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Transitioning with Office 365 and SharePoint

November 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The last couple of years as I learned more about BPOS and SharePoint, I began encouraging small businesses to test and experiment with SharePoint as a document management/collaboration system. To this effort, I’ve posted several notes and “How to videos” illustrating simple uses of SharePoint.

As a collaboration tool, SharePoint has many facets which were illustrated by a real estate company I visited recently. They are an Office 365 business using SharePoint to automate many of the paper shuffling aspects of their business; including maintaining an up to date MLS listing of the current market, their current sales listings, pending sales; plus a reservoir of standard forms/documents needed in the sales process. Further, they are using mobile devices (phones and tablets) to be fully interactive their SharePoint site. I was quite impressed by their ambition and understanding of the potential of the SharePoint tool.

I’m well aware that new technology requires increased understanding and training (me included) but how long did it take you to learn to saw in a straight line, bake you first “perfect” cake or knit a pair of socks.  This point is again stressed in a recent a blog posting from Robert Crane (SharePoint) evangelist, http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog/archive/2011/11/02/it%e2%80%99s-more-than-that.aspx. The defense rests!

Let’s recap:

Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (P-1) is designed for organizations with one to 25 employees and there are a number of assumptions that come with this option. Like with all cloud applications the fundamental selling point is that a business reduces its overhead by eliminating or reducing dependence on an in house server. Originally, the primary reasons behind the marketing of Microsoft Small Business server was giving the staff a company branded email with shared calendars and easy access to shared document. This still is the first assumption of the O-365 (P-1) option. Not only do we reduce the need for an on premises server but the mail server maintenance and spam/malware issues are handled by Microsoft and SharePoint becomes the location for shared documents. The next significant Office 365 selling point is Web Applications; i.e. Word, Excel, Power Point, and One Note, giving users access anywhere to standard Microsoft productivity applications whether they have Office 2010 installed or not. Documents, spreadsheets, or presentations are saved to SharePoint 2010 allowing all collaborators anywhere access.

I like the simplicity of this approach but I’m aware that many small businesses are not that simple. Productivity tools are designed for tasks as needed not just “bells, whistles or hype”. More directly, beyond email and simple document storage, to truly gain the full potential of this technology a little planning is necessary.

  • Download Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (Plan P1): Service Description and really read the document. It is easy to get snowed by the technical aspects of SharePoint but stay focused on the potentials for your business needs.
  • I suggest beginning with a full review of your business processes and outline those steps: What happens when you meet a new contact? Who approves what documents? Who needs to access your inventory? Etc.
  • Literally, graphically display site pages with stake holder descriptions, processes and workflows. If you’ve organized your current website this is primarily the same process but you are looking from an interactive perspective; i.e., feel, touch, open, view, and contribute.
  • What technology features will you need to automate you process or who will need to have access to your information and how will they access it? At this point things can get difficult and it may be time to call a SharePoint professional but take note:
    • What security needs will you have?
    • Who will be accessing your site?
    • Why?
    • Will you need to create a sub site for each set of users?

Always keep in mind that the vision is yours and the structure must meet your demands; also note that those “demands” will change over time and as you, your staff, and clients become more familiar with SharePoint as it relates to your business.

Learning curve:

  1.  Become aware of the limitations for Office 365 P1. Brett Hill of Office 365 has posted a listing of major limitations which you should be aware, http://www.office365answers.com/AllArticles/ID/2344/Office-365s-P-Plan-What-you-must-know.aspx. Note: Brett states that O-365 P1, user account passwords are set not to expire (default 90 days) but that has not been my experience.
  2. This option has no Microsoft phone or ticket support thus you need to become familiar with the Office 365 Community.
  3. The biggest boon for businesses is the capacity to share with external clients and vendors; this presents a couple of issues.
    1. Who can access your site? You may invite external users to share your site or documents but they must have a Windows Live ID or Hotmail account to be able to authenticate for accessing any content. See, http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/154/p/12697/57469.aspx#57469. My understanding is that this will evolve in time but I want you to be aware of this issue.
    2. How to share. See. http://community.office365.com/en-us/b/the_grid/archive/2011/08/11/how-to-share-sharepoint-online-sites-with-external-users-office-365-grid-user-post.aspx. Also see and view video, http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/152/p/8008/33039.aspx#33039.
    3. Site security. Unlike on premises SharePoint that offers a secured socket layer (SSL) for external access, that is not currently available with O-365 P1 SharePoint. Please review the following community posting for how to secure specific site information, http://community.office365.com/en-us/b/the_grid/archive/2011/09/12/office-365-sharepoint-online-sharer-beware.aspx.

I encourage small businesses who are contemplating purchasing or upgrading their server to add Office 365 to their evaluation process; try it for 30 days it’s free!

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Office 365, Sharepoint Tagged With: , , ,

Office 365, now what?

September 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Narrative.

I’m finally up and running with Office 365 but before I get a little more technical and describe my process, I think I need to remind everyone why we are looking at cloud technologies. For small businesses there are only two real reasons for cloud technologies:

  1. Simplify and reduce reliance on the ever changing and constant burden of hardware configuration and maintenance.
  2. Accessible tools for presentations and collaboration.

I think it is easy to get caught up in the incessant technology wars between Google, Microsoft, Xfinity, software developers (including app makers), and the vast number of hosting companies, losing sight of primary goals. I constantly harp on defining what you need (make a list if you need to), compared against what is being offered to you as well as ease of use. I realize that cost is a factor but as far as I’m concerned it’s only as a tie breaker or an interim step (be cautious here). I live is a world of serious small businesses, i.e., business consultants, software developers (Apps), voice over IP (VoIP technicians), business intelligence specialists, database engineers, web developers, graphic designers, personal trainers and coaches, web hosts, marketing coaches, WordPress educators, etc. If there is ever an idea about the depleted job market, here in middle America are those individuals trying to carve out their niche in a market place glutted by corporate and government money that doesn’t reach them. (Either because they don’t qualify or refuse to sacrifice their independence for someone else’s goals.) It is to those business people I attempt to address. Further, it those that I encourage to collaborate with, learn from and support each other.

Although there are many different types of online collaboration tools, I think 37 Signals BaseCamp, Google Premier (Google Docs), and Microsoft Office 365 offer the minimum essentials for shared collaboration: integrated email, a shared calendar, and various shared documents. If I were to rate them they would go in ascending order from basic to most integrated. Having said that the remaining question is: What do you need?

In my last post I chose Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Plan P. The key in this plan is the minimum of technical support. The minimum system requirements are Windows XP Service Pack 3 (note: Office 365 also supports Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6 plus MAC Office 2011) and if you wish to integrate with an on premises edition of Office you must have Office 2007 or 2010 installed. Microsoft provides for the downloading of Office 2010 Professional Plus as part of their plan but for those who have problems with the MS licensing scheme this is a bone of contention which I won’t attempt to explore. If you are using Google Docs or 37 Signals Base Camp or Back Pack the whole idea is to be able to work from any location or computer as long as there is an Internet connection. I have Office 2010 installed on my workstations, therefore I’m able to integrate from desktop to cloud as I work with documents whether I’m connected to the Internet or not.

The Technical

The fundamental key for Office 365 Plan P is that for $6/month, a user will need little to no technical support and the support provided is from the Office 365 Community; this is not much different from Google Apps, except not as many videos. If you need technical assistance you need to learn to read carefully and be patient.

August 12-14.

Office 365 is easily functional from trial to setup but if you are a business that operates as an online entity you must make changes to keep using your online domain name (email and website). Given this, the basic setup instructions for Office 365 is to change to the Microsoft domain servers. If you’ve worked with your ISP to setup your website or hosted WordPress site then you are familiar with this process. Feeling comfortable, the setup screen offered explicit instructions on how to make this change in several major ISP’s (GoDaddy, Register.com. Network Solutions), I made my changes before we embarked on a weekend trip. Notwithstanding that these instructions also cautioned that the process could take 72 hours. I was indignant when the process wasn’t completed by Sunday morning; playtime was over and I needed my email functional by Monday morning. Daunted I changed the DNS (domain name servers) records back to my ISP before we left for home and restored email flow through my on premise mail server. Fortuitously, I received an email which pointed me to the following site, Office 365.com: http://www.office365answers.com/AllArticles/ID/2344/Office-365s-P1-Plan-What-you-must-know.aspx. This site gives a good outline of the Office 365 Plan P program which encouraged my scrutiny of the Community site. In short, the bottom line for my efforts was to be patient and review the Office 365 Community site more deliberately.

August 26-29 (Family wedding weekend)

Made the DNS changes Friday evening upon arriving to our destination (Hotel Internet $10/day) but online email (Outlook Web Access) began to flow by bedtime. It took a couple of days before I realized I could not get the Outlook auto configuration to work unless I created a new profile. The P plan has no system for moving former data into Outlook. Hint: Make a PST backup of email, contacts, and calendar and import them into Outlook.

Lync 2010 still not working

As an on premises server administrator I’ve never been fond of “instant message” or “chat” programs because I always saw them as another avenue for introducing viruses into a network. I’ve matured, somewhat, as I’ve been introduced to visual chat in both Facebook and Google+ not to mention Skype on my laptop and mobile phone. Lync 2010 offers online chat and meeting capabilities with a simple setup. Thus, I was somewhat concerned from a functional point that Lync, for my ebonyknight.net domain was not working although all of the DNS configurations appeared to be correct. The Office 365 Community offered numerous options for manually configuring Lync 2010 clients, but after several reinstalls and manual setups my final solution was to unlicense Lync 2010 for my domain user and relicense that user and the Lync auto configuration setup.

In short, Office 365 Plan P is a good offering for professionals and small offices but Microsoft’s assumption that we are all starting from scratch is a bit naïve. Although I still support this option, it is imperative that you plan ahead, be patient, become familiar with the Office 365 Community pages, and be willing to talk to a Microsoft technology professional if you run into problems.

Filed Under: Blog, Office Tools

OK, Let’s move to Office 365!

August 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’m a traditionalist! My view of a networked office always focuses on a server for centralized management supporting a network of 3 or more workstations. The key for me is management centricity for the system, providing centralized shared file access, managed file security, network antivirus monitoring and control, file storage, housing for specialty lines of business software, and centralized scheduled backups. The challenge has always been the cost of centralization including: hardware, implementation, and maintenance. This is the cost of doing business and should be part of any technology plan. Businesses need to always be in control of their business data and that means always being in control of their technology. Control of technology means control of business image, message, and productivity.

 

Recently there has been a lot of push and hype about cloud computing services and a wide range of hosted (cloud based) offerings (Hosted Exchange, SharePoint, etc.).The salient point is to focus on the full time availability of networking/collaboration tools with increased security and productivity while deemphasizing hardware expenditures and maintenance costs. I recognize the practicality of such approaches but also am aware that this could be a threat to my livelihood.

 

My skepticism has always centered on “What if the Internet goes down?” “Where will user data be located?” “Who is in control and can I trust them?” While these questions are still valid, people have been using web based email for some time: AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc., but many business people have become familiar with Google’s Gmail because it initially offered users a more secure email. In addition, Google introduced a number of free web based utilities (Google Apps) which had immediate applied functionality.

 

With anywhere access and increased security in mind we adopted Google Premium Applications for Business. The Briscoe Network Solutions email is managed as a hosted Google business application (Gmail). Although, Gmail is always in conversation view (which I don’t always appreciate), I can access my business email from any location with Internet access; which was my primary requirement along with having email with my business domain name. I set up Google calendar to synchronize with my Outlook calendar but found that I always used my Outlook calendar and the Outlook synchronization with my phone more often. Therefore, I uninstalled my Google/Outlook synchronization tool.

 

My content manager and I also tried working with Google Docs and although she was not too concerned about Word formatting, this is essential for my writing comfort as I acquaint enterprise level productivity to mean professional quality. We both found the sharing option not satisfactory for us; although we were able to set up shared documents we found that we were not always able to edit those shared docs. This was also the experience when I tried to set up maintenance task lists with clients. In short paying $100/yr. for two accounts meets the minimum needs for Briscoe Network Solutions to have a domain name email account which is accessible from anywhere whether I have my laptop or not, but not much else.

 

I was introduced to Office Live and SkyDrive sometime ago and would periodically use it for \short term storage and for document sharing with other tech professionals. Then for months my Live Id would not work on the site; this past fall after Microsoft introduced Office Web Apps my logon problem was resolved. Since November I’ve been working with Office Web Apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) and have been quite pleased that the online versions have most of the same functionality as the Office applications already installed on my laptop. More impressive is that I’m able to integrate the desktop applications with the online applications with a minimum of problems. (Don’t forget to manually save no matter which format you are working with.) Plus, sharing documents for review and editing has been easy with no major problems. With this feeling of comfort, should Ebony Knight, Inc. (our parent company) move its network utilities online to Office 365?

 

Why? As already mentioned my focus is on small businesses and I think I should drink the “Kool-Aide” I promote and support. The Ebony Knight, Inc. domain is managed by a four year old custom made server running MS Small Business Server 2008, which hosts Exchange 2007 for email and SharePoint 3.0. In addition, we host Sophos Antivirus with Pure Message for spam filtering. Further, we filer all mail through a “smart host”, Reflexion, which filters spam and virus infected emails. I don’t plan to remove our server because I’m still committed to an on premises storage, file security, and backup but my primary utilities are email and the office suite of productivity tools. How about you?

 

My questions at this point:

 

  1. How simple is the mailbox transfer from Exchange 2007 to hosted Exchange?
  2. Will hosted Exchange provide the spam and virus filtering that I’ve become accustomed to?
  3. Will document management and collaboration (sharing) remain as convenient as with SkyDrive?
  4. Will setting up hosted SharePoint easily allow for remote user access?

 

There are a number of steps for setting my Email to function with Office 365 but I’ll report more on our transference later…

Filed Under: Blog, Office Tools, Online Tools

Getting started with SharePoint: Creating a vacation calendar

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Imagine my surprise when I visited one of my clients this past week to discover that they had created a staff vacation calendar. They have been using Small Business Server 2003 and now 2008 for about five years and had resisted any suggestion that they look at SharePoint. I had envisioned them using SP as a document repository, or “library” to house a number of business related books and document in PDF format that are currently accessed via CDs. Needless to say this fell on deaf ears; but the calendar is a hit. Well maybe you don’t need a document library or business knowledge base but how about trying calendar? The following two videos demonstrate how to set up a calendar in SharePoint. Keep in mind that SharePoint items can be set to integrate with your desktop Outlook.

Filed Under: Blog, Business Tools, Office Tools, Sharepoint Tagged With: , , ,

The Tablet Race!

March 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Rightly or wrongly I pride myself as not being tantalized and mesmerized by technology gadgets. Not only does my 2 years old+ Lenovo X61 convertible tablet go with me everywhere but it is my office. As much as I like my Lenovo I’ve always longed for a slightly smaller tablet. Note I said tablet not laptop or notebook. The option to write, take notes, or view videos/webinars in tablet mode is most appreciated. Now enter the iPad and the world is agog. It’s not just the iPad but also e-Readers, such as Kindle, Nook, Touch, etc. On a recent plane trip, I couldn’t believe the number of flat tablet sized Internet enabled devices. I plan to replace my Lenovo spring/summer 2012 and now I’ve begun my research. I’d like to share that process with you.

What is a smart phone, tablet, netbook, or notebook? Let’s be honest, there really isn’t much significance in debating nomenclature when discussing web based devices and the line blurs based on what you need or want; the real issue is portability. There is plenty of excitement about apps; but in reality apps are specialty items either for specific users, uses or markets. My primary use for a cell phone is for telephone calls (yes, I like talking to people and find it less confusing), good reception and location availability are my primary concerns. Beyond that email and text are secondary but if reception and availability is fulfilled then the other functions work accordingly.

I’m not a big app person and I don’t listen to music unless walking, writing, or on an airplane; thus apps are not a part of my criteria. For me everything personally and professionally is web based, including my email client (Google Premier), network monitoring and management tools, troubleshooting research (tech support sites), and marketing (Constant Contact, Biznik, and this web site). On the other hand I store documents, and download and test applications which support my business. What do you need your device for?

My Selection Criteria:

  1. Size-10-11″screen. I don’t care what my brother-in-law says and what features are available, you won’t catch me reading “War and Peace” on my smart phone.
  2. Weight- Not an issue for me.
  3. Operating system: Although I’m not opposed to the Android operating system, I’m not app oriented. I need to not only read and edit Microsoft Office documents but I’ll need access to Windows utilities for monitoring or testing client networks.
  4. Ports and connectors: I use external storage devices in my business from storing documents to backing up customer servers to external hard drives. I also run wireless software and USB external hardware for TV and projector viewing thus I’ll be looking for a number of USB ports for these services. In addition, part of my job is testing client wired networks which make an available Ethernet port essential.
  5. Durability: I won’t be carrying my tablet in my hip pocket but it will go with me everywhere and it will need to stand up to being tossed by a haughty TSA agent.

These are my preliminary selection criteria as I look forward to searching for a new tablet; in that same vein, Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal reminds us that 2011 will be the year of the tablet with numerous offerings from all types of manufacturers who see this as a lucrative market.

Beyond my own tablet angst, I found that two of my current Microsoft oriented professional magazines were also getting on board the Tablet train. The Channel Pro magazine provides a high level overview outlining the proliferation of the small form factor PC business as it relates to IT professionals and should give you an understanding of the growth and options available in the PC market.

In the same vein, the Redmond Channel Partner, which targets part of the same tech professional market, looks at the functional aspect of full tablet PCs as it relates to Microsoft and Windows business. Take a look at both articles. I think you will find them informative and if you are like me, will not hurry to buy your next business tablet. On second thought, I still enter contests hoping to win a new iPad2!

Filed Under: Blog, Business Tools, Trends Tagged With:

Is your wireless naked? Last Post.

March 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You can never be too serious about network security whether it is a wired or wireless network. Brian Posey makes a case in his last wireless security article that wired networks can be more vulnerable than secured wireless networks unless some form of network access control is employed.

On a wired network anyone who plugs into a network jack can have access not only to the internet but also open access to your network. With the ready availability of mobile storage devices (flash drives and pocket hard drives) not only is the copying of sensitive data easy but malware can also be introduced into your system. Initially, this seems like a digression regarding our discussion about wireless security but this is really only a different side of the same coin.

The question is what are you doing to secure your wireless networks? I generally discourage businesses that have high visitor traffic from setting up wireless network or, if visitors need to have wireless access, I set up a separate non-domain (separate addressing scheme and DHCP server) router/access point. On the other hand the accountant or compliance auditor expects to plug into your network as a mere sign of courtesy.

In his final post regarding general wireless network security, Brian Posey outlines some basic concerns regarding wired versus wireless security: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Securing-Wireless-Network-Traffic-Part5.html?printversion.

Filed Under: Maintenance, Network Maintenance, Network Security Tagged With: ,

MS Company Web 2010 video

March 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recently I had a conversation with my brother who was lamenting that with his company’s mail server upgrade he is no longer able to access his public folder calendars from his smart phone. Given his dismay I was not able to console him regarding his loss. Not to mention that my statements regarding Microsoft’s desire to replace public folders with SharePoint brought no solace. In my final desperation I forwarded the following link which I thought would explain Microsoft’s position better than I could, http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-GB/exchangesvrclients/thread/5549b57c-175e-47c4-991b-8b38117335fb.

From a more healthy position than sibling discourse, is Robert Crane, an Australian SharePoint guru who provides advanced technical information to small business technology consultants such as me. Although I understand Microsoft’s position, the whole cloud computing buzz is about placing everything in your web browser and solving the years old issue of cross platform computing. The primary problem with SharePoint is only a select group of people see its value as a tool. As I’ve mentioned before, my initial attraction to Robert was the fact that he produces good training SharePoint videos which I think help to bridge the learning gap for those interested or starting to explore SharePoint. Let me repeat, “Those starting to explore SharePoint”; as with any technology it is essential that we first understand that we have a need and take the time to learn the new technology. Robert has published an updated video, “Getting started with CompanyWeb 2010”. CompanyWeb is the SharePoint offering included with Small Business Server. Take time and see if you can find a use for SharePoint in your business.

Getting Started With Companyweb
View more documents from Robert Crane

Filed Under: Blog, Sharepoint Tagged With: ,

Are you Monitoring Professional News and Blog sites?

February 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Although we may have belabored the point with our following, Brian Posey’s wireless security articles in WindowsNetworking.com; it is important for all of us to be up to date with the latest developments and trends in our profession as well as understand the technological events that are shaping your industry.  News sites, Blogs, Newsletters, and list servers are the primary way of keeping up with the latest news and events.  “But I don’t have time to go to all of those sites every day to see what’s happening!”  If you are truly working none of us have that kind of time. Now enters RSS (most commonly expanded as Really Simple Syndication), as defined by Wikipedia as a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,[3] or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.  In short, RSS feeds allow you subscribe to your favorite site or blog and have updates sent to you as needed.  A better understanding of RSS feeds in illustrated in the following videos:

and

Keep in mind that most smart phones either have an RSS feed app or you can download an RSS feed app. The only question at this point is what sites are you following?

Filed Under: Blog, Business Tools, Online Tools Tagged With:

Brian Posey’s Wireless Security Continued

February 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Brian Posey’s fourth wireless security article touches on the more technical aspects of routers and security.

Encryption is a standard for any SOHO deployment of a wireless access point, a fact which Posey explains. Furthermore, he briefly touches on UTM routers (Unified Threat Management) which have the capacity to provide additional security features such as gateway virus protection, gateway spam filtering, content blocking, website blocking, and RBL (Real-time Black Lists) for blocking unsecure email sites. I like the idea of UTM routers but I’m not clear on how effective these devices are for anti-virus and spam protection. (I prefer third party inbound email filtering.) More to the point, I would  prefer that Brian or someone else to provide us with a clear picture of UTM routers.

From a small office/home office point of view, we should note that not only are these routers more expensive but many of the additional security features are enabled only on a subscription basis; thus, adding to the overall budget picture. While we wait for Mr. Posey’s final article on wireless security, I will look for a more comprehensive discussion of UTM routers. Again, part of our focus is to familiarize business owners with sites that increase our overall knowledge on the issues of office networking.

Filed Under: Blog, Business Tools, Maintenance Tagged With: ,

SharePointHosting.com’s – SharePoint Demystified

January 24, 2011 By 1 Comment

When I  first started this site I added a number of “How to…” videos  from Robert Crane which now make up the core of our SharePoint section.  It’s has been awhile since I’ve added anything new to this section.  Too often I find that SharePoint sites have more to do with the technical/administration side of managing the software or touting the latest version rather than how to work with SharePoint as a tool.  We believe that browser based applications are the future of productive technology.

With that in mind, I direct you to a site that I just discovered that I think will help you understand how to use SharePoint in your business, SharePointHosing.com’s-SharePoint Demystified.  Whether it’s SharePoint, Dream Weaver, Excel or any new program, to become proficient with software requires training.  What I like most about the site is the included numerous videos for the visual learner, which give a clearer understanding of the user interface and functions of the application.  Interested in SharePoint? Take a look at this site:

http://blog.sharepointhosting.com/Downloads/SharePoint-Tutorials.aspx

Filed Under: Blog, Browser Apps, Business Tools, Sharepoint Tagged With: ,
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