Fresh from the oven wrap up
The Fresh from the oven (FFTO) debut in Wellington is a wrap.
The main event in the morning attracted about 50 people. Mason and Ian started off the morning sessions by introducing the audience to the BPI maturity model and how the model can be realised using a phased approach.
Michael who was at the event has the following write up about the morning sessions. Thanks Michael.
http://www.michaelsampson.net/2007/03/notes_from_prov.html
The afternoon sessions kicked off around 1PM after we got our slight technical difficulties sorted. Basically the new 64Bit 4GB PC we were using as our main presentation desktop had a few video card issues. So once we got that sorted I introduced myself and the team who was presenting in the afternoon.
My presentation was to deliver how SharePoint Office Server can deliver a complete ECM (Enterprise Content Management) solution. I started off by giving an introduction and the main areas that I was covering.
**Collaboration and Document Management **
My presentation was around how collaboration can take place in an “Informal” and “Formal” way and how as part of that various artefacts that are created can be managed by a collaboration workspace which has rich document management capabilities which support both the above scenarios.
Basically what I mean by “Informal” collaboration is where people should have the means of which they can share ideas and challenge thoughts freely etc. I see wikis and blog capabilities playing an integral part of this. Then once an idea is conceptualised to get approval and review the artefacts that needs to be created a formal set of processes can be established. This may involve workflow and classification of content. This stage is now a “Formal” collaboration stage where certain processes are in place.
So I demonstrated how SharePoint provides a solution to address both these stages. My demo showcased how a document can be created within a Document Library with a “Content Type”. How this content type can have a set series of attributes and a custom workflow attached to it. And how easily this can be setup and changed if required.
I am also a believer of how these concepts should be extended to intranets and how intranets should be seen as collaborative workspaces with areas for Information aggregation and presentation.
I also gave an overview of how SharePoint can be used to enable Records Management capabilities.
**Web Content Management **
Then it was over to Clive Trott our Development Team manager to show case the Web Content Management capabilities of SharePoint. Clive introduced the concept of ASP.net master pages and “Page Layouts” in SharePoint. How a complete separation of content and presentation can be achieved. Basically SharePoint should not be seen as limited to it’s out of the box look n feel. It is built for Web Content Management. Clive showcased a design we had recently done and how it was applied to a web site as part of the demo.
**Custom Workflow and Development in SharePoint **
Ari Bakker ( http://blogs.provoke.co.nz/ari ) who is a senior developer did a demo of a recent application we have built to track audits. The application was built entirely on top of SharePoint using Windows Workflow Foundation extensions. Ari also showed how Visual Studio 2005 can be used to develop SharePoint web parts and the WSS extensions available for VS 2005.
Read my previous post about SharePoint development. http://www.chandima.net/Blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=24
**Business Intelligence and Forms **
Brendon Ford ( http://blogs.provoke.co.nz/brendon ) our Service Delivery Manager started his demo on BI and Forms. Brendon used some inspirational video clips to entertain the audience. I am not allowed to give away his secrets J as we want to do the presentation again in Auckland soon.
Basically Brendon showcased Excel Services capabilities in SharePoint. He demonstrated BI dashboards and how to use the Reports Center in SharePoint. He had very comprehensive demos across the BI and Forms capabilities.
**Business Data Catalog and Search **
Zac Smith ( http://blogs.provoke.co.nz/zac ) started his presentation on the Business Data Catalog and how the BDC can be used to surface data from external applications to a SharePoint site. His presentation included an Architectural overview of the BDC as well as how to create a BDC connection. As part of the demo he demonstrated a recent project we had completed for a client and the development experience.
The solution for this particular business problem involved customising the Search Center and allowing users to Search an external database. Once the results were displayed how to perform a custom activity on the data. The solution also showcased workflow capabilities.
Then Zac and I went into a rapid fire tag team session of People Search, Document Search, Indexing external sites, Search web parts and how to customise the Search in SharePoint.
**Wrap up and questions from the floor **
Brendon and I started off by giving away two copies of Windows Vista ultimate and Office 2007 Professional to the audience and then took some questions. One of the questions a few people asked was about what sort of an impact it is on SQL server performance when SharePoint stores data in SQL. Basically the storage model of SQL is capable of scaling extremely well. It is BUILT for data storage. I will be writing a post about SharePoint data layer architecture and highlight how this should not be seen as a concern.
The other questions basically were around deployment and planning considerations. Microsoft TechNet has articles around how to plan for a SharePoint deployment.
Here are some links for those of you who would like to understand the architecture of SharePoint.
**TechNet Webcast: Office SharePoint Server 2007 Functional and Architectural Overview **
**2007 Office System for Architects **
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/architecture/aa699381.aspx
**Downloads for SharePoint **
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/downloads.mspx
**SharePoint Information Center **