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8/09/2011 8:39 a.m.Events; AUSSPC2012; SEASPC2011; NZSPC2012; HKSPC2011; Productivity; Community Challenge - AUS SPC; Community Challenge - NZ SPC; Fixes; SharePoint IDOL; TrainingApproved

​I have moved my BLOG to a re and refreshed site - here - 

www.debbiesblog.co.nz

 

 

  
1/09/2011 10:08 a.m.EventsApproved

​Two more events over for 2011 - and they were both great!

Tech-ed was excellent....interesting meeting and talking with Keynote Speaker Norm Judar about Technical Leadership (which could be applied to many similar principals, in leadership all round) - see his talk here - http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NewZealand/2011/DPR209

I did a quick Tech Talk Interview here: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NewZealand/2011/TT107

All the TechEd Online content is here -  www.microsoft.co.nz/techedonline.  - Links to all content listed below. Went to some great sessions (mostly SharePoint of course, but one great one on Project Cresent - looking forward to playing with that!!).

webpartssmall.pngI spoke on Visio Services and SharePoint at both Tech.ed and Code Camp and was amazed how many people hadn't seen all the fantastic things this produces. The benefits of being able to visualise data are many and varied - a picture paints a thousand word! It is also great to know that we can get such a lot from a product so widely used in most companies already!

....more on this later, I will write up blog posts on each of the modules I presented, and am also planning VISIO days around the country, let me know if you want to hear more on this :)

One major change this year was the HUB, the Market Place area, or where the usual exhibitor area is....instead of rows of exhibitors, Microsoft took on board comments from prior events and had only a few sponsors - around the circumference of the room - and the rest was room to mingle, network, sit and eat...and so on. It worked well, as a place to interact - the Microsoft stand in the middle, showcasing products and toys was slammed the entire time - and also worked well. I do wonder if the limited number of sponsors was ideal - sometimes at these events, it is great to be able to see what products , services are on offer - that you seldom get the chance to otherwise...

In saying that - the benefit to those exhibitors present was obviously great, given there were so few...hard one I guess, maybe they need TWO rooms with similar set up somehow, so that more exhibitors are present, but there is still the space for delegates to mingle?
 

Code Camp was also a fantastic event...more interest and registrations than ever before! - it was different having this POST tech.ed given the change to wed-fri (also heard positive feedback about that change!) - but hard if people were travelling home on the sat. Still we had a great day and I do have to thank the 35+ speakers for their time and contribution to speaking and being present amongst the delegates. MS Communitities logo.jpg

It was also fantastic to get the support from so many of the User Group Leaders around the country! - We had about 20 Leaders helping co-ordinate, speak, and pitch in - so thanx guys! Truly, great display of community effort. There is talk of doing another couple of code camps in 2012 - in Wellington and Christchurch which would be great.

There has been a survey to get evaluations about the event and the speakers/content etc posted on the Code Camp site - please fill it in : www.codecamp.co.nz

I was surprised at the number of people who raised their hands saying they were not currently part of a User Group! To join a DL, please complete this survey here - there will be a new MSCommunities site launched sometime within the next month, but in the meantime - that will do!

I have been President of MSCommunities for the last three years - lots of community and volunteer effort which I have really enjoyed. I stepped down from this position at our Annual User Group Leaders Summit in Auckland on Saturday and Brendon Ford takes up the lead for this now! A new Committee was also elected...I am sure they will do great things this coming year, and wish them all the best. I will still be involved as a local Bay Of Plenty SharePoint User Group Leader, and no doubt be around the different SharePoint User groups a lot :).  

Online Content from Tech.ed 

 
Breakout Sessions
Other Videos
 
 
 

 

 

  
8/08/2011 9:19 a.m.Events; Productivity; TrainingApproved

​I am presenting this topic at TechEd NZ this year and it has been a great presentation to prepare for. I look forward to sharing it with anyone who can make it - session time is THURSDAY 5:45pm - yep, right before the Techfest Party!!!

So...I will endeavour to post a few entries about the four key areas I cover - along with some great examples of how we can all derive business benefit for Visio as a tool - for process management, workflows, visualising data and then bringing it all together within a SharePoint environment, - below is the overview of what the sesison covers - see you there, and/or watch this paste after tech ed, for the follow up posts.

visiopreso.png



  
8/08/2011 8:29 a.m.ProductivityApproved

​3.pngContinuing on with the theme of storing information, to then being able to view subsets of data easily...webparts and pages on a SharePoint Site are great enablers in doing just this! The tip: Enrich your data using web parts and pages to visualise key information!

The demonstration first touched on the many visual webparts that people are using on sites to highlight specific information or provide graphic and visual links to data. Examples included:

  • Social Networking web parts
    • - eg Facebook (example here)
    • Twitter - see the NZ Code Camp home page : www.codecamp.co.nz or any of our event sites contain twitter feeds based on the Conference: http://www.spevents.co.nz
    • Blogs - see the above example for a filtered view based on the blog category
    • Flicker and youtube for photos to display or vids
  • Image webparts that you could filter based on metadata in the image library - carousel, sliders,
  • Data View Webparts are may and varied, and utilise your custom information, from lists and libraries, across sites and systems - they can enhances the display eg view of the speakers here
  • Favourites were also things like Tip of the Day, Weather webparts....
  • Couple of resources - always good examples of sites, webparts, pages on http://www.wssdemo.com and some free web parts here or check out http://www.codeplex.com
  • VISIO Web parts - I only included images in my original preso - but given I am speaking on this topic at Tech ed NZ in August, I will dedicate about 4 blog posts to it - Visio Services and SharePoint - some VERY cool stuff!

In our SharePoint training, we often use an apartment block as an analogy when describing Site Collections, an apartment is a Site, (BTW - this is also a great way to then explain Permissions!) the rooms lists and libraries, and the windows then become the WEB PARTS -
views into filtered parts of a certain list.

Webparts1.png


Pages can then contain multiple webparts on one page

  • Pages can show web parts from the same list - eg adding three web parts to the same page, all from the Task list, and making each webpart show different information - Completed Tasks, MY Tasks, Overdue tasks and so on - also handy for things like an Issues register - to show high level status, as well as detail relevant to the person logged on
  • Pages can also show web parts that show data from multiple lists - and have filters applied, so I can filter on Project or Customer (assuming that Site column exists in all my related lists) - and then see the documents, tasks and issues all related to that project or customer
  • Web parts can cross multiple lists and be displayed a lot more creatively and effectively with the Data View Web part.

Just having the ability to easily and simply add pages to your website, means you can control the amount of information displayed to users, target certain areas...and certainly enrich the data you have!

 

tip3.png

  
8/08/2011 6:46 a.m.ProductivityApproved

​4.png

Creating all these wonderful lists is invaluable for storing a ton of data, creates easy access for users, reduces time in finding information and in updating it……however, it then gets to the point, where lists (and libraries) become overloaded, and there is TOO much data, to make good sense of it…

Users can become frustrated in getting to the information they need quickly and easily...So here rolls in views and good use of metadata, and the best way to make the most of the data you store. While entire chapters of books are centred around metadata, this tip focuses on the ability to use metadata to quickly and simply cut through clutter.

Points included

  • Using filter and sort to get what you needed
  • Create columns in your lists (metadata) that will be used in Views, or for the purpose of finding, filing or filtering information.
  • Creating multiple views from the SAME list, and adding these to the quick launch (or other parts of pages) so users could go directly to the filtered view they needed - an example here was a contacts list, with a variety of pre built views (by category, region, and types) with links under one heading on the quick launch so everyone had one click, to info ContactsViews.png

  • A variety of styles can be used on lists, to again enhance usability - showing the "preview pane" style, allowed a quick look at all the data, with a quick scan owner the content within it..PreviewPane.png

  • Work with your users to create personal views, so they the exact filtered view they need - this is perhaps a first phase to having them create their own views ....but once users/execs understand they can get to what they need (what suits them personally!), they will use it all the more

Managed Metadata was covered and demonstrated showing benefits of the hierarchical term sets used to maintain consistency across all sites when it came to terms and terminology. I think Managed Metadata deserves its own blog (at some stage!) - so have just highlighted points in two ways.

Benefits of Managed Metadata vs Regular Metadata

  • Hierarchical - can display terms, and sub terms, and all the levels under - rather than needing multiple columns
  • Maintained and managed in one place and can be reused across multiple Sites, Site Collections, and so on - and can have a Term Store administrator PER term set - eg the HR manager could maintain ALL terms related to HR, to ensure words, synonyms, and meanings are consistent. The terms are then consumed by everyone.

termstore.png

  • Metadata Navigation (and Key Filters) can help users with long lists of information, so the navigation is in the quick launch panel, and users can filter to the level of the hierarchy, and see the results of that term set, or higher or lower as they require. (Note the display that is returned often causes users to have to scroll to the top - may need some custom dev to tidy that up!) metnav.png

  • Metadata is search comes later :)

How are Managed Metadata Columns being used?

  • On Intranet and Internet public facing sites - I have seen some great examples of the use of hierarchical columns added to pages, to then categorise content on the site, by relevant pages
  • Products - so updates done in one place filter through everywhere
  • Organisational structure - depts, divisions - teams
  • Locations - where things are - from physical cities, down to filing cabinets for structured deeds, contracts etc
  • Business Classification - for overall file plan - so each department can update and own relevant parts.  Taxonomy...

Enterprise Keywords were discussed as the "unstructured" capture of "folksonomy" rather than "taxonomy" as in Managed Metadata. So keywords can be added to any list or library (easily) - and allow users to enter ANY words they want. The next person who tries to enter a similar keyword gets shown all the ones previously entered, so they can "re-use" a keyword or create a new one.

There is definite value, in introducing keywords as a way to "change the current culture" of an organisation - get people used to tagging things - provided they can see the value of WHY they would do this - are they using My Sites, so they can easily find the things they have tagged?

Enterprise keywords were also a way to help define your own managed metadata fields, how are people using the tagging function - how do they logically classify, categorise, tag a document or piece of information? I have heard (although have yet to see how successful this was) of companies taking the approach that they would use ONLY keywords, and have this drive the business classification of the organisation - maybe a good approach? Maybe a better one to ensure adoption, users would classify in the way that gives them immediate reward - they can find things easier...and isnt that the main objective?

And yes, you can turn a Keyword into a Managed Metadata and move it into the appropriate term set...Keywords on their own are not hierarchical though.

 

 

  
8/08/2011 6:36 a.m.EventsApproved

 

Code Camp 2011!
The countdown is on! 24 Days to go...
One day of over 35 FREE sessions with expert speakers
Sunday August 28, 2011 (after Tech-Ed)
University of Auckland Business School
Register NOW to attend here
 
 Agenda: The agenda is now up and live here! Check out the great sessions and speakers we have lined up! 
​ What is Code Camp? The MS Communities Code Camp & Technology Summit is a FREE, non-commercial event, open to everybody with an interest in SQL, .NET, Infrastructure, SharePoint and other related topics and technologies.​
​
 Who should go? Developers, IT Professionals, business people students, anyone with an interest in technology.​
 

www.codecamp.co.nz
Follow #ccnz on Twitter
 
Thank you to our Sponsors:
 
​

 

  
1/08/2011 11:10 a.m.Training; ProductivityApproved

​ 5.png
This tip was all about the quick wins that can be gained from Custom Lists (and of course the Out of the Box lists and libraries provided in SharePoint). 

The productivity gains are potentially very obvious here….but to list a few:

  • Being able to access the information anywhere any time
  • Replacement of spreadsheets that were duplicated emailed and seldom held current information. 
  • Having lists instead of spreadsheet means multiple updates concurrently, instead of locked workbooks slowing down processes
  • Quick wins for users! Being able to automate painful processes so people could quickly and easily collaborate on common information
  • Custom lists are things that Power Users can do, so it empowers them as users, ensures they are getting great value out of their SharePoint sites, and can effect change fast!
  • Custom lists are a type on instant online form – without the complexity of other means, but giving users electronic forms, that could be simply customised in SharePoint Designer, have custom fields, and collect all types of data
Lists and Libraries also had some great features for users
o   Viewing in datasheet view, for quick updates to metadata
o   Connect to Outlook, for fast files uploads
o   Quick Steps
o   Adding workflow to items or lists, to improve business processes
o   Creating alerts so users can be updated when items (on specific views  if required) are changed
 
 
So…some examples…
  • Correspondence Register
  • People Lists – one of the MOST common lists on Intranets (and also one of the most common reasons people frequent the Intranet!) – these were combination of lists that user the User Profile Service, and Custom lists, to contain external contacts, or lists per project and do on
  • A Digital Diary – or internal Trade Me for employees to list items for sale
  • Maintenance Lists
  • Assets and Hardware Lists
  • Lists to maintain navigation items for multiple site collections within a sitetip5.png
  • Tips and Tricks List
  • Resources lists and Libraries

And the list goes on… :)

So the tip – finding better ways to store and access information.
 
 
 
A special addition to this blog, is compliments of one of the Bay of Plenty SharePoint User group members (John Murray from Zespri, who is working on a Contracts Management solution)– and that was the use of Quick Steps within the Ribbon on lists or libraries…while Quick Steps have many advantages, in helping users find what they need in just one click, this example really shows good use of “big friendly pushbuttons in the ribbon (or in the context menu) to surface workflow. Nice! Thank you John!
 
tip5_quickSteps.jpg

 
  
15/07/2011 10:05 a.m.Events; TrainingApproved

​WPC.png
I have just spent the last week at the Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference in Los Angeles, and I leave today inspired and ready for the next year of activities. This event has been amazing, to see the international depth and breadth of the partner network, the fantastic contributions, products and services this eco system provides, and the commradery and networking amongst those who attended.

I heard that the LA Mayor labelled this week as Microsoft week, both from the enormity of the event (15,000 people! - what an event to manage! - logistically - just fantastic!) - but also from the Day of Giving and contribution to community from Microsoft and the Partners. Of course, like any event, you also have to acknowledge the incredibly diverse, and large range of social activities - it was as much work planning evening activities as it was the day ones!

All in all, an excellent opportunity to connect, meet new people, further the relationship with existing colleagues and friends and grow as partners.

Highlights - too many to note, but a couple here...

  • World Order were very very cool at the day one keynote! Steve Ballmer was pretty good also :)
  • Meeting some great Microsoft people, and chances for discussions.
  • Some good sessions, and hearing feedback and q&a from multiple partners at these, was probably the highlight.
  • Richard Branson came through in a very sincere and authentic interview, which was great to see 
  • The Solution Innovation area - this was awesome - lots of interactive mini sessions on the floor, a ton of great sponsor booths, country specific meeting areas - excellent set up.
  • The Connect Hall - where you could book tables and meetings, and connect with other partners - great idea (albeit the booking system was a little clunky) - it worked! A short, productive and effective way to get around a LOT of people!
  • I loved seeing (and was very proud of) the recognition New Zealand got for awards and particpation we played at this event - and sorry if I missed anyone, please let me know!
    • Green Button (Bizspark and Technical and High performance computing innovation)
    • NV Interactive (Web Development)
    • Provoke - Country Partner of the year!
    • One Buzz - the NZ Imagine Cup winners - I was fortunate enough to be one of the judges for the NZ round and saw these guys win there, so it has been awesome to follow their progress and see them make it as far as they did in NY, and then see them on stage, during the Keynote at WPC! Congrats!
    • The Keynote demo done by Intergen
    • And, not sure of final stats - Will let Brent and Bernadette update that one - but something like 80 Kiwis were in LA for this event, pretty cool for a little country down under, and I think shows our well renowned Number 8 wire mentality, Kiwi ingenuity, and great spirit for partnering!
  • Great motivational talk from Yossi Ghinsberg who reminded me that there is NO other place or time than here and now!


To finally wrap it all up, we are proud to announce our achievement at envisionIT in the Gold Level for Digital Marketing Competency. We have particpated in the Microsoft Partner Network since 2007, and it is good to be continually improving as a result.PartnerLogowhitesmall.png

We are now looking to add additional competencies, in line with our SharePoint Training services - so watch this space! A HUGE thank you to my team, for their efforts and for the support and feedback from our customers, who helped us to achieve this level.
 

 

  
2/07/2011 7:52 p.m.ProductivityApproved

This covers two topics,

 

6.pngSo the first one is the use of Office Web apps - which provides access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, via the Browser, directly from within SharePoint - this has the main advantage, that for people that are accessing SharePoint remotely, where internet connectivity is not so good, or where they just need to quickly view (and maybe a few edits) to a doc or ppt, they can do so in the browser....they dont have to download the document and open it in the Word, PowerPoint etc....client on their own machine...

The edit capabilities are limited, but often enough for quick reviews, so the time savings in using this was great and well used by those who had the chance to experience it. The productivity tip......

 

tip6.png

The second example was, in my opinion a very powerful one, and once adopted about to get even better! Document Co-authoring is when one person open a document, from within SharePoint, and begins to edit, and a second (and 3rd and 4th etc ) person comes along and begins to edit at the same time.... Business examples include when people need to all work on the same document, at the same time, and see real time what is being updated...

 

Things like - RFP's, Contract Reviews, Project Charters, - a really good example - annual reports - where it is extremely time consuming for an admin person to collate all feedback, or worse wait while a document is circulated with track changes, then decipher the comments, and also hold the entire process up. So real time, see who is on line, what slide, or page they are editing, and when updates are available.

This can be done with people in different location or in the same office! = By seeing updates, the information is current, and may affect what the other person is updating, more efficient that a meeting to try and combine ideas, and the outcome - a 6_StatusUpdates.png

6-whoonline.pngnotifications when available 

 

 

 

 

 

See who is on line


 



 

 

 

 

 

6-whowhere.png

show who is editing a particular page.

  
2/07/2011 7:36 p.m.ProductivityApproved

​7.png

The points discussed here were around navigating a site. For users to understand what is where, and how best to use it. So this was using things like

  • Quick Links - drop down lists making quick access to pages , sites or lists etc
  • Links lists that users can contribute to with additional columns, that then categorise the links, and lead the user to where they need to be quickly
  • Quick Launch bar, tailored to the specific site, often with multiple links to the same list (different views) just so it is easy again for people to navigate
  • Summary Links Web Parts, for use in all sorts of situations, but definitely for easy Content Owner editing and updating, grouping, adding in icons and images, and providing instant navigation on a page
  • The Top Link Bar (Global Navigation) can also be tailored at a subsite level, so the links to pages and relevant information is exactly that - relevant!
  • Several public websites were demonstrated showing the various uses of top link nav and summary links webparts - again, best reference for Internet facing samples is www.wssdemo.com 
  • Tools discussed to improve navigation included a look at (Paul Culmsee's recommended site!) www.websitesthatsuck.com
  • Perform some "How would I find"exercises with your team - see where for example everyone would go to find a Leave application, how easy is your site to navigate

The key productivity tip was around people being able to get to what they need - people are more productive and less frustrated when navigation is simple and effective.

tip7.png

  
1/07/2011 8:28 p.m.HKSPC2011; EventsApproved

​The inaugural Hong Kong Community SharePoint Conference promises to deliver a lot of content specifically for anyone either LOOKING to move to SharePoint, or just starting out, OR already entrenched!!!

We are very happy to bringing this event to Hong Kong! It follows the VERY successful Southeast Asia SharePoint Conference, which attracted over 570 people to Singapore in 2010!! And we are repeating this event in Singapore this November 8-9 , 2011 - right before Hong Kong....

So come and join us.....and if you are on twitter

www.twitter.com\hksharepoint - or @hksharepoint or watch this search #HKSPC!

Other connections coming soon, but I will be updating things on this blog, or my twitter @debbieireland

Thank you also to Microsoft Hong Kong for their support and also we have big help and support from the local Hong Kong User Group , and DataAssure. More details to folllow......

www.sharepointconference.asia for more details and to register!!!

HKSPC2011.png

Also, interest in sponsoring this event please email support@spevents.co.nz for the sponsorship information pack.

  
1/07/2011 8:03 p.m.AUSSPC2012; HKSPC2011; NZSPC2012; SEASPC2011; EventsApproved

​Thanx @meetdux www.meetdux.com , who is doing a series of videos on Microsoft Partners value in using Social Networking for both the Microsoft Partner Network and the Worldwide Partner Conference - in July 

- BTW - I am very excited to be attending this event - 15,000 people, all sorts of networking, very cool 'connect' opportunitiy with Microsoft and Partners all over the world, and lots of content to go and listen to, talk to people....everything!

Anyway, I got to do an interview, on how I use Social Networking: Here is link to video  - hard to say it all in 3 mins, and I will follow up with entire blog post, if there was any interest??

 

 

  
30/06/2011 2:38 p.m.ProductivityApproved

​8.png
And the SharePoint capability was around all sorts of "Collaborative" features

Productivity enhancers included

  • Easier ways to share information
  • Reduction of email
  • Informal knowledge capture, making finding critical information faster and easier

The productivity tip was:

tip8.png
This was demonstrated using the very simple out of the box SharePoint tools such as team announcements and news lists, team discussions, and wikis... couple of comments on these:

  • Team Discussions have varying success it seems, with some people not using them at all.. personally, at envisionIT, we use them extensively both for our internal intranet site, and for the Organisers of the SharePoint Conferences (given we have many virtual teams located all over the world. They are therefore ideal for cutting down on emails, and allowing peope to contribute to discussions at a time that suits - and can then be used in team meetings, as review , rather than take an entire meeting to discuss the item!  They record decisions made, ensure if someone is away - that they can return and see all past comms and discussions at a glance, (instead of 100's of email trails) - note: I always add a column on team discussions to indicate if open/closed - so webparts on home page reflect only open ones. 
     
  • In the use of WIKI's, this was about encouraging input from the WHOLE team, towards things that are of value to your whole organisations - once people actually do a search which returns information from a knowledge site (that is of value) - they get it, and this whole process is adopted - yes, some of these take cultural and people change, but are well worth the effort when they are used as intended.
  • Sub sites were another example - where people working on the same project, team, document, initiative could easily collaborate - and these can be set up quickly and easily - using templates (eg Project site template) if required

I think overall the collaborative aspects of SharePoint further empower users to use the tools themselves, quickly and simply....they can add an announcement that updates the whole org...CEO blogs or news items can inform and communicate personal messages, news posts from all varieties are easy to add, edit, maintain, without overhead...and often contribute to time savings in current processes - where one person collates input from multiple people. There is a ton of information on SharePoint and its advantages as a collaborative tool, it was easy to see this one hit the list - and depending on the priority of an org (or perhaps maturity - given may well have this under control) - this could well be a lot higher in the Productivity tips order of things (in this blog series anyway :)) .

  
30/06/2011 2:15 p.m.ProductivityApproved

​9.png
SharePoint Capability was OnLine Forms! And using InfoPath to do this

This covered all sorts of process improvements, gained through automating paper forms, a few of which are listed here:

  • Helps to remove geographical barriers - where there are multiple offices in various locations, and current processes include faxing or scanning forms to email.
  • Improve track-ability - with paper many forms get lost - with electronic, it is easy to sort, filter, group and report - also a good one if there was fire, theft or flood - paper gets destroyed....
  • Means everyone can be responsible for their own forms - submitted, status, follow up, finding it, finalising it
  • Workflow! is a big one when it comes to process automation, escalation, approval, initiate other actions and so on
  • Lots of examples spring to mind like the usual Leave Application, Expense Claims, Purchase order, and lots of really good examples were discussed at various sessions as to how organisations are gaining HUGE productivty gains from implementing Online Forms.

The Productivity tip:

Tip9.png

And the idea to take forms like this:

Purchase Order Form.jpg

POInfoPath2.png

and turn it into this....and then create the accociated reports, workflow, KPI dashboards, within the SharePoint site..

 

 
 
 
 

 




  
30/06/2011 8:41 a.m.ProductivityApproved

​
10.pngThis is the Post 2/12 post - see here for introduction to this series.

Reporting was the Capability, but this could include things like KPI Dashboards, Reporting Services, Performance Point and most definately External Lists.

The Productivity Tip was providing the Right Information, at the Right Place at the right time - Key Points:

  •  The Right Information - aggregated, seen along side other relevant data, so getting information from various other source systems, and displaying within the one SharePoint portal
  • The Right Place - single log on to read only (or updateable) information - without the user needing to access multiple areas to find the data they need for decsion making. ALSO on line, so accessible from anywhere
  • The Right Time - refreshable on the screen, so current - no need to wait on people providing reports, or emails - it is there, when the user is ready to look at it.rightinfo.png
    The Demonstration includes the use of external lists displayed in a project site, but updated from other systems - eg SQL DB, HR systems, Custom apps. We also looked at the capability of Performance Point and the decomposition tree to drill down on graphs and visual data, to see the kind of information at a granular level.
  • The CRAP (Computerised Records for Attractive People) System, by Paul Culmsee was discussed - and excellent series of 5 mins vids here for viewing - these are specifically aorund simple ways to integrate Reporting Systems.

Overall the Productivity gains come in quick and powerful results with a lot less investment.

  
30/06/2011 8:40 a.m.AUSSPC2012; EventsApproved

​We also take the AUS SPC to a new venue for 2012 - MELBOURNE - March 20/21

We look forward to involving the Melbourne community (and of course the many other travelling delegates) in a successful 2012 event. Note: there will be SharePoint IDOL for Business - so if you are a company with a great story to tell, see the earlier post, ...

 

AUSSPC2012First.jpg

  
29/06/2011 12:07 p.m.NZSPC2012; EventsApproved

​The SharePoint Confernece comes to Auckland for the first time ever! We have all sorts of exciting new activities being planned, along with the on-going great content, sessions and speakers like past events. So put the dates in your calendar....more to come soon....

 

NZSPC2012.png

  
29/06/2011 5:57 a.m.Approved

​As much as I love Managed Metadata in SharePoint 2010, and the great advantages it brings to users (and here are some reasons...)

  • Hierarchial Term Sets means I can use one column in a list, instead of three....
  • One place to centrally manage metadata across entire SharePoint Farm and easily be able to use it everywhere
  • Lock down owners so departments can manage their own group term sets, relevant to their areas of expertise
  • All comes together when using search and refiners, - can then see the value of entering metadata, and being able to drill down
  • Allows for easy updates for changes in terms
  • Great for synonyms

There are however limitations and this article does a good job of listing these succinctly. http://www.sharepointanalysthq.com/2011/06/managed-metadata-column-limitations/

  
28/06/2011 12:59 p.m.ProductivityApproved

1-10.png​Over the past month or so, I worked on a presentation, that resulted in demonstrations of the TOP 10 Productivity Tips for SharePoint Users. I will cover this in a series of blog posts..this one as the introduction, then each of the 10 tips, and finally a summary of feedback from people who have seen it, or read this! - so this is 1/12!

 

The preso, was something that started with asking a good number of my SharePoint colleagues for their TOP three tips, that what they believed contributed to improvement of productivity. The rules : Simple but Effective.

So a big thank you, to a huge number of people who contributed ideas, and points. I wont list them all, although displayed many of the photos, on the preso slides :) - it was awesome to see the collaboration from everyone towards this and the time they took to respond was most appreciated. This is what we discussed....

What are the TOP THREE things you have seen, that shows how SharePoint improves Productivity?
 

These can be simple – but effective ways you think users USE SharePoint most– they could be the MOST frequently used part of your intranet, internet or team site – how SharePoint revolutionises and improves certain things you do – some cool webpart you have seen on a site, anything…what do you do in SharePoint that helps saves time, work smarter, improve efficiencies… 

By the way - I would welcome any more TIPS - please email me, or add comments to this blog!
 

I then collated all the feedback into segments, which helped derive the TOP 10 - of course there could have been more easily added, and the order would definately change for some...but over all, the responses were similiar enough in content, to build into 10, and they all pointed out similiar things...

Productivity was about

  • Working together on stuff
  • Using more of what you have
  • Finding Stuff!

 It was not about

  • Complex Solutions
  • Not specifically about Document Management....

I also have to reference Dr Nitin Paranjape, an Office MVP, whos preso I watched, about Office Productivty, as I really liked his term "Translating Technology into Business Benefit! He also spoke of the huge number of icons within Office applications, and the very few that users, actually use!

The same is true of SharePoint - the interesting things here.....is it because the are not needed? or not Known about??? - in the majority of cases "not known about" is more likely...given lack of training or knoweldge in the apps, and how they can work for you.

So the session was then broken into the 10 tips (Number one being the highest rated) - I do have to admit, I had to reorder some, to make the demo work - especially when presented to a VERY Business (sometimes not SharePoint Users) - but I am now using this to demo to execs and so forth, on the benefits of SharePoint in relation to how it affects productivity!

For the sessions I did at user groups recently, I asked the audience to provide feedback, on their order (of priorty of the tips), their effectiveness rating of each of the tips and ALSO any new ones - I will collate and report on these in the final blog!

I also did this preso, at the Mindjet Productivity Tour in Australia - see here. I will include a section on Mindjet and SharePoint throughout these posts

Each tip will be framed up as follows:

SpCapability.pngThis shows the SharePoint feature that is being demonstrated for each tip.

ProductivityTip.png

This is the associated tip.. 

 

And then there wdemoandwhy.pngas a demonstration, of the specifc examples related to the tip, which showed WHY it enhances productivity...which I will explain through each post...

....so keep an eye on this post, and I will tweet (@debbieireland) whenever I get around to loading the next one......

And again, any feedback appreciated!

 

Related Posts:

Productivity Tip 10 - Reporting

Productivity Tip 9 - Online Forms

Productivity Tip 8 - Collaboration

Productivity Tip 7 - Navigation

Productivity Tip 6 -

Productivity Tip 5 -

Productivity Tip 4 - Views and Metadata

Productivity Tip 3 - Web parts and pages

 

 

  
24/06/2011 6:01 a.m.Training; ProductivityApproved

​Just had a quick look at this site: This is the Adoption Kit, released by Microsoft....http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/iusesharepoint/landing.aspx and the free downloadable template - Ian Morrish, has a demo available to look at here - http://www.wssdemo.com/Blog/archive/2011/06/22/sharepoint-2010-adoption-kit-site-template.aspx.

The idea is great, although a little light on content, and perhaps the pdf's for tips and tricks and reference cards, could be better represented in Webparts, and lists, as displays for users...starting place though!....next step is actually to see how to integrate this into the Productivity hub. I do recommend the hub a lot, as the content is good, and the structure is a great start - see Ian's blog again here - ​http://www.wssdemo.com/Blog/archive/2010/06/30/productivity-hub-2010-released.aspx

And this is FREE! - has info, subsites fro site admins, quiz's, can be easily maintained and updated, and becomes a learning , knowledge base in itself....and you can add your own products, in house things...amongst the Microsoft ones...It also has nice displays, some video's already added, and a nice way, to integrate other things you may have happening on your Intranet...I am working on a customised version, that takes all of the above, plus more training, adoption, communication and change management initiaitives into account....to make it all encompassing....all in the effort to 'get users using it' - be it the entire SharePoint site for the purpose you implemented it, or the Productivty hub.

 

More later...

  
8/06/2011 7:22 a.m.Events; SharePoint IDOLApproved



​SharePoint Idol for Business is coming to all our events!! (Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia - this November!)

Real life businesss scenarios of how SharePoint solves a particular problem or process!

Have you got a Case Study you want to share? If you saw the SharePoint Idol at this years AUS or NZ event (see write up here  and page here )- it will be a similiar format.

There will be limited slots - each contestant gets FIVE minutes ONLY - and presents how SharePoint helped their organisation improve productivity, streamline processes, solve any SIMPLE, but EFFECTIVE business problem or requirements.

A couple of questions from our esteemed judging panel - and then the audience vote!

AND - there will be a prize - a BIG one! So if you are interested....send us an email on support@spevents.co.nz and we will keep you informed as the dates become closer.

This is a great way for people to share some of the cool initiatives they have put in place, but also to share these experiences with the wider community - so everyone else can also learn from them! 

  
22/04/2011 1:30 p.m.Training; ProductivityApproved

I quite like this, having used it for a while now, as an easy way to stay current with what my regular contacts are up to, on other social networks - and also for large orgs, I can see the value in the MYSite connection also.

Given, I, like many I am sure, spend a lot of time in Outlook, this brings it all together....so the People Pane, for those who havent used it yPeoplepanesetpup.pnget!

Go to Outlook>View and click on the People Pane Dropdown - and choose Account Settings to configure which providers you want to configure - it is all pretty simple step by step from there.

 

 

 

 

Tsocialconnectorexample.jpghen every time you click on an email - you can see both the photos of those in the conversation, and then as you click on a particular persn (thanx Brendon for the sample data!) you get to see the updated - in this case LinkedIN and FaceBook - of course I can also see at a glance, all my recent email conversation with anyone and other highlights...

So simple , but very effective for productivity...​

  
30/03/2011 4:31 a.m.Events; SharePoint IDOLApproved

SharePointIdol
This was one initiative, I have to admit to being a little concerned about beforehand - but I am glad to say - it was AWESOME (yes I know I use that word too much!) - but it was.

I have been endlessly asking for feedback on this one - and please feel free to email me directly - but in general, here goes...

Lots of people have thought, as I did, that it was a great way to see short, snappy (and the most popular had a touch of humour and entertained us well!) - demos of what some of the Vendor products actually could do - how they met specific business problems, i.e what it meant to me as an end user - how it could make my life simpler....

It was a challenge to do this in 5 minutes - and I know for some of the presenters took quite some prep time!! But great job and thank you to all those who participated. I think this activity will only get better each year - everyone was asking what the prize was (there wasnt one!) - guess we need to work on that one!!!

So Australian SharePoint Idol winners!

Day ONE - went hands down Ishai Sagi, from Extelligent Design, who demonstrated some simple user frustrations and how KwizCom could solve these - entertaining and effective!

Day TWO - highlighted goats, containers and K2 Workflow to help make simply and automate business processes. Fast, visual, impressive - nice work Hennie!

I do have to say that RecordPoint were close on this one - complete with SharePoint Viagra to bribe the judges! A great demo for keeping Records Management enjoyable (if that is possible!) and also easy uploads of Email from Outlook to SharePoint with OnePlaceMail.

New Zealand SharePoint Idol winners!

Day ONE - after a somewhat rocky performance in AUS, Pingar pulled through winning the day - with a brilliant presentation about getting metadata extracted automatically - an end users dream! And this was just ONE of the benefits of Pingars newly launched API - definately worth a further look!

Again, very close call this one - with Brendon Ford delivering an entertaining Star Wars encounter of the SharePoint Kind - complete with audio, video, Nintex and Provoke style!

Day TWO - All the way from Malaysia - Rico captured the audience with VERY rapid development using WebParts360 and showed us the ease of building solutions. As I mentioned, we have been fortunate to work with the WebParts 360 tools on our own conference websites, and will be doing more with this for future events.

And against all odds, the Fuji Xerox guys were a close 2nd with a LIVE demo, with the MFD (multi function device) and SmartConnect up on stage! Excellent example (well not sure about the sample data!) of being able to get data from systems, print forms, scan, load to SharePoint, extract more data, and record work processes - very cool and a heap of practical applications.

Thank you to everyone who participated - a nice way to get the point across, with a bit of fun - and a chance then for the attendees to be able to go and visit the exhibitor area afterwards to get to see more if they wanted to.

Thank you also to the Judges - Mark Orange, Dan McPherson, Paul Swider and Nick Hadlee.

Please add a comment about how you thought it went and lets make this even better next year.​

  
30/03/2011 4:02 a.m.Community Challenge - AUS SPCApproved

I had the pleasure of watching Paul Culmsee in action - with some Live Dialogue mapping at the Business session (co-facilitated by Andrew Jolly) - but also during a pre meeting with WorkVentures, and pre and subsequent meetings to work through the challenges and goals, of ensuring what we were planning to do for WorkVentures actually fitted with higher strategic goals.

Paul explains the process and results beuatifully here - ​http://www.cleverworkarounds.com/2011/03/26/australian-sharepoint-conference-community-challengehow-we-did-it/ so I wont repeat this...except to say my own two cents worth from a slightly different angle...

When it came to identifying some of the requirements - against specific issues WorkVentures were facing - the solutions were actually very simple....it wasnt about building an intranet with huge functionality - and lots of bells and whistles, and using every feature possible (although so tempting as a consultant to want to do this!) - but more so, getting back to the basics,of what would work - what was needed, and therefore, what was required in its simplest format to deliver this.

And that to me is the obvious lesson - I do hope this is not lost in translation when the Intranet gets rolled out...as the result will surely be - 1) the requirements are not met and therefore b) the intranet does not get used.

I loved the part about wanting to break down silos - and there were lots of ways to look at doing this... by showing on dept pages, how each team was doing - KPI type view - but instead of just Annual Report stats, more frequent and granular...so no matter what part of the organisation you were in - you could see how others were doing, and therefore feel a part of how your job potentially contributed to that. And KPI's didnt need to be the only thing....photos from different centres, people never saw - real stories (success ones) from the people who got to experience the end result of what WorkVentures was about - how they help people....changes that they made.

A little hard to explain - but I guess in lots of organisations, it is hard for some of the "back office" staff to see what happens out in real world, and how what they do helps that.

I found it easy to parallel, to all the work my team does to organise the conferences....some of them (as much as they deal with people daily by phone and email), and know the session and speaker details inside out.... never get to see the end result (or meet the people!) - If they dont get to actually be at the event, - it is hard to transfer that passion....where the place is buzzing, people are happy - results are great - and you can see the fruition of months of hard work...

But at the same time, it is imperative we inject the enthusiasm it needs to make it all happen....

Anyway....enough on that one...

  
10/03/2011 11:02 a.m.EventsApproved

Rose called in to say hi to everyone, and bought her very cute new addition - Zach...the youngest delegate at the conference so far!

 

Youngestdelegate.jpg

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7/03/2011 11:47 p.m.Community Challenge - AUS SPCApproved

The Business session (and huge thanks to Paul Culmsee for a ton of prework, and Andrew Jolly also jumping in to help), will help to extract requirements, align objectives to strategic goals, and also some of the logical architecture and implications around designing an intranet...all real world practical and LIVE stuff!

This will then lead us into the LIVE Development session (well at least the next session in the journey, which happens to be in the development track!)..It is suited to many roles...so dont let the track daunt you! - Thank you to Synergy, we have lots of VM's we can do some real live configuration and solution building on!

We will be breaking the audience into 6 groups - so join the one you wish to follow, participate, observe, drive the laptop, build the solution...or contribute in whichever way you wish...this is the delegates time to contribute t the community challenge!

Breakout Groups (and thank you to our participating Team Leaders...along with other experts/speakers/community leaders who will be present!).

Branding - Brian Farnhill - get to see how this is built and packaged for deployment - work through pros and cons of various options....only part of this session with some actual Code I think!!

Intranet - this will be awesome - and takes requirements from the Business session and fleshes out the intranet build - Milan Gross leads this, with help from Daniel McPherson and others! Should be interesting!

James Milne leads a InfoPath session with help from Eric Cheng - want to have a go at building the InfoPath forms for Timesheet and Leave App forms - this is for you.

SharePoint Designer and Workflows for both the Leave app and Timesheet....Kathy Hughes is team leader here assisted by Liz Coup who has also been instrumental in some of the prework here.

Policies - build out the libraries, lists, content types, metadata and review process to manage the policies and procedures with Mark Orange in this group.

Comms Plan -  who, what, how, when....resourcing, training, communication, and a stakeholder analysis - I will lead a very business based group around the pllaning for the rollout of the solution and things that need to be considered.

 

Note: A summary of what happens, issues encountered and future considerations, will be all reviewed at the beginning of the Deploy Sesison on Day 2, at 3:50pm.

 More details on the Community challenge and the SharePoint Conference itself can be found on www.sharepointconference.com.au.

 

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5/03/2011 2:28 p.m.EventsApproved

webparts360.pngIf you have enjoyed the much improved Conference Sites this year, thanks need to go to Rico and his team at WebParts 360! They have helped us to build a lot more flexible display and structure linking multiple lists, lookups and views where the regular SharePoint functionality would have limited us.

I loved working with the ERD provided within the WebParts360 application, which allowed me to design and view the lists, columns and joins I needed..and resulted in a nice visual of it all for others coming on to work on the site.

It all aids in simple radid application development, and is easy to use!

Do visit their booth in Australia, or come and say hello at the envisionIT booth in NZ, to see what they offer.

ALSO - Webparts360 have recently developed a CRM in SharePoint - worth a look, great cloud solution, and a free trial is available NOW.

So thank you WebParts360 team..! We are looking forward to future events bringing even more functionality for everyone involved.

See the conference sites for AUSTRALIA - www.sharepointconference.com.au and New Zelaand  www.sharepointconference.co.nz.

 

 



 

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28/02/2011 1:09 p.m.Community Challenge - AUS SPCApproved

This session is going to be awesome! Paul Culmsee is helping out to map the requirements we have gathered along the way, using his own methodologies...(and if you want to know more, be sure to go to his course and see his Keynote sesison Day two at the event)...we will then look at the Key Focus Areas for the Intranet project, and Paul will take the audience through a mapping excersise around some of the Information Architecture decsions to be made in this process...

Do we use Subsites or Page?...muliple lists...filtered views? etc...this will be very interactive and a great chance to experience first hand the way some of these activities are rolled out. We will also be mapping the Site Architecture at the same time.
 
Unfortunately given the time, we cant do everything on the day, so some prework has gone into several components, we will show some of this is the Visio Workflow for the processes defined...all of this will feed into the Dev session so people can then get a chance to build different parts of the solution.
 
Note at this session (and throughout the challenge) you will see a variety of other other specialists and community leaders such as Andrew Jolly and Daniel McPherson helping us out.

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25/02/2011 8:39 p.m.EventsApproved

We are fortunate to have:
 
  • Neil Dibb - Director, SAP APJ Ecosystem, Microsoft and
  • Steve Wright – Enterprise Partner Business Manager, Microsoft  
 
come out to the Australian SharePoint Conference and present on "Introducing Duet Enterprise – SharePoint2010 collaboration for SAP applications and business processes”
 
So SAP and SHAREPOINT users and want to be users and intergrators....any clients, customers, end users, business managers, developers who want to a chance to both see the session and come and 'Ask tthe Experts' , please come along.
 
More information will be posted on the site soon, but watch updates on the website or follow @AUsharepoint or #AUSPC, to keep current on twitter,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
24/02/2011 11:35 a.m.Community Challenge - NZ SPCApproved

Gracelands sent out a standard SharePoint Survey earlier on in the piece to ask their users what they thought of the current site, a whole lot of questions, which we will share a little of at the conference.

I think I mentioned in another blog, how impressed I was that 52/80 respondants took the time to reply - a really good % in my experience? I think this further shows both the culture internally and the adoption to their SP Site.

Anyway, one of the results, was a few comments in regard to the performance, and Brendon and I emailed about this a little - thinking it was more likley to be the connections for remote users, than the SharePoint Site itself, although always room for improvement, and also part of their roadmap - along with other longer term infrastructure changes.

Aptimize.pngWe asked the guys at Aptimize to see if their product would help, and got a yes! They have kindly offered to sponsor licences for Gracelands, so while this is a longer term benefit, I am sure we can post some results on here about the progress.

 



 

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