Why the Term Governance for SharePoint is Overhyped

A prevalent belief is that so far as SharePoint is concerned, the term governance is very much hyped and hence, we tend to talk more about the concept of governance rather that the solutions essential to do away with the problems it is entitled to deal with. Before discussing further on this matter, let us have a look at what governance means. When it comes to a non-profit organization or a business, governance implies cohesive policies, consistent management, decision-rights, processes and guidance with respect to a particular area of responsibility. The term is not related only to SharePoint, but organizations should think about it irrespective of the technology platform used. Instead of talking about the necessity for proper governance, it is more important to deal with the actual day-to-day challenges faced by the organizations while managing or organizing their information.

Solutions are more significant than the concepts

Very often, SharePoint is what we call as a grassroots implementation. Basic installation of SharePoint can be conveniently done, making the platform available to departments or teams for organization or collaboration around a particular information set. Once everybody gets started, each group tends to utilize it differently or use various methods for information organization and share. Sites often tend to grow out of control, a phenomenon referred to as “SharePoint sprawl.”

The question that arises is why a grassroots implementation should be stopped if it allows more effective collaboration. It is by no means the optimal solution to any SP implementation. But in case some groups are allowed to use it, they understand the value and render increased support to the platform. Now, the best information architecture needs to be considered depending upon the requirements of those already utilizing it. You can take into account proper site planning, user training, data security and gradually shift the current users towards a proper SharePoint development model.

The rapid changes taking place within organizations make the job of a SharePoint admin difficult, because the person always has to be proactive in order to adapt to the environmental alterations quickly. At this point, procedures and policies become essential.

Presently, organizations take the advantage of a number of tools and technologies along with file sharing sites such as SkyDrive, DropBox, Amazon or Google Drive. Herein, they come across convenient means to share documents as well as carry them wherever they go. The biggest SharePoint administration challenge is- How can you guarantee that only the appropriate people have access to it?

The meaning of governance is different to different people

One of the complications that lies with talking about governance is the fact that the concept is as such loose which implies that its meaning might vary from people to people. In case you are sitting within a room and are going around a table for getting a comprehensive overview of the challenges faced by organizations in management of their information, you will most certainly not find someone saying that they are in need of proper governance. It might mean a lot, including policies related to the creation and archiving of SharePoint sites, ways in which taxonomies are developed as well as maintained or procedures that guarantee correctness of permissions.

The truth is that it implies all of the above and more. Rather than trying to deal with the real meaning of the concept of governance for an organization, it is more important to comprehend the manner in which the organization works and then discuss the problems faced by them in dealing with SharePoint as well as information in general. It is advisable to put forward certain solutions to cope up with the problems, be it better procedures and policies or any kind of supporting technology.

We provide sharepoint site migration services. If you would like to hire sharepoint programmers from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

15 free SharePoint tools to make IT admins smile

SharePoint is a rich tool and offers extensive features for a better, customized and organized work flow. It enables to make processes easier and swift that enables organizations to make the best out of their employees. It is the best CMS that enables to manage huge amount of content effectively.

We live in a competitive world and latest technologies emerge to enable to deliver the best results possible. SharePoint is Microsoft's tool that enables to build richer attractive websites. It is considered to be the most popular collaborative tool that provides all the necessary tools to manage people and content effectively. This platform makes it easy for employees of an organization to share ideas and engage smoothly in knowledge sharing activities.

Some of the free tools which helps admins while customizing their websites are as follows:

1.Microsoft's SharePoint development Administration Toolkit 2.0 (for 2010 and 2007 versions)

Microsoft bakes a bunch of nice things into this little add-on, including a kit that generates test loads to check how well any SharePoint deployment runs. It includes another important addon for the Security Configuration Wizard so one can harden the profile of deployment through Windows Server 2008. The SPDiag 3.0 utility is most useful. It grabs a heap of statistics from all the servers in a SharePoint farm, interprets them and presents them in a very neat and customized report.

2.ManageEngine's Free SharePoint Health Monitor Tool

For smaller SharePoint deployment, this lightweight tool gives just an overall rollup of SharePoint farm's health status at a glance. The ManageEngine Free SharePoint Health Monitor fits this bill nicely, giving a conveniently efficient dashboard view where one can see the details about the memory, CPU and disk space usage for each server running SharePoint.

It can be drilled down into the SharePoint workload itself to see the response time, service status, Web server (Internet Information Services) process details and even SQL Server details such as buffer cache hit ratio, cache memory and free pages.

3.IntLock's CardioLog Analytics Free Edition

If systems have a quarter of a million page views or fewer per month, one can use this free tool to help which finds out the sites employees are using, how long they are typically engrosed with those websites and what areas of those websites are most used. It installs quickly and is compatible with all kinds of versions of SharePoint, even the latest new SharePoint 2013. One can easily upgrade to the paid version where the free edition has all of the same features, with the only differences being the page view tracking limit and allowing for web-based support.

4.Microsoft's SharePoint Designer (for 2007, 2010 and 2013)

Designer is like the FrontPage web design tool of the SharePoint world. One can use it to customize the look and feel of SharePoint websites, create and modify simple workflows and personalize a SharePoint deployment at ease.

If one have a large SharePoint deployment with multiple versions running at the same time, one must use the Designer version specific to the particular SharePoint edition.

5.Idera's Free SharePoint Admin Toolset

This is a combination of seven tools in one, a site monitor is present to check up on any SharePoint sites one manages, a space trends report to track using disk space on deployment for folders, libraries and websites, a handy accelerator that essentially rebuilds the database indexes on the SQL Server instance managing SharePoint deployment, a clean report to show how much SQL database space deployment is consuming, a permissions analyzer to show what users can access which specific websites and libraries, a smart tool to compare the configurations of site collections to see where they are different and a quick admin tool that brings together most frequently used links to SharePoint Central Administration. A very smart tool set to make tasks easier and smart way to deal with.

6.Idera's Free SharePoint Performance Monitor

To have a detailed information at what is happening under the hood of any SharePoint farm, this great tool Idera's Free SharePoint Performance Monitor is used. This tool gives a holistic overview of the performance statistics and metrics for SharePoint itself, the SQL Server instance on any given server and information about the host's operating system and memory configuration.

The tool also can be configured to send simple e-mail alerts when one of the performance indicators does not work. One can also monitor multiple websites at a time for their deployments and one can generate nifty graphs and charts about connections, requests, response time, pages, disk usage and many more.

7.McAfee's Network Discovery for Microsoft SharePoint

It is a good SharePoint-specific inventory tool. If one has overall responsibility for a network, one might not even know if one of departments has deployed a SharePoint server. The McAfee Network Discovery Tool for Microsoft SharePoint will scan the network to find SharePoint 2003, 2007 and 2010 environments and then display the results of its scan in a nice neat HTML report that shows in detail which servers have been deployed and what version they're running.

8.Axceler's ViewPoint for SharePoint

This is a great tool for visualizing in a convenient table form exactly which users have what permissions on any given site. This could be very useful in an auditing scenario or any environment where permissions can tighten without granting full access to users needlessly. One can choose to work from the graphical dashboard, to run and print reports to provide to management or to work through with any administrative tools. It works with both SharePoint 2010 as well as SharePoint 2013 deployments. It even requires full SharePoint administrator permissions to do its job properly.

9.Quest's Server Administrator for SharePoint

This great tool is suitable on SharePoint 2007 and 2010. It lets to see which parts of farm configuration are affecting the security, performance and availability of deployment.

It helps to build PowerShell scripts to maintain environment. It also helps with a migration to SharePoint 2010 from 2007, required to get to SharePoint 2013 as well, by showing which parts of deployment are ready for the upgrade and which are not. And it provides an intelligent rating to show what is most important to upgrade before one begin against what would simply be "nice to have."

10.SharePoint SUSHI

SharePoint SUSHI is an open source project hosted on CodePlex that essentially takes the most common administrative tasks and puts them in one convenient tool. SUSHI, which bills itself as a "Swiss army knife for SharePoint," stands for SharePoint Utilities with a smart and useful interface.

One can view the lists and sites of any given user can access, which is really helpful for looking at effective permissions, upload user photos as profile images, back up and restore sites; apply a theme to a group of sites with one click and much more.

11.Clockwork Software

It is SharePoint Migration Tool, reliable migration of documents from old ECMS to SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013. From any SQL Server based ECMS (EDRMS, DMS, CMS) with files stored on a network drive or share. ECMSs such as Hummingbird DM6, DOCs Open, Worksite, FileNet etc.

- Migrate all versions and metadata (including managed metadata)

- Migrate to SharePoint libraries and folders

- Apply document level security if desired

- Currently in use on migration projects totalling about 2 million documents

- Good for small migrations with a cost effective pricing scheme.

12.Metalogix

It can migrate content into SharePoint from just about any source system. From one SharePoint version to another (2003, 2007, 2010, WSSv2 or WSSv3), from various Enterprise Content Management systems (eRoom, Stellent, Livelink) and from file systems, exchange public folders, blogs and websites.

13.PCVITA Express Migrator

It is SharePoint comprehensive too designed for enterprise to migrate content to SharePoint as part of SharePoint migration strategy that goes above and beyond other traditional SharePoint migration software, thereby allowing to have visually architected migration. It provides an effective and simple solution for enterprise to migrate their business-critical data from different repositories (Lotus Notes, File Share, File System, Public Folder and SharePoint etc) to Microsoft SharePoint Server. The SharePoint migration product granularly migrates content while keeping all the associated metadata & permission intact.

14.Vyapin

A powerful tool for developing SharePoint application for migrating documents, NTFS permissions, data and their associated metadata properties from network file shares, file servers and local hard drives to Microsoft SharePoint 2013, Office 365 (SharePoint Online), SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2007.

Here are the list of functions it provides such as migrate folders and files into SharePoint libraries from various file servers and network shares. Carry forward default file properties, including custom Office document properties to the respective documents in SharePoint. Automate entire migration process, with the ability to correct and rectify migration errors using the pre-migration validation tool. Migrate content from file shares to on-premise SharePoint servers and SharePoint Online in Office 365 (Standard) environment using a single application.

15.Tzunami

This Deployer tool offers a cost-effective solution for migrating and consolidating multiple content sources into SharePoint. It supports almost all versions of SharePoint, from SPS 2001 to SharePoint 2013. Automating the entire process of migrating unstructured content.

SharePoint offers multiple benefits for enterprises big and small. It is for this reason that enterprises are stressing on this particular technology for enabling them to function optimally. It enables to increase employee productivity and enables them to remain more focused with their work. It can function as an effective content management system, document management tool and collaborative platform. Businesses have profited much more with this awesome tool and it has enabled to enhance business initiatives. SharePoint development services are frequently used to reap maximum benefits.

We provide custom SharePoint development services. If you would like to speak to one of our certified SharePoint developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

SharePoint 2013 Top 10 intranet success factors

Did you ever find any difficulty while trying to explain SharePoint basics to a novice completely unaware of the technology? Probably, Yes! Chances are also high that you faced difficulty in terms of user training for facilitating a smooth migration process. What you need to remember while taking up the task of explaining SP to novice or new users is that the migration is just not all about branding, hardware, Web Parts, as well as customization. The document management system application has more to it and it is important to gather the basic knowledge of the same for better understanding.

Now, when it comes to determining the top intranet success factors, users and enterprises need to consider a number of other factors for evaluating alongside implementing the latest of intranet offerings by Microsoft. If, being an enterprise, you are planning to grow as well as evolve with SharePoint 2013, following the tricks of the trade is imperative for you.

 
Top Success Factors with Intranet
Here is a look at the 10 success factors that effectively blends best practices of intranet and the specifics as well as basics of SP 2013:

1. Understanding SharePoint at Best
SharePoint uses a number of terminology carrying specific meaning in respect to enterprise application. Terms like, list, site, as well as library features specific meaning and it is important for the users to understand the terms properly. Maintaining a glossary always helps even a novice understand the technicalities.

2. Analyze and Determine the Business Requirements
It is important to take up the process of defining the existing along with expected business needs, requirements, and interests, even if the decision of integrating SharePoint has been already embraced at corporate level.

3. SharePoint is a Platform of Managing Information
The advantages of SharePoint cannot be fully realized without a proper strategy of information management. Now, the strategy must ensure relating all application of information asset mutually. If this is not done properly, the weaknesses will become evident and irreversible.

4. Combine the IT and Business Development Teams
It is essential to closely integrate the IT and business development teams so that they get to work together on the methodology as well as management of an Agile project. Always remember to take special care if there is the involvement of a third-party implementation team.

5. Governance is Necessary
It is difficult to execute the completion of a project successfully, if there is no governance. To make things easier, it is advisable to have a governance guide highlighting individual responsibilities of users involved in implementing SP and using it to the core ready. Enterprises must ensure updating the guidebook with best practice instances.
 
6. Migration must be planned carefully
Usually, SharePoint features an upgrade cycle of three years as well as the specific versions come with a five year support. If a clear along with predefined business case is underlined for a project, then you must always make sure to migrate to SP 2013.

7. Quantify the Costs of Professional Services
Always keep in mind that fruitful and effective functioning of SharePoint is entirely dependent on skilled as well as knowledgeable developers alongside business analysts. Now, whether the need is sufficed by internal IT professionals or external developers, the cost can end up becoming more than what is actually expected.

8. Develop a Risk Register
Similar to all other enterprise applications, SharePoint development too is likely to feature some standard practices, some non-standard practices, as well as risks. Now, what gets difficult is establishing all the risks alongside administering progress in managing the process effectively as well as avoiding the risks efficiently. It is also important to find out an effective approach of maintaining a schedule and budget of the projects.

9. Avoid Taking Case Studies at Face Value
The main focus of case studies always remain on the positive attributes of a project. It is therefore essential to decipher alongside determine things that did not go well and why it went all wrong alongside finding out the ways of overcoming the problems.

10. Careful Management of My Sites and Team Sites must be Executed
It is essential to come into an agreement regarding the process of establishing a Team Site as well as closing it down when no longer in use. Developing hundreds and thousands of information silos is easy indeed.

Implementing the above-mentioned Intranet success factors in your SharePoint application development project can pave the road to success for your enterprise without any hitch.

We provide custom SharePoint development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified SharePoint developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

SharePoint 2013 – Comparison of Features with previous versions

SharePoint 2013 comes with powerful features which incorporate considerably upgraded search abilities along with new provisions for intranet-oriented searches, enhanced digital content management, web content usability as well as cross-site publishing. Let us have a brief overview of the new functionality and features of this new version of SP and compare it with older versions. 

  

New Licensing Model

Owing to the licensing changes in Sharepoint 2013, an “external connector” is not required by “external users”, as was the case for previous versions. This ensures substantial reduction of cost for clients because it facilitates access to SP solutions like external project collaboration sites, customer portals or websites by vendors, partners, customers or other outside users. 

 

Fresh Search Features

The FAST search technology has been integrated into the 2013 version of SP. As a result, the search functionality has been enhanced ensuring the following benefits:

• Continuous Crawl: The indexing and crawling components have undergone a major upgrade in SharePoint Search. A great deal of content could not be frequently crawled in SharePoint 2010 but currently it is possible to index content frequently. This is of great significance because files added within SP can be located instantly by the users.
• Query Conditions or Rules Engine: This feature facilitates the dynamic display of content by the web pages. Search has been incorporated with a new query engine which makes room for application of rules and display of results depending upon particular conditions. SharePoint 2010 did not possess this feature. As this feature has been incorporated in the latest SP version, it enables better control over sorting and displaying of results as per user attributes.
• Service-Oriented Page Design: This allows web pages to dynamically come up with content that is most relevant to the user, while facilitating storage of the content within a central repository. This was also available in SharePoint 2010, but in the latest version, this feature is more practical and efficient as it is loaded with new enhancements and web parts.
• Query Actions: These help to manage the presentation of the search results. Currently it is possible to specify the categories of records that will be displayed in search results using custom HTML. This could not be done in an efficient manner in SharePoint 2010.

Intranet-Oriented Search Advantages

Along with the search enhancements made through the introduction of fresh search features, there are certain improvements that have proved to be of immense significance to Intranet users.

• File Preview: It is possible for users to preview Microsoft Office files from the search results page. Optimization and sorting of search results can be done on the basis of users clicks. Because it is possible to preview files prior to opening, increasingly accurate search results can be obtained for the end users, a feature which was not available in SharePoint 2010.
• Deep Links: In case of SharePoint 2013, major sections and chapters from a file are displayed with the results. One can conveniently jump to particular sections without downloading the file and searching for the required content.

Enhanced Web Content Usability

• WYSIWYG Improvements: Content can be copied directly from Word and pasted within the SP text editor. The text gets displayed in the website's defined style, which implies that much editing is not required. Compared to the earlier versions, SharePoint 2013 allows more convenient editing of content and web pages.
• Friendly URLs: This features renders user-friendly URLs for all SharePoint pages as against the long URLs characteristic of SharePoint 2010.
• Flexible Branding: Non-SharePoint tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver can now be utilized for branding as well as page design.
• Video Embedding: With the help of this feature, SharePoint 2013 enables convenient embedding of videos from third-party hosting solutions. Hence the user can efficiently add videos to the sites.

Digital Asset Management

Companies which have great volume of videos, images or other content can now efficiently leverage SharePoint for organizing their assets. Images can be effectively stored in a central repository and can also be reused on pages across the site.

Cross-site Publishing

This aspect helps in storage and maintenance of content in a single or more than one authoring site collections. Again, this content can be displayed in one or more than one publishing site collections. This feature in the 2013 version of SP ensures consistency of content shared throughout diverse areas and sites. 

 

The above-mentioned features indeed make SharePoint 2013 more advanced and convenient to use than the previous versions. It also comes with other significant enhancements such as SkyDrive, increasingly robust work-flow platforms and improved site performance. You can hire developers from top SharePoint application development services companies in India who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide custom SharePoint development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified SharePoint developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Should Microsoft kill SharePoint?

As per a statement made by Gartner analyst Jeffrey Mann, organizations which are heavily dependent on SharePoint need to start preparations for a cloud-driven future. He also suggests that SharePoint is a thing of the past, hence it is good for Microsoft to think about doing away with this document management system.

Expressing his thoughts at the Gartner Symposium of 2013, Mann stated that SP is used throughout the entire workforce by 28% of the organizations. The number becomes 70% when we take into consideration the organizations wherein minimum of 50% of the staff are utilizing it once in seven days or more. However, according to Mann, nobody likes the SharePoint development platform. With respect to user experience, SharePoint registers a low score on convenience of use, the quantity of ongoing management required, and it is a fact that migration of content between systems is not easy.

by its own success. It has become very hard, complex as well as big which makes management or up-gradation difficult, all the more so because in a large number of organizations, it is immensely customized. Developing and testing a new version takes around three to five years, and then couple of years pass before businesses actually initiate the process of installation. Consequently, a number of people are making use of versions of SP which are a minimum four years old. In the meantime, increasingly nimble cloud-based products derive benefit from much shorter cycles of up-gradation, and interestingly, the difference has been noticed by a number of users.

Moving to the cloud for the competitive edge

Mann is of the opinion that in order to survive the competition, the only way for Microsoft is to transfer SP to the cloud, meaning that it should be killed in its present form. Going by what Mann says, killing on-premises version of this platform is good for Microsoft and eventually its clients also. It will render a better user experience, at a potentially lesser cost for the customer, and will also make room for a steady revenue for Microsoft.

However, there is indeed hope for Microsoft, and this hope lies in Yammer, the platform for enterprise social networking. Both SP and Yammer overlap as well as complement each other in a number of ways. There are powerful signs which reveal that any evolution that SP undergoes while becoming increasingly cloud-based would be highly influenced by Yammer.

But the core of the issue revolves around the fact that SharePoint on-premises is gradually moving out and is currently reduced to the status of an evolutionary dead end. Due to the huge installation base, it is true that Microsoft will continue to render support to it, while upgrades will come at a slower pace. Thus, users should not expect the greatest or the newest functionality. The prime focus of development would be shifting to the cloud.

When a solution is cloud-based, it would indeed be more advantageous for Microsoft. Moreover, according to Mann's argument, SharePoint Online would be developed at a much quicker pace, to the point where it will be more beneficial to consider them as two distinct products. Hence, the gap would continue to increase.

Jeffrey Mann advises organization technologists to currently come up with long-term plans for a post-SharePoint world. Keeping in mind the present scenario, it is good to hold back on upgrades as well as new development and go for the cloud option whenever there is any requirement for addition of new functionality. Microsoft might or might not offer a convenient way forward, but for an individual or entity who has invested a lot in customization, the process would never be painless.

We provide custom SharePoint development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified SharePoint developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Compatibility Report of SharePoint 2013 and HTML5

SharePoint 2013, which is the newest version of this web application development platform, comes with a number of beneficial features, out of which, compatibility is definitely a major one. However, before you go into the compatibility of this new improved platform and HTML5, let us have a look at the prominent features of the same.

SharePoint 2013 and its Features

To begin with, the platform facilitates enhanced user experinece by means of remarkable design as well as increased templates and layout capability. Additionally, fast search, improved work flow, e- discovery tools along with office web apps are also offered by SharePoint 2013. It is for this reason that business enterprises have an increased preference for upgrading from SharePoint 2010 version to the latest one. However, the infrastructure procurements must be considered when it comes to enterprise upgrades.

HTML5 and its attributes

HTML5, on the other hand, has made the developer's work easy primarily by virtue of its host of semantic features. This highly improved version of the Markup language offers several other tools as well as elements such as newer media as well as structural elements, attributes, form types, link relation types as well as the semantics for internationalization.

Compatibility between SharePoint 2013 and HTML5

The popular web application development platform now appears to be completely compatible with HTML5. The compatibility is best echoed by the presence of Channels, which allow designing different look and feel for the varying devices that are used for viewing the sites. Even the use of SharePoint sites on the mobile devices such as that of the iPods or Smart Phones has become quite common. These are also built using HTML5, hence, offer different views of SharePoint.

The compatibility of the development platform with HTML5 ensures that the Sites work equally well on any device and that they are optimized for the mobile browsers such as that of the Mobile IE9, Windows Phone 7.5, Android or Safari. The Office Web Apps pave the way for the documents and files to open on all of the these without necessitating the installment of Office on the devices.

Browser Compatibility of SharePoint

The latest version has witnessed a minimizing of the ActiveX controls to a great extent. The Drag, Drop and Multi File upload support leads to an excellent user experinece with Firefox and Chrome. The few office integration scenarios that are avilable are for the power users only, which further promises the average users with a commendable expeirnece with Firefox as well as Chrome.

This newest version of the platform also offers excellent mobile browser experience, thanks to the new contemporary views.

The contemporary view offers an optimized mobile browser experinece while the view is also available to the Mobile Internet Explorer Version 9.0 as well as the later versions like Windows Phone 7.5, iPhone iOs 5.0, Safari 4.0 or even the Andorid 4.0.

The Classic View, on the other hand, is rendered in HTML format while also providing backward compatibility for mobile browsers.

Finally, with the full screen UI view, a complete desktop display of the site is available on the SmartPhone devices too.

The ultimate outcome of the compatibility of this platform can be seen in terms of features such as menu button including that of the Site contents, sign out, close and switch to PC view. A navigation window, a tap-to-open links, automatic pagination of lists with over 20 items add to the alreday compatibility feature of the web applictaion development platform. With this platform, one can even create new list items and edit them too. For instance, a new task in a task list is created on the mobile device. The same can be edited in the list with the help of the Edit option. Custom SharePoint development will just get a whole new meaning with HTML5 coming into picture with SharePoint.

We provide SharePoint application development services. If you would like to talk to one of our SharePoint developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Migration Service for Office 365 SharePoint

SharePoint Online is best referred to as a group of web-based technologies and tools that enables your organization to manage, store, as well as share digital information. Developed on the 2013 server of SharePoint, this particular hosted service makes it easy to work on projects, store documents alongside data in a prime location, as well as share information. Now, migrating to this particular document management system web application is not easy. Prior to beginning with the process, it is important for you to involve in careful planning as you need to handle a huge volume of data that is very much valuable. Moreover, your organization or management will hardly tolerate any sort of downtime in this regard.

Therefore, the next big question that emerges in this respect is how to avoid the risks of losing data and ensure moving just the documents along with the data required during the time. In addition, the aspect of doing it quickly thereby, minimizing the impact upon the users as well as systems also needs to be determined.

With several migration tools available in the market, it can actually get easier than you can ever imagine. These unparalleled tools not only accelerate the entire process, but also simplify the same ensuring accuracy and rapid migration. Additionally, it also ensures that your migration ends up being cost effective catering to your uniqueand distinct needs. With the help of the migrating tool, you will be able to migrate Windows files, permissions, meta-data, work flows and content to Office 365 alongside Exchanging Public Folders while retaining the settings & customization. In addition, it also paves the road to smoother transition without affecting the business continuity. You can forever say goodbyes to time-consuming as well as complex processes.

How does it Help- The Unique Features of the Migration Tool

Here is a quick look at the unique features that make the tool stand apart in the market as against the manual process:

Effortless consolidation of data to save money and time – The software available in the market that enables an easy transition to Office 365 SharePoint Online allows you to group together all the important data scattered all over multiple source to a single source. This particular approach ensures lower maintenance costs as well as reduced complexity. You can move and transit data from the following sources:

• On-premises Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Windows File Systems
• Microsoft Exchange Public Folders
• Microsoft Outlook

Fast Transition with Few Resources – You can easily and quickly take up the process of migrating several SharePoint libraries along with the lists at the same time making use of a multi-threaded engine to lessen project timelines alongside the costs.

Suits Distinct Business Needs and Interests Effortlessly – Office 365 SharePoint migration through the software available in the market also enables conducting bulk migration to speed up the projects as well as streamline the same. You can also take up granular or phased migration, which distinctly allows transiting just your need of the hour. The exclusive drag-and drop function allows you to make a selection of either individual items or the entire list with just a click of the mouse.

Controls Project Making your Way top Migration – The software also extracts the chaos and disturbances out of the project management task featuring real-time controls for scheduling alongside status reporting. You are actually equipped with skills required to successfully manage as well as execute the job of migration at a time that best suits your enterprise ensuring that its completely on schedule.

Complete Management of Metadata for Enhancing your Content – The migration software also allows you to maintain the metadata that is already assigned or assign new values to content during the process. This particular feature allows you to make complete use of your intellectual assets alongside improving the search accuracy.

Office 365 development tools offer a suite of cloud communication, productivity, as well as collaboration solutions that can be assembled together to execute distinct needs and interests of each organization.

We provide SharePoint development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified sharepoint developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

SharePoint 2013 and the Mobile SharePoint Explosion

When SharePoint was first launched, it did not have strong functionality backing up mobile access for its content and features. However, as this software platform gradually gained ground, organizations began to feel the need for tapping this product to operate efficiently on cellular devices. As a result, companies began to look for alternatives for enhancing as well as expanding mobile access to this platform. The outcome of these efforts is that SP 2013 comes with a range of new, enhanced mobile features to make SharePoint 2013 mobile development easier and quicker.

• The mobile browsing experience has become much better owing to the newly incorporated contemporary view which enables site rendering in HTML5 and operates with the latest mobile Safari, IE as well as Android browsers. Designed to ensure touch-screen interaction, it is optimized for activities such as accessing wikis, lists, web parts and document libraries. The classic view belonging to the older mobile browsers is still intact, delivering HTML based sites along with the option for displaying a complete desktop view of the website.
  
  
• Another new feature is the back-end cellular channels which render a SharePoint site for diverse cell phone devices automatically, enhancing the single default view for mobile devices as present in the 2010 edition which was difficult to customize. 
   
• With the 2013 version, SharePoint sites come with the capability of pushing notifications towards mobile devices, making users alert regarding the changes, such as modification or addition of content.
  
  
• With SharePoint 2013, we have a couple of new native mobile applications. One is the SharePoint Newsfeed application which enables users to get access to the documents and people they are following. This feature is available for Windows Phone and iOS as well as Windows 8. The second is the SkyDrive Pro app which empowers users to access the file sharing along with cloud storage service on iOS as well as Windows 8.

Some of the other mobile features new to 2013 edition of this software platform include the ability of incorporating geolocation tags within a list, the capability of viewing specific categories of business intelligence content as well as enhanced viewing of PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents with Office Web Apps.

Using Cellular Devices for SharePoint Online Sites

Your site can be accessed with a Windows phone once the web browser of the phone is opened and the URL or Uniform Resource Locator of the SharePoint site is typed. In case you are making use of a non-Windows phone, the URL can be entered within the browser or to get an optimized mobile view, /?Mobile=1 can be just appended to the URL.

Using Windows Phone 7 for accessing SharePoint Online site

A site can be opened on a Windows Phone 7 in almost the similar manner as it is opened from a PC, simply by entering the URL in the browser. Whatever is seen on the phone is not the cellular version but the site's actual view. The site can be operated in the same manner as it is done from the PC. Most of the tasks such as creation and editing of items within a list, changing the site theme, uploading documents, creation and edition of site pages, along with addition of images, hyperlinks or web parts can be conveniently carried out. 

 

Utilizing non-Windows phone for SharePoint Online site

When the mobile version of a site is opened, only some of the elements seen in a desktop version are visible, such as search feature, libraries, lists and so on. While you are making use of the cellular version of SharePoint, you can easily perform the tasks of viewing items in libraries and lists or operating Open Office documents from the website.

We provide SharePoint application development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified sharepoint programmers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

7 Apps that Bring SharePoint to the iPad

The need for the right applications is immense when it comes to catering to the vast range of mobile users. People making use of iPad and iPhones need to access SharePoint content too and it is for this reason that it becomes essential to bring SharePoint to the iPad. The unconventional applications are often found working effectively for the purpose.

Now, quite a lot of options are available for making Microsoft SharePoint accessible on the device. The traditional iPad browser paves the way for a somewhat satisfactory experience. Several factors need to be considered in this regard. For instance, content editable attribute is supported by the desktop version of Safari while such facility is not made available by the Safari on the iPhone OS. This attribute is used by the application development platform and other collaboration products such as that of the Office Web Apps. This ensures a rich editing experience within a supported browser.

On the other hand, offline support and a richer experience is facilitated by certain apps that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store. Here is an overview of some of the popular as well as prominent apps that helps in bringing SharePoint to the said device.

1. SharePlus Office Mobile Client

SharePlus emerges to be one of the most prominent and universally used iOS Client for SharePoint that enables carrying the highly valuable information assets of this web application development platform on the Smartphones or tablets, irrespective of the prevailing scenario of connectivity. The app works well on several OS like Android, iOS, Mac and Blackberry.

2. Filamente

Filamente is often considered to be the most beneficial and user- friendly apps that offers a simple yet intuitive way of interaction with the development platform from the mobile devices. Setting up Filamente for the team site is quite easy and hassle- free. Other advantages of this application come in the form of a rich text editor plus link to Dropbox feature.

3. Moprise: SharePoint Documents for iPad

Morpise is an excellent collaboration client for iPad. This application, featured by Apple in iPad @ Work, enables users to access, share as well as collaborate any of their SharePoint document on the larger screen.

4. Harmon

The version 1.2.3 of this application of 2.5 MB comes with a rather intuitive user interface while also bringing forth an easy setup for the team site.

5. Briefcase Pro

Briefcase Pro is one such app that facilitates effective search from anywhere. The application has an intuitive user interface coupled with a fairly rich text editor.

6. Native iPad

Native iPad, as an application, is widely preferred primarily because purchase of additional software is not a necessity for the same. The application has no offline capability, which ensures that the security risks are much desired. Above all, it facilitates text input for list items.

7. SP- Dashboard

Coming up to be yet another useful app for bringing SharePoint to the iPad, SP- Dashboard for iPad allows users to browse SharePoint data in a much easier and efficient manner. It offers a good experience of navigating through the SharePoint sites and viewing the lists, libraries and documents. Additionally, one can also define the favorite lists, documents as well as libraries for fast access while renaming the favorites for a better overview.

With this application at your service, presentation of the SharePoint data with complete mobility becomes possible. As the retrieved data is automatically updated and stored on the device, there is no need of an internet connection for accessing the data.

All of the above- mentioned applications and products are intuitive with some of them being better than the others. The apps not only serve the purpose of bringing SharePoint to the iPad but also reduce the cost of ownership in the long run. Sharepoint 2013 mobile development teams can help you build mobile apps using SharePoint 2013 within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide SharePoint bespoke development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified sharepoint programmers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.