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Sunday, 20 October 2013

Need for Change Management in a Hybrid SharePoint Environment

Microsoft does recognize that Hybrid SharePoint environments are here to stay for some time. Most of the companies have earnestly started exploring the implications of the cloud. Organizations are realizing that they need adequate amount of time to figure out whether they are required to transfer their assets to the cloud, and if so, how they would be moving their digital assets within the cloud. It is a fact that software delivery is moving towards the cloud and maximum number of organizations across the globe are considering their own strategy for the cloud. However, the rate of adoption of the cloud varies as per the industry, geopolitical as well as regulatory openness. As organizations gradually make this shift, they will continue to transfer certain digital assets along with prime work loads to the cloud. Hence solutions will definitely be required for management of the new hybrid world.
Sharepoint development

The dilemma with this hybrid world coupled with the associated requirement for change management solutions are not completely new. However, the velocity with which companies are shifting key work loads towards the cloud is creating an awareness of these requisites. Around ten years ago, collaboration platforms as well as hosted supply chains appeared online, a majority within the high-tech manufacturing space, experiencing the pains of a shift to the cloud: huge file transfer protocols, WAN optimization, edge devices, single sign-on along with other means of communication enhancements across private networks. Years later, we happen to be dealing with a number of similar issues, and this time, it's on a much higher scale. A lot of improvements have taken place in the collaboration technologies but there is still the need for tools to assist in managing between cloud platforms and on premises.
Hybrid environments would continue to remain a prime factor for a minimum of three to five years. This recognition by Microsoft showcases the requirement for robust change management abilities across the cloud and on premises environments. Change management does not simply imply migration, it also takes structural mobility into consideration. Moving content, lists, metadata, forms, workflows as well as other components within diverse SharePoint environments along with maintenance of their integrity, has turned into a business imperative.
Change management within the hybrid SharePoint development environment implies the following:
  • Enhanced movement between the development, staging as well as production environments.
  • Development of solutions once, followed by going for replication of the same across environments.
  • Restructuring of topology and content as workloads are migrated into the cloud.
  • Creating and managing governance standards which are consistent, throughout these environments.
  • Introducing bulk changes to the environments instead of site-by-site.
  • Creation of dashboards as well as federated reports across all the environments.
There are a number of efficient vendors for rendering support to the hybrid SharePoint world, thereby offering administrators with flexible as well as powerful tools for the purpose of reporting, permissions management, information architecture management or re-design, compliance and auditing, along with distributed management which offers farm admins to power users increased hold over their environments. There are suites which offer great assistance within the change management category, providing potent functionality for helping organizations manage and gain control over their hybrid SP environments.
As organizations begin to explore Office 365 and how to reap adequate benefits from the large investments made in the transition from SharePoint on premises to a cloud-oriented model, it is advisable to begin thinking about the ways in which the various assets can be managed during the transition, whatever time the transition might involve. Proper solutions that cater to the needs of administration, governance and change management with respect to SharePoint must be adopted for business effectiveness.
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.

Friday, 18 October 2013

Should I migrate to SharePoint on Office 365?

Office 365 has become one of the largest bets of Microsoft. But it is essential for the end-user to ensure that whatever is being done proves beneficial for the business, brings returns and adds value. Hence there is a common dilemma as to whether one should migrate to SharePoint on Office 365. Before finding an answer to that question, let us understand some basics.

Sharepoint Migration Services

An Overview
As companies increasingly feel the need for information technology, it can be said that every company needs to fulfill some core needs, namely, Instant Access to People, Email as well as Collaboration on Files.
  • Email: Undoubtedly, sending and receiving of mails is a requisite for all organizations. But it is not possible for everyone to afford the effort, time and expertise that go into maintenance of an infrastructure like this. Office 365 provides Exchange as a service, facilitating the execution of a number of activities without the need to worry about the infrastructure.
  • Instance Access to People: So far as the world of the end users in concerned, instant messaging is quite common. However, when it comes to the workplace, there is hardly any means of communicating, which has become a challenge given the present need to operate from outside the workplace. With proper access to people, the requirement for internal mails is reduced. Lync as a service is offered, which renders instant messaging along with real-time presence. Even voice calls are possible and you can also create pre-planned online meetings with people internal or external to your organization.
  • Collaboration on Files: The File Server or Shared Drive no longer lives up to the expectations of modern technology advanced users. A company server comprising a physical folder structure has documents stored within one folder or another, a phenomenon that hinders the ability to find or classify. Currently the workforce expects document access and has fundamental collaboration needs such as content approval. SharePoint as a service is offered by Office 365, ushering in the robust champion platform within the package. Since long, SharePoint has been utilized as a platform for building Extranets, Team Collaboration Sites, Intranets as well as Websites. It fulfills a number of fundamental collaboration requirements and also makes room for creation of other web-based solutions.
Why should you consider migration?
This is an obvious question. So, let us look into some of the benefits to be derived by migrating to SharePoint on Office 365.
  • Cost: Migrating will definitely do away with a large portion of the maintenance cost. All servers, support systems, configurations along with anything else required to keep the maintenance activity in-house are eliminated and just offered as a component of this particular solution of Microsoft. There is in fact no need to buy servers or licenses.
  • Updates: Office 365 is a great option if you want your workforce to be up to date with all latest versions, thereby benefiting from the latest integration and features. As a subscription model, automatic as well as free upgrades to both the products and services available are obtained, based on your plan.
  • Hassle-free: It is indeed great for businesses if they do not have to worry about deployment, servers or other things that come with possessing in-house servers or your own IT department. Getting the service of instant communication, live meetings, emails along with a collaboration platform is a great thing.
Many people try to avoid migrating to this platform because of certain legal and compliance issues. However, most of the worries originate from personal beliefs. To do away with such legal concerns, you should look deep into the Trust Center, which is a storehouse of information. It should be realized that your content, depending upon your location, might be available with datacenters in other countries. Given the sensitivity of the documents, it might be difficult to consider migration. But the Trust Center offers Data Maps, thereby assisting with notifications once the data is transferred to another location. If you need an experienced hand with your sharepoint migration to office 365, you can hire a SharePoint development company in India who can help you migrate within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide sharepoint webparts development services as well. If you would like to speak to a certified SharePoint programmer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Thursday, 17 October 2013

SharePoint Migration Using 3rd Party Tools

Currently in SharePoint, content migration is achieved using third party tools. Leveraging third party solutions simplifies the procedure along with reducing the effort or time needed for the process. It also cuts down on the cases of failed migrations arising out of issues such as file corruption. Analysis has revealed that clients spend good amount of time preparing data for migration, and these efforts may not yield fruit in case the policies and procedures are not adhered to. Owing to such risks, clients prefer using third-party ISVs or independent software vendors for migrating content from on-premises SP into the hosted service. Let us check out the following third party tools that facilitate migration or consolidation of content.

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AvePoint: A recognized leader in rendering infrastructure management solutions for Microsoft SP, AvePoint is a cost-effective and efficient solution for migrating business-critical content from diverse electronic repositories to Microsoft SP. The following are a few of the different DocAve Migrator modules:
  • Content can be automatically moved from source SharePoint 2003 or 2007 into the mapped elements within SP 2007 or 2010 by SharePoint Migrator.
  • Website Migrator provides an efficient, reliable and affordable solution for the organized transfer of web content to MS SharePoint 2007/2010.
  • Content sprawl is reduced along with IT productivity enhancement by eRoom Migrator through centralization of eRoom project databases as well as other collaborative assets across a single SharePoint 2010 and 2007 repository.
  • Consolidation of manifold EMC Documentum content sources over SP can be automatically achieved by Documentum Migrator, thus maximizing ROI for legacy content present within EMC Documentum.
Clockwork Software: This software offers reliable document migration from old ECMS to SharePoint 2013 or SharePoint 2010. Successful migration can also be achieved from any SQL Server based ECMS (CMS, DMS, EDRMS) with files stored over a network drive or share. ECMSs such as Hummingbird DM6, Worksite, FileNet, DOCs Open and so on. With this, various version and metadata can be migrated to SharePoint libraries as well as folders. It is also good for small migrations.

Idera SharePoint migration suite: It is by far the most comprehensive solution available. This tools empowers you to visually architect as well as organize content and metadata during the migration process, thereby improving usability, eDiscovery, search and manageability. This suite can be used again and again, without any services, in a variety of scenarios that include SP site reorganization, SP platform upgrade, as well as rolling out new applications and sites. The following are the components of the migration suite:
  • SP information architect which facilitates rapid and convenient development, deployment as well as maintenance of SP taxonomies and metadata.
  • SP content organizer allows for the application of metadata and relocation of files anywhere within SharePoint with simply a few clicks.
  • With the help of SharePoint migration manager, content can be deployed, migrated or compared within different versions of SP or from file systems.
Metalogix: Data can be migrated into SharePoint from any source system by using Metalogix. It is possible to migrate from one version of SharePoint to another, from diverse Enterprise Content Management systems as well as from Exchange public folders, websites, blogs or file systems. For simplifying the process, there are different kinds of modules like SharePoint Site Migration Manager,Website Migration Manager for SharePoint, Metalogix Migration Manager for Blogs, etc.

Axceler-Davinci Migrator: It reduces the risk, brings down the cost as well as reduces the time required for the procedure. With the help of the Davinci Migrator, you would be able to identify possible problems prior to their occurrence. Migration estimates aid the creation of realistic schedules. Moreover, Davinci allows migration in a single big wave or a series of continuous smaller waves. Hence you have the freedom to operate as per your own schedule.

Apart from the above-mentioned ones, there are a number of other tools such as Vital-Path, Vyapin, Tzunami, Proventeq and so on. By using these third-party tools, many obstacles that cause hindrance to the overall migration process, can be overcome. If you need an experienced hand with your sharepoint migration, you can hire developers from top companies in sharepoint. That will surely release a lot of stress associated. However please do ensure that the vendors you choose at least possess the awareness of tools available.

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

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Understanding Details of SharePoint Reporting

SharePoint reporting is a broad and important area of discussion. Prior to going into the discussion of what is SP reporting and how does it help, it is necessary to look into why the same is necessary. When it comes to the governance implementation, understanding and managing the activities within the SP environment is extremely essential. Now, these include identification, assessment as well as prioritization of data, measuring and monitoring of the same, review and modification of the government strategy and creation of policies that guarantee overall security.

SharePoint report development

What is SharePoint Reporting?
SharePoint Reporting is a wide area that calls for varying requirements based on site, site collection as well as farm-level requirements. Seen from the perspective of the administrators, appropriate reporting helps in the maintenance of governance rules and compliance policies while also monitoring the issues related to growth and scalability.

Different Areas of SharePoint report development
SP Reporting can be broadly divided into five categories as follows:

  • Permissions Reporting which involves troubleshooting to find out why users are unable to see the content, communicating about various types of compliance and auditing to find out who can access sensitive content.
  • Usage or Activity Reporting is about finding out which content to be used, planning prospective growth as well as grasping hardware requirements.
  • Audit Reporting to determine the details of the access and accordingly, adhere to the internal along with external compliance requirements.
  • Performance Reporting that involves monitoring page load time to detect problems apart from planning for enhanced usage.

Permission
Report of permissions is immensely crucial for several reasons as follows:
  • Auditing
  • Maintenance of accurate records of user access
  • Troubleshooting problems related to functionality that arise from the users' attempt at performing tasks without the required permission.

However, even with this, SP is unable to carry out centralized management of all permissions. Moreover, real time report is not a feasible option either because the data is available at the site-level, gathering which takes a lot of time. The newly improved 2013 version of SP solves these problems to a great extent though farm-wide visibility is still demanded by the administrators.

Usage and Activity
It is an essential way of tracking mechanism for planning capacities, disaster recovery while also helping the administrators undertake a much more effective management of the respective environment on a daily basis.

The concept paves the way for the necessary resources for the monitoring as well as measuring of the level of user adoption. This ensures that the businesses are able to derive the maximum profit out of their investment.

Storage
It is about analyzing storage, which in turn, is essential for planning capacities as well as understanding the requirements of growth cum performance of every team within an organization. Finding out the best practice to monitor as well as set limits on the size of the SP sites is an integral part of the governance policies. This should be followed by the setting of the governance policies on the right track along with assuring the end users about the availability of the storage to cater to their particular business needs.

Audit
For the SharePoint administrators, it is an essential point of focus, allowing the platform to become more widely adopted as well as critical for business operations. Audit reporting helps in establishing a stronger and well-maintained governance using both technology along with the best practices.

The requirement for this arises from several quarters, including the necessity of additional data as a part of capacity planning and for producing reports that display the access to certain items within a period.

With the web application development platform of SP growing within an organization along with more of such secure content finding their place in SP, auditing helps administrators by offering them with the much- needed tools. These tools enable proper management of important events along with changes that take place within the environment.

Performance
This comes from outside the development platform of SP by means of reporting against the farm as well as customer script. Third-party monitoring along with performance tools are also available. Now, most of the performance reporting is owned by the operators and not the SP administrators or end users. Attempts are made at filling this gap by means of the addition of the toolkit.

With the above-mentioned ones being among the popular most, there are also other options of SharePoint reporting. Understanding the concept allows organizers to manage both systems and resources with care and expertise.

We provide SharePoint portal development services. If you would like to hire sharepoint developer from our certified team of SharePoint developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Thursday, 10 October 2013

Top 10 Content Migration Tools to SharePoint Platform

With rapid advancement of technology dominating the enterprise scenario, more and more organizations are looking forward to migrating from an older version of SharePoint to a more advanced version and also from an altogether different Enterprise Content Management (EMC). Well, when it comes to taking up content migration to SharePoint platform, it is always wiser to rely upon effective migration tool for best results.

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 Here is a look at the third-party solutions that features a number of tools that help easy as well as successful content migration from a range of sources to SharePoint 2007.

AvePoint enables data transferring from a range of sources to SP 2007 platform through various tools.
  • AvePoint Website Migrator – For web data transfer
  • DocAve Public Folder Migrator – Allows data transportation from Exchange folders to designated SP Libraries and List in MOSS 2007 and SPS2003 platform
  • DocAve SharePoint Migrator – Facilitates transfer of data to MOSS 2007 from SPS 2003
  • DocAve Documentum eRoom Migrator – For document libraries as well as collective workspaces transfer from Documentun eRoom EMC
  • DocAve File System Migrator – Enables documents transfer from the conventional network file shares or file systems that are based on Windows to online document libraries
  • DocAve LiveLink Migrator – Allows Open Text LiveLink migration to WSS v3.0 and MOSS 2007
Tzunami facilitates transportation of information to SP 2007 from different sources with the help of several tools.
  • TD File Shares Migration – Files as well as folder structure transfer from any network or local file share to the particular platform
  • TD SPS 2001 Migration: Transfer to SharePoint 2007 from SharePoint 2001
  • TD SPS 3003 Migration: Data transfer from SPS 2003 platform to SP 2007
  • TD Exchange Migration: Exchange Public Folders migration to SharePoint 2007 Libraries and Lists
  • TD DocuShare Migration: Data transfer of Xerox DocuShare
  • TD eRoom Migration: EMC eRoom transfer of data into SP 2007 products
  • TD LiveLink Migration: LiveLink content migration into the specific platform
  • TD Documentum Migration: EMC Documentum content migration
  • TD Hyperwave Migration: Hyperwave data transfer
  • TD Hummingbird Migration: Data transfer of Hummingbird Document Management
  • TD Lotus Notes Migration: Lotus Notes applications as well as database transportation
  • TD Aqualogic Migration – Aqualogic Interaction data transfer
MetaLogix featuring a number of tools allow easy transfer of content to SP 2007 from a range of sources

Migration Manger for FileShare – Enables transportation from the following platforms:
  • Personal drives
  • Network file shares
  • Web-based extranet and intranet document storehouse
  • Document Management Systems and Enterprise File Sharing including Documentum, eRoom, and Lotus Notes
Migration Manger of Web Content – Allows transportation of information from the following platforms:
  • Microsoft Content Management Server 2002.
  • WCM Third-Party Enterprise Systems like Stellent, RedDot, Interwoven, Vignette, Percussion, and Tridion.
  • All home-grown HTTP – accessible dynamic and static websites.
  • Databases, documentum eRoom calendars, version files, and files.
eRoom Migration Manager – Allows migrating information to SharePoint 2007 from Documentum eRoom

SharePoint Site Migration Manager – Enables content migration from SPS 2003 to 2007

Quest has several tools that make it easy to transfer data from Lotus Notes, file share, SharePoint 2003 to the specific SP 2007 platform.
  • File Migrator – Data transfer from file shares
  • SharePoint Migration Manger – SPS 2003 information transportation to SP 2007
  • Notes Migrator – Information transportation from QuickPlace, Domino.Doc application, and Notes
  • Public Folder Migrator – Bulk transferring of data from Exchange Public Folders
VitalPath facilitates transportation of information from a range of repository consolidation along with migration from a different sources.
  • Path Builder for SharePoint – Facilitates an integration of above 40 content storehouse with SharePoint.
  • Path Builder – This solution i.e. vendor-neutral communicates at the API level consolidating all aspects of diverse content management systems providing Repository consolidation services.
Vamosa has several tools that allow both SP 2007 transfer as well as data transfer from a range of source systems to targeted platforms of CMS.
  • Vamosa Content Migrator – Facilitates transportation of information to any target system from source system
  • Vamosa Solutions for SharePoint 2007 – Enables transfer of data from several sites including all previous SharePoint, several other content management systems as well as Microsoft Content Management
Xavor primarily enables data transfer between MOSS and WSS 3.0 platforms.

Xavor SharePoint Migrator (XSPM)- Data transfer to MOSS 2007 from WSS 3.0 and between MOSS and WSS 3.0 respectively.

Proventeq offers a support to data transferring to the platforms of Oracle Stellent and SP

Content Migration Accelerator – Provides complete and comprehensive solution that enables a migration of documents, web content, and digital assets from an extensive source range to a number of targeted systems of Enterprise Content Management (ECM).

Metavis facilitates content migration between SP as well as other platforms like LiveLink, eRoom to SP.

ECM Migrator
  • SharePoint to SharePoint
  • Livelink to SharePoint
  • eRoom to SharePoint
Kapow Technologies feature tools that are ideal for taking up migration of web data to a range of different CMS platforms.

This particular module functions like an ETL tool, but conducts the extraction and transformation of the data at the GUI level. Kapow features the ability of directly loading the contents into a standard XML file or a destination application to enable an import through standard tools of content importing. Therefore, any data can be easily synchronized or migrated between web based CRM, SMS, ERP, or Project Management System. Most Content Management Systems feature standard adopters like Interwoven, Oracle Stellent, Vignette, SDL Tridion, FatWire, EMC/Documentum, CoreMedia, Joomla, and IBM FileNet. CRM systems support include Oracle CRM, Siebel, NetSuite, as well as salesforce.com.

Content migration to custom SharePoint development platform gets easier with the above-mentioned tools offers by various third – party solutions providers.

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

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

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.

sharepoint development
 
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.

Tuesday, 8 October 2013

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. 

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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.