Griffon Solutions Introduction To Share Point Why Share Point

INTRODUCTION TO SHAREPOINT

World Class Web Solutions

MARCH 8, 2009GRIFFON SOLUTIONS | WWW.GRIFFONSOLUTIONS.COM | [email protected]

THIS CONTENT IS LICENSED UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS 3.0 ATTRIBUTION-SHAREALIKE


Agenda

Major Computing Challenges

How SharePoint Addresses These Challenges

SharePoint Is a Product AND a Platform

User Empowerment

Reduce IT Team Burden

Web Interface

Desktop Integration

Search

Collaboration

Unified Development Platform




Major Computing Challenges

Users rely on Information Technology (IT) team

High IT Team burden

Lack of Web Interface = local silos

Locally-stored content = risk of lost content

Inability to find content and people

Difficult sharing knowledge internally and externally

No unified development platform




How SharePoint Addresses These Challenges

User Empowerment = Self Service

Reduce IT Team burden

Web interface = Global Access

Desktop integration

Search = Find Content and People

Share Knowledge = Collaborate

(Fairly) Unified Platform = Faster Development




SharePoint Is a Product AND a Platform

What Is a Platform?

“Foundation” set of technologies upon which to build solutions

Allows common framework for components and applications to work together more easily

What Other Platforms Are There?

Lots of examples: WebSphere, Lotus, Amazon Web Services, SalesForce.com

What Are The Implications Of Using a Platform?

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership

Creation of an “Ecosystem”

Risk of lock-in




The SharePoint 2007 Platform or “Stack”:


Windows Server

SQL Database IIS Web Server .NET Framework

ASP.NET / WF / Web Services

Windows SharePoint Services

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

Add-onProducts

Client Modifications and Development


User Empowerment

Demos

User Permissions

Provisioning Sites

Modifying Pages

Managing Metadata

Approving Content

Applying Permissions

Searching for content

Workflows




Reduce IT Team Burden

If users can do all of that, IT Team doesn’t have to!

Configuration changes take less time

Site and document recycle bin

Easy backup and restore

Ability to lock down permissions

Logging and auditing capabilities

Large choice of SharePoint enhancements




Web Interface

Everything is available via a URL

Different Environments are possible

Intranet, Extranet, Internet

Development, Integration, Testing, Staging, Production

Browser-based = Simpler to “deploy” and maintain

Raises other considerations

Accessibility

Standards compliance

Security




Desktop Integration

User experience

Familiarity

User Interface

Responsiveness

Offline Access

Local copies of data (but backed up)

Use of existing software and licenses

SharePoint Integration Examples and Demos

Office Suite (often via ActiveX) ex Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Communicator

InfoPath

Other applications that can use the MS Open Protocols




Search

Everybody loves Search - $B investment effort

Must be easy to use and automated

How It Works

Indexer agent and iFilters

Metadata and Content database to store results

Search server(s) returning query results

OpenSearch protocol allows some interoperability

New Federated Search capabilities




Collaboration

Team members need to work together

To share knowledge

To find information

To make changes to shared content

To publish their work

Today’s workforce is increasingly global

Need information management tools like versioning, offline access,

Security is a concern when making information available on the web

Team members need to find each other’s work (even if they don’t know it exists)

Latest collaboration trends must be available

Wikis, Blogs, Discussion boards, Chat programs, lists

There needs to be a historical record of the team’s work




Unified Development Platform

Consistent set of technologies built to work together

More stability and testing

Increased support

Lower training costs for users AND developers

Faster solution development = 80% of functionality already exists

Authentication and Authorization, Data storage, Look and feel, Navigation, Solution deployment and configuration

SharePoint as an Ecosystem = Incentives

Microsoft has incentive to make its products talk to (or build upon) SharePoint

Vendors have incentive to build integration into their products

Community has incentive to improve and share features

Clients have incentive to strategically invest in SharePoint




Summary

Modern computing has significant challenges

SharePoint helps to address these

It is both a Product and a Platform

Standardizing on a platform provides many advantages (and risks)

SharePoint is a good strategic decision for many organizations

