In an effort to enhance the clients' experience with our SharePoint Support Services, IncWorx Consulting has been considering a SharePoint Training program.  While the web may be saturated with amateur SharePoint instructional videos of all sorts, we have the intent to offer reliable, relevant, convenient and valuable training that can be applied to our clients' SharePoint applications. We want to give SharePoint training to our clients The Right Way, and avoid disappearing into the masses giving training the wrong way.

IncWorx Consulting continues to offer expertise in the realm of SharePoint Application Development and SharePoint Support Services; but what if our consultants didn't only support your SharePoint environment, but taught you, first-hand, the best practices and "How-tos" of SharePoint?  Professional, reputable, SharePoint training straight from the experts...

In light of this, we are reaching out to you for feedback on SharePoint training:

• Which types of training are the most effective for you? Webinars? Classroom training?
• If you like webinars, do you prefer to watch them live or pre-recorded/ on-demand?
• Are hands-on lab exercises or hand-out materials more constructive toward your long-term understanding?
• What are the most frequently asked questions about SharePoint that you encounter? 

Please submit your feedback in the comments below, and we will take all suggestions and ideas into consideration.

Although most clients are using SharePoint 2010 and much of the training would be directed toward their needs, SharePoint 2013 has recently been released.  SharePoint 2013 has expanded to offer new and exciting enhancements to the areas of mobile friendliness, social networking, and the use of SharePoint Apps.  Perhaps you or your business is considering upgrading your environment to SharePoint 2013, but you would like to know more about the capabilities and advantageous features thereof; if that is the case, please contact us, and we would be happy to guide you in the right direction. 

[Check back with our blog for the future post of: How is SharePoint 2013 different from SharePoint 2010 and why would I want it?]

In addition to SharePoint 2010, the newest version, SharePoint 2013 has also been released. 

There seems to be an ongoing online debate about this topic of which I am new to and decided to explore. These two approaches do not seem to be at odds with each other; more so responsive design may be designated as a subset of adaptive design.

First, what is Adaptive wed design? It is about creating interfaces that adapt to the user’s capabilities (in terms of both form and function). To put it another way, it is the notion that your experience can change based on the capabilities of your browser, or device.

What is Responsive web design? It is a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones). Briefly, it’s about optimizing your content, based on the size of the viewport.

To elaborate, an adaptive layout gives you more control over the design as you only have a handful of states to consider.  In a responsive layout you easily have hundreds of states, which may make it harder to know exactly how your design will look. As a result, a responsive layout may be more difficult to test and predict with absolute certainty. That said this is also the upside of a responsive layout. By allowing some uncertainty on a superficial level, you gain certainty on more fundamental levels. So it’s trivial that you can’t predict with pixel-perfection how the design will work in a 943 × 684 pixel viewport, but you can rest assured that it works well — that the fundamental features and layout structures are meaningfully deployed.

For adaptive design, I like the geo-location as an example. It’s the idea that your device can serve up information based on your geographic location. An adaptive design would check for this ability and “adapt” accordingly, perhaps by inserting a use current location button in a form. This may sound familiar to some, as this core concept has long been referred to as “Progressive Enhancement”.

What is Progressive Enhancement? It is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic HTML markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies. Progressive enhancement uses web technologies in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also providing an enhanced version of the page to those with more advanced browser software or greater bandwidth.

So, to surmise progressive enhancement is the core concept for adaptive design; adaptive design is a larger umbrella under which responsive design lives. Thus, they are all related concepts of web design, not to be positioned against each other.

Companies vary widely in their need and understanding of SharePoint services. With all of the various languages, frameworks, object models, and tools to build scalable distributed web applications on the SharePoint 2010 development platform, it could be hard to know where to start. While most people who visit our site may know what SharePoint is, and are familiar with our products and services. I think there may be people out there who may still be new to SharePoint and not know what IncWorx has to offer. If that’s you, here’s a snapshot.

Fun Tid Bits about SharePoint:

SharePoint comprises a multipurpose set of Web technologies backed by a common technical infrastructure. By default, SharePoint has a Microsoft Office-like interface, and it is closely integrated with the Office suite. The web tools are designed to be usable by non-technical users. SharePoint can be used to provide intranet portals, document & file management, collaboration, social networks, extranets, websites, enterprise search, and business intelligence. It also has system integration, process integration, and workflow automation capabilities.

• SharePoint is written in .net, which is a development tool.
• It is a platform in which to configure and build on.
• Sequel (SQL) – is the database for SharePoint/UI that it pulls from.
• History - The first product was developed by Microsoft in 1998, in 2001 it became SharePoint, and in 2007 SharePoint became a product focusing on collaboration. In 2008, the Gartner Group put SharePoint in the "leaders" quadrant in three of its Magic Quadrants (for search, portals, and enterprise content management). SharePoint is used by 78% of Fortune 500 companies.
• Current versions are 2010 and 2013.

Since it's development SharePoint has grown to become a good resource tool for many companies.

IncWorx SharePoint Products:

• Brandit – This is the tool that we developed to make SharePoint more user friendly. It’s a comprehensive user interface and user experience solution for SharePoint 2010 that allows companies to completely transform their intranet in just a few hours.
• Routeit – RouteIt provides customizable rule-based routing capabilities for lists and document libraries. All SharePoint 2010 on-premise versions are supported: Foundation, Standard, and Enterprise.

IncWorx SharePoint Services:

• Consulting/Engagements
• Staff Augmentation
• SDPS Vouchers -  SharePoint Deployment Planning Services
• Support

Why IncWorx?

• Microsoft Gold Partner - The Best of the Best
• Microsoft 2010 SharePoint Partner of the year award – Specifically in Deployment and Planning services
• Over 50% of our clients ask us to become their technology "trusted advisor"
• Named IT vendor of the year or preferred vendor by over 15 clients in 2012
• National customer satisfaction score ranking in the 99th percentile in the country for all partners
• Earned competencies for SharePoint, custom and mobility solutions
• Considered by Microsoft to be one of the foremost leaders in SharePoint

For more information on IncWorx, our products and services go to www.Incworx.com or contact us at 847 839-9679. We’ll be happy to hear from you!

Great news!   Another client has chosen IncWorx as their trusted SharePoint Partner for Mobile Development. Many companies are experiencing an era of "bring your own devices" (byod) with employees always having 24/7 access to those devices.

IncWorx has a ton of experience with Mobile Development, having helped a number of companies deal with the influx of mobile devices within their environment and with their customers.  Specifically, IncWorx has recently done some very outstanding work with Nucor Steel, one of the largest steel companies in the United States.

Here is an interesting use case for a mobile application at one of our clients that is applicable with others in the steel/mill industries.

Problem:

The majority of mills in the United States have a ton of regulations and audits they have to follow.  Each light fixture, shower, emergency medical kit, fire extinguishers, and others items have to be tracked for safety issues.  If any of these fixtures are not tracked and fixed their entire mill could get shut down. Safety is a big concern for mills, so there is a need to optimize the process.

Solution:

IncWorx can build a mobile application/bar code reader that can be used by all mobile devices including IPads, IPhones, Androids, Blackberry’s, etc.

There will be a bar code scanner sticker on each of the light fixtures, showers and other items.  Using your mobile device, a business user would use their cell phone as a bar code scanner and scan each item into SharePoint.  Then every user could see if they missed or didn’t check any lights, medical equipment et cetera because it is in one centralized area in SharePoint automating the process.

This could save mills money, time, and the headache of dealing with auditors.  IncWorx is a Microsoft Gold Microsoft Partner and is one of the premier consulting firms in the United States.

Please call Jeffrey Scalet at 847.839.9679 Ext 211 or 847.812.0293 (cell phone) about mobile development and IncWorx can help meet your needs.

IncWorx Consulting is a leading Microsoft Gold Partner focusing on SharePoint Consulting, SharePoint Support, and SharePoint Application Development.

IncWorx now offers SharePoint Mobile Development!!!

Mobile development is far from easy, especially when you add the intricacies of SharePoint in the mix. IncWorx Consulting has been working in the Mobile space for the last three (3) years. Here are the main areas in which our practice excels: 

• Styling SharePoint 2010’s Mobile View (If needed, not recommended)
• Creating Custom Mobile Master Pages and Page Layouts
• SharePoint 2010 Publishing Portal Development
• SharePoint 2010 Public Facing Portal Development
• SharePoint 2010 Intranet/ Extranet Portal Development
• Custom Search Control
• Localization Development

Approach

• HTML5
• CSS3
• JaveScript

Our approach is simple. We use HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript to allow cross device compatibility. Once developed, the code is converted through a mobile converter IncWorx uses. This means that our development projects are extremely efficient due to the fact we only need to write one code base for all devices.

IncWorx’s clients include DELL, General Motors, Rubbermaid and Unilever. For more information on our SharePoint Mobile practice please e-mail michael.mayes@incworx.com   
 

Scenarios

Benefits

Components

You must create several components to integrate mobile client applications together with SharePoint workflows. These components include the computer that is running SharePoint Server, sites, lists and workflows to store data, define business processes, and define security permissions, the mobile client applications that access the data in the SharePoint lists and workflows, and the services which support communication between the mobile client application and the computer that is running SharePoint Server. The following figure shows these components and how they are related. Rely on our SharePoint Experts to configure these types of scenarios.

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg454783.aspx

IncWorx Consulting is a leading Microsoft Gold Partner focusing on SharePoint Consulting, SharePoint Support, and SharePoint Application Development.

Lync available soon for your Mobile Device

The other day I was thinking about smart phones, and how it seems everything and everyone is trying to be on your smart phone.  A previous blog of mine talked about Nintex Forms and how one of their key points is that is works great on your smart phone.  This got me thinking, why not have SharePoint 2010 for your phone?  OK, maybe SharePoint is just a bit too much for a phone to handle.  There are other things Microsoft has created that could be great to have on your phone.  One main program that came to mind was Lync.  We use it here all the time and I must say it is really a great program.  It does so much and keeps everyone in your company close and interacting with one another. 

After some looking around I found out Microsoft has already thought of this and, from what I read, should be available on most all smart phones by the end of the year!  So now you will be able to be out of the office or even without your laptop, and still be able to communicate with colleagues.  It will keep a lot of the same functionality as the desktop based Lync. Here is a quick list of some things Lync mobile will be able to do.

• View colleagues' availability and select how you want to communicate with them (IM, E-Mail, or phone call)
• Can join a Lync conference without requiring the user to dial a conference number
• Can set a single phone number that can be used for outbound calls
• Will be available for Windows phone 7, iPhone, Nokia phones, Android and more

IncWorx Consulting is a leading Microsoft Gold Partner focusing on SharePoint Consulting, SharePoint Support, and SharePoint Application Development.

With more and more people using Android Phones and Tablets, it has come to my attention that the Android Phone’s and Tablets default browsers block the SharePoint 2010 credentials popup window. This makes it difficult to login and edit your site on the go. If you have a SharePoint site, and plugin your URL into the Android browser you might get a 401 Unauthorized error. Unfortunately, the default browser blocks the login prompt popup which could prevent anyone on one of these devices from logging into their SharePoint site. I recently spent a few minutes testing my own HTC EVO 4G to access our SharePoint 2010 team site.

To fix this issue, just goto the Application Market and download Firefox or Opera browsers. Opera and Firefox are both officially supported by Microsoft for SharePoint 2010 and will allow you to login to your SharePoint site and login. Both browsers will provide SharePoint’s login popup which allows you to login to your site! By using the Firefox or Opera for your browsers, you can properly login and view your site. I also tested a few other browsers like Miren and Dolphin browser that do login but don't view the SharePoint site correctly.

If you have an Android OS phone or tablet and want to use SharePoint Mobile. Give this a try! It is very possible that this could affect SharePoint iPhone user access.

Using mobile phones to access your data really shows off some of the SharePoint 2010 Benefits for end users.

The following is just a list of applications that provide Mobile access to your SharePoint site from devices other than computers and laptops. In the business world people need access to their coporate information at any time. Having access from their portable devices like phones and tablets have become increasingly easy and important for business users.

The sites I am going to list below offer a much better SharePoint Mobile experience than using browser access. This will also make the users experience much more enjoyable when accessing their companies SharePoint content.

Since most college students today are constantly attached to their cell phones, it was only logical to assume that SharePoint developers would eventually create mobile device compatibilities. These functionalities include most features of SharePoint and allow the user to access them on-the-go.

Implementing SharePoint 2010 Workspace Mobile allows the user to browse document libraries and lists right from your phone! You can also open, edit, and sync documents directly for viewing or editing in the various mobile office apps like Word 2010, Excel 2010, and PowerPoint 2010, and sync to SharePoint 2010. In addition to this, you can also perform a multitude of tasks such as people and document searches or receiving SMS alerts on SharePoint content. Since SharePoint 2010 supports accessing information from a web browser enabled mobile phone, it offers:

•Lightweight interface and navigation for accessing document libraries, lists, wikis, blogs, web part pages and LOB data
•Web companions for viewing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents
•Mobile MySite for staying in touch with colleagues
•Mobile search experience for finding people, contact information, SharePoint content and finding data in custom databases
•SMS Alerts for changes to SharePoint content
•Features are customizable and, all the information is in SDK.

SharePoint also supports a wide variety of mobile browsers, which includes:

•IE Mobile on Windows Mobile 5/6/6.1/6.5
•Safari4 on iPhone 3G/S
•BlackBerry 4.x and newer versions
•Nokia S60
•NetFront 3.4, 3.5 and newer versions
•Opera Mobile 8.65 and newer versions
•Openwave 6.2, 7.0 and newer versions
 
SharePoint mobile device compatibilities out-of-the-box include web part pages, document and picture libraries, lists, blogs, wikis, office documents, search, and MySite. In order for SharePoint to be accessible  outside the corporate firewall, however, IT administrators must publish SharePoint via an SSL VPN gateway, use a mobile proxy, or expose SharePoint server to internet directly.

SharePoint's ability to be mobile within a cell phone could drastically increase the importance of using SharePoint in the collegiate environment. It is projected that SharePoint mobile capabilities will cause an increase in frequency of utilization in the classroom setting as well as relevancy in real world applications. Accessing SharePoint has never been so easy and versatile, and this is just one of the many SharePoint 2010 benefits. College students already carry their cell phones with them wherever they go, and now SharePoint can be with you on-the-go as well.

Source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/office2010/archive/2010/03/09/configure-sharepoint-server-2010-for-mobile-device-access.aspx

Remember when your mom told you to eat all your broccoli and you just assumed that you would hate it, even though you'd never tried it? Just like that broccoli, you can't knock SharePoint if you don't even know what it is or what it does.

There are endless possiblities when implementing SharePoint 2010 into your business. Many end users believe that it is limited to a few basic functionalities, but that is because they simply don't know how to utilize it to its full potential. To remedy this false assumption, I have outlined a list of the multiple different aspects SharePoint can offer you and your business.

Document Libraries
Store and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, e-mails and more. SharePoint keeps these various types of information easily accessible and well organized. You always have full control over who can access or edit the documents, and the check-in/check-out option ensures that you always have the most current up-to-date version.

Contact Lists
Safely store your entire contact list online and share it with employees, eliminating confusion regarding whether the information is current or not. SharePoint makes it easy to search your contact list by names, emails, phone numbers, fax numbers, or company information.

Announcements
Keeping everyone in your organization up-to-date and informed is always a daunting task to take on. SharePoint Announcements allow you to instantly distribute the latest updates, events, and changes to your employees, which makes sharing company news, accomplishments, and milestones simpler than ever.

Online Calendars
There are so many important dates, meetings, appointments, tasks, and deliverables in the business world today, so how do you keep track of it all? The answer is the SharePoint Calendar, which allows you to securely and easily organize meetings and events, schedule appointments, manage deadlines, and much more.

Image Libraries
A picture is worth 1000 words, so SharePoint Image Libraries were created with that in mind. Images are just as important as documents, and now you have full control over who can edit, share, and access photos just like you do on your personal computer. Imagine all your images in one place and completely organized, so you can spend less time searching and more time sharing.

Admin Tools
As an admin, you have special configuration options and full control over who has access to which areas of SharePoint. For example, adding and removing lists, libraries, pages, sites, and site groups are a breeze and you can even set permissions in terms of limiting access to sensitive information areas.

Task Manager
SharePoint's Task Manager keeps your to-do list organized and manageable, all in one location that is easy to access and centralized. Manage your individual, department, or project team's responsibilities and deliverables and even monitor their progress to deliver the results you need.

Surveys
Feedback and input can be obtained in minutes with SharePoint's Survey capability. Firms that seek opinions and insight about their services gain valuable information regarding new ideas, decisions, and concepts within the company.

Discussions
Exchanging ideas, suggestions, and information within the organization improves employee involvement as well as the overall success of the company. Similar to a blog, but more comprehensive than chat or e-mail, SharePoint Discussions give everyone an opportunity to be heard, whether it be brainstorming ideas or debating points.

Databases
Similar to Excel spreadsheets, SharePoint Databases make accessing and storing information very easy and efficient. You are able to create customizable databases and views, generating formulas to automatically calculate fields.

Meeting Workspaces
Meetings are an essential part of the business world, and SharePoint can help you make the most out of your time together. Using basic, decision, social, or custom meeting workspaces, you are guaranteed to drive more sales, reach more prospects, train more people, and resolve support issues in record time.

Reports
Keep accurate records and centrally manage your expenses, all from SharePoint. Whether it's expenses, sales tracking, or productivity logs, SharePoint Reports has you covered.

Among these wonderful tools, more of the SharePoint 2010 benefits and diverse capabilities include: 
Wikis, Issue Tracking, Mobile Access, Blogs, Websites, PowerPoint Slides, Project Sites, Employee Directory, Gantt Charts, Export to Excel, Outlook Integration, Office Integration, RSS Feeds, and Alerts.

Whew. That's a lot more than you thought it could do, right? And that's just the beginning. As you can see, SharePoint deployment is a versatile beast that will cater to your business needs and make your organization more efficient than ever. So try your broccoli, it might actually become your favorite food!

About IncWorx
IncWorx Consulting is the premier consulting firm when implementing SharePoint 2010, we service clients in: Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, New York, Houston, Topeka, Milwaukee, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Tampa, Orlando, Boston, NYC, San Diego and Los Angeles.  We specialize in SharePoint and have invested significant time and resources into our SharePoint practice.  We take a holistic approach from inception to delivery which provides the best possible outcome for our clients.   IncWorx was also the winner of Microsoft’s 2010 worldwide partner of the year award for SharePoint Deployment and Planning Services (SDPS) and is a managed Gold Certified Partner. They have been focused on delivering solutions utilizing Microsoft tools and platforms since 1998. IncWorx is considered the premier Microsoft Partner for SharePoint architecture, design, development, integration, deployment and support.

• Find and communicate with the right person, naturally. With native Active Directory® integration, Lync Server 2010 helps users find the right person to connect with, view their presence, and then communicate with them in the most effective way—via voice, video, or sharing an application or PowerPoint. If desired, users can initiate these connections directly from the new Contact Card. With Skill Search powered by SharePoint®, users are also able to search for others based on skills, expertise, and group information
• Stay connected from virtually anywhere, with just a standard Internet connection. Microsoft Lync™ 2010 offers the same rich functionality and security features outside the firewall without requiring a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, and enables mobile and Web access across leading browsers and platforms.
• Build social connections and stay up to date on colleagues’ activities. Lync 2010 encourages closer social connections with a new Activity Feed that shows