James Akrigg .:. Out of Office : SharePoint

Microsoft Technologies - Today > Tomorrow > Futures Pt.4

James Akrigg — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:59:41 GMT

.: Presentation notes :.

SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint... That's all you would hear me talk about during my first six years at Microsoft. Now in it's third version it has become the fastest growth product in Microsoft's product history reaching $1bn faster than any other product. I put this down to several key attributes. First the capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) are now vast spanning collaboration, content management, portal, search, business intelligence and business process management and this makes SharePoint the ideal 'information platform' for business. Secondly I would say that the extensibility of this platform has enabled the solutions our partners have been creating to address a wide and varied set of business problems across business functions and company boundaries. Having a technology that can be used for Intranet, Extranet and Internet solutions is of great strategic value when considering skills needed to support and drive your information platform.

The slide is hard to see in the scaled down image, but it basically puts SharePoint in the centre and illustrates that it requires Windows Server 2008 (or Windows Server 2003) and stores data in SQL Server. To the right (as you look at the slide) it shows how you may protect your information platform using ForeFront for SharePoint and Data Protection Manager (part of System Centre) to help with disaster recovery. To the left we have SharePoint Designer. This is a design tool to make it easier to customize the look and feel of SharePoint sites and more easily create solutions based on SharePoint. Finally at the top of the slide we have 'user experience'. Tight integration with Office 2007 and Office Communication Server really brings the solution to life as users can use familiar tools to interact with SharePoint. (slide 1)

We have been using Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007) at Microsoft for sometime now and it is transforming the way we do business. Using Office Communicator 2007 client application to see presence information for anybody in the organization I may wish to contact is fantastic but it becomes amazing when I add contacts in partners that I work with so that we can communicate and collaborate more effectively. Applications that contain contact information (e.g. Outlook, SharePoint etc) light up with presence information when signed into Office Communicator so that I can communicate in context. So that's my business strength presence and instant messaging taken care of and you would think that was good. Well in the tradition of going from good to great let's throw in PBX integration to voice enable Office Communications Server. In a recent trip to Los Angeles I was able to make calls from my Vista Laptop via the Wireless Internet connection in the hotel and conference centre and significantly reduce my mobile roaming charges. More recently I have been testing using a Netbook with a small bluetooth headset to make calls. Those that attended the event should remember the demo :)

Piloting unified communications using Office Communications Server 2007 and perhaps collaboration with SharePoint is a great way to see the immediate benefits you can get in using these technologies. Many partners are doing this today and sharing their real world experiences with customers looking at ways to reduce costs and improve communication and collaboration capabilities. If you are not seriously looking at SharePoint and Office Communications Server you should and with the release of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 in the first half of next year there will be even more solution possibilities. (slide 2)

.: Resources :.

SharePoint Server 2007 Homepage

Windows Server 2008

SharePoint Solution Templates

Office Communications Server 2007

Technical Resources for SharePoint Server 2007

Using the latest SQL Server 2008 features with SharePoint Server 2007

Using SharePoint Products and Technologies with Hyper-V

SharePoint Server 2007 Evaluation resources

Early information on Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and Launch Event Registration Link

I have SharePoint 2007, but am I managing it correctly?

James Akrigg — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:30:00 GMT

I had the pleasure of presenting at a couple of events last week that covered Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. One of the most common questions was from customers who had installed SharePoint to evaluate it, but were not sure if it was setup correctly or if they were managing it correctly.

I was asked to recommend any books that could help. Well you are in luck you can go to your traditional book shop or your favorite online reseller and get 'Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Administrator's Companion' TODAY.

Yes I know it's a Microsoft Press book and yes I work for Microsoft, but believe me I did look for other titles and this is currently the best available to buy today. If you are having problems finding it then I have included a link to it on Amazon UK.

Regards

James Akrigg

2.0 + 4 = 3.0??? .NET Framework confusion

James Akrigg — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:08:00 GMT

I have had a few conversations recently about developers not looking at .NET Framework 3.0 as they believe it is a completely new version of the .NET Framework. Well that is not strictly true and perhaps the version of the framework has confused a few people.

The .NET Framework 3.0 combines the power of the .NET Framework 2.0 with four new technologies (2.0 + 4 technologies): Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and Windows CardSpace (WCS, formerly "InfoCard").

It should be noted that Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 uses the Windows Workflow Foundation as part of .NET Framework 3.0 to drive the workflow capabilities used in Document Management and Web Content Management. MOSS provides a great example of what can be achieved using .NET 3.0 WF.

James Akrigg

SharePoint Fab Forty Templates are now Ready!

James Akrigg — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:52:00 GMT

All forty SharePoint Services 3.0 Appliaction templates can now be downloaded.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5807b5ef-57a1-47cb-8666-78c1363f127d&DisplayLang=en

These are great to help show how SharePoint can be used to solve real business problems and provide a good starting point for customisation to meet specific customer needs.

If you develop templates for SharePoint solutions then please leave a comment on my blog as I'm always interested to see how are technology is being used.

James Akrigg

Don’t be Evil! Blah, blah, blah! Get Ready to be EVOL!

James Akrigg — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 00:10:41 GMT

New Products! New Thinking! New Opportunities! New dates for your calendar to meet Microsoft and learn all about Exchange, Vista, Office and Live. I've been in the office this week working through the details with Steve and Ben as we put the final touches to what I hope will be a great demonstration of just some of the possibilities this new wave of software will mean to businesses in the UK.

The Business EVOLution Roadshow will be all over the UK so I hope you can find a suitable date and location to join us. It's hard to believe that the last public beta of Office 2007 (Beta 2 Technical Refresh) and Vista RC2 (Build 5744) are out the door and we are just counting the days now until RTM (Release to Manufacture). Why not make time to ensure you have the information you need to help customers evolve into the New World of Work and deliver positive business impact.

If you are a Microsoft Partner then click here to register today.

If you don't think you are going to be able to make any of the dates we have. Then you don't have to miss out. Take a look at this sneak peak recorded at a recent Microsoft conference.

A Sneak Peek at Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System, Including Exchange 2007 Server

James Akrigg

SharePoint : “There’s no point if you don’t share!”

James Akrigg — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:47:00 GMT

I have started to receive feedback via comments on my blog and true to my word I am responding. In my previous post on 'Geek Gland Training' I posted information for training on Office 2007, Exchange 2007 and Windows Vista but I also tagged the post as being related to SharePoint. The comment I received was quick to point out that I had not included links to SharePoint 2007 training. With this post I hope to share information that will help you start to develop skills needed for this powerful product from the Office team.

The first resource is titled 'Clinic 3370: Getting Started with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 (Beta)'. This could be the introduction to SharePoint Server that everyone has been looking for. The course will enable you to:

Describe the design goals and features of Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Describe how to manage documents and Web content using Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Describe the Office SharePoint Server 2007 features for organizing and finding data.
Describe how to implement business solutions using Office SharePoint Server 2007.

The second resource, 'Clinic 5046: Inside Look at Building and Developing Solutions with Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007', is aimed more at developers but it could also be useful if you are looking to extend SharePoint Server. The course will enable you to:

Describe the Office SharePoint Server 2007 high level features.
Describe Integration with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
Describe how to extend, assemble and configure MOSS solutions.
Describe how to build MOSS Business solutions with MOSS.
Describe features for building Portal Solutions (Business Data Catalog, Shared Services, Profiles).
Describe features for building Business Intelligence Solutions (Excel services, reporting, dashboards).
Describe features for building Web and Enterprise Content Management Solutions (field controls, custom content converters).
Describe Single Sign on service.
Describe InfoPath forms.

To compliment the above resource we also have 'Clinic 5045: Inside Look at Developing with Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0'. This covers everything you are going to need to get started creating solutions on SharePoint Services. The clinic will enable you to:

Describe Site and Workspace management and Document storage.
Describe Integration with ASP.NET and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Describe Sites, Lists, Content Types and Collaborative features.
Describe Programming with WSS and using the WSS Event model.
Describe the Property Bag and Change Log.
Describe SharePoint Pages, Master Pages and Content Pages.
Describe Custom Views and Templates.
SharePoint Designer
Describe Web parts and Workflow support.
Describe the Administrative object model.
Describe how to create deployable Windows SharePoint Services-based solutions.
Describe the Feature framework.
Describe the Solution deployment model.

Each of these courses can be downloaded and run offline, so if like me you travel a lot, this could be a great way to learn on the move. Oh and if you hurry they won't cost you a thing. Well that's all for now. I hope this helps and please keep those comments coming.

James Akrigg

Geek Gland Training : Archery

James Akrigg — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 01:55:00 GMT

Are you on target to having the right skills to develop the next generation solutions built on the new Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007? Would you like to get ready? Would you? Really? I've been asked about developing skills by ISV partners, Custom Solution Developers and Information Worker System Integrators for the new wave of technologies coming in 2007 and I'm happy to say we have been listening. Our training team has worked hard to get some developer training ready before we launch to customers. This is an opportunity not to be missed but spaces are limited and interest is very high, so please book early to avoid being disappointed. Add new strings to your bow and take aim on developing innovative solutions for your customers in these two day geek gland workouts.

If you are a UK Microsoft Partner then use the links below:

Office 2007 Developer Training

Windows Vista Developer Training

Exchange Server 2007 Technical Training