SharePoint 2013 Analysis & Reviews

With every new edition of SharePoint there’s a lot of new apps around that are key to getting the best of out it. This week AvePoint has a new meetings app to bring order to the content around meetings, Metalogix is offering a new way of assessing SharePoint storage, SharePoint Solutions automates site creation, and PartnerPulse monitors Microsoft partners.

So often when we look at how to work with SharePoint we focus in on specific features or functionality based on a silo of information, but the power of SharePoint comes in the ability of users to create simple solutions by combining multiple techniques and tools. 

I recently wrote about how you can create a roadmap to ensure your SharePoint 2013 rollout doesn't end up as an epic fail. I have to be honest with you now and let you know that I haven't told you everything -- in fact, unless you do the vital actions below there is a very good chance that your rollout may still "crash and burn."

As businesses evolve from being information or knowledge centered to being more people centered, SharePoint 2013 offers a range of features to support the shift. 

In the year 2008, Microsoft acquired a technology company called Fast Search & Transfer ASA for a whopping US$ 1.2 billion. With this acquisition, Microsoft capitalized on the reputation Fast Search had built for itself in the field of enterprise search and tightened its grip on the workspace collaboration ecosystem by introducing the Fast Search feature in SharePoint 2013.

We've already looked at the Knowledge community in SharePoint, now it's time to look at the Power User and the Operational Communities to see who they are,  and what the specific needs and best practices are for each.

This week there has been a lot of talk about SharePoint and while there are as many opinions as there are use cases, SmartLogic in a new paper says it could be a lot better. Elsewhere, newbie SkyKick has launched its Application Suite, while DocPath has integrated its document management system with Dynamics AX.

When deploying SharePoint within an organization, it is key to look at the needs and requirements of the user base. To simplify this process, I've identified three key internal communities.

Based on simple math, we all know that 1+1=2. This is a simple concept that we learn very early in life. When it comes to SharePoint though, when you consider the tools available to you, you have a huge advantage of being able to use more than one tool, combined together, to create an outcome that is far greater than 2.  

The latest vendor to upgrade its products in an effort to keep up with the ever changing face of SharePoint is Colligo, which has just announced the release of Email Manager v6.0 and Colligo Briefcase v6.0.

One of the principal business considerations around the new SharePoint 2013 official release is going to be pricing. We already saw signs that with the Office 365 upgrade, Microsoft is pushing users towards subscription models. But what about SharePoint 2013 as SaaS? Web hosting vendor Newtek is going to be offering just that.

In the last post, I called it like I seen it: SharePoint out of the box can’t do records management. 2007, 2010, 2013 -- none of ‘em left to their own devices are worth much when it comes to automating the retention and (more importantly) disposition of your records according to the retention schedule.

Has the massive investment in SharePoint lived up to its promise as the uber-collaboration platform for the enterprise?

Let’s start this admittedly provocative post with a question: Anybody out there actually doing records management in SharePoint?

As a SharePoint MVP, active member of the global SharePoint community, an experienced project manager with knowledge of SharePoint business user topics, I am often asked "What are the best practices for SharePoint governance?"