The other day I was hungry and needed to eat. I didn’t have time nor desire to sit down and enjoy a full blown meal, yet I knew I didn’t want anything fast food. I needed to refill but didn’t want a poorer quality substitute. In a local market I found the grab and go case full of salads, soup, sushi, meats and vegetables. Not the one off quantity of a 4 course meal yet I had the options of one.
Why can’t SharePoint the do the same?
The scope of all things that SharePoint can offer an organization can be overwhelming. No wonder if not implemented correctly things can go from confusing to bad. Any implementation needs to be planned, discussed, phased and have governance. This is something we all know and have heard; yet still see not done. And that’s just the on the IT and business need level.
Let’s not forget the human end user side of things. SharePoint may compete against resistance to change and other systems. Even though efficacy of effort and costs should be the decider, many times other factors come into play. You have to throw in the organization’s culture and political climate. Bad PR kills any initiative, SharePoint or not. So perhaps an inroad for SharePoint is to get its functionality out there a container at a time and not on a full blown implementation.
Maybe instead of a winner take all mentality you need to think of partnerships. How can SharePoint help if accompanying a system, not replacing it?
Case in point, a ton of money was spent last year for a client case and workflow tracking system where I work. Could SharePoint do the same with development? Possibly, but as a Super Business End User I am not at a position to suggest that especially in the face of the millions spent. But what I can do is look for what the system lacks and try to have SharePoint fill that need.
What was missing was a clear and perspective view and access to support files such as procedures, FAQs or any other satellite support documentation. What the system did the support is url links.
So why not grab and go so the user can grab and go? The solution was simple; provide a SharePoint library. Just like large implementations take forethought so should small ones. Instead of creating a library within an exiting site, why not create a new site and make that home page a web part library with few links outward. Users would reference when needed to satisfy that need. The grab and go case/site is still full and waiting for its next grab and go functionality option.
Ever since organizing SharePoint Saturday in Tampa. I have been really getting hit up with training requests and inquires about what else we can do in Florida… A bunch of what, how, and even why to train.
Well time to let technology take it’s part. Please feel free to to help me organize.
I suppose people step up and take on things like this for various motives: community altruism, profit or in my case a challenge from my wonderful wife. I work in an industry that has been hit very hard by the last few years’ circumstances. In fact people say my industry caused it all.
Anyways, as many of you have encountered, there are scant few dollars in the coffers to dedicate to training. Even though SharePoint is a major investment by my firm there were few options available to truly push the knowledge envelope. So complaining to my wife about this one night she told me to do something about it.
As a daily visitor to EUSP and sometime contributor I had seen the SharePoint Saturday events in all the usual larger market cities. So I did what any one in a bad mood would do, I waited till someone else put one together. Surely someone will want to hold one in spring time in Florida. Well when spring came and went, I contacted the organizers of other cities in to find out when the Florida one was going to happen.
They were quick and courteous in their responses, “Whenever you are ready to coordinate one.” It was here that the “why not” moment hit and I soon found myself having to cross the first major task, setting a date.
In my case it would have to be either before or after SPC. Naivety did strike as I first chose the week just before and the right week after SPC. Once I realized this I soon began think in the terms of how to get the best lineup possible.
Here comes the first bit of advice…Use your city’s draw to help the Out of Towner’s want to come not only to SharePoint Saturday, but to your neck of the woods. In my case, I knew I wanted to do one in early to late fall 2009, before the holidays. Florida in mid-November is perfect for anyone wanting to get one last shot of clear skies, a sunset or maybe a day at the beach in before fall and winter set in. I figured there would still be enough post SPC enthusiasm allowing all those speakers who were bound to silence to be free to speak about 2010. So 11.14.09 was set.
While deciding the date I contacted the local Microsoft Office and soon found a great person on the other line in Shara Szott, her first name alone was already a welcoming sign. So within days the location and date were secured.
I was then supplied with the keys to the SharePoint Saturday Site and my next big contact, John Ross at SharePoint 911. John and I soon began to divide and conquer. John and Michael Lotter provided me with the contact information for sponsors and speakers alike and I happily began corresponding and coordinating.
So while filling the site with content, I began, via Twitter and LinkedIn, announcing the calls for speaker and sponsor alike. I have to admit it was really surprised to get so much input right off the bat. Within a three week span I had great SharePoint names like RepliWeb, Quest Software, Sogeti, Knowledge Lake, and Critical Path. They would soon be followed by AvePoint, Mimosa Systems, Metalogix, Catapult Systems, Kforce, Microsoft, O’Reilly, Pearson Education, Innovative-e, Inc., Software FX and Kiiro. Full list here.
And that is just the sponsors, on the heels of the sponsors I had accumulated a great list of SharePoint speakers, only to be followed and supported by others. Here is a complete list. This was a really great time, the buzz of something happening. Support was coming in steadily and it validated the point of doing it in the first place.
In mid September I began to firm up all the catering and other deliverables that I needed to set up. I must admit it was a great deal of emails, checking proofs, updating documents/site and phone calls, but it was the part I liked best; meeting people via contacts, tweeting with them, all the while looking forward to seeing them in person.
No man is an island, so even though I logistically had it all together I soon brought the one person who caused all this, my wife, into the picture. Sure planning is all well and good but execution needs to be done in tandem. And when the boxes of materials and the prepping of rooms and bags came, I soon found myself side by side with the one person I love spending time with.
The weekend of the event came and was a hit. The great thing was I had a feeling it would be at the Speaker dinner and it only took a few hours later at registration to get full confirmation. The rest of the day was merely icing on the cake.
I’d like to thank all the speakers who made the event a great experience as well as the sponsors and Microsoft. All the effort was well worth it. SharePoint Saturdays are really special events. They provide an outlet for information and networking without the hustle and bustle of busier conferences. It’s now two weeks out and I still miss seeing emails coming in and people being so excited to participate. I for sure will do one again and I would recommend organizing an event to anyone that wants to receive nothing but a positive experience.
Instead of wind bagging on I have included a bit of pointers to anyone wanting to step forward.
• Get your date early
• Get a online event registration space, i.e. www.clicktoattend.com/
• Take the Friday before off from work
• Hit Twitter and LinkedIn (SharePointers love to tweet!)
• Realize that a no-show rate is going to affect the catering and deliverables numbers, so over extend the true number you can handle. We had about 20% fall off.
• Keep content tracks open and try to space them so people can attend as much of one as they can
• Make sure to have a on-deck speaker list
• Visit the site early on to make sure things such as chairs, tables, projectors and overall lay out work.
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MAKE SURE the A/C or HEAT will be on. Some venues such as offices will have those off on the weekends
o Make sure you coordinate with security if necessary
o Get access to an extra pack or two of bathroom supplies, again some venues are not equipped to have 100s of people there during the week much less the weekends
• You’ll need to make sure sponsors have tables and resources, plugs and extension cords.
• Keep a speakers lounge aside when planning space
• Make sure there is internet access to all the speakers/sponsors
• Get to the location early day of
• Remember name tags, in fact print two sets, the second set is a great way to take attendance
• Realize that all the running and organizing may cut into your session time
• Have plenty of extra water bottles on hand.
• Make sure to add a vegetarian option at lunch
• Double check each and every shirt (speaker & attendee), bag, printed materials. Not just the proofs. Try to get them at least 2 weeks in advance
• Have a drop off date for sponsor to send you materials, I’d use the Thursday before the event. The Friday before will be tough for you to make special trips
• Try to get SharePint for afterwards, tons of fun!!
• Try and meet as many sponsors in person if they have local reps
• Get to know all the speakers possible at the Speaker dinner
• Mix it up with the attendees day of, you’ll know if it is a success by their reaction at lunch time
SharePoint can be a nagging fellow, especially if you begin to stray from any “out of the box” solution. The crux of the problem is usually that you are asked to go out of the box to create columns, content types and views. A wide range of SharePoint experts will always say, “If you can do without coding or SharePoint Designer you are saving yourself possible headaches down the road.”
Here is an example of a SharePoint Headaches that came up recently and its simple solution that makes sense when you use SharePoint logic to cure it.
Headache: A Site Owner created a library of reports and then created a view called Monthly and set it as Default. Then he grouped them by the Month column.
The Site Owner rightly thought when people click on the Library’s link on the site people will see the Monthly View. Yep, so far so good.
But in the name of experimenting he also created a duplicate view with the same name, but not the same Grouping options and forgot he did so. This Second Monthly view doesn’t over write the first one or prompt you to save over, no it simply adds another view to you view list.
The Owner then mistakenly copied and pasted the url of the Second Monthly into a email notification workflow that users hit and get a view that is not the default Monthly view. https://… /sites/reports/Forms/Monthly1.aspx
But why, if you set a view to default shouldn’t it, well, default to that view?
Yes, it should and does when you use the build in navigation in SharePoint.
Now look back at the url and see if you can spot the problem…That’s right 1 too many.
Drilling into the views in the Document Library Settings, you can see the Original Monthly View has a url of https://… /sites/reports/Forms/Monthly.aspx, not Monthly1.aspx. If you manually give out the wrong url it goes to the wrong place.
The simple fix was to go into the Document Library Settings and delete the second view with 1 sticking out.
The Site Owner was convinced that SharePoint is terrible and he just needed to delete all views and start over again. But now you as a SharePoint agent with a license to kill can now rub out the unnecessary view.
The SharePoint Report
I have been tweeting with @TonyByrne for a while and he asked me if I would review the CMS Watch: The SharePoint Report 2009. Since the government is now getting into blog watching I’ll go ahead and state that no money or products were exchanged for the opinions you are about to read. I was given a copy of the report to review, full stop.
I’ll start with a quasi –executive summary. This report is extremely useful as a basis of concepts and definitions as well as giving a constant big picture and focused view of SharePoint. Everything from costs issues (licenses) to server needs to what the orbiting SharePoint world of 3rd part solutions looks like.
The report seems to be written for everyone that would touch SharePoint. It would be a great resource for a consultant or the solutions minded person that gets SharePoint set in their lap. It provides back and foreground information to preview any questions and concerns they would have, such as what can SharePoint do and not do well.
The strength of the report lies in the fact that it breaks down the many faceted arguments into a presentable language that would not confound or confuse the non- technical person. It provides them with a terminology and concepts to report back their IT depts, end users and the business in general.
Concepts of ECM, WCM, Social computing all receive a thorough breakdown. These are the top level End User functions that come to mind, but there are many subjects that go deeper behind the scenes such as Security, Governance and Technical limits and this report addresses each. The report offers an opportunity for each group involved with all these to read, discuss and plan as group and as a not a silo-ed deployment where each component ignores the needs of the others.
A great function of this report is that it constantly gives a through breakdown of what MOSS does and to what extend how well function each does it. This would be vital information to help base a large decision to invest or not. This is done on two scales, visually via tables and charts.
For organizations this report would provide the vital foresight for the need and use of 3rd party add-on’s and consultants; a topic that very rarely gets mentioned and only comes to light when pressure points of implementation are met. Reading Chapter 7 on the SharePoint Ecosystem will provide needed perspective when venturing out of their internal solutions to rest of the world. Most notably the report indicates the 3rd built solutions and how support may not be a long-term issue. A great concept to know beforehand.
Personally I found the explanation for Content Types to be priceless. One of the first few steps to more advanced SharePoint configurations that people get into is Content Types. SharePoint by nature is not easy to explain since many words and terms overlap in SharePoint and MS regular use worlds. This example is another reason this report benefits all. It would be a key element of a training department’s arsenal of content.
There are instances where the report will fly completely over someone’s head and comprehension, but if SharePoint is part of the organizational plan, it will serve as reference once learning curves are surpassed. Before wading into authored books and SharePoint bibles this report can serve as a foundation to introduce concepts that drive the need to extend further knowledge and materials.
I also particularly liked how SharePoint frustrations (such as Site creep and My Site open chaos) are honestly addressed. As I mentioned before many organizations find these frustrations out only too late, but by spelling these issues out beforehand organizations can begin to plan for governance early and avoid such mass collisions of the platform.
If anything this report does not offer a how to guide to develop or deploy SharePoint, its strength is giving an objective look at what develop or deploy SharePoint is. To close out the report Chapter 8 offers a map to the obstacle course that is SharePoint implementation. If (and I do not recommend this) this report just gets skimmed make sure your organization reads this chapter. It does not sum up the report but it provides the topics, ideas and questions of the SharePoint discussions that need to take place.
To all SharePointers in FL and Beyond, SharePoint Saturday Tampa 11.14.09 registration open . http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=141441
Re: My blog, there really hasn’t been much time to post while I have been organizing, but look forward to @SP_SAT_TPA previews & post Saturday follow up.
