Chris Bortlik's Blog : Deployment

SharePoint Consulting and Training Resources

cbortlik — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:02:00 GMT

Over the past few months I have been meeting and working with customers to help them with Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) and to plan for SharePoint 2010. Our discussion usually starts with generic questions such as:

How do we architect and setup our SharePoint environment?
What features should we turn on and what’s the impact of doing so?
How do we move content from one environment to another?
What are the best practices for governance, security and information architecture?
How much disk space do we need and what should we think about when planning for search and content databases?
What about backups?
How do we train our end users?

While there are some quick answers to these questions, most of the time there is much more to think about than just the surface level questions. Discussions that go well beyond a quick conversation.

In some ways getting started with SharePoint is a lot like building a new house for the first time. Just like how you would never build a house without having detailed architectural blue prints and plans, and involving subject matter experts (plumbers, electricians, etc.) to help with the construction, so too should you consider engaging certified SharePoint partners to help with the detailed architectural design, training and implementation.

What many customers do not realize is that there are often a number of free benefits and services available to them that are designed to assist with the up front planning. These include:

Packaged services consulting benefits: Prepaid consulting days that many customers have available to them based on their contract with Microsoft. Key ones to note for SharePoint:

SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS) is designed to help your organization plan an effective deployment that can optimize the core capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.
Business Value Planning Services (BVPS) helps your organization's business decision makers develop a plan to maximize the business value of the Microsoft Office system through structured, multi-day engagements.

There are also a number of different IT and end user training resources available. Most of these are at no additional charge as well:

Training vouchers can be used to attend training classes with Microsoft certified training partners.
E-Learning courses can be used for self paced training.
The Productivity Hub can be downloaded, installed and customized in your SharePoint environment to both provide training resources and showcase key SharePoint capabilities.

One final note: many of the resources above are provided to Microsoft customers that have Software Assurance (SA) for SharePoint. If you don’t currently have SA for SharePoint, now may be a good time to get the above resources as well as the rights to use SharePoint 2007 now and SharePoint 2010 after it is launched next year.

See you at the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas!

cbortlik — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:58:07 GMT

It’s hard to believe, but the SharePoint Conference is less than 7 weeks away! The conference is being held in Las Vegas from October 19-22. This will be THE place to hear and see all about SharePoint 2010.

I will be attending the SharePoint Conference and will be involved in a few things, including:

Presenting a session titled: “Office 2007 vs. Office 2010 - Deployment Considerations”
Proctoring hands on labs where you can use SharePoint 2010

The hands on labs are self explanatory. This will be your time to take a guided tour of all things SharePoint 2010 and be able to use the latest bits.

My presentation, at first glance, may seem a little odd. Why, at the SharePoint Conference of all places, are we talking about Office?

The answer: in the 2007 product release, the Office client lights up many of the key SharePoint capabilities and helps drive end user usage and adoption. More details on that can be found here in my prior blog post. In the 2010 release, we will build upon and extend this integration.

This session will dive into the pros and cons of Office 2007 and Office 2010 deployment and discuss how deploying Office 2007 now can help pave the way for Office 2010 in the future. Specific areas of focus will include the Open XML file formats; Office Business Applications; user interface changes and adoption; application virtualization; and integration of the Office client with SharePoint, Exchange and Office Communications Server (OCS).

Are you planning to be at the SharePoint Conference as well? If so, what sessions and topics are you most interested to learn about?

Free Office, SharePoint and Windows training resources for your Intranet

cbortlik — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:32:00 GMT

We have recently released the Productivity Hub as a free download. A number of my customers have been beta testing this Hub over the past few months and it has received great feedback and helped to accelerate the deployment, adoption and training for Office and SharePoint 2007.

The Hub is a SharePoint Server 2007 site collection that serves as a learning community and is fully customizable. It provides a central place for your training efforts, and includes training content from Microsoft’s core products. Microsoft also provides ongoing and updated content packs.

The Hub uses SharePoint Server’s social networking capabilities, such as blogs and discussion groups. In addition, it offers the Coach program, a change management feature to help you train end users to self-help, reducing the burden on your training and IT staff. The Coach program impacts productivity in a collaborative and positive way.

What the Productivity Hub is:

Format: Pre-loaded SharePoint site collection, optimized for Web 2.0 functionality and easily deployed within SharePoint Server 2007 environment.
Content: Convenient end user productivity training in a variety of formats (documents, videos, podcasts, etc.). Receive free quarterly updates of content that you will learn about through the Productivity blog.
Blog: The Productivity blog offers tips and tricks for end user productivity. Use it as is, or your training staff can use the posts as their own to help them get started in running an internal blog.
Train the trainer: Includes IT/Manager section to aid with deployment of the site collection, and guidance to develop the Coach program.
Products: Office 2007 System applications including SharePoint Server 2007. Windows 7 and others will be added in the future.

Want to get Office Enterprise 2007 for $9.95?

cbortlik — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:30:28 GMT

We recently rolled out changes to the Microsoft Home Use Program (HUP) that may enable you to download Office Enterprise 2007 for your home personal use for just $9.95!

Details can be found on the Home Use site.

Not familiar with the Home Use Program? Home Use is just one of the many Software Assurance (SA) benefits that many of our customers enjoy.

In addition to getting upgrade rights to newer versions of Microsoft software, SA benefits also help with training and deploying Microsoft software.

June 26 - Office 2007 Deployment Hands On Lab in Waltham, MA Office

cbortlik — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:02:52 GMT

On Friday, June 26, 2009 from 8:30am – 4:00pm, I will be leading another 1 day technical hands-on lab related to Office 2007 deployment.

The event will be held at the Microsoft offices at 201 Jones Rd., Sixth Floor, Waltham, MA 02451

Space is limited and attendance is restricted to Northeast enterprise customers only. Register Today!

Click here to register or call 877.673.8368 and reference Event Code 1032400099.

Event Summary

Join us for the Deploying and Managing Office 2007 in the Enterprise hands on lab to learn about the new tools and technologies to deploy the 2007 Microsoft Office System. In this event, you will receive practical technical information and proven techniques necessary to design, customize, and deploy an Office 2007 installation in your environment. You will be given the deep technical assistance required to better plan your organization’s deployment, and have the opportunity to work with experienced resources that can help resolve potential deployment blockers and other upgrade related issues.

Join us for this one-day hands-on-lab and get technical information and experience on the following:

Planning for the deployment of Office 2007
Office Resource Kit
Deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office system with the Deployment Workbench
Office Customization Tool (OCT)
Multi-language integration
Local installation source
Group Policy Object templates and accelerators
Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) scanning tool
Detecting add-ins
Handling macro and Access database concerns
Converting documents to Office 2007
Compatibility of Office 2007 with prior formats
Strategies and tools for ramping users up on the new Office 2007 fluent user interface
Best practices in the Enterprise

What is a hands-on-lab?

These aren't your typical IT training class. They are delivered by Microsoft Field Technical Specialists with real world deployment experience. These hands-on labs are for experienced IT Pros who want to gain hands-on practice and experience with Microsoft’s Office deployment technologies. You can expect to spend the majority of the time interacting with the deployment tools / technologies in your own virtual lab environment with a moderate level of instructor presentation.

Who Should Attend?

These courses are for IT Professionals and Technical Decision Makers who require a in-depth knowledge of Microsoft’s deployment technologies and tools.

Prerequisites?

To get the most from this course, you will need to be familiar with the Windows and Office desktop environment.

Register Today! This special, no charge training event will fill quickly and space is limited, so be sure to register as soon as possible to reserve your seat. Note that attendance is restricted to Northeast enterprise customers only.

Office 2010: Register for the Technical Preview Program and Get More Info …

cbortlik — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:48:35 GMT

Earlier this week Microsoft made some important Office 2010 announcements during our annual TechEd conference. One of the announcements was that Microsoft will have an invitation only Technical Preview Program for Office 2010.

This program is scheduled to launch in July 2009 and will offer selected customers the opportunity to experience early, pre-release versions of Office 2010 which will include the following applications: Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Access 2010, InfoPath 2010 and Publisher 2010.

As we count down to the start of the Technical Preview Program for Office 2010, more information and resources on Office 2010 are becoming publicly available for our customers and partners. These include:

Office 2010 Technical Preview Registration: Register to be considered for the Technical Preview Program, which is scheduled to begin in July 2009.
Office 2010 IT Blog: The official Office 2010 blog of the Microsoft Office product group. This includes information on the preliminary system requirements for Office 2010.
Office 2010 Forum: A place to discuss the Office 2010 Technical Preview Program and other information and questions around the new version Office
Office 2010 the Movie: A fun trailer and preview of things to come.
Office 2010 Press Release: Some high level details on Office, SharePoint and Exchange 2010.

Office 2007 SP2 Released

cbortlik — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:43:00 GMT

Office 2007 service pack 2 has been released today and is available for download.

Some of the features being incorporated into SP2 are integrated support for saving to PDF, XPS and ODF file formats - all of which previously required separate free downloads. There are also some bug fixes and performance improvements included in this release. Outlook has one of the biggest set of updates. Specific details are provided at the links below:

PressPass Q&A - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Apr09/04-28Office2007SP2QA.mspx
Sustained Engineering blog – Technical details, converter API
Office Interoperability blog - Doug Mahugh – Discusses additional file formats in Office from a standards point of view
Microsoft on the Issues blog – Discusses what file format choice means for customers & partners
Gray Matter - Gray Knowlton – Tells the broader Office developer story

Another reminder that mainstream support for Office 2003 ended earlier this month. More details on the Office 2003 support lifecycle, and reasons to consider upgrading to Office 2007, can be found on my earlier blog post here.

Office 2007 SP2 to Release on April 28, 2009

cbortlik — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:23:06 GMT

The Office Sustained Engineering team has just released the official date for shipping Office 2007 SP2. This will be released to the web for download on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

More details on what is being addressed in SP2 can be found here on their blog post.

Also, just a reminder that mainstream support for Office 2003 ended earlier this week. More details on the Office 2003 support lifecycle, and reasons to consider upgrading to Office 2007, can be found on my earlier blog post here.

April 24 - Office 2007 Deployment Hands On Lab in Waltham, MA Office

cbortlik — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:50:54 GMT

On Friday, April 24, 2009 from 8:30am – 4:00pm, I will be leading another 1 day technical hands-on lab related to Office 2007 deployment.

The event will be held at the Microsoft offices at 201 Jones Rd., Sixth Floor, Waltham, MA 02451

Space is limited and attendance is restricted to Northeast enterprise customers only. Register Today!

Click here to register or call 877.673.8368 and reference Event Code 1032400097.

Event Summary

Join us for this one-day hands-on-lab and get technical information and experience on the following:

Planning for the deployment of Office 2007
Office Resource Kit
Deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office system with the Deployment Workbench
Office Customization Tool (OCT)
Multi-language integration
Local installation source
Group Policy Object templates and accelerators
Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) scanning tool
Detecting add-ins
Handling macro and Access database concerns
Converting documents to Office 2007
Compatibility of Office 2007 with prior formats
Strategies and tools for ramping users up on the new Office 2007 fluent user interface
Best practices in the Enterprise

What is a hands-on-lab?

Who Should Attend?

These courses are for IT Professionals and Technical Decision Makers who require a in-depth knowledge of Microsoft’s deployment technologies and tools.

Prerequisites?

To get the most from this course, you will need to be familiar with the Windows and Office desktop environment.

Outlook 2007 Performance Updates Released

cbortlik — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:51:53 GMT

Performance updates for Outlook 2007 were recently released. You can read more about these updates and download them here.

Please note that these updates, as well as a number of other items, will also be included in Office 2007 SP2. More information on SP2 can be found here.

March 20 - Office 2007 Deployment Hands On Lab in Waltham, MA Office

cbortlik — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:28:30 GMT

On Friday, March 20, 2009 from 8:30am – 4:00pm, I will be leading another 1 day technical hands-on lab related to Office 2007 deployment.

The event will be held at the Microsoft offices at 201 Jones Rd., Sixth Floor, Waltham, MA 02451

Space is limited and attendance is restricted to Northeast enterprise customers only. Register Today!

Click here to register or call 877.673.8368 and reference Event Code 1032400096.

Event Summary

Join us for this one-day hands-on-lab and get technical information and experience on the following:

Planning for the deployment of Office 2007
Office Resource Kit
Deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office system with the Deployment Workbench
Office Customization Tool (OCT)
Multi-language integration
Local installation source
Group Policy Object templates and accelerators
Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) scanning tool
Detecting add-ins
Handling macro and Access database concerns
Converting documents to Office 2007
Compatibility of Office 2007 with prior formats
Strategies and tools for ramping users up on the new Office 2007 fluent user interface
Best practices in the Enterprise

What is a hands-on-lab?

Who Should Attend?

These courses are for IT Professionals and Technical Decision Makers who require a in-depth knowledge of Microsoft’s deployment technologies and tools.

Prerequisites?

To get the most from this course, you will need to be familiar with the Windows and Office desktop environment.

Office Shop Has Launched …

cbortlik — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:36:32 GMT

THE OFFICE SHOP has LAUNCHED!

This is a one stop shop for all of your “Office” needs. Posters, Pens, Hats, T-shirts, Tips & Tricks Documents, just to name a few.

The site has both orderable and FREE downloadable materials to help our customers and partners with generating internal excitement around their Office 2007 deployment along with training resources to support the process.

Office 2003 Mainstream Support Ending in April 2009

cbortlik — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:40:51 GMT

Mainstream support for Microsoft Office 2003 is scheduled to end on April 14, 2009. Extended support for the 2003 release will be available until January 14, 2014. The Office 2003 Frequently Asked Questions and Support Lifecycle pages have more details regarding Office 2003 support plans and options.

If you have not looked at the Office 2007 release recently, here are some prior blog posts that you may want to review and consider:

Office 2007 Deployment Hands On Lab in Waltham, MA Office

cbortlik — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:08:28 GMT

On Friday, February 20, 2009 from 8:30am – 4:00pm, I will be leading a 1 day technical hands-on lab related to Office 2007 deployment. This is an event that we are scheduled to offer once per month from February – June 2009.

The event will be held at the Microsoft offices at 201 Jones Rd., Sixth Floor, Waltham, MA 02451

Space is limited and attendance is restricted to Northeast enterprise customers only. Register Today!

Click here to register or call 877.673.8368 and reference Event Code 1032400093.

Event Summary

Join us for this one-day hands-on-lab and get technical information and experience on the following:

Planning for the deployment of Office 2007
Office Resource Kit
Deploying the 2007 Microsoft Office system with the Deployment Workbench
Office Customization Tool (OCT)
Multi-language integration
Local installation source
Group Policy Object templates and accelerators
Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) scanning tool
Detecting add-ins
Handling macro and Access database concerns
Converting documents to Office 2007
Compatibility of Office 2007 with prior formats
Strategies and tools for ramping users up on the new Office 2007 fluent user interface
Best practices in the Enterprise

What is a hands-on-lab?

Who Should Attend?

These courses are for IT Professionals and Technical Decision Makers who require a in-depth knowledge of Microsoft’s deployment technologies and tools.

Prerequisites?

To get the most from this course, you will need to be familiar with the Windows and Office desktop environment.

Office 2007 Value, Integration, Deployment and Training Slides

cbortlik — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:51:00 GMT

Thanks again to all of the customers that joined us at our Office 2007 events in New York & New England during the past 2 weeks to hear more about:

The business & technical value of Office 2007
How the Office Client integrates with the Office system server products: SharePoint, Exchange & Office Communications Server (OCS)
Best practices & tools for deployment & file conversion
Available training & learning resources

It was great getting to meet with so many customers & I enjoyed discussing how you’re using Office today & your plans for Office 2007.

As requested, the slides from our presentations have been posted on line:

Office 2007 Overview – Presented by Kevin Bauman
Office 2007 System – Better Together – Presented by Chris Bortlik in New York

NOTE: This presentation is similar to the demonstrations that we did in the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) in Waltham, MA

Office 2007 Deployment & Training Resources & Best Practices – Presented by Chris Bortlik

Happy Holidays to all!