shape of that management is called governance. As SharePoint adoption grows, companies will need more comprehensive governance plans.

4.    The Future of SharePoint – The next wave of SharePoint implementations will focus on consolidation of legacy ECM platforms and attempt to create a unified SharePoint application. Expect to see companies start to spend more on development of business intelligence and other business-centered aspects of SharePoint.

 While trends can develop quickly, it may take years for businesses to follow through with them. 2012 will be no different, but the businesses that take action first will definitely have an edge.

 By SharePoint Blog Editors, Find a Local Microsoft SharePoint Expert

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First, it is important to understand what IT experts mean when they talk about SharePoint in the cloud. Many Microsoft partners offer hosting solutions for SharePoint that allow you to forgo purchasing costly hardware, data center security, and extra IT support to manage it. Alternatively, you can now subscribe to SharePoint Online as part of Microsoft Office 365, a full cloud implementation of SharePoint on Microsoft’s servers.

The article “Demystifying Microsoft SharePoint in the Cloud” helps buyers understand that hosted SharePoint solutions come in a variety of flavors each with its own distinct characteristics and benefits.

• Multi-Tenant Server Farm – In this model, the host offers SharePoint server packages to customers who then share the same infrastructure. The cost of the server farm is shared by them, reducing the individual cost. Because they all must play nicely with the shared system, some more advanced features may be disabled.
• Shared infrastructure, dedicated virtual machine – Like a virtual private server (VPS), this model typically uses a hypervisor solution (i.e. Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008). In this deployment model, the customers share the storage layer, hypervisor layer, and networking.
• Private infrastructure, dedicated virtual machine – With a private cloud, you can essentially do with it what you want. You are in full control of the hypervisor and can add or remove virtual machines when needed. The downside is the extra cost involved.
• Dedicated Server Hosting – This is basically identical to having your own on-premise server without the headache of having to manage it yourself. This makes it costly but allows you to leverage the full power that SharePoint has to offer.

Microsoft SharePoint offers unparalleled flexibility and scalability for truly dynamic business collaboration. Whether on-premise, hosted, or on Office 365, SharePoint is yours and can fit whatever business needs you have.

By Avastone Technologies LLC, Wisconsin Microsoft SharePoint Partner

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The default browser on Android phones blocks the authentication pop-up window that enables a user to login to SharePoint.  If you have received a “401 Unauthorized” error when trying to access SharePoint on your Droid or other Android enabled device, this is why.

There is a way around this issue.  Simply go into the Android Marketplace and download a browser app that supports SharePoint 2010 (like Firefox).  Then use your new Firefox Android app to visit your SharePoint URL, login, and access your site!

Contact us today for more information on SharePoint mobility!

By Socius, a SharePoint Partner in Ohio, Kansas City, and California

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 Because a business-critical application can have a far-reaching impact on the success or failure of a business, it is extremely important to have something reliable, something that is durable enough to withstand the highs and lows a business may experience.

 A new white paper offered by Metalogix, Managing SharePoint as a Business-critical Application, highlights a study by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) of the many of the reasons Microsoft SharePoint has become a business-critical application for numerous organizations and how it will increasingly become more of a mainstay in the business world. This ubiquity will make businesses better, but it will also require them to adapt and develop new ways of thinking about business collaboration.

 51 percent of businesses consider SharePoint one of their top 5 applications, and a whopping 80 percent place it within the top 10. Over the next couple of years, 63 percent expect it to move into their top 5. More businesses are recognizing SharePoint as a critical application, one that is necessary to maintain a consistent flow of data and keep up performance levels.

 Part of the reason for this recognition is that businesses have evolved and changed the ways in which employees interact with one another. You may go an entire day without someone dropping a file folder on your desk, but you may get emails from multiple colleagues, each with attached documents. File sharing, document management, and centralized storage are all tools businesses need and ones SharePoint delivers.

 Moreover, these businesses now operate around the clock, with employees working from home, at other businesses, or even in other countries. They need sustained access to shared resources and the ability to collaborate with others in real time. As this new shape of business begins to solidify, SharePoint will play an increasingly critical role in that reshaping.

 By SharePoint Blog Editors, Find a Microsoft SharePoint Expert

New Study Proves SharePoint Is Becoming a Business-Critical Application is a post from: SharePoint Blog

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