Consulting Services
Consulting Services

SharePoint 2010: What's all the hype about?

A new version of SharePoint is coming out some time mid-year and you're wondering what all the hype is about, what's the big deal? Well, for those of you who don't know, SharePoint is the fastest growing server product ever in Microsoft history. And if you haven't seen or heard of its capabilities especially SharePoint 2010, then you need to open up your browser right now and search on it. And for those of you who have been on the fence on whether to deploy it as an intranet, extranet, or Internet or maybe contemplating upgrading, below are Microsoft's reasons to upgrade which we can't agree more.

  1. Site Authoring Made Simple
    • The Office Ribbon User Interface, now part of SharePoint 2010, provides users with a familiar and rich user experience that maximizes productivity and minimizes training.
    • Wiki-style editing makes creating and updating SharePoint sites easier and more efficient
    • Web site branding is easier and more dynamic using the new theme engine and master page redirection
    • SharePoint Designer 2010 is easier to use with modifications being reusable across different Web sites which gives more people access and enables enterprise reapplication
  2. Be Productive Regardless of Location
    • Rich and seamless integration between SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 drives more effective and in-context collaboration while keeping the user within a consistent and familiar Ribbon UI
    • SharePoint Workspace 2010 enables site content to be taken offline and efficiently synchronized back (updates only), including custom lists, line-of-business data and InfoPath-based data entry
    • SharePoint Mobile 2010 includes significant enhancements to the viewing experience of SharePoint UI artifacts (Web Parts), the viewing and editing of Office content and support of multiple mobile OSs
    • Firefox and Safari Web browsers are now supported and mobile users can view, edit and add new content broadening the usability platform and improving the access from anywhere experience
  3. Quickly Access People and Expertise
    • Phonetic-based search, Boolean and wildcards facilitate a richer, more efficient search experience
    • User defined interests and areas of responsibility enhance search effectiveness by allowing faster discovery of expertise and knowledge with Expertise Search
    • Tagging and metadata improve the “findability” of the most relevant content through metadata-driven navigation
    • Search results are refined by Social Tagging, metadata and taxonomies – reducing complexity and rapidly identifying the most relevant content with an improved relevancy algorithm
  4. Proactively Manage Your Platform
    • New administrative tools for monitoring server health and script automation, along with improved reporting and usage capability lower management cost
    • Improved high-availability, more flexible backup and restore and content recovery increases reliability
    • Enterprise metadata management and content type syndication enables standardization, eliminating the need for user configuration which simplifies adoption and eases compliance
    • Custom solutions can be deployed and isolated in their own “sandbox” eliminating any negative impact on the SharePoint environment
  5. Enable Data-Driven Decision-Making
    • Excel Web Application allows users to create, view and modify content via the Web browser – increasing flexibility, broadening reach and making information sharing more efficient
    • Chart Web parts provide a wizard-driven interface to simplify the creation of charts – increasing adoption and enabling everyone to convey the right information graphically
    • PerformancePoint Services simplify dashboard creation and provide dynamic interaction with business data – easing the task of driving KPIs and business results
    • Visio Services displays complex data sets and business models visually inside the Web browser – exposing data in way that facilitates better decision-making
  6. Make Use of LOB Systems and Data
    • The new Business Connectivity Services enable rapid integration and updating of data from external sources, such as: CRM systems, ERP systems, etc. – providing enterprise utilization and integration
    • The ability of the SharePoint and Office 2010 products (Outlook, SharePoint Workspace, Excel, etc.), to interact with external data in a bi-directional manner (read-write) and allow users to work with it within their collaboration context
    • SharePoint Designer 2010 makes it easy and intuitive for all users to create read-write data connections with external data sources
  7. Address Specific Business Requirements
    • Enhancements in InfoPath Forms technology and Workflow design & deployment make it easier for end users, power users and designers to compose customized solutions using the out-of-box SharePoint capabilities
    • Users’ ability to deploy their solutions is highly enhanced with Sandboxed Solutions – a way to deploy solutions without requiring IT involvement while still protecting the availability of the platform
    • Visual Studio 2010 is very tightly integrated with SharePoint 2010, providing better tools and an overall improved process for developing custom SharePoint solutions – providing a more rapid and efficient end-to-end development story

Want more reasons to upgrade? Click here for more…