'Net Features : sharepoint

Yammer Will Help Microsoft Office Be More Social

Michael Garrity — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:35:00 GMT

Taking a page out of Google’s digital book, Microsoft now seems to be trying to add a social spine that runs through all of its various software products, and it’s using its acquisition of the enterprise social network Yammer to do it.

In fact, according to the Senior Director of Microsoft’s Office Division, Jared Spataro, in a blog post published Tuesday, Yammer is the company’s “big bet for enterprise social, and we’re committed to making it the underlying social layer for all of our products.”

The first step in this process was integrating Yammer with the Microsoft Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM) platform, but it’s certainly not stopping there! In fact, this summer, the company plans to release an update to Office 365 that will let customers replace their SharePoint “newsfeeds” with Yammer, in addition to supporting single sign-on and seamless navigation from Office 365’s global navigation bar.

Included in this new, improved and Yammer-incorporated version of Office 365 will be rich document capabilities that let users integrate Office Web Apps to add editing and co-editing capabilities to Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents. Plus, by 2014, Microsoft apparently plans to initiate a 90-day update cycle for the social enhancements included in Office 365 to “combine social, collaboration, email, instant messaging, voice, video and line of business applications in innovative new ways.” In other words, the company will be able to incrementally flesh out the connections between Yammer and Office 365.

However, Office 365 isn’t the only Microsoft product that’s going to be getting a boost of Yammer. The company is also going to allow customers to replace their SharePoint newsfeeds with Yammer when conducting on-premises installations of the SharePoint Server 2013. This will, in turn, create a sort of hybrid between the two services.

Microsoft SharePoint and SharePoint Alternatives

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Accessed through a standard Internet Explorer Web browser or by using Microsoft Outlook 2007, Microsoft SharePoint 2007 provides businesses with an easy to use Web portal or extranet system.

There are several ways SharePoint can be used - by uploading documents directly to the SharePoint site, uploading files directly from Microsoft Office applications such as Word or Excel or by emailing a document to the SharePoint site. All in all, SharePoint is a powreful platform. Users can collaborate with others on tasks and activities, share resources and BI (business intelligence), create and manage content, search for information, and create workflows to streamlines business processes.

The solutions come as both hosted and dedicated offerings. The Hosted solution is an SaaS shared platform - a low cost alternative for operating SharePoint sites without the need to purchase or maintain any hardware of software. The Dedicated SharePoint solution is for those with special requirements needing their own server. The Dedicated SharePoint platform allows for unlimied sites, users and business applications. In addition to the ability to create team workspaces (which is what has brough many into the fold), SharePoint can benefit an enterprise in a number of ways with its feature set; calendar coordination, document organization, alerts and announcements, company and employee blogs, virtual meeting spaces, online surveys and offline synchronization capabilities.

Another benefit of SharePoint is the ability to easily manage documents. Ensuring the integrity of content is a top priority for many organizations, especially as working remotely becomes more commonplace. Employers also benefit by being able to track the progress of projects, check if and when workers are online, and automate regular administraive responsibilities to reduce operational costs through workflow management.

One of the main selling points of SharePoint is that it integrates with the Microsoft Office suite to create a full-scale business utility. From PowerPoint and Excel to Access and Outlook, engaging in a collaborative work environment with your colleageues and peers could bring your business to a new level of efficiency. The downside is that applications like SharePoint require quite a bit of setup and those using the application need to understand exactly how it works. This requires training so if you're thinking about running with SharePoint, know there will be costs involved. And while SharePoint requires a fairly sophisticated administrator for set up and configuration, its a top-tier solution if you need a very flexible extranet or intranet.

If SharePoint doesn't seem to be a good fit for your business, there are a few alternatives. Many CRM solutions (dotProject, SugarCRM) can be retrofitted to create a unique business environment, but many go the way of solutions such as Basecamp or activeCollab and FreeCRM. These solutions are solid alternatives to the sometimes unnecessary hierarchy and complexity of SharePoint.

SharePoint Driven Web Templates

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:08:00 GMT

Those of you using SharePoint for content management will be able to spruce up the look and functionality of your portals. PixelMill.com, a provider of design solutions for Web site builders and content managers, last week unveiled a series of new content management system Web templates that gives users the ability to quickly edit Web site content areas directly from within ordinary Web browsers.

From the release: "By combining the professional graphic design of pre-designed Web templates with the power of Microsoft's SharePoint-driven content management system (CMS) interface, PixelMill has introduced an unprecedented level of Web design and content management simplicity. With support from Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) experts B4Contact to develop the new Web template products, PixelMill crafted for business professionals a site building and content management solution that enables virtually any staff member with minimal Web experience and training to contribute to and dynamically edit and update a company's Web presence."

"With today's tightening economy and the rapid decentralization of employees and business partners, establishing a Web presence built on a centralized collaborative tool like SharePoint makes good business sense," said PixelMill CEO Jason Reckers. "This new approach removes virtually all obstacles for businesses to quickly create, deliver and manage a world-class Web presence."