Mastering SharePoint with Bob Mixon

Exporting MindManager Maps to Microsoft Word

Bob Mixon — Sun, 13 May 2012 09:31:33 PDT

If you have ever exported your a MindManager map to Microsoft Word, you may find it to be a somewhat disappointing experience. There’s just not a lot of options for formatting, including/excluding topics, etc. Well, this has changed! There is a new MindManager add-in product on the market called OPTi-Word which provides a whole bunch of great export features.

Olympic Limited – OPTi-Word

Speaking at SharePoint Summit 2012 – Toronto

Bob Mixon — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:02:10 PDT

I am speaking at the SharePoint Summit 2012 (Toronto) Conference this year! I am delivering 2, 3 hour tutorials on Monday, May 14th.

Tutorial 1.3 – Architecting Information for SharePoint 2010

Regardless of the industry your organization is aligned with, if your goal is to use Microsoft SharePoint 2010 as an Intranet and/or Document Management System (DMS), you will need to architect your solution to simplify the storage and management of content, promote findability, promote the agile evolution of information use and trust. We will walk through high-level designs of site structures, data taxonomies and metadata that, when applied, will aid with each of these critical success factors. We will wrap-up this session with time for Q&A and you will leave with example Intranet implementation designs architected by Bob Mixon.

Review of top 4 critical success factors that apply to all Intranet and Document Management Systems.
Architecting site structures and data taxonomies that lend themselves to simplifying the storage and management of content and agile evolution of information use.
Architecting data taxonomies and metadata for the enterprise, departments and divisions.
Surfacing relevant search results using these techniques.

Tutorial 2.3 – Adoption of SharePoint 2010 in the Enterprise

The continued evolution and growth of your SharePoint 2010 Intranet and Document Management System (DMS) requires your user base to trust and adopt it. Simply implementing such a solution and releasing it to your organization rarely works. You will need to create and manage a strategic plan for incrementally rolling out your solution, promoting trust and adoption. In this session, we will cover techniques, strategic plans and roadmaps that promote trust and aid with adoption.

Areas we will cover include:

Understanding what it is you are building; strategic planning and communication.
The value of information assets.
Improving trust and adoption of SharePoint

Governing the implementation and use of SharePoint.
Aligning your implementation with Corporate Strategic Initiatives.
Education.
The value of automating operational business process.
Integrating Microsoft Tools and Office Applications.
Integrating business applications.
Integrating 3rd party tools.

I am really looking forward to delivering both of these sessions. The content comes directly from my SharePoint 2010 Architecture, Management and Design (SPMAD) course and should be great learning for all who attend. Information Architecture, Design, Governance and Adoption are still the most complex aspects of a SharePoint Intranet implementation. I hope to meet new friends and see old ones.

Looking forward to seeing you at the conference!

Steps Toward a SharePoint Reference Information Architecture – by Seth Early

Bob Mixon — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:31:22 PDT

Seth Early, from Early & Associates, wrote an interesting article about the purpose and use of a Reference Information Architecture. He then describes, in part, additional information architecture steps required to ultimately derive a physical SharePoint implementation model; content model, site structures and navigation elements.

One area Seth touches on this article is the need to focus on user processes first and foremost. I am currently writing quite a bit about this topic myself. For example, I often see contributor and consumer process/contextual requirements bundled in to a single list or library. There are times when this can be accomplished with success. However, more often I find this to not be the case; contributors may be pleased with the solution but consumer contextual needs are not met. Or worse, the administration of content, such as security, is too complex.

I am looking forward to reading more from Seth and having the opportunity to complete the articles I am writing about this topic.

Read Seth’s Complete Article Here – Steps Toward a SharePoint Reference Information Architecture

Thank you again Seth for more great work!

Colligo Briefcase

Bob Mixon — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 18:15:06 PDT

My friends, at Colligo, have a new product called Colligo Briefcase. It provides all the robust power, you have come to expect from Colligo products, on the iPad. Yep, you can now connect to a SharePoint site and manage all your favorite content right from your iPad.

Just a week ago, I happened to be part of a very large SharePoint PoC and was asked to demonstrate some mobile abilities. I quickly configured my iPad IPSec/VPN so I could log in to the customer portal and brought up a few sites, lists and libraries in the Safari browser. They were impressed with how quickly I could get everything configured to do this. The real eye-opener was when I then demonstrated Colligo Briefcase connected to their same environment and was able to quickly show the document preview and offline abilities.

If you have never been able to experience Colligo products, I do recommend doing so. They have a slew of products that provide true integration with SharePoint, offline abilities and preview. One of the best features of their products, for all the years I have been working with them, is; they just work! Believe it or not, that’s the best part; they just work. No complex configuration, clean user experience and it all works!

Instead of me listing all the great features of this product, I highly recommend you crack open your iPad, go to the App Store and download it. Make sure to tell my friends at Colligo I said hello too!

SFSPUG – Introduction to Information Architecture

Bob Mixon — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:10:42 PDT

I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at the San Francisco SharePoint User Group last night. It was held at the Mindjet office, downtown San Francisco, and we had a great group of attendees.

I started the meeting by asking where they would like to start; An Intro to IA or IA Applied to SharePoint. They chose to start with an Introduction to Information Architecture; which I thought was great. There were so many fantastic questions, I wasn’t able to get through even a small amount of the presentation. Though this is somewhat common, I hope everyone felt I was able to add value!

I appreciate the group asking me to come speak and hope they invite me back. We have a lot to talk about and discover together!

For those who are interested, I have published a PDF version of the presentation here on my blog. I don’t have all the notes in the presentation complete yet, but I hope it helps someone. Let me know your thoughts.

SPMAD – Introduction to Information Architecture

Understanding Information Architecture – by Peter Morville

Bob Mixon — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:12:43 PST

Peter Morville created a movie/presentation describing the evolution of Information Architecture. Very well done Peter…

http://prezi.com/aafmvya6bk7t/understanding-information-architecture

DocRead – Reading Compliance for SharePoint

Bob Mixon — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:00:41 PST

Have you ever had the need for employees to confirm they have read a document? Such as an employee handbook or corporate policy? In the conventional paper model, this would be accomplished by printing the document or acknowledgement form, asking the employee to sign it then storing that signed document for future reference. In the SharePoint world, this can be accomplished by writing custom code or using workflow; storing the users credentials, date and time to an agreement list. I have personally developed these types of solutions in the past.

Just today I was made aware of a new product that will handle this business need for you. It’s called DocRead; by Collaboris. I haven’t personally used it yet; but I intend on looking at it, as a viable option, when I am presented with this type of business need in the future.

SharePoint Summit – May 14 – 16, 2012. Register NOW!

Bob Mixon — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:07:01 PST

SharePoint Summit 2012 will give you a 360 degree view of the bestpractices and methodologies you will need to plan, implement and managesuccessful SharePoint-based solutions that will help meet yourorganizations business needs and be adopted by your end users.

Conference sessions are structured to meet the needs of BusinessManagers, Information Architects, Project Managers, IT Managers, Developersand Power Users who wish to understand best practices for designing,building and implementing effective SharePoint-based solutions.

SharePoint Summit will be held in Toronto from May 14th toMay 16th, 2012.

SharePoint 2010 Passphrase Recovery

Bob Mixon — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:17:17 PST

I was asked today how to recover a SharePoint 2010 Passphrase. Unfortunately, there is no way to recover a Passphrase in SharePoint 2010. However, there is a very simple way to change it using PowerShell. Use the following PowerShell script to change your farm Passphrase.

Before running this on your server, you will need machine-level administration privileges.

$passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText –Force
You will be prompted to input a new passphrase. Once you have done so, input the following.
Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase –Confirm
Now you will be prompted to confirm your Phassphrase.

Remember, it’s always a good idea to document your Passphrase so you don’t have these types of issues in the future!

Upcoming Webinar – Enterprise Information Management with SharePoint 2010: Secrets to Success

Bob Mixon — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:54:57 PST

Tuesday, November 15, 2011
8:00 AM Pacific / 11:00 AM Eastern
4:00 PM London / 5:00 PM Paris

Managing records and information in an enterprise environment can be a challenge. Your solution needs to address documents, files, emails, and physical assets. Content must be readily accessible. Retention policies must be identified and met. With operational efficiency and regulatory compliance on the line, choosing the right technologies is critical. But how can you be sure?

Join Dan Vasey, Director of Records & Information Management at Fortune 500 cable operator, Charter Communications, as he shares the strategy, methods, and tools that enabled his organization to successfully deploy the Charter Online Information Network, an enterprise-wide SharePoint 2010 based solution for records and information management.

Dan will be joined by Ben Henderson, Solutions Specialist at Colligo Networks, who will discuss best practices for SharePoint email management and accessing SharePoint content offline. During this webinar, you’ll learn how to:

Simplify information management and streamline systems
Automate the compliance process, making it transparent to users
Drive enterprise commitment and end-user adoption
Integrate SharePoint with standard tools and processes
Link Outlook and SharePoint for email management

To learn how you can create a world-class SharePoint-based information management solution and drive efficiencies throughout your organization, register for this webinar today! Even if you can’t make the date (November 15, 8AM Pacific), register now and we’ll send you a link to the on-demand version following the webinar.