SharePoint 2010 Training? Here's the Place to Start.

Your organization is implementing SharePoint 2010, and you need to learn to use it.

Where do you start?

SharePoint Solutions is pleased to announce our brand new introductory course in the basics of SharePoint 2010. Introduction to SharePoint 2010 – Using SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a 2-day hands-on course on the basic concepts and basic features of SharePoint 2010. The basic features covered in this course apply not only to SharePoint Foundation 2010, the free version of SharePoint, but to all editions of SharePoint 2010, since the other editions are built on the foundation of the free version.

Since the course assumes that the student has no familiarity with this or any previous version of SharePoint, this is the perfect course for anyone new to SharePoint who will be using SharePoint 2010.

Students will come away from the course with a very complete understanding of basic SharePoint concepts, navigating the SharePoint interface, the business problems that SharePoint can be used to address, and gain hands-on experience using SharePoint to share information and to collaborate with co-workers on projects and team work.

Additionally, each student will come away from the training with a comprehensive course manual which includes a distillation of the lecture content, the PowerPoint slides, and the scripted hands-on lab exercises, which can be easily repeated back in their work environment.

Introduction to SharePoint 2010 – Using SharePoint Foundation 2010 is open now for registration on our website, with classes now enrolling for January 25-26, 2011 in Nashville, and for February 23-24, 2011, in Dallas.

The cost of the course is just $1195, which includes class tuition, course materials, and lunches both days of class.

If you’ve been looking for a place to get started with SharePoint 2010, this is the course you’ve been looking for.

SharePoint 2010 Social Networking: Part 4 - Diagram

I have created a diagram that attempts to give the "big picture" of how the social computing features and processes in SharePoint Server 2010 fit together:

(Note: This is the fourth post in this series. For the first post and a table of contents, go here.)

Social Computing Processes in SharePoint Server 2010

As you can see the diagram is a mix of functional and technical. In general that is my goal for this series of blog posts as well.

I am planning to refer back to this diagram as I walk through the social computing features in the upcoming posts.  I think it is easier to explain the purpose and functioning of individual features if the bigger picture is kept in mind.

I created this diagram using the following resources:

• What I learned from presentations Microsoft made on the subject at the SharePoint Conference 2009 in Las Vegas
• What I could find on other blog posts on the subject (a little bit, but not a lot of depth)
• What official documentation is available on TechNet and MSDN (a little bit, but not very thorough)
• My own analysis and testing of the software (this is where I've spent the most time)

I am positive the diagram is not 100% accurate.  I think the only way to get it 100% accurate will be for someone on the SharePoint product team to comment on it and point out where I am wrong.  I don't know if that will happen or not, but would welcome the critique if Microsoft cares to provide it.

Finally, here is a link for you to download a PDF version of the diagram if you would like to have it.

My next post will drill into "tags", which is in the upper left corner of the diagram.

Add SharePoint Reminders Functionality to Your SharePoint 2010 Implementation

Some features are just so obvious that it might never occur to you that they’re not included in SharePoint 2010. Doesn’t it make sense that since SharePoint has a collaborative calendar feature, and alerting capabilities, that it would also have SharePoint Reminders functionality right out-of-the-box? Well, it doesn’t. And that lack has bothered people for quite some time. There just hasn’t been a really slick, elegant way to get that functionality into SharePoint. Until now.

SharePoint Solutions has added SharePoint Reminders functionality in the new version of our Alert Manager product, SharePoint Alert Manager for SharePoint 2010. It bolts transparently onto SharePoint 2010 and the SharePoint Reminders functionality shows up in the interface itself.





















You can set a SharePoint Reminder on any SharePoint list item that has a date and time field – calendar items, task items, and more.

• SharePoint Reminders can be sent up to 30 days before or after a date/time field's value.
• Conditions can also be defined to apply simple send/don't send logic.
• Any number of recipients can be sent the reminder, including SharePoint groups.

You can see a quick overview of this functionality on our SharePoint Reminders page.

You’ll find lots of ways to use your new SharePoint Reminders functionality. Here are some common business uses:

• Your company has a policy that all employees get annual formal performance reviews. But you would like to give your direct reports abbreviated one-on-one performance reviews each quarter and would like to be reminded to prepare for those in advance.
• You are responsible for maintaining assorted electronic equipment for your company that relies on batteries (for instance, cordless phones, mice, computer CMOS batteries, etc.). You know that the batteries will need to be replaced before the equipment wears out. So, each time you get a new item, you want to log it into a SharePoint list with an acquired date. You want to set a reminder on the acquired date to go replace the batteries after a certain period of time.
• You maintain document libraries that have official policy and procedure documents in them. Your job requires you to periodically review each of the documents to make sure they are up to date. You want to set a reminder on each document to review it every six months.
• You sell maintenance agreements on products that customers buy from you, but the maintenance agreements only last for a certain period of time. Before the maintenance agreement expires, you want to be reminded to send the customer an offer to renew their maintenance agreement.

Once you get used to using SharePoint Reminders, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them. And of course all of this is in addition to the killer SharePoint Alert Management functionality that our Alert Manager 2010 product provides. Just one more way that our engineers at SharePoint Solutions are working to make your SharePoint ideas come to life.

Randy Moody

Ever Get Push-Back on Implementing SharePoint My Sites?

This is not technically a post that is part of my SharePoint 2010 Social Computing series of blog posts. But, it is relevant to that series.

I've noticed over the past seven years as a full-time SharePoint educator and consultant that I get more push-back on SharePoint My Sites than I ever would have expected. This phenomena happened in 2004 with SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and it continues to happen in 2010 with the latest version.

I'd say that I have been in front of at least 2000 IT and non-IT professionals in the SharePoint classes I have taught over the years. Rarely do I ever have a class where more than 60% of the students have implemented or plan to implement SharePoint My Sites. Almost always at least 4 out of 10 students are either lukewarm, or even sometimes adamantly opposed, to implementing My Sites at their organization.

The main reasons I hear from those who are opposed to My Sites are:

1. Some professionals (or their managers) don't trust that the rank and file users in the organizations will use the My Site properly
2. Some professionals (or their colleagues) view the My Site as "just another web page to have to keep up-to-date".  It seems like more work to them than benefit.
3. Some professionals immediately associate the concept of My Sites as too much like Facebook, which they deem is not appropriate to use at work.
4. Some professionals see it as "redundant" to Facebook.  Their organizations have long ago approved usage of Facebook in the organization for business purposes.  (Obviously, these folks are the exact opposite of those who give reason #3).

The good news is that most of the time at least 50% of the students in my classes "get it" and are very interested in gaining the many benefits that SharePoint My Sites offer.  But, that still leaves a significant number who continue to push back.

Have any of you experienced this kind of push-back?  Are the reasons similar to the ones I hear?  What do you think it will take before My Sites are universally embraced in all SharePoint Server implementations?

Let me know in the comments below.

P.S.  I just read this news article about Hilton Hotels implementing SharePoint 2010 worldwide to 130,000 employees.  At the very end of the article, the author of the article quotes the Hilton CIO as saying:

"We want employees to use SharePoint MySites and TeamSites [which create a Facebook-like environment] to share information or jointly edit documents with people in their departments"

I am going to stick this quote in my bag of tricks to use in the classroom the next time I hear this kind of push back.