The SharePoint platform and SharePoint solutions have a great significance in an organization

SharePoint undoubtedly is a hot topic nowadays. Unlike a lot of software apps which are developed for a certain purpose, the technologies of the platform provide a framework that could be used in a lot of various functions. The extent of what it could do is only limited by the imagination and creativity of both the developers and end users.

The platform claimed more than seventy percent enterprise penetration, bringing in over $2 billion a year for Microsoft.  The product, which was launched in 2001, experienced the fastest growth in the firm's history, even compared to Windows and Office and is considered an industry standard ECM platform. Why is SharePoint so successful? The main reason is because it is deeply embedded within organizations. As a matter of fact, two out of three enterprise employees have it and use it in some capacity. The usages range from extranet, intranet and portal creation to most common document management or enterprise content management. With the recent 2013 release, organizations could even use it for widespread social networking and the App Marketplace.

It is indeed the platform of choice and is extremely beneficial to any organization because of innovation, practicality and adoption. For a smaller company, deploying SP via Office 365 could be a great way of addressing specific needs cost-effectively and efficiently.

Through its use as a centralized workspace, a firm could gain the following : 1. A backed up, secure, searchable and versioned repository for maintaining and storing documents.

2. A place to share information and collaborate with members of the project team.

3. Ability to access documents with any device anywhere with an internet connectivity.
4. Access to calendars and presences so one could find and reach colleagues when needed.
5. A portal to communicate and engage employees.
6. Access control over workspaces to meet regulatory needs and protect sensitive data.

Regardless if only one of these needs is a priority for an organization, the speed of implementation, price point and ease of us would likely make the decision to go in this direction a no-brainer. Moreover, by starting SP when a firm is small, it would be a part of how the business works and it would face far lesser adoption challenges as the business grows and expands its use to address the requirements which are common in bigger and more complex firms.

For bigger, more complex and geographically dispersed enterprise, the platform is a powerful one that could increase productivity and collaboration across the firm as well as facilitate information-sharing and employee engagement. The companies that are best able to capitalize on the business value that the framework offers, embrace it as a tool that meets a huge range of needs, like the following :

1. Team collaboration

2. Knowledge and document management

3. Corporate communications/intranet

4. Employee community-building

5. Process and workflow automation

6. Personalized workspace and portal

For example, there is one leading restaurant chain in middle east, which effectively utilized SharePoint to develop a Document and Request Management System, an intranet web application. The system solved their major problems in day to day coordination as many of the tasks were handled manually and information was distributed over different branches. The system handles workflows in HR, Document library, Request handling and Event or Appointment Management. In each workflow, specific users have permission to carry out specific task.

Using the Microsoft framework to address these requirements benefits a company in several ways, including:

1. Enhanced team collaboration

2. Enables information to be shared securely and in real-time

3. Easier to find and manage content that is reusable

4. Supports meeting regulatory requirements

5. Streamlines and automates business processes

6. Simplifies IT infrastructure

7. Facilitates employee engagement

8. Offers employees with one location to access everything they need to work

For example, 

Six Important things that every manager should know regarding the Microsoft SharePoint platform

It would be great if a manager could just quickly find access to company information, work closely with teams from various locations and set up an extranet to share documents in a secure manner with major clients. This could be done and all with SharePoint.

For managers considering adopting the business platform to the enterprise, here are six key concepts that they should be aware of.

1. SP is mega-popular. It is one of the fastest-growing apps in Microsoft's history. In 2009, it generated $1.3 billion in revenues from an installed base of over 100 million users. The sales continue to rise and the platform is considered the most widely used document-and collaboration-centered tool. What this could mean for manager is that it is a top-rated product that would be around for years.

2. It is a lot of things to many people. Far beyond one app, the system is a full-featured suite of various applications. These include collaboration tools, content management, business intelligence, project and workflow management and enterprise search. Organizations use it for a lot of various things, or to perform the same thing in a lot of ways. For a manager, this could mean a lot of apps that could be set up in various ways. The management should be able to define how it would be used.

3. SP relies on a lot of technologies. For it to work properly, all the other technologies should run perfectly. These include SQL databases, Windows, Active Directory, IIS or Internet information server, domain name system, enterprise networking and more. Any glitch, misconfiguration or failure in any of the components could cause the program to fail. It is paramount to have technical support and system administration as part of the initial planning.

4. Making a plan before adopting the platform. It makes sense to plan for how the team could use it best. At a minimum, the plan must cover taxonomy for data stored, which pieces would be used and by whom and who would support every group of users. Managers must ascertain that a sensible plan is in place to set up the platform and storing information with it.

5. Rackspace has end-to-end expertise. A world leader in hosting, Rackspace acknowledge Windows expertise and named as Microsoft partner of the year thrice. It hosts hundreds of SP systems for enterprise clients, with expert teams on hand to handle system administration 24/7. For the management, hosting the tool at Rackspace provides a winning combination, which is power and flexibility and supported by an acknowledged leader with end-to-end Microsoft technologies expertise.

6. Supporting the program requires special expertise. Business users could draw on the tools to develop mini applications to team members. However, these users are not likely trained in best software development practices, so the homegrown apps could be full of unpredictable bugs. Thus, special expertise is critical. For managers, it may not be realistic to expect the IT team to support a major app by themselves. It is necessary to hire the services of SharePoint experts for this matter and even consultants. 

Benefits of Using SharePoint Online for the Large and medium scale Information Management

SharePoint is a great tool that offers small to mid-size businesses, but it’s also a great information management tool for large companies. Some expert believes that an organization might need a different solution to store additional data and manage more users, but with SharePoint Online, maintaining the system is the same irrespective of the number of users.

Today managing the platform becomes more than just managing user licenses than about scalability. In terms of storage space Microsoft allows individual site collections to hold a terabyte of information, and the several licensing options available which helps large or medium scale enterprises to control costs.

Below given are some key benefits of using this tool for the enterprise information management.

Instead of using on-premises solution, the new SharePoint Online takes over some backup and recovery duties. This easily helps organization for the dependency on third-party solutions these routine tasks as well as tracking and auditing exactly server performance.

A recent update of SharePoint Online allows any organization to receive updates and utilized new features. For example a busiest month like March might not be the best time to think about new SharePoint features. Previously, these updates are implemented on Microsoft’s schedule, and might throw users if the timing was inconvenient. Now, with SharePoint online get a dashboard for these changes that allow easy process of scheduling or delay some platform improvements.

1. Adding mobility without compromising security:

SharePoint Online gives in the cloud to keep enterprise information management behind virtual private network. This configuration would ensure the content could only be accessed over the company’s network while providing mobility and flexibility for users, all without having to create additional infrastructure for authentication.

2. Hybrid deployments:

Large organizations choose to use a hybrid cloud environment, in which highly secure information, which remains on-premises, while everyday collaboration requires moving to the cloud. SharePoint online stores, personal file shares and personal profiles in the cloud using One Drive, and enterprise to look across in on-premises and cloud environments.

3. Cost control:

Today all the organizations flexible ways to bring collaboration solutions and functions of their workforce while reducing significant cost of the overall cost of the infrastructure. The SharePoint Online helps manage these costs. Depending on the arrangements with Microsoft could use inexpensive, limited licenses for many companies to keep costs down.

4. SharePoint Online allow the easy Microsoft Integration:

SharePoint has been around for 10 years, and like most other Microsoft tools it has slowly matured into prominence. There are still other great tools in the portal marketplace, but when companies look at productivity and driving adoption, this tool dominates its competition by natively integrating with Microsoft Office. While this may seem as another obvious benefit, these features have grown as Office has developed. With Office Web Apps a user not require to leave a browser to accomplish their daily activities.

5. SharePoint Online Centralize entire Content Management:

With the SharePoint Online suite included in Office 365 that are able to create a Public facing website, an Intranet, and any number of collaborative solutions all in a single location. Centralizing an organization's content management creates a strong core of power users that are consistently using the system and can easily identify key points that the system supports.

These five advantages make SharePoint Online an Ideal enterprise information management solution.  Apart got this organization gets the unified collaboration suite with Yammer and SharePoint.  Thus, it helps companies to increase the collaboration.

REST API – Effective solutions to solve development issue involved in the SharePoint development

SharePoint is one of the most popular platforms which is highly used and several professionals and enterprises have built many applications using the SharePoint Object Model. SharePoint developers can easily able to develop Web parts and have access to the SharePoint’s Server-Side Object Model which allows developers to callSharePoint data and perform various operations.

The problem in the SharePoint 2010 version:

In SharePoint 2010, if developers want to customize or add new features to SharePoint, the only way is to install code which might be also untrusted directly into SharePoint's servers. However, sandbox solutions existed; the restrictions applied which forced SharePoint Developers to run even entrusted custom code, in full-trust mode.

There is an issue which rises when running fully trusted code in SharePoint 2010 as it might destabilize the entire farm and in this version it is challenge to migrate to newer versions of SharePoint. As the code made use of SSOM and ran as a part of SharePoint Processes, there are distinct change of high memory consumption and CPU utilization. So to manage the code well, it became an overhead for developers to know SSOM objects and utilize them appropriately to reduce memory allocation issues.

How REST API helps in SharePoint Programming?

In the SharePoint 2010, SOAP based web development services were provided for performing data operations, but finally it is SSOM that mostly used to create programs with SOAP. But, this lead to bulky data transfers. Because of this issue the new set of APIs introduced for developing SharePoint solutions which is known as a REST API.

In 2010 version of the SharePoint developers were provided with Client Side Object Model which gives them an ability of accessing SharePoint functionality in the remote client applications like sliver light.

The protocols that used by CSOM used to talk to SharePoint are XML and JSON so that other systems can also make HTTP requests to the SharePoint Data. But, one limitation of this feature is that it has provided API support for SharePoint based Sites, Lists and Documents.

Improvement given in the SharePoint 2013 version:

But, In the SharePoint 2013, a new API support has been added along with the already exist one SharePoint 2010. This provides access to APIs in several forms, to help development of remote applications using REST for .NET as well as for working with frameworks other than .NET. With this new set of APIs, if developers want to use client applications not using managed code or Silverlight technology then they can consider the use of REST to read/write data from and to SharePoint.

The fact that this REST API not requires any type of reference to assembles and it allows developers to manage and limit the footprint of the web applications. It is certainly an important consideration especially when building mobile apps for Windows Phone developed using HTML and JavaScript. One of the biggest advantages of this API is that developer can use of JavaScript libraries like, jQuery, Knockout, Angular to develop SharePoint applications, using the skill sets that most developers are familiar.

How To Evaluate Microsoft SharePoint Features For Business Application?

With SharePoint development, a developer could use various tools and methods of the platform that could streamline the whole process of development. SharePoint consultants could help a business organization or company make use of the full potential of the platform and what SharePoint could do to enhance business processes. SharePoint development grows along with the changes in the need for business processes. To be able to build a business case for implementation of the platform, SharePoint consultants should make it a point to help users or business owners understand what could be achieved with a current implementation and current release project but also a vision that goes beyond the present release and wherein technology and user paradigms are growing into.

From a high level, the architecture of SharePoint 2010 includes various technology layers. Within just a few years, SharePoint development has rapidly shifted from small deployments to a business-wide app. With the incredible rise in the demand for SharePoint solutions, more and more SharePoint consultants are required to meet the needs of clients all over the world. 


These days, 51 percent of business organizations claim that the platform is one of their top five business apps and is seen to grow up to 62 percent. Click here to get details of  The remarkable growth of SharePoint may be attributed to ease of use, wide range of features, easy initial deployment and TCO. Businesses everywhere simply love SharePoint as it streamlines general business tasks.

Today, many more organizations could take advantage of the platform’s expanded feature set with new versions coming. The platform may not have a direct return on investment attribute to most organizations but instead it has an indirect one via collaboration and knowledge management and enhanced communication. Aside from these core items, the platform could be leveraged for app kind of functionality like integration and workflows with other business apps and thus serves to function as a portal. One of the major challenges with the SharePoint tools is you only gain the benefits if it is implemented correctly and the behavior of the people in an organization changes accordingly.

When integrating SharePoint into your business process, you should have a clear picture in mind of the ways to configure the tool and how people should or could use it. This is the same when it comes to the details of how team sites are set up, how meta-data is used and defined, utilization of off-line integration and capabilities with MS Office in simplifying storing documents in the platform. Aside from understanding how SharePoint could be used, you should also understand the platform’s limitations and what prevents people from storing information on the system. 

 

Recently, Office 365 and SharePoint 2013 have the same look and feel. Compared to the former SharePoint 2010, this is a much cleaner and more-friendly option. The current platform may take some getting used to but generally, it will not take so long to be familiar with the enhancements made on the platform. Microsoft has opened up free resources to explore the functions of the programs with the use of Office 365. This tool has been thoroughly enlightening; particularly the Napa design tools that allow one to custom build app solutions within the platform and test them. The new Office 365 allows flexibility in deciding to have in-browser documents view or download documents.

Determine Why There Is A Shortage Of SharePoint Developers Despite The Platform’s Popularity

SharePoint is a great platform that is preferred by business organizations worldwide. Moreover, it is a known fact that the platform includes various additional tools, such as SharePoint designer, Performance point designer that experts use to create solutions. However, regardless of its popularity, there is still a shortage of SharePoint experts and SharePoint developers. Why this is so is due to the fact that the learning curve for base technologies is large and is larger with the learning curve for the breadth of the functionality of the platform. 
 

SharePoint developers and SharePoint experts must comprehend most if not all of the major tools and uses utilized by developers, administrators and end users. The learning curve of the platform is measured in years so it will take some time be an expert, thus causing a shortage nowadays. multi-layer needs and the huge increase in the demand for services are the reasons for the shortage of experts for many years. 

 

When looking for services from SharePoint developers or SharePoint experts, there are several things that must be considered. For instance, because of the presence of many frauds on the web today, it is important to determine if the service provider is genuine and has the necessary skills and certifications. An expert in the platform must be someone with a lot of information and experience. Furthermore, he or she must be able to evaluate the client’s goals and determine the correct combination of browser configuration, code generation tools and custom components required to provide solution. Keep in mind, an expert in SharePoint is not necessarily qualified to deliver business intelligence solutions but instead provides centric solution. Nonetheless, the expert could work with a business intelligence consultant to check out what it takes to provide a solution using the platform. 

 

These days, the SharePoint expert is also considered as a developer and is a master of his/her domain. An expert manages and sets up services running in the SharePoint enterprise and creates lists and sits, manipulate and install web parts as well as offer backups. 

Experts are responsible for the following:

1. Custom development

2. Systems designs

3. Requirements gathering

4. System testing

5. New applications testing to boot custom development

Click here to know more about SharePoint Experts roles and responsibility

For all those developers who want to become experts in the SharePoint platform in order to augment the shortage, they must have the following experience and skills to qualify. 

 

1. Expertise in .NET development using a Team Foundation Serve and Visual Studio, including Model-View-Controller

2. Expertise of SQL and the ability to develop against Microsoft SQL server database

3. Working knowledge of all systems development life cycle phases including development, requirements and testing

4. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or any related field

5. Working knowledge in configuring and administering SharePoint 2007 and 2010

As an expert, one should know his or her way around central administration and a robust understanding of active directory and many more. Probably the most vital task or role of an expert in the platform is to have a firm understanding of what the platform could do out-of-the-box and also what it could accomplish minus main manipulation. Becoming an expert does not only mean having knowledge of all tiers, technologies and layers that encompass the platform, but rather having an idea of what is available and how to make use of it. Days are the gone when being an expert means knowing every bolt and nut of every piece of machinery. An expert is thoroughly experience in helping a business greatly leverage fast in the platform to easily build sites, portals and extranets to share important business information.

How To Determine The Crucial Role Of SharePoint Consultants In Business Solutions

SharePoint development is surely one of the emerging trends today. SharePoint developers or SharePoint consultants play a crucial role in today’s SharePoint development needs. A consultant is someone with enough expertise in Windows Server, SQL, Active Directory and many more. To operate effectively, every organization must have good judgment at the right time. Development of SharePoint solutions has turned out to be extremely necessary at this time. Besides that, consulting helps many people to check out the need for this kind of development.

In SharePoint development, SharePoint consultants and SharePoint developers presume a head role for client engagements. Moreover, they are experts who could perform and independently head project teams focused on providing top solutions that are feasible to users. As a consultant, you should be ready to meet a lot of requirements. The requirements could include a practical experience in working in a consulting firm or organization, the need to have a strong consulting and analytical skills, the capacity to separately operate and play various roles when it comes to project teams. They should also have outstanding communication, documentation and organizational knowledge.

SharePoint developers should have a 4-year BS degree in Computer Science or other connected field. To become an efficient consultant, you should have once again ample functional knowledge. This could incorporate functional expertise in ASP.NET, SQL Server, ADO.Net, Moss web portion development as well as the utilization of C#. In SharePoint development, getting professional signifies you might have to supply solutions like a remedy architect, develop and hold collaborative applications, design and style architecture too. A specialist additionally has the alternative to analysis client requirements and need to have technical study abilities. In SharePoint consulting, there is certainly genuinely no need to write specification documents and even depend on common development cycles. The specialist or consultant could learn the needs of a client, establish enterprise demands, design and style a resolution, comprehend resolution platform, manage the program together with the client and apply ample level of out-of-the-box qualities.

Nowadays, the work outlook for SharePoint consultants is highly favorable. With more and more people opting for the SharePoint platform, more SharePoint solutions providers are now considering using the services of a consultant who could provide the perfect solutions to clients. As a consultant, you must have good consulting traits. These traits could help you increase business profitability. Expert consulting means helping businesses leverage the platform fast to easily build portals, sites and extranets for sharing vital business data and information. Consultants could guide in the selection of the right SharePoint technology for an organization. From technical and business design to branding, expert consulting could help you with all tasks and phases of the entire SharePoint project. A competent and highly-skilled consultant could provide a complete project team or even join in as per-need basis.

Expert SharePoint consultants provide a complete visual customization services via talented visual designers who are experts in designing SharePoint solutions. Learn more information about custom SharePoint development company service. Some branding services could include templates, style sheets, themes, portal area definitions and site definitions. Expert consultants could help you with connecting people, streamline business processes and information. Through the SharePoint platform, consultants work hand in hand with clients to customize the SharePoint environment that could support extranet, intranet and web apps across an enterprise within a single incorporated platform.