FLEXclass -- A Whole New Way to Learn

This week we launch our first week of FLEXclass training.

What is FLEXclass training, you ask?

The FLEXclass model retains the high quality and effectiveness of PremierPoint Solutions training, while introducing a new level of convenience, flexibility, and depth. And, best of all, our new 3- and 4-day FLEXclasses are just $995!

Future of InfoPath 2013 and SharePoint Designer 2013 in 2016

Is this finally a real future of InfoPath and SharePoint Designer? 

In-Person vs. Live Online SharePoint Training: Which Is Best for You?

PremierPoint Solutions’ Marketing Director Don Beehler recently interviewed SharePoint trainer Robert Schley about what students should consider when evaluating in-person vs. live online training.

Beehler: What are the main differences between in-person and live online SharePoint training in terms of the experience students have?

Schley: With in-person training, there is student/trainer interaction during lunch and breaks, and during those times topics related to a class often come up and are discussed. Another difference is that with live online students, I can’t see their body language very well, so it’s hard to know students if students are really getting what I’m saying or if I need to elaborate or rephrase certain information. I also can’t tell if they are ignoring me or if they are silent because they understand what I’m telling them. In class we banter more and topics just naturally come up, including things they aren’t quite getting. The online students have a more limited opportunity to interact, so they have to be willing to speak up with their questions. Successful live online students are assertive and take responsibility for their training.

Cool Summer SharePoint Training Deal: $995 for any August Class

Here’s a cool deal – a refreshing price on August SharePoint training classes.

Register for any August 2015 PremierPoint Solutions SharePoint training class and use the Promo Code, “AUG995.” You’ll pay just $995 for the class!

That’s right. Any August training class for just $995.*

These classes are regularly priced from $1695 to $1895, so you’ll save anywhere from $700 to $900 off the regular price of the class.

Get in on this great summer deal. Click on one of the classes listed below to register now and save hundreds on our August classes!

SharePoint 2013 Power User Fast Track – Nashville, TN, August 3-5

SharePoint 2013 Power User Fast Track – Live Online, August 3-5

SharePoint 2013 Workflow and InfoPath No-Code Development – Nashville, TN, August 11-14

SharePoint 2013 Workflow and InfoPath No-Code Development – Live Online, August 11-14

Designing SharePoint Enterprise Content Management and Records Management Systems – Nashville, TN, August 18-21

Designing SharePoint Enterprise Content Management and Records Management Systems – Live Online, August 18-21

InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 No-Code Workflow Deep Dive – Nashville, TN, August 25-28

InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 No-Code Workflow Deep Dive – Live Online, August 25-28

Business Intelligence Training – the Microsoft Self-Service BI Toolset – Nashville, TN, August 31-September 2

Business Intelligence Training – the Microsoft Self-Service BI Toolset – Live Online, August 31-September 2

Learn more about these courses, and how our SharePoint training solves real-world business problems, here.  (Remember, you must use the promo code “AUG995” when you register online to get the special price.)

Register now before this cool deal melts away!


*This special deal is exclusive of all other offers. It may not be combined with any other offer or special pricing.

A Delightful Destination for Music, Fun, and SharePoint Training – Nashville

If you’re looking into SharePoint training this summer, you ought to think about making it a Nashville SharePoint “training vacation!”

Nashville, Tennessee, is listed among the 25 top tourist destinations in the USA, and for good reason. It’s a “happening” city with attractions to please people of every age and interest. Whether you’re into

• Live Music
• Country Music artists and history
• Sports
• Science
• History
• Nature
• The Outdoors
• Floral Beauty
• Art
• Shopping
• Dining Out (from BBQ to fine dining)
• The Performing Arts
• Or any of a myriad of other interests

Nashville has something for you to appreciate, experience, and enjoy.

Tack a few extra days onto the front or back end of your Nashville SharePoint training class from PremierPoint Solutions, and mix expert hands-on training with a heaping helping of summer fun!

The Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, professional sports (baseball, football, and hockey), museums, the Nashville Zoo, Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, historical sites, and a plethora of parks, malls, stores, restaurants, night spots, and music venues make Nashville a hit with visitors of all ages.

Bring the kids! From Nashville Shores water park to the Adventure Science Center, along with parks and play areas galore, there’s plenty to keep them happy through the whole day.

So while you’re getting your SharePoint training, the family can be exploring Nashville’s fun spots.

Our Nashville classroom is in Brentwood, a beautiful suburb just south of Nashville, and you’ll find most all of the major hotel chains represented there.

Check out the full lineup of SharePoint classes here, and attend the class of your choice in Music City, USA, or Live Online right where you are.

Plan your Nashville SharePoint training vacation now. You won’t be disappointed!

How do you learn SharePoint?

I set out on a mission a few weeks back to discover a

better way to make our materials available to students.  This was prompted by a student in one class remarking that if we're "..going to use digital materials, then you need to go all the way".  I'm probably paraphrasing but that's what keeps ringing in my head! (thanks kate)

Office 365 Enterprise Content Management? Yes, we can!

Our course, Designing SharePoint Enterprise Content Management and Records Management Systems (formerly Creating SharePoint Document Management Systems), is one of the most practical and effective that we offer.  This course takes you from square one to SharePoint Content Management Power User in just 4 days. And if that weren’t enough, I've just confirmed that you can do it all in Office 365 too!

InfoPath and "Cloud" woes

I was recently forwarded an article from a professional colleague that brought a little bit of a dark shadow to the promised land of "the cloud".  I'm a big fan of InfoPath for its ability to empower Power Users to build what they need; especially the ease of accessing web services.

Regrettably in Office 365 it is not possible to make use
of your SharePoint User Profile Service web service with InfoPath Forms Services (InfoPath forms in a browser on SharePoint).  This prevents your online forms from gathering information about users from just the place that was designed to let you do so in SharePoint.  Due to security concerns, Microsoft will simply not allow it.  This is a negligible issue that could be evaluated, in an on-premise implementation, for acceptable risk but the decision is out of your hands when using cloud services.  InfoPath will be replaced in the future, but currently I believe that it has no peer except for 3rd party vendor software.  Please read here for the article about the scenario and further resources.

Special Holiday Pricing on SharePoint Training

It's the most wonderful time of the year for SharePoint training!

PremierPoint Solutions is making it more affordable than ever before to get quality SharePoint training.

We have never, in the 10-year history of our company, made the kind of offer on SharePoint training that we are offering right now! $700 to $900 off the regular price of 3- and 4-day classes.

It’s our holiday gift to you.

Every December and January class is just $995.*

Register from now to December 31st, 2014, for any 3- or 4-day December 2014 or January 2015 training class, and pay just $995! That’s $700 to $900 off the regular price for these classes, thanks to our Special Holiday Pricing (SHP)!

You must use the Promo Code “MYGIFT” when you register online to get the special pricing.

SharePoint BI Basics: Set a KPI Column in Your Lists and Libraries as a Visual Reference

Business Intelligence is a hot button with most managers and executives these days, because the immediacy of having real-time data turned into actionable insights is priceless for strategic decision-making. In a recent class on “Business Intelligence Training – The Microsoft Self-Service BI Toolset,” one of our most popular courses, a student asked me an excellent question. With a little research, I came up with a better answer than I was able to give in class off the top of my head. So I thought I’d share it with you.

The question is, “How do I set a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) column for every object in my SharePoint list or library?” Our answer will be applicable to SharePoint 2010 and 2013, but I’ll be using screenshots from SharePoint 2010. 

Create Random String in InfoPath Form

     A question came up in class this week during our SharePoint InfoPath and Workflow Deep Dive.
     How do we create a random string in InfoPath?  The background is that one of the students wants to use an InfoPath form for access requests.  The form would submit to a SharePoint Library which would then e-mail the approver.  A confirmation code would be created by the form and forwarded to the user once the request was approved.
     Well, unfortunately there is not a function that will allow us to magically create a random number so we're going to have to put some effort into creating a pseudo random string.

I can’t get the date for [Today] in SharePoint 2013

In my SharePoint 2013 Power User Fast Track class last week, a student asked if she could make a column display today’s date in SharePoint 2013.

This seemed simple enough using a calculated column, but then I discovered there is a restriction on calculated columns that forbids the use of the [Today] and [me] functions.  There are whole discussions on why this is the case, similar to this one. 

The simple explanation is that calculated columns don’t update until the individual item is updated. 

So what is the solution to this problem?  Well, the answer to that relies more on what your end goal really is.  If you want to be able to see items within a certain date range, then a view can work around this by using a simple filter like “deadline is less than [Today] +3”. This will show everything with a deadline of 3 days from now or less.

New Course: InfoPath and SharePoint 2013 No-Code Workflow Deep Dive

Beginning with our 2007 “Mission: Automation” course on InfoPath and no-code SharePoint workflows, our courses on designing digital forms, and automating business processes through SharePoint workflows have been some of our most popular and effective courses ever!

New SharePoint Training Course: SharePoint 2013 Power User Fast Track

More and more companies are coming on board with SharePoint 2013 and more and more of their employees need to be trained to use it effectively.

PremierPoint Solutions is pleased to announce our newest course, a course that can take you from Power User to SharePoint Power User in just 3 days. Take it at our Nashville training center or Live Online right at your desk – your choice. Either way, it’s just $1695. And our engaging and interactive atmosphere makes learning fun!

It’s a New Year’s Revolution!

It’s a New Year’s Revolution! Out with the old and in with the new!

Old what? New what?

PremierPoint Solutions Training Class Prices!

 

In our ongoing efforts to remove every obstacle to helping everyone receive high-quality SharePoint training, PremierPoint Solutions has dealt a death blow to 2013 prices.

Do you really need .NET experience?



by Robert Schley

As a SharePoint training instructor, I occasionally run across postings for SharePoint positions as I cruise the Internet reading up on SharePoint information in general.  This sometimes inspires me to take a look at what kinds of positions are out there and what the current trends are for hiring.  I look through job postings, not necessarily for myself but because I’m curious about what companies are interested in.

I’ve noticed that a lot of SharePoint positions out there have a funny little sentence in them.  I’m not just talking about positions that are marketed as programming or development positions – this requirement seems to be in about 95% of SharePoint positions I look at:

“.NET experience”

Performance-Enhancing Skills: They're Legal

By Randy Moody

It’s kind of ironic, in a way.

In sports, performance-enhancing substances are a huge no-no.
But, in the workplace, performance-enhancing skills are exactly what you’re looking for!

What’s the difference between an office worker and a Power User?
Performance-enhancing skills.

You’re Invested in Your Employees – Now Increase Your ROI!

By Randy Moody

Management, you are already invested in your employees, and have a vested interest in their success, so increasing their competency, productivity, job satisfaction, efficiency, and self-confidence, while reducing employee turnover, can provide greater returns on that investment and boost your bottom line. With that in mind, here are

7 Benefits of Quality SharePoint Training

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.

Why aren’t you using SharePoint Gantt Charts?

by Robert Schley

As a SharePoint enthusiast, and an instructor focused on SharePoint 2013 training, I’m constantly finding things in SharePoint to get excited about. For example, I’m finding that a Gantt Chart is becoming one of my favorite views to use in SharePoint.  Despite its flaws, I’m enjoying and finding creative uses for the graphical display of information, especially in situations where you really just need a snapshot estimate of what you are looking at.