SharePoint Consulting

 

The SharePoint topic is way to extensive and complex to compact onto a single page. The following outline simply describes our approach to SharePoint projects.

Architecture

 

Of course a enterprise farm architecture can be extremely complex and involves many servers, but the same principal can be applied to a smaller Sharepoint implementation. Besides the out-of-the-box features of Sharepoint, the following disciplines are key success factors to any SharePoint project:

Functionality

The important part of implementing functionality a client wants to see, is the ability to avoid custom coding us much as possible. The less custom code, the easier are future upgrades or system enhancements. Many times custom code prohibits an easy upgrade process and release upgrades turn into nightmares.

Usability

SharePoint provides a huge palette of features that can be used to implement a solution that meets the requirements. Configuring the entire system with all components correctly is crucial to a positive user experience. Especially if a comprehensive search environment is required. Configuring and tweaking the search parameters is the key to usability and a positive user experience.

Scalability

No SharePoint implementation remains exactly the same size as it first got rolled out. This requires an architecture that provides scalability without creating overkill. It is easy to oversize a SharePoint infrastructure, but creating a right size SharePoint infrastructure with a clear and easy growth path requires the experience from someone who did this before. That's where we come into play, we did this before.

Accessibility

Creating an Intranet SharePoint deployment is straight out-of-the-box and does not require any extra configuration. Creating a hybrid implementation that allows access from the Internet via secure SSL is an entire different ball game. We have experience in both and have deployed a SharePoint company portal for a large entertainment client in Orlando, FL with external access via SSL from their remote sites.

 

Branding

 

SharePoint offers a few pre-defined themes, which are essentially just color palettes to customize the look and feel of your Sharepoint site. Beyond that you're on your own. True branding happens when you can turn your standard Sharepoint site into something like this:

The key is to know how to modify the master page to achieve this result and to stay within the limits to ensure compatibility. We are testing the Sharepoint 2010 rollout, so far with no problems.

 

Workflow

 

SharePoint is a great tool for workflow integration. We implemented SharePoint Designer based workflow with InfoPath integration for a better look and feel. Unfortunately InfoPath is a premium feature that requires Enterprise licensing. If this is the only Enterprise feature you need, don't bother. The steep prize increase is not worth the result. Microsoft decided to move Microsoft Forms Server into SharePoint Enterprise Edition. You cannot buy Forms Server anymore.

 

Automation

 

Not SharePoint deployment is complete with some back end stsadm scripts. We developed a complete script set that can install an entire farm via scripts and preset configurations. We also have scripts to mange backups, restores, exports and imports of site collections or sub sites.