SPGA 2013: A Site Vending Machine

by Tony Bierman

Recently we announced the release of our newest software add-on: 
Site Provisioning and Governance Assistant for SharePoint 2013 (SPGA 2013).

The beauty of SPGA 2013 is that it enables every site to be provisioned just the way you want it – every single time. It’s a site vending machine that generates on demand, uniformly and automatically.

Why is this so important?

In organizations where lots of new sites are created on an ongoing basis, the IT department can get overwhelmed with the load of creating and provisioning new sites – making sure that site after site: 

• has the right security settings
• is plugged in correctly into the taxonomy and hierarchy of the organization
• has a look and feel consistent with the organization’s branding
• has all the appropriate features and functionality for the team requesting the site
• complies with and enforces the governance standards set forth by the organization

In addition to the pressure of backlogged requests, the actual work of producing site after site in this way can be mind-numbingly tedious, and it carries the potential for significant human error.

SPGA 2013 empowers the IT department to create each type of site just once, and have it automatically replicated on demand at the user’s request. 

With SPGA 2013, administrators create Site Request Profiles with all the appropriate functionality, standards, and limitations “baked” in. A “set-it-and-forget-it” solution. Users then select the appropriate Request Profile for the kind of site they need and fill out a short request form which sets into motion the automated process.

Workflows then activate, automating the approval, creation, and provisioning of the site, and the completed site is "dispensed."

And there you have it – SharePoint site vending machine!

We’re excited about SPGA 2013 and how it relieves IT stress, saves labor costs, boosts IT morale, and empowers users with the sites they need. We’ve even created a SPGA ROI Calculator tool so that people can determine for themselves how much money SPGA 2013 can save them.  We think it gives both users and administrators a lot to be happy about.SharePoint Site Provisioning and Governance Assistant 2013

SharePoint User Migration Training

These 2-day courses will get you up to speed on the new version in a hurry!

As an information worker who works with SharePoint every day in your job, you feel very comfortable with SharePoint and know exactly how to do what you need to do.

But now your company is migrating to a newer version of SharePoint, and you’ve heard that it’s very different.  There are even new features and capabilities you may be able to leverage to make your job easier.

But which course would be the best one for you to learn all about the changes and improvements?  The answer to that question depends on which version of SharePoint you HAVE been using, and which version you WILL be using.

It's as easy as 1,2,3.

2007 = SharePoint 2007 (WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007)
2010 = SharePoint 2010 (SharePoint Foundation 2010 or SharePoint Server 2010)
2013 = SharePoint 2013 (SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, or Office 365)

1 = Course: Exploring SharePoint 2010 - New Features
2 = Course: Exploring SharePoint 2013 - New Features: Preparing Users for Upgrade and Migration
3 = Courses: 1, and then 2

These courses are taught at our four training locations and Live Online.

Now when your organization is ready with the new version of SharePoint, you’ll be ready to use it confidently and effectively.

The Microsoft Self-Service BI Toolset: A Quick and Efficient Way to Mine Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence can help you turn mountains of data into manageable, meaningful information, which can give your business decision-makers the insights they need to make better-informed decisions.

Having the right BI right tool is the key to making this process quick and efficient.

Without the right tools, it can take months for highly specialized IT professionals to gather, assimilate and share Business Intelligence data. With the right tools, that process can be done in mere days by business professionals.

Microsoft has made a way for business professionals to “help yourself” to the data, aggregate it, and format it in a meaningful way, without a lengthy and complicated “data warehouse” project.

The secret? Microsoft’s Self-Service BI Toolset.

Our new webinar “What is Microsoft’s Self-Service BI Toolset?” gives an overview of the evolution of Business Intelligence and a description of Microsoft’s BI Tools:

• PowerPivot
• Power View
• SQL Report Builder and
• SharePoint

The webinar takes place March 21 at 11 a.m. EDT and is hosted by Jeff Cate, president of SharePoint Solutions and author/instructor of the course Business Intelligence Training – the Microsoft Self-Service BI Toolset.

If you want to learn more about how this set of powerful, user-friendly tools can empower you to quickly and efficiently mine important data your organization’s decision makers need – leading to better-informed business decisions – click here to register for the FREE webinar.

You also may want to check out Jeff’s next BI class, which takes place April 2-4, 2013.  The class is being taught Live Online through our new Live Online Remote Attendance option.

Getting Something Extra

by Randy Moody

I walked into an ice cream store in Georgia while on a road trip. It was a hot, dusty summer afternoon, and I was feeling parched and ready for something cool and refreshing.

I ordered a single-dip waffle cone. The lady turned around, took a normal size ice cream scoop, and began to cram ice cream into my cone until there was an orb about the size of a softball there. When she brought it to me, I said, “I’m sorry, but I just wanted a single-dip cone.” She responded, “That IS our single-dip cone.” WOW!

Then I tried the ice cream, and it was absolutely unbelievable. “We make it right here in the store,” she told me. They made an enthusiastic customer out of me in just one visit!

I would have been happy with just a “normal” single-dip cone with “normal” quality ice cream. But what I got was something extra – more ice cream and far more delicious than I expected.

Something extra!  Don’t you love it when that happens?

When our students attend our SharePoint Solutions trainingclasses, they tell us they feel like they’re getting something extra from us:

·         “Ricky gave us a lot of added information that might not normally be covered in this type of class.”

·          “Thank you. I got much more out of your training course than I expected. I will definitely recommend your company to others.”

·         “I expected to learn the ‘course content’ listed on the website, but throughout the course, I gained ‘above & beyond’ knowledge that is invaluable.”

·         “This was a great course! All of my specific needs were met within the first day. The second and third days were just icing on the cake!”

Ready to have YOUR expectations exceeded? Our instructors are ready and waiting to exceed them!

Browse our course catalog for that course that offers the skills you’re looking for. And don’t be surprised if you get more than you expected.

New Video Tutorial Takes You Through the Basics of SharePoint 2010 – and It’s Free!

How would you like a guided tour of the basic features and functionality of SharePoint 2010? SharePoint training course author and instructor T.L. Ferrell walks you through a functional introduction to SharePoint 2010 in our new video tutorial, “Introduction to SharePoint 2010.” The video is a part of our Free Video Training Library, and is available to anyone who would like to view it.

Refreshingly simple, clear and easy to understand, T.L.’s presentation is appropriate for SharePoint beginners, managers, users who are currently using SharePoint 2003 or 2007, or those who are not yet using SharePoint at all in their organization and who simply want to assess SharePoint’s capabilities.

Beginning with navigating the SharePoint 2010 interface, this free SharePoint tutorial covers the foundational concepts of SharePoint technologies and explains and demonstrates the fundamental capabilities and features of SharePoint 2010. These include sites, subsites, lists, views, libraries, alerts, security/permissions, search, web parts, and customizing SharePoint’s look-and-feel.

Lively and informative, this rich one-hour tutorial gives you a taste of the power of SharePoint’s collaboration features, showing you step-by-step how to use it.

T.L. has packed a truckload of information into this highly practical video, and we trust that you will find it enjoyable and helpful. And just think:  if we can pack this much useful information into a one-hour video, imagine all that our 2- or 4-day Introduction to SharePoint class could provide!

A Whole New Way to Learn SharePoint 2010

We are very excited to introduce a new training alternative for those needing SharePoint 2010 training. And it’s so affordable, you could have your WHOLE ORGANIZATION trained on SharePoint, right at their desks.

I’m talking about our new Self-Paced Online SharePoint Training. We’ve taken our most basic course, Introduction to SharePoint 2010 – Using SharePoint Foundation 2010, and made it available in an online eLearning format that you can go through at your own pace.

The Self-Paced Online option is a lot like auditing a college course: you will see SharePoint’s features explained and demonstrated by a skilled instructor in a recorded presentation, but you will not have the printed course manual, the hands-on lab experience, or the assistance of a live instructor. Our goal is that at the end of the course, you will have a practical understanding of the basic features of SharePoint 2010.

Affordably priced at just $399, our new self-paced online course is available for a limited time at an introductory price of just:

                                                $199!

Please show this to your bosses, your training coordinator, your co-workers – and anyone else you know who needs to get an understanding of the basics of SharePoint. Getting everybody up to speed on SharePoint 2010 will streamline communication and improve your office’s efficiency. And at this price, it’s a no-brainer!

Want to know more?  Go to our Self-Paced Online SharePoint Training page and view the explanatory video there. You can also access the FAQ page here.

But that’s not all. Should you subsequently choose to take the full classroom-based course, you may use your Certificate of Completion for this class to receive $199 off the purchase price of one of our live 2-day Introduction to SharePoint Foundation classes or 4-day Introduction to SharePoint Server 2010 classes! The classroom-based courses give you the additional benefits of a comprehensive course manual, the scripted step-by-step hands-on lab exercises, and the live instructor.

The Self-Paced Online Training class has been created in a SCORM-compliant format, so it can be imported into most LMS systems. If you are interested in finding out more about licensing the class for your company, please contact us.

So spread the word! This new affordable training option might be the perfect fit for your co-workers.

Microsoft Self-Service Business Intelligence (BI) Explained (and taught!)

by Jeff Cate

Last fall, my employees came to me and complained that they could not get the answers to their business questions from our data.  We have TONS of data.  We are a small company, but are highly automated and have data in ERP, CRM, Marketing Automation, Google Analytics, various Cloud services, Excel spreadsheets, etc.

Of course, all of our business systems have some degree of built-in tools for reporting and data analysis.  But, even so, there are still problems such as:

• Only certain people have access to the reporting interface of certain business systems.  Even though we are OK with everyone having access to most of the data contained in each of the systems, we couldn't always give everyone access to the reporting tool for each system.
• The user interfaces and functionality of the different reporting tools are vastly different.  Let's say you want to run a report on CRM data using Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  The tool that you use is vastly different than running a report on web traffic data using Google Analytics.
• It is virtually impossible to combine and correlate data from multiple data sources.  Take the Dynamics CRM\Google Analytics example.  Neither product gives a means for importing data from the other to do analysis on the combined data to try to identify some correlations.
• We don't have dedicated IT "BI Pros" on staff, so custom-developed SSRS reports or data warehouses or SSAS cubes are out of the question.

This internal business problem led me to spend a great deal of time in October and November researching and learning about what has become known as the "Microsoft Self-Service BI platform":

• SharePoint 2010 Enterprise (or 2013)
• PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint
• SQL Reporting Services Power View
• SQL Reporting Services Report Builder 3.0

It took a good bit of initial technical work to get our SharePoint Intranet farm configured to support the Self-Service BI approach.  I did that work myself and may write another blog post in the future on that experience.

Once I had the platform up and running, I put together an internal training class to teach my employees how to use the platform.   I brought seven of them into our training center and spent four days training them on the tools, how we would govern self-service BI (very important topic - might do a future blog post on it too), and then worked on creating some initial reports and data analysis to get some practice.

(Small self-promotion: I have also created a public training class on the subject and will be teaching it every month this year Live Online and at our physical training facilities in Nashville, Dallas, Chicago and Washington, DC.  Go here to get more details.  Hope I get to see you in class!)

I am happy to report that this project has been successful!  We are up and running on the Microsoft Self-Service BI platform, and our business professionals are quickly overcoming the problems that they had with analyzing their data before the Self-Service BI adoption.

I have started to record a series of YouTube videos on Microsoft Self-Service BI.  The first one answers the question: "What is the Microsoft Self-Service BI Toolset?"  You can watch it below, or go here. It's 11 minutes.

Live Online SharePoint Training – A New Class Attendance Option

by Randy Moody

Need SharePoint training, but can’t travel?  No problem!

Each week we hear from students across the country who would like to attend one of our SharePoint training classes, and have money in the training budget, but are not able to travel.

Maybe that’s your situation too. If it is, then I have some great news!

SharePoint Solutions is now offering a Live Online Remote Attendance option for our classroom-based classes.

Through our new Live Online Remote Attendance option, you’ll join a live class in Nashville, Chicago, Dallas, or Washington, DC, except you’ll be sitting at your own desk connecting across the Internet.

You’ll see the instructor live, hear the lectures and watch the demos, and then connect to your own personal virtual SharePoint environment, just like the classroom attendees, to do your hands-on lab exercises using the very same course manual that they’re using.

The classroom experience is essentially the same, but without the hassle and expense of travel.

We’ll provide a printed course manual, a USB headset, and instructions on connecting to the class and the lab environment.

You’ll be responsible to have your computer ready for training according to our instructions, and to have a place to work where you won’t be interrupted or distracted.

Eventually, the online option will be available for all of our SharePoint training classes. But, to begin with, we’ll be offering this option on selected classes beginning in March.

You can see which classes are being offered online by going to thispage. Classes with a location of “Live Online” rather than the name of a city are available for remote online attendance. You simply register online like you would for any of our classes.

Interested?  Clickhere to learn more.