Tim Bauer’s Running Thoughts

Ask yourself this question …

• Is there an ROI to collaboration?

because when you start looking at collaboration products like Jive Software your aren’t talking chump change. They face the same hurdles as any efficiency based initiative. The executives want to see hard dollars have have either the word INCREASED REVENUE in them or REDUCED COST.  If you can’t show it they will give you a $1 to buy a six pack of Top Raman.  If you can, they money is there.

So with images of Raman dancing in my head I clicked on play and got to running.

All and all, I see two things:

1. The ROI of collaboration is STILL not clear
2. Jive is a great choice when you have a large, complex, internally business focused group. There are better options for IT and External uses.
   

Personally? In my business we eat Raman Noodles. Free is appealing for a startup … at least till the adoption warrants re-assessing the maintenance headache of disparate systems. I was close though .. the shiny package of Jive was tempting. I would do it over Sharepoint that is for sure.

Would be curious on your thoughts … as always.

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• https://admin.acrobat.com/_a773188684/p96493791/
• Enterprise Collaboration & Community Software
• 4/28/2008, 6:05 AM - 2:02 in still doing housekeeping
• 7 years … 15% of Fortune 500 … 2000 customers
• Internal and External communities (hit both)
• Products
……………○ Clearspace
……………○ Clearspace community (external)
• Unique of Jive - Adhoc Conversation
……………○ Not document centric
……………○ Bauer comment - So they avoid the wiki, sharepoint angle of penetration
• 4/28/2008, 6:09 AM
• Some graph proving collaboration was largest impact to business
……………○ Bauer comment - a word smithing point? I mean doesn’t that mean people talking hits all pieces?
• 4/28/2008, 6:10 AM
• External community keys
……………○ Talk about products
……………○ More than support
……………○ Feedback, sentiment, learning, story telling, associations
• Web help is more effective than call center
……………○ Supporting stats
……………○ Bauer comment - not very targetted examples … rather high level
• 4/28/2008, 6:12 AM
• Poll - What communities are you looking to create to drive value in your business
……………○ Primary response was collaboration in the enterprise (71%)
……………○ Service & Support (45%)
……………○ Developer & Partner community (36%)
• 4/28/2008, 6:14 AM
• Examples of customer implementations
……………○ PC World, Sprint, VMWare, Net App, Bank of America, John Deer
……………○ Enterprise Collab, BrandAffinity, etc are solutions
• 4/28/2008, 6:15 AM
• Focus on Enterprise Collaboration
……………○ Slide on communication flows (Bubbles, typical questions)
…………………………§ Bauer comment - still not crystallizing a core message for me. Might be they are moving across a lot of topics very lightly.
……………○ Service Tech
…………………………§ Ideas shared by networking / meeting
…………………………§ R&D getting feedback
…………………………§ Without clearspace doesn’t get widely leveraged
……………○ Make captured conversation easily visible
…………………………§ Discussion
…………………………§ Document
…………………………§ Content management (Sharepoint integration)
…………………………§ Finding the right SME in an org around a question search
……………○ Bauer comment - its interesting they don’t talk to how different roles want different tools to interact w/ the collab stack. Wiki is typically not a biz user preference (not powerful enough in formatting and other functions)
• 4/28/2008, 6:19 AM
• Example of capture of info
……………○ Bauer comment .. Like a blog post or a forum post
……………○ Anyone watching space or tags on post get auto email notification
…………………………§ Bauer comment this is somewhat notable (how to make people aware efficiently) but then the debate of how to effectively tag in an org becomes the riddle (ala ECM meta tagging from years back)
• 4/28/2008, 6:21 AM
• External collaboration example
……………○ Brand and peer to peer support community (excellent example per them)
…………………………§ Bauer comment - I would say the example is weak. Powered does a much better job (given their marketing focus/background) on how to use tools like Jive CS 2.0 to drive brand
……………○ Shows a ton of discussions (forum)
…………………………§ Company mines and watches these threads
……………○ Bauer comment - interesting how they are focusing on the ‘build it they will come’ when really your partner and recurring customers would prefer a decentralized model that aggregates to their preferred reader (don’t assume your external user only does the role that works w/ you)
• 4/28/2008, 6:24 AM
• Poll - Biggest Driver of Success
……………○ Ease of Use - 58%
……………○ All in one system - Wiki, Blog, Forum, etc - 10%
…………………………§ Bauer comment - This isn’t a concern until users get in an realize integration (or lack of) breaks the workflows across the various collab environments
• 4/28/2008, 6:28 AM New features
……………○ Personalization on homepage
…………………………§ Widgets ala how wordpress feels
…………………………§ No other competitor does this
…………………………§ Bauer comment - Wouldn’t WordPress local do similar? Make homepage style a blog model (posts and pages)
…………………………§ One homepage example - Calendar (bauer - pick your favorite), recent content (bauer - live mesh), Status update (bauer - twitter), tasks ( bauer - remember the milk)
………………………………………□ Bauer comment - They spent 1-2m on status sharing being important in the enterprise … hello twitter (in private mode)
…………………………§ Another homepage example - 2-3 people you are tracking (bauer - hello friendfeed), product tracking (bauer - document change via mesh), external rss feeds (techcrunch)
……………○ Visibility of org relationships / profiles
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:34 AM
…………………………§ LDAP and AD integration … pull into clearspace … populate the system
……………○ Projects
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:35 AM
…………………………§ Self organize
…………………………§ Configure like homepage … tasks, discussions, blogs tied to project
……………○ Sharepoint integration
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:36 AM
…………………………§ 1st Goal making it part of the enterprise footprint of documentation
…………………………§ Enhance link functionality to tie to what exists in SP sites
………………………………………□ So if you hit link button there is a SP tab that allows you to pull content from sites in SP
…………………………§ Bauer comment - interesting how we are not talking to the collaboration style that the dev team wants / needs versus what functional roles want/need … and how the two work together.
…………………………§ Bauer comment - Its ‘free’ footprint continues to keep it in the game (at least the starting version is free)
…………………………§ Sharepoint is also tied to search results
……………○ Document sharing
…………………………§ Users can share content outside of clearspace (collaboration)
…………………………§ Partners, contractors … secure and managable
………………………………………□ Give access to partners @ discussion and/or document level
……………○ Admin console Auditing
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:40 AM
…………………………§ Visibility and control of any change in admin (bauer comment phpBB3 does this default)
……………○ Additional items
…………………………§ Rich text editor
…………………………§ Widget framework
…………………………§ Core arch - better API, REST, Spring/Struts based upgrade
• 4/28/2008, 6:41 AM
• Demo
……………○ Login as VP OPS
……………○ Homepage Widgets
…………………………§ Watching tags
…………………………§ Watching people activity
………………………………………□ Bauer comment that is a nice widget
…………………………§ Discussions
…………………………§ His Tasks
………………………………………□ Not clear if this is a one-off project tool or tied to a Proj Mgmt Sys
…………………………§ Blog posts
…………………………§ Your Projects
…………………………§ You Colleagues
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:44 AM (still going on homepage)
………………………………………□ Bauer comment - would agree the innovation area is how to bubble up the activity from the raw areas
……………○ Search
…………………………§ Search for online marketing
…………………………§ Ability to expand to detail search results in search result pane
…………………………§ Profile
…………………………§ Actions - Email, Private Message, etc
…………………………§ See reporting relationships
…………………………§ Mini profile (on mouseover of names - shows what they are working on)
………………………………………□ Bauer comment - Amusing the ongoing ’status’ play
……………○ Project Calendar customization
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:48 AM
…………………………§ Mention of how this isn’t the core system the PM is using … goal is one calendar, doc repos, discussion area
• End
……………○ Bauer comment - Collaboration (JIVE): Pick Your Flavor or Flounder (like JIVE)
• 4/28/2008, 6:51 AM
• Q&A
……………○ 4/28/2008, 6:51 AM
……………○ Differences in CS 2.0 Ent vs CS 2.0 Community
…………………………§ Personalization, projects are bundled in enterprise. Can turn on (for a fee?)
…………………………§ Nuances for external versus internal communities
…………………………§ Next release has a bunch more of features focused on social networking
……………○ Status update like twitter?
…………………………§ Yes. Can see in ’status widget’ or ‘my colleague widget’
……………○ Plugin for video
…………………………§ Yes. I.e. Youtube.
…………………………§ Jive Space (Deverloper space) can help build custom widgets
……………○ Internal Calendar (Jotlet) can synch to Outlook
…………………………§ Yes
……………○ Printable
…………………………§ Yes
……………○ Profile integrate w/ 3rd party HR systems
…………………………§ LDAP focused
…………………………§ Can choose some fields that come out of CS
…………………………§ Bauer comment - So no
……………○ Admin, shut off ability to customize?
…………………………§ Yes
……………○ Guest access
…………………………§ Yes, by feature
……………○ Sharing and watching … what is that
…………………………§ You watch their activity (stream)
…………………………§ Bauer comment - Why wouldn’t small companies just do Friendfeed private?
……………○ Questions around integration
……………○ Abuse flagging?
…………………………§ Yes certain types … go to moderation
……………○ Project available in CS Community?
…………………………§ Yes off by default.
…………………………§ Can turn on (made it sound free)
……………○ Blog
…………………………§ President — www.jivesoftware.com/community/blogs/jivetalks
…………………………§ Dave hirsh

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So this webcast (Salesforce.com - ADM 115 Fundamentals - Customize) started with me wanting to get a quick overview of the sizzle of Salesforce.com relative to configuration / customization options but quickly degrades into the story “If you give a mouse a cookie …” since … as I consumed the cookie of Salesforce.com as a on-demand CRM solution … I found a new desire/question in my head … could Salesforce.com could be a viable departmental collaboration platform (ala Sharepoint)?

You can read the running thoughts below but my notables will be looking at the ‘cookie’ tangent above.

Not surprisingly, my closing thought is the classical …

“Use the framework that is best in its niche coupled with consideration on what your shop strategically is trying to support long term”.

If you aren’t a SFDC client then you probably should just pick a different collaboration framework (and if you want one that is easy for end users to extend - Sharepoint does well). However, if you are a Salesforce client you can achieve alot of what MSFT clients have in sharepoint with little work (and in the end potentially get more power and usability).

What do you think … is comparing the two just silly?

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• Overview
……..○ URL - https://na5.salesforce.com/train/class_detail.jsp?class=admin2&loc=_na
……..○ Help & training / apex developer / admin fundamentals - customize
• Running Notes
……..○ 3/31/2008, 6:14 AM
…………….§
……..○ Adm 250 … virtual customer training opp
……..○ Customizing the homepage
…………….§ App / setup / homepage / setup
…………….§ Links to documents
…………….§ Basic portal concepts
……..○ Picklists (standard / modify)
…………….§ Max of 15k characters in picklist
……………………□ Sound you can’t list all employees for example (depending on size)
……………………□ Bauer comment - But you would use a lookup in that case
…………….§ Max of 40 char per picklist line item
…………….§ Very much like Sharepoint listpart setup (defining columns and valid values)
…………….§ 3/31/2008, 6:26 AM
…………….§ Dependant picklists discussed
……………………□ Point and click configuration
……………………□ Bauerr comment - Might be better than SP here
……………………□ Bauer comment looks good
……………………□ 3/31/2008, 6:27 AM
……………………□ Demo
…………………………..® Setup field dependancies on a picklist … can control 1:N fields from the value of one field
…………………………..® Field depenancy field … matrix … between master and slave … you pick the interection points …
………………………………….◊ Bauer comment - impressive
…………………………..® Automatic notes fields telling you why fields are disabled on dependant rules
………………………………….◊ Bauer commnet - impressive (again)
……..○ 3/31/2008, 6:31 AM
……..○ Custom Fields
…………….§ Caps … 500 per tab … 20 per activity / users
…………….§ Creating custom picklist
…………….§ Field level security by profile
……..○ 3/31/2008, 6:35 AM
……..○ Customizing page layouts
…………….§ Hide fields, show custom, create sections in pages
…………….§ Show, read only, visible on header / detail
…………….§ 3/31/2008, 6:36 AM
…………….§ Demo
……………………□ Visual drag and drop setup page (ajax like)
……………………□ Show how to make 1 field a required field
……..○ 3/31/2008, 6:38 AM
……..○ Custom objects
…………….§ Tabs, field history, sharing, etc
…………….§ Sharing
……………………□ Via sharing rules
……………………□ Manually share objects (records?)
……………………□ Sharing button … can share w/ anyone
……………………□ Field history tracking
…………………………..® Reduce cost on SOX
……………………□ Queues with any custom object
…………………………..® Distribution of custom object record … assign to queue so users tied to queue can access and take ownership
……………………□ Rename standard fields
…………………………..® Used universally
……………………□ Custom tab colors and icons
…………………………..® Bauer comment - Woot (not)
…………….§ Optional components on home page … common versus tailored
……..○ 3/31/2008, 6:45 AM
……..○ Understand custom links
…………….§ Go to other systems
…………….§ Pop up attributes on link are all controllable via config
……………………□ Bauer comment - nice
…………….§ Embed on object records (like a 1:N URL field)
……..○ 3/31/2008, 6:55 AM
……..○ Managing folders
…………….§ Store documents, email templates, reports
…………….§ 4 folder types - document folders, email template folders, report folders, dashboard folders
……………………□ Bauer comment - how does content manage suite fit into this
…………….§ Role can be used to control access
……………………□ Bauer comment - hierarchy by account?
……..○ 3/31/2008, 6:58 AM
……..○ Customizing display
…………….§ Can tailor your tab order, visibility
……..○ 3/31/2008, 7:00 AM
○ Advanced call scripting
…………….§ On AppExchange User guides on these application
…………….§ Design Q&A scripts for objects … author, branching, scoring, results
……………………□ Scoring engine
……………………□ Graphical authoring wizard
……………………□ Bauer comment … basic INDIRECT form … could you leverage the engine from the API on this?
…………….§ Dealing with lead … pass X number then pass to shortlist
…………….§ Questions in ‘tree view’
…………….§ Score each answer
…………….§ “Find Scripts” … avail scripts by object … custom links by admin to get to that
…………….§ Running score , passing score
…………….§ Can run script in any order (flexibility)
……..○ 3/31/2008, 7:05 AM
……..○ Service Level Agreements / Entitlements
…………….§ Validate a level of service a customer is entitled to
…………….§ Track which contacts get support
…………….§ SLA by 1st response
…………….§ Escalate cases
……………………□ Bauer comment - similar to a job search request
…………….§ Service level exceptions occur
……..○ 3/31/2008, 7:07 AM
……..○ Workflow
…………….§ 300 workflow rules per object
……………………□ Can assign followup tasks on case updated
……………………□ Email alerts
……………………□ Change owner of contract
……………………□ Trigger API externally
……………………□ Change value in field based on trigger
…………….§ Create workflow rule
…………….§ Approval processes
…………….§ Custom user hierarchies for approval
…………….§ Restricted field stops poeople from approving their stuff
……..○ 3/31/2008, 7:11 AM
……..○ Data validation
…………….§ Error condition formula to block save of invalid data
…………….§ Rules, criteria, message
…………….§ Error condition formulas is the key
…………….§ Select field type, field, check syntax button
……..○ 3/31/2008, 7:14 AM
……..○ Composite UI
…………….§ Custom S Controls
…………….§ Custom Button / Links
……………………□ Add, remove, override
…………….§ Build custom s control, new
……………………□ Label, descriptor, HTML / javascript in content section
……………………□ Salesforce.acrobat.com/customscontrols
……..○ End

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When you gaze at Sharepoint as of right now … which horse do you see? Secretariat or the Trojan Horse? I guess it depends what side of the walls of Troy you sit on … but lets ponder a bit anyway.

(** I skipped BI above on purpose as the BDC, to me is the primary unique value statement there **)

In short, I think the core of Sharepoint is about team collaboration and in reality there are better cheaper answers in the market. Study what true collaboration enablement is in your ORG then jump for the shiny widget (which may be MSFT … but may not).

What do you think?

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– No running notes today … spent too much time typing off this article (have to move on the inspiration)

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Watched this webcast today due to my ongoing desire to understand how MSFT is positioning the integration of BizTalk Server (BTS) and Sharepoint (SP).

People Ready Processes

It was a nicely done deck w/ a mix of MSFT’s angle on why the two (SP and BTS) go together in solutions. I recommend watching it. The keys I took away were:

1. People Ready Processes Interesting angle here. Hanging off the overall marketing blitz of people ready software coming out of MSFT. Basically they are saying that bringing BTS (system focused process automation) and SP (people focused process automation) together creates people ready processes. Not bad. Amusing how they pointed out (not exactly true) that BPR was about removing people. People Ready Process automation is about enabling them (not true entirely either). Still nice spin.
2. There is that System Analysts Modelling Processes Live Again. To do this they focused on a demo by one partner showing how the System Analyst can push processes to BTS and not stomp the definition that was evolved, in there, by the developer. So a custom solution (implied by earlier webcasts) is not the only means to achieve this.

Again a solid presentation. Worth watching regardless of camp. For those amused here are my detail notes:

• BTS & Office Sharepoint Server
• Agenda
………….○ Overview of BPM
………….○ Office Sharepoint + BTS
………….○ Partner solutions
• 1:30 - BPM Overview
………….○ Strategy / Org Design / Processes
………….○ Enable via tech
• BPM = People Ready Business
• 4:00 - Why Process Matters
• 4:30 - Next Era of Automation
………….○ Old - Replace paper (doc scan)
………….○ Old - System centric auto (EAI)
………….○ New - Both (People Ready Processes)
• 7:30 - People Ready Process
………….○ BPR Removed People
………….○ People Ready Processes Enables them
………….○ Steps
……………………..§ Model/Design - same tools
……………………..§ Develop/Deploy - same tools
……………………..§ Manage/Interact -
……………………..§ Analyze/Optimize - Drill down
• 10:30 - Breadth of Processes
………….○ Spectrum - Collab to Transactional
………….○ Spectrum - Adhoc, (two in middle) to Fixed
………….○ Spectrum - Individual, Team, Cross Team, to Cross Division
• 14:00 - Tool Layer
………….○ Spectrum - Sharepoint to Process Svr
………….○ Common tools (design, monitor, run)
• 17:00 - Customer Example
………….○ OHA (Oncology Hematology Assoc)
………….○ Clinical Medical App.
………….○ End to end … unstructured team enablement to connection to backend systems
………….○ Tablet PCs used for capture. Sharepoint for teaming. VS & BTS for system integration.
………….○ www.microsoft.com/customerevidence
• 19:30 - Loan Approval Demo
………….○ From unstructured to structured
………….○ Process
……………………..§ Website to
……………………..§ Sharepoint to
……………………..§ WWF to
……………………..§ BTS to
……………………..§ End Tran systems
………….○ Infopath form in webpage
……………………..§ [bauer comment - very slow - claimed vpc issues]
……………………..§ [bauer comment big push to move forms in sites to be infopath based]
………….○ Save to SP
………….○ BTS picks up transaction on save to SP
……………………..§ Checks credit
……………………..§ Reviews customer history etc
……………………..§ Credit score wait, when receive decides what to do
……………………..§ 27:00 - Creates (BTS) a word doc w/ a credit report that someone should review (based in Sharepoint) … put information panel @ top to enable the workflow in the document.
………….○ Want to analyze the workflow in aggregate and see where optimization of workflow (auto approvals, time per step, etc)
……………………..§ BTS can provide inform from BAM in SP what the key statistics being tracked (like loans requiring loans requiring human review)
………….○ If a very system focused process maybe just BTS … if human exception processes tied for notable volumes SP is viable
• 33:00 - Partner Solutions
………….○ BPMS Partners
……………………..§ ITP
……………………..§ ProActivity
……………………..§ ProForma
……………………..§ Semtation
……………………..§ Simul8
……………………..§ K2.net
……………………..§ Captaris
……………………..§ Skelta
……………………..§ inRule
……………………..§ RuleBurst
………….○ 35:00 - ITP Commerce - Process Modelling Solutions
……………………..§ Product - Process Modeller for Visio …
…………………………………□ BPMN syntax in visio
…………………………………□ BPEL, XPDL, XLANG mapping
…………………………………□ Word integ / excel integ
…………………………………□ Team repository
…………………………………□ Model analysis
……………………..§ Show Visio w/ their BPMN stencil … How KPI go to excel
……………………..§ Export to BTS (from Visio). Include BAM KPI definition file.
…………………………………□ Creates instrumented orchestration in BTS
……………………..§ Import BAM data to Excel (BAM data). Via Process Modeller (their tool)
……………………..§ 42:00 - Summary
…………………………………□ Model in Visio
…………………………………□ To BTS via XLANG
…………………………………□ Push BAM def to BAM AddIn for Excel
• 44:00 - Roadmap
………….○ BTS 2006 release (3/06)
………….○ Next - o12, .NET 3.0, BTS r2
………….○ Beyond - Modelling, WWF integration, Commoditization of low level integration
• 48:00 - References
………….○ WWw.microsoft.com/BPM
………….○ Partners list –
……………………..§ www.microsoft.com/biztalk/solutions/bpm/partners
……………………..§ [bauer comment - are we on that list]
• 50:00-Q&A
………….○ How developer in BTS takes visio and imports?
……………………..§ Use the BPEL lang or the tool demo’d. Superset of BPEL is XLANG (their partner supports that too).
………….○ Integration of BAM to BI capabilities in o12 (business scorecard and forms point)?
……………………..§ Easy BAM is based on sqlserver analytics cube. So any BI client can hit.

Watched this webcast

LINK

today around WSS 3.0 due to our project w/ a client in Milwaukee kicking off. Goal is to base thier lead management system on the WSS infrastructure. Key question being do we need 3.0 or not. After watching this I would say yes. Outside of that tactical info … here were the keys I saw:

1. Sharepoint 2007 as Framework. It was interesting to see them begin to demo how a SP server could become the piece of framework for ALL custom applications … especially basic ones for data management, content management, collaboration functions, etc. Database and code generated on the fly.

2. Many ECM issues solved. In this release, if all is true I would agree that SP 2007 becomes a viable platform for doing medium level ECM tasks (viable for middle market). Issues like global meta models (via content types), cross site searching, have been solved.

3. Alot of good reasons for upgrade to WSS 3.0. See details below but things like enforced check out option, or versioning models, are key.

I would recommend this one to all our dev team. While a bit long in the the tooth (1:20) clearly is an enabler for all your work. Here are the rough notes.

Watched this webcast this morning.

Advanced Search in MOSS 2007 — Bill English MVP, MSCE, MCT MindShare

I was just looking for background noise but this one turned out to be quite intriguing. Here are some key thoughts.

1. Value in Knowledge Aggregation I wouldn’t have put together the value of a singular aggregator embedded in the framework for collaboration till I watched this. Consider our Communities of practice. Would love to be able to embed into a give team site (say Project Services) an aggregated search index for ALL sources known to the big guy (intranet, extranet, web, ERP, etc). One stop shop for knowledge. Definite value message to clients … stop surfing the web for tidbits … have it be crawled for you.

2. No MOSS on this Stone. Sharepoint 2003 search was weak … due to indexes by site w/ no cross index relevance. Listening to the improvements this guy rattled off (including one index for all — so relevance will work) made me raise my eyebrow. I think they have really improved thier product here (still has gaps … but doesn’t everyone?)

3. Clarity of Why Help is Needing Setting Up MOSS? It was an interesting point by the speaker. If you deploy a search solution and it doesn’t work well to start … users will stop using it. MOSS can work well if you THINK about it awhile (model how your users will be searching, etc). Clients risk spending a ton of money rolling out content aggregators but not having a solid search design on top of it … and getting no ROI from the investment. We need to help them understand the complexity of setting up search CORRECTLY and play from there.

As always, here are my detail notes. I actually didn’t get to the end of this one (doh!) I suspect he kept going to around 1:20. I included a screen shot of search differences (2003 to MOSS).

Watched this webcast

Preparing for Web Content Management w/ Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007

today based on (1) the set of our annuity accounts that are currently on CMS 2002 and (2) the rumor that certain clients are migrating from tier1 ECM products (like Documentum) to the o2007 Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) suite.

So here is what i took away:

1. Solid Marketing vs ECM Space. Good slides and discussion (at a high level) on how the pieces of MOSS can provide not just WCM (focus of this presentation) but the macro view of ECM in ways. For example records management.
2. WSS / WWF Based … AGAIN. Another product that is basing off the core of Windows Sharepoint Services and Windows Workflow foundation. It is clear that MSFT is standardizing on this infrastructure. If you aren’t grappling with what these features can do for you in an application framework — get on it.
3. Sizzle No Steak? Interesting how they didn’t show the product (this was captured in March however). So at that time it was probably too unstable for demo. Has anyone looked at it (Ruska? Baldwin?) since then?

Anyway, here is my detail list:

• Preparing for Web Content Management w/ Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007

• Manish Sharma - Sr. Product Mgr
• Arpan Shah - Group Product Mgr

• 1:44 Agenda
…………….○ Evolution of WCM (cms2001, moss 2007)
…………….○ Features in MOSS
…………….○ New capabilities
…………….○ Migration cms 2002 to MOSS
• 2:00 Evolution
…………….○ CMS 2001
…………….○ CMS 2002
…………….○ MOSS 2007
• 3:30 Overview of MOSS 2007
…………….○ Collab
…………….○ Portal
…………….○ Search
…………….○ Content Management
…………….○ Business Processes
…………….○ Business Intelligence
• 7:00 ECM
…………….○ User Intfc : office, Web, 3rd party
…………….○ ECM: Doc Mgmt, WCM, Records Management, Forms Mgmt
…………….○ Svcs: Workflow, Meta, Policies, Library Svcs, Search, security, IRM, Collab
…………….○ Unified Storage: WSS + SQL Server
…………….○ [bauer comment - 1st time I have seen a ECM vision slide from MSFT, similar to Documentum and Stellent angles (at least in marketing points)]
• 10:00 - Author web content
…………….○ Talks to RM impacting (being available)
…………….○ WSIWYG editor (new)
• 11:45 - In Place Authoring Editing
…………….○ Author content with WSIWYG editor
…………….○ Spell check /tables
…………….○ Server side conversions (word to web page leveraging master page of site)
• 13:00 - Publish
…………….○ Templates - separate content and presentation
• 17:00 - Deploy and Manage
• 18:00 - Present content to Web Users
…………….○ High scale / performance
• 20:00 - Benefits
…………….○ Lower mgmt costs multi site / multi lang
…………….○ Business Driven content
• 20:30 - Liscensing Models
…………….○ Server / Cal (intranet models)
…………….○ Per Server (internet sites)
• 22:30 - Q&A
…………….○ Migration
…………….○ Availability - End 2006
…………….○ Public Beta - End of 6/30
…………….○ SQL Server 2005 Supported
• 23:30 - Key Arch Points (CMS and MOSS)
…………….○ No client footprint this time
…………….○ Editing - Users can add webparts and content (applications)
…………….○ Sharepoint Designer = Next Version of FrontPage
…………….○ Page Layouts = Templates
…………….○ WSS based = for example web content in WSS lists so you get page lock down, recycle bin, RSS feeds on page, workflow on pages, etc … all via WSS .. Also auth provider model works (could write a app provider in asp .net 2.0).
…………….○ Built on WWF. O2007 features. Configurable workflow templates. Serial, parallel, events, create workflows (via designer, or vs2005).
• 30:00 - Coexistance
…………….○ Can run in parallel (CMS and SP 2007)
…………….○ CMS - content, cms files (templates, etc), config
…………………………..§ Will have tools to move content
…………………………..§ Incremental or big bang content movements
…………………………..§ Templates - Get a blank template for every CMS templates (will generate). Won’t move code behinds. Manual apply code, styles (css files could port).
…………….○ Custom Code
…………………………..§ Search (Out of Box - OOB)
…………………………..§ Nav - OOB (plus Whidbey provider)
…………………………..§ Summary Roll Up - OOB (listings, TOC, rollup)
…………………………..§ Deploy Scripts - OOB
…………………………..§ Form Login - OOB
…………………………..§ Workflow - Better OOB
…………………………..§ Console Customizations - OOB
…………………………..§ Custom Placeholder Server Controls - Rewrite as WSS field control
• 42:00 - Application Code Migration
…………….○ Key point not 100% migration of customization on CMS
• 43:00 - Best Practices
…………….○ Get on SP2
…………….○ Minimize Templates (less than 30 per site)
…………….○ Get rid of going directly to the DB (use API’s and workarounds)
…………….○ Don’t put login in pages
…………….○ Leverage Whidbey provider models for navigation and forms (via SP2)
…………………………..§ Enables cool OOB Whidbey Nav
…………………………..§ Makes Nav and Form Login Simple
• 48:00 - Migration Resources
…………….○ Migration Whitepapers
…………….○ Public Beta is avail on 7/5
…………….○ Assessment Tool
…………………………..§ Application that you run on a dev machine and it looks at CMS2002 … tells you what you need to look at (in a way)
…………….○ Arch Guidance
…………….○ Review Reusability and ECM Whitepaper
…………………………..§ ECM - www.microsoft.com/office/preview/ecmwhitepaper.mspx
…………………………..§ BETA - get that
• 51:00 - QA
…………….○ What is Whidbey? ASP .NET 2.0
…………….○ Browser support better than CMS2002 (subscribers supports all models)
…………….○ WSS v2 to v3 is an upgrade … beta2 will address. Reuse on WSS will also be addressed.
…………….○ Blogs.msdn.com/arpans
…………….○ Highly distributed? Can publish to multiple farms
…………….○ Multi Lingual? O2007 on wss.v3 … can have different areas (called sites now) can have different languages. Page level translation is workflow. Control to switch to lang (in template)
…………….○ CM2001 migration. Write ASP code to asp.net.
…………….○ Offline. Take any stuff offline (groove, wss features, etc)

Watched this webcast this morning (working off the fat of vacation)

Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (Whats New)

John Daniels presented. He is the lead relative to FCIS around SP 2007 and is probably the broadest SP resource I have seen in all divisions to date. Overall had the following keys for me.

1. Great Attendance / Q&A. Looks like 80 some people attended and the reservations was around 150. So GREAT involvement (first one was 160 people online). More telling was the interaction during Q&A. 20 minutes of that. Most I have seen in a webcat by FAR (which says something).
2. Workflow is it my friends. ~50% of attendees said they wanted to understand workflow. Validates my belief that the biggest value around Sharepoint is FIRST focusing on business process re-engineering (optimization) and then how to enable that in workflow (SP or 3rd party or Manual). Need to keep digging into WWF (or WF i hear) and BizTalk. I suspect this ‘workflow’ focus is quite pervasive at this time.
3. Good Brand / Marketing Deck. This deck was more on establishing our grasp of the topic. Didn’t come up w/ any notable ah - ha’s from it. Probably focused more on high level consumers. To drive that I believe followup webinars are being formulated.

Here are the rough notes from the presentation:

Office Sharepoint Server 2007 (Whats New)
John Daniels (associate director, collaboration and portals)

………….○ 1:00 - Bad music
………….○ 3:00 - Agenda
……………………..§ About Fujitsu
……………………..§ Background on Sharepoint
……………………..§ Why Start Now?
……………………..§ Top Ten Features
………….○ 4:18 - Presenter
……………………..§ Nice overview of John
………….○ 5:00 - Pool on roles (to guide depth of discussion)
……………………..§ Around 70 people responding
………….○ 5:45 - Fujitsu Overview
………….○ 7:00 - Sharepoint Background (2003 v2)
……………………..§ Released in 2003
……………………..§ Fastest adopted in MSFT history
………….○ 9:00 - Why start now?
……………………..§ 6 to 8 months on MSFT 2007 start implementations
………….○ 10:00 - Context for Webinar
………….○ 10:40 - Top Ten Features
……………………..i. Master Pages
…………………………………1) Ability to push look to multiple sites
……………………..ii. Item Level Security
…………………………………1) Manage permissions at parent or item
…………………………………2) Global breadcrumb at top (site nav @ left)
……………………..iii. Security Trimmed UI
…………………………………1) Menu dynamic
…………………………………2) Much better site admin path via menue (1 click) versus the 2-3 of old
……………………..iv. Workflow
……………………..v. Recycle Bin
……………………..vi. Site / Library Templates
……………………..vii. Content Policies & Expiration
……………………..viii. My Site
……………………..ix. Mobile Enabled Sites/Lists
……………………..x. Total integration w/ Content Management Server
………….○ 17:00 - Demo
……………………..§ Covering the above (1-3)
………….○ 20:30 - Workflow
……………………..§ Every doc lib, list has 2 workflows embedded
…………………………………□ Collect feedback
…………………………………□
……………………..§ Use Sharepoint Designer or VS 2005
……………………..§ Workflow in o12 2007
……………………..§ Sharepoint Designer
…………………………………□ Show properties and css by region / page
………….○ 24:00 - Site Templates
……………………..§ New in Collab (wiki, blog)
……………………..§ Internet Presence Website
……………………..§ Personalization
……………………..§ Report Center
……………………..§ Search Center
……………………..§ etc
………….○ 25:00 - List Templates
……………………..§ Wiki library
……………………..§ Picture / Report Library
……………………..§ Translation Management Library
……………………..§ Data Collection Library - Key Part of Business Data Catalogue
………….○ 27:30 - Project Mgmt Lite Site
……………………..§ Easy Gantt
……………………..§ Simple tasks / dependancies
……………………..§ Promote project to professional
………….○ 28:30 - Mobile Enable Sites
……………………..§ One click
……………………..§ Domestic and International phone. Reduce images and size appropriately
………….○ 29:30 - Document Management
……………………..§ Research content types
……………………..§ Workflow and approval
……………………..§ Minor/major versions
……………………..§ Security and tracking
………….○ 31:00 - Centrally Admined Policy Templates
……………………..§ Archival workflow
………….○ 32:00 - Record Repository
……………………..§ Capture rich meta data
……………………..§ Content types can kick off workflow
……………………..§ Major/minor versioning (see published version - highlighted)
………….○ 34:00 - Slide Library
……………………..§ Ability to pull from one screen the thumbnails of slides that you need to include.
……………………..§ Will notify when those ‘master’ slides change. Keep them in synch
………….○ 36:10 - Forced checkout
……………………..§ Comments, version type, etc
………….○ 37:00 - Integration to Outlook
……………………..§ Can push site tasks to outlook tasks
……………………..§ Same for calendar
……………………..§ Can take docs from site offline (synch). Briefcase like.
………….○ 39:00 - RSS Feeds
……………………..§ Every list, every doc lib can be an rss feed
………….○ 42:00 - Mysite
……………………..§ User profile
……………………..§ Org Structure (what you have in common). Helps the social network.
……………………..§ Social network add on (degree’s of separation)
………….○ 44:00 - Content Management
……………………..§ Web content Management
……………………..§ Staging (setup scheduled tasks)
………….○ Poll - Greatest Challenge
……………………..Workflow was 47% of the problem. Workflow. 30 people.
……………………..○ Nice example of how to do a pool (talking points to each bullet)
………….○ 49:00 - Call to action
……………………..○ Readiness Assessment
…………………………………□ Analyze your environment
…………………………………□ Complexity matrix
…………………………………□ Understand the migration path and business impact
……………………..○ Beta2. 5/23. 1.4M downloads. 14,000 ftp servers
……………………..○ RTM for volume liscenses in Oct.
……………………..○ Full 2007 in 01/07 w/ Vista.
………….○ 50:00 - Q&A
……………………..§ Prior 2007 version integration?
…………………………………□ Document forthcoming. Good, better, best.
……………………..§ Sharepoint Designer add-on?
…………………………………□ Comes w/ Office Pro (or buy as add on)
……………………..§ Webpart search across libraries?
…………………………………□ Yes. One index in 2007 (better relevance / rankings)
…………………………………□ Search is full open API
…………………………………□ Need server to search across sites.
…………………………………□ Can use meta tags
…………………………………□ Storage limitations (2000 docs in folder or in list is a perf limit). Tree view comes out of box.
……………………..§ Taking docs offline doesn’t checkout? True.
……………………..§ 2003 integration / disconnection of portal and sharepoint.
…………………………………□ Sharepoint server on WSS. Sites look the same.
…………………………………□ WSS will be free still. WSS v3. Get certain features w/ pricing.
……………………..§ Printer friendly pages? Yes has been extended.
……………………..§ Save from office directly w/o drive? Yes use URL
……………………..§ 2003 to 2007 migrations how easy? Wait?
…………………………………□ Non blocking strategy. 2003 and CMS 2002.
…………………………………□ Different levels of migration complexity. For example Front page is fine.
…………………………………□ Custom site definitions need additional work.
…………………………………□ Look at non-blocking strategies. Readiness assessments.
…………………………………□ Tools MSFT will release to ease migration.
……………………..§ Features in WSS?
…………………………………□ All shown minus Internet site w/ CM.
……………………..§ O2003 for view? Yes.
……………………..§ Sharepoint 2007 how compare versus other CMS systems?
…………………………………□ Top right on Gartner per John.
…………………………………□ Especially w/ policy and content solid.
…………………………………□ Scalability is key.
……………………..§ How bundled? Separate SKU. Groove allows you to have extranet capability (share SPS site outside of intranet or content).
……………………..§ Migration SP 2001 to 2007? Ideally 2001 -> 2003 -> 2007? What you really want is the content not the arch. So its more about a content port.
……………………..§ Mobile Access Devices Supported? Security settings to make avail on www?
…………………………………□ All devices w/ windows mobile.
…………………………………□ Render to mobile device based on international sites.
…………………………………□ Enabled security (same as extranet model)
……………………..§ Integration w/ Small Business Server?
……………………..§ Infopath required? No. Forms Server go over? Works w/ all browsers (zero client footprint). Does require different liscensing.
……………………..§ Index capabilities? 2007 can be pointed to content source. Will index it. Basically Index server. Still have capabilities to hit 2003 SPS, Notes, Shared Drives, etc.

Whew, this MSFT ‘partnercast’ (my name for a webcast done by a 3rd party vendor, in this case MSFT, for it’s employees and partners only) to show Beta 1 of Sharepoint was a journey. They had technical issues galore and the presentors didn’t have a tight story. However, I was intrigued in that we do see clients beginning to poke at what SP and o12 can do for them.

The presenters covered workflow (1hr), wikis/blogs (15 min), and mysite/personalization (15 min). I have to admit (as you could infer from the above i didn’t take too much away from this — outside of getting to see SP 2007 for the 1st time) but here were some keys:

1. I see the sizzle, where is the steak. The presenters went through alot of stuff but didn’t convey the powerful reason for clients to leap to this. While they spent an hour on workflow (where I suspect the compelling event is) they didn’t achieve any momentum in my view of why this could help businesses more than what they have today around workflow

2. They have fixed alot. For our clients using SP 2003 it is much improved so an upgrade is compelling. Search is supposedly relevant now. Wiki’s and Blogs are a nice add. Ability to synch any SP item to outlook for office usage is nice (fixes problems when the network goes down), etc.

3. BETA 1 Performance DOESN’T Rock!. Man oh man was beta one chugging in this demo. Hears to them improving that.

For those still curious, I uploaded the webcast to here:

https://grip.gr.com/sites/SPDC/Internal%20Training%20Itiatives/SPS_2007_p1.wmv

Here are my detail notes: