Posted by
Dan Lang on Mon, Feb 20, 2012 @ 02:09 PM
Automating business processes through workflows in SharePoint can be a daunting task if it’s the first time your organization is going to implement them. If you take an evolutionary approach to developing workflows your organization can benefit from the following best practices while incrementally gaining expertise.
Assess the organization SharePoint maturity. An evolutionary approach involves three phases: information gathering, experimenting, and adoption. Learn as much as possible about the organization during the first phase, this includes gathering an inventory of skills available. For example: Is there anybody experienced as a SharePoint Designer? Is there InfoPath expertise? If not, can anyone be trained on using the Microsoft suite of tools.
Find the right tools. Decide if the workflow out-of-the box from SharePoint Designer is going to be sufficient or whether you need to use Visual Studio for customized workflows. Verify whether or not your organization allows for use of these tools internally. Discuss the pros and cons purchasing third-party tools such as K2 or Nintex.
Ensure a strategic plan is in place for the organization. Consider the adoption sentiment towards SharePoint. Is SharePoint being accepted as an valuable platform? Consider the impact in all areas of the business, establish clear goals, and define plans and timelines for an overall strategy.
Experiment with non-critical workflows first. Pick departmental applications with a small set of users and track its success. Once you have worked out the kinks, start extending the reach to more critical applications.
Find a trusted partner that can help you through the process. An overall business process automation strategy and plan for implementation demands a meticulous understanding of SharePoint. Pick a partner that has such expertise.
Posted by
Dan Lang on Tue, Feb 14, 2012 @ 08:31 AM
Information workers in most cases have been provided the SharePoint platform and are then hampered by the lack of support from IT. Due to the overwhelming demand on IT and the fact that IT is supporting all other platforms and infrastructure within an organization, often the result is little or no time or resources remaining to allocate toward the creation of solutions for a given department or organization. With some direction and training from professional resources, SharePoint 2010 can be the optimal business intelligence solution within your organization, providing the leadership of a given department the direction needed to be successful.
Information workers can take advantage of out-of-the-box capabilities in SharePoint 2010 that increase productivity. For instance, they can leverage workflows and customizable views of their critical business data created by IT or advanced users. SharePoint 2010 also can create forms automatically based on templates within SharePoint and other Microsoft Office applications. For example, using forms for input into a list or document, workflows that can be generated from the entered or changed information from that list. Creating many views for a given library or list provides the end user with the information in the format that they require. A power user will grasp most of the out of the box capabilities after implementing a solution and training on the use of some of the more advanced features.
Example SP dashboard:
Posted by
Josh Hrach on Tue, Feb 07, 2012 @ 01:25 PM
One programming language that I have been focusing on lately is C#. If it's not your native programming language, it can help you become more versatile when it comes to software development.
Working with C#, you may have the need to take data and enter it into a data grid. If still learning the art of the language, I figured this was something you may want to try to perfect.
Creating a data table in C# isn’t that difficult. In this example, I took data from a Microsoft Access database and entered it into a DataTable object.
First, I defined the DataTable and its columns.
While it isn’t necessary, I like having temporary variables to hold data from a database before entering it into my table. For what we have, that would be:
All that is left to get is the data itself. Assuming we’re getting it from some kind of database, we can get the information in a while loop and add all of the data into the table.
Now we have our data in the DataTable. All that is left is to output it. For this, I have a DataGridView object in my form called myDataGrid.
And that’s all there is to using a DataTable in C#.
Have you worked with DataTables? Submit your experiences and comments below!
The cloud is more than a valuable alternative; it is becoming a necessity for large corporations. It allows you to have lower operation, upfront and running capital expenses. It also allows for faster time to market, increased scalability, and very importantly, flexible pricing. Moving to the cloud may be the best way to run your applications and gain these benefits quickly without having to install new software, thus avoiding time delays, technical training issues, and the capital expense required to install hardware.
A lot of companies operate in this space, including Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo, IBM and many others.
In my opinion the most important factors to take into consideration before choosing a company to be your cloud server provider are the following:
No. 1: Robust management software.
Ensure the ease of use of the software for factors such as adding users and servers and modification of parameters. Make sure that deployment instructions are easy for users to follow and check the company’s record of migrating users and applications and software upgrades.
No. 2: On-demand Software Applications
On-demand software is the latest choice for companies to acquire software applications. Applications are acquired on a subscription basis. They are installed and hosted at the provider's site and you just pay a subscription or service fee.
Make sure that you have variety of choices that are suited for your business. Email and document management are the typical entry-level services, but you may want to add a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, document editing, business intelligence, etc. Also, make sure that the vendor you choose allows you to add custom software applications.
No. 3: Customer Support
I’ve heard horror stories from some of our customers about when they tried to make a move to the cloud with a large provider: spending extensive amounts of time on-hold on the phone, or being unable to solve their problems in a timely manner, which leads to extended downtime. Don’t just buy based on brand name alone; get recommendations and feedback from business associates that have made the move.
Conclusion
Moving or deploying your business software applications to the cloud can be a very smart business move, but you need to make sure you choose the right vendor to suit your company’s needs. You can choose from a number of cloud providers using a variety of cloud architectures, but look to partner with a provider that will take the time and effort to provide you with the right tools and customer service that allow you to focus on running your business, without interruptions.
