• Designing and planning a logical and physical solution is key to ensuring an optimum user experience and providing a solution that will scale in the future.
• Our technical architects work with our clients to ensure the architecture is achieved.
• We are able to provide end to end solutions like corporate intranets and website experiences.

Much more than ‘brochure-ware presence.’

We can provide site visitors with more valuable interactive services that deepen the user experience, resulting in an action being taken.

SharePoint’s ability to deliver social features, including user profiles, blogs, wikis and discussions boards, is a good example of how an organization can quickly provide end-users with a richness of information that strengthens both customer relationships and their brand.

We will find 3rd party code, event receivers, orphaned files and security users, database errors, and do what is needed is clean and patch up your current SharePoint. Then we run test migrations until we have your farm ready for cutover to the next version. Many of our migrations have almost zero business interruptions.

• Map Servers & Farms
• Assess Current SharePoint (using our toolkit), identify content for upgrade or migration, solutions, web parts, and custom code.
• Prepare Test Environment
  (Hardware or VM)
• Backup Current Content Databases
• Run a Trial Migration and analyze conversion logs.
• Make Corrections to farm
• REPEAT 4-6 as needed
• Quality Assurance Testing
• User Accessibility Testing
• Prepare Production SharePoint Environment
• Schedule Upgrade
• Perform Upgrade
• Apply Visual Upgrade & Branding
• Customization of overall UI, pages, and navigation

Information architecture is addressing the built-in boundaries within portals. These elements are important to get right the first time and ensure they meet the goals of your portal.

• Site Collection & databases
• Authentication providers
• Branding
• Cross-site Navigation
• Shared Metadata & content types

60% of information workers say that it is hard to find the right information

75% of information workers say that finding the right information is critical to the organization's success

 

We automate these repeatable tasks:

• Create a SharePoint site using the same template
• Add a link to the site into a site directory or other list of links
• Assign Full Control, Contributor, or Reader rights to certain users or groups of users
• Set default metadata values for certain lists and libraries
• Set a default due date for all tasks in a task list based on a projected project end date
• Assign default tasks to different employees, depending on their role within the project
• Create custom alerts on specific lists or document libraries within the site
• Notify the appropriate people that the site has been created

When done manually, each bullet identified above is another step in the process. When every step is completed, the process is time-consuming. If a step is missed, the end-user experience is bound to suffer. Users may be able to locate a site, but they can’t access it. Project team members may find it more difficult to locate sites for projects to which they have been assigned. Deadlines could be missed when task due dates are not set. Managers and executives will spend too much of their time trying to track down the status of projects or identify projects based on category. If the wrong site template is used, the site will need to be deleted and re-created. If not, certain pieces of key information will not be collected in the site.

We often see “worst practices” and unpredictable results when SharePoint is unleashed on an enterprise without setting up proper governance policies. We call this the “SharePoint effect,” which is often characterized by some or all of the following:

• Runaway growth as SharePoint users hijack control, creating high-profile sites, adding content accessible to hundreds or thousands of users, and setting permissions and rights without enterprise planning, strategy or support
• Never-ending streams of enhancement requests that go unanswered
• Lack of clarity on who is storing what in SharePoint
• Inability to track or audit who has accessed items stored in SharePoint lists and document libraries
• Inability to gain consensus from the business on goals and priorities for SharePoint
• Impertinent or outdated content
• Lack of document life-cycle policies, including mandated archiving and destruction requirements

• Custom provisioning
• Provisioning policy per site type defines level of automation and self-service
• Use provisioning wizard to collection data related to SLM
• Store SLM data in site properties or a site inventory list
• Site Lifecycle Management

Topics to address before SharePoint Deployment
Topic	Description
How do we define SharePoint success?	What metrics and measurements will be used?
Home Page Management	What Team will review and approve updates? (good luck on this topic)
Site Request	How does one ask for a new site and what goes into it?
Solutions	What is the process for vetting development efforts of significant effort? What threshold is considered significant effort?
Site Templates	What Templates are available (including custom) and what they are used for?
Site Management	Definition of the allowed management of the site for the Site Owner. Is it free for all, slightly controlled or managed by an Information Architecture? Is it by level from the top?
Unused Sites	How are they defined and what happens to them? Automatic deletion helps to control the number of unused Web sites on a server without requiring any administrative intervention. You decide the time period.
Records Management	Records management is the process by which an organization determines the types of information that should be considered records, how records should be managed while they are active, and for how long each type of record should be retained. Records management includes the performance of records-related tasks such as disposing of expired records or locating and protecting records that are related to external events such as lawsuits
Security	How is it managed?
MySites	By default, all authenticated users can create a My Site.
Social Policies	Ratings, Tagging, Status etc… The My Site Profile privacy. By default, most user profile properties are visible to everyone, but sensitive information can be configured to have limited visibility.
Support Model	How is support defined? To whom does the End User address to get answers?
Naming Convention	Databases, Servers, and Web Applications are named using a designated convention. What about sites?
Backups and Restores	What is the schedule for backups and when are restores tested?
Development	Define how and where the development of new features will be done. What is development versus configuration and customization?
Communication Plan	Constant communication with the End Users needs to be there to ensure the success of the project. Who is responsible?
Change Management Plan	Can small changes simply be rolled out or should we first communicate them to users? What is a small change? When should we seek permission or feedback to make changes?
Training	Define what kind of training will be available for site owners, administrators, end users.
Etc...	Governance Planning in Microsoft SharePoint