SharePoint Server

Manufacturing Trend: SharePoint for Manufacturers

By Jack Burnett

Microsoft SharePoint first launched in 2001, and has been associated with document management and collaboration.  Since then large manufacturers implemented SharePoint, most often when they needed to set up collaboration with all their plants.  Bundled "for free" with other Microsoft enterprise software, SharePoint mostly sat unused at small and mid-market manufacturers.

Lately however, manufacturers are discovering that SharePoint is actually a web technology platform, capable of being configured into business process integration and workflow automation solutions.   SharePoint is becoming the IT infrastructure for custom developed applications and third-party products, like Infor's Workspace.  With the latest version, SharePoint 2010, manufacturers are reducing IT costs and increasing productivity.

Three Levels of SharePoint Use in Manufacturing:

1. Company, plant, department and project team sites - Web portals for collaboration, document management and project management
2. Point Solutions - Internal business applications using SharePoint infrastructure with custom functionality for data management, reporting and distribution
3. Line-of-business application integration - Organizing ERP transactional data, sales and operations data, quality data and customer service data together in one place and adding work flow automation

Using SharePoint

SharePoint is becoming the preferred choice for project management, even for manufacturers that haven't standardized on other Microsoft platforms.  Without a collaboration system, employees exchange ideas and plans mostly through e-mail, which overloads inboxes and creates document versioning issues. Instead, project leaders use SharePoint to easily set up a portal where team members manage tasks, store documents and post status reports and news.  SharePoint also is the central repository for all the company policy, HR and other business documents.

A packaging manufacturer using SharePoint for managing documents saw SharePoint as a natural extension for IT business tools.  When the business needed to track operations performance on the shop floor and provide a quoting tool for sales, SharePoint was the technology platform for those two custom point solutions.  In three weeks, employees had the tools with better access to information in one system, increasing productivity and visibility of information.

A petrochemical industry service provider required its project teams to track their time following the business rules in its financial system.  A custom timesheet management application housed in SharePoint and integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP and ADP Payroll Services provides a familiar interface for employees.  The application formats and delivers the timesheet data to the Dynamics GP project accounting module.

Which SharePoint

SharePoint 2010 Foundation, Standard or Enterprise - At a glance, Foundation provides all of the base functionality, Standard adds the social elements, better search and advanced metadata functions, and Enterprise includes more advanced business intelligence and reporting.

For small and mid-market manufacturers the decision is simple - SharePoint 2010 Foundation.  This "free" edition contains all the core functionality and architecture drawn on by the other two commercial editions.

SharePoint Foundation includes document management and collaboration, wikis, discussion boards, blogs and the ability to organize data and control access.  It includes integrations with Microsoft Office, and a mobile interface.  It also includes all the Office Web Apps - web-based versions of the standard Office applications.  Most importantly, manufacturers have a web technology platform to quickly and cost-effectively implement internal business applications.

TwinEngines and SharePoint

At TwinEngines, SharePoint 2010 Foundation is our repository of all the information we want to share.  We use a custom project management template to easily create a web portal for each customer.  We track our project labor costs with a custom timesheet application tied to Dynamics GP for invoicing.

For our customers we have created .Net Windows application technology that is tried and tested over the past 15 years.  We have transitioned that proven .Net Windows platform to a web technology platform using SharePoint Foundation 2010.  Today there is still a place for each platform for manufacturers, but the line between them is blurring.

Our value is business process work flow automation, integrating data from ERP, MRP or financial systems into the SharePoint platform with custom development.  SharePoint Foundation provides a common interface for sales, operations, quality, customer service employees, and connects customers and partners to your business.

Bringing all internal manufacturing applications into one platform and providing a single view of data across ERP/financial, CRM and operations systems - including cost estimating, configurators, production scheduling, work order processing, inventory and shipping - enables manufacturers to be agile, effective and connected. 

Using the SharePoint technology platform, TwinEngines solutions enable more efficient operations and reduce your IT costs.

WSS 3.0 SQL Choices

By Michael Losapio

Looking to install Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 and don't have a few thousand dollars to throw down on the SQL Server 2008 Ultra-Mega-Hardcore Edition? Fear not, for it can be done on the cheap! Be sure to take a few things into consideration before performing your install, though...

Here are a few of your options we consider at TwinEngines:

Windows Internal Database - Probably the best option for the frugal administrator
Pros
1. No size restriction.
2. Free.

Cons
1. Must be single server installation.
2. No included database tools for administration (but you CAN use the 2005 Express Management Studio - Get it here!).
3. Doesn't allow remote connections out-of-the-box (takes additional after-the-fact configuration to allow for this).
4. Can't set up nightly SQL backups... will need to script an STSADM backup that will run nightly as a Scheduled Task. This is actually a good practice regardless of the SQL version you use...

SQL Server 2005 Standard or Enterprise
Pros
1. Mack-daddy database application
2. No size restriction.
3. Can be multi-server install.
4. Has tools for administration.
5. Can set up nightly SQL backups

Cons
1. Expensive.

SQL Server 2008 Express (not recommended)
Pros
1. Free
2. Can be multi-server install.
3. Has tools for administration (2005 Express Management Studio).

Cons
1. 4 GB limit (I'd say this is a dealbreaker).

Helpful links for SharePoint SQL Server:
Download SQL Server 2008 Express
Download SQL Server Management Studio Express
Administering your Windows Internal Database

SharePoint WSS or Office SharePoint Server 2007 - MOSS Standard or Enterprise

By Jack Burnett

I help small and mid-market companies solve business problems with IT-based solutions and improved processes.  As a Microsoft Gold Partner, TwinEngines has SharePoint technology as one of the tools in the toolbox.  So after the problem is understood and goals and objectives are finalized, we start defining and architecting the solution that is the right fit for the best value.  When that solution involves collaboration with employees, customers and vendors or business intelligence, then I reach into the toolbox for Microsoft SharePoint as an option.

Solely speaking from the technology perspective, this is where it gets confusing.  That's because we have to answer the question, "what Microsoft SharePoint technology is right for the solution and corporation?"  Is it Microsoft SharePoint Services?  Is it MOSS 2007 Standard Edition?  Is it MOSS 2007 Enterprise Edition?  What about Forms Sever or Search Server?  What are the costs involved?

Windows SharePoint Services, WSS, is a platform for building Web-based business applications.  It has administrative controls for managing storage and Web infrastructure providing a cost-effective way to implement and manage a high-performance collaboration environment. WSS is included in Windows Server 2003 and later versions. If you own Windows Server then you already have WSS.  Since there are no additional licensing costs, I look at WSS as the first choice when architecting a solution.

Office SharePoint Server 2007, MOSS 2007, extends the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services by providing organization and management tools, and by making it possible to publish information to the entire organization.  MOSS 2007 offers ready-to-go, enterprise-wide functionality for records management, search, workflows, portals, personalized sites, and more.  It has its own licensing costs.

There is a lot of information out there to explain SharePoint, because it can do so many things. In working with Microsoft over the years, I have discovered 3 links that help explain what is the right SharePoint technology and what are the costs:

1. Which SharePoint technology is right for you?

2. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Related Technologies pricing

3. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Licensing Model

At TwinEngines we bring in licensing specialists as part of our team.  We provide a complete picture of a solution in terms of strategy, technology, process and support.  We also show the short term and long term costs and ROI.  We look at business problems first, and pull out the SharPoint technology tool when we think it will help our customers achieve the goals and objectives, with the best return on investment.

The Importance of Website Content Management Software

By Jack Burnett

Working mostly with small and mid-market companies across the Southeast, we run across similar business challenges.  Some of these include:

• Increase Number of Sales
• Generate More Leads
• Market Products to a Wider Audience
• Increase Quality of Customer Service with Lower Cost
• Expand Business with Dealers and Manufacturing Representatives
• Corporate Web Presence that is Leaner, More Relevant and More Responsive to the Marketplace and Competition

Many times an eBusiness solution, a website or portal integrated to internal business systems is the most cost-effective answer.  To meet the business challenges above, the content management system (CMS) is the key component of the corporate website.  TwinEngines has expertise with two different CMS software to satisfy the breadth of content management needs and corporate cultures found in small companies to businesses with global operations and reach.  One is an open-source CMS and the other is a closed source system.  Here, open source means no license fees, but more importantly the source code is available for customization and extension. The vendor must make modifications in the closed source CMS.

Our focus is on the business needs and the business goals and objectives, when advising a custom website solution built with a content management system.  TwinEngines can tailor the web presence to meet varying levels of investment, and can provide a unique user experience online with a website that is the best fit and best value for small and mid-market companies.  Our approach keeps firms from falling into the trap of trying to fit their web presence goals into an out-of-the-box or hosted solution; perhaps even a website that they cannot change themselves. 

A custom website with a CMS empowers businesses to quickly respond to their competition and the marketplace.  The return on the investment is easily measured by website performance metrics, not to mention the opportunities and money saved by not relying on third parties to edit the website.

umbraco CMS

TwinEngines evaluated many open source content management solutions in 2008, and picked umbraco for the following reasons:

• Built on Microsoft's .Net technology. Being a Microsoft Gold Partner, a .Net open-source system allows our development team to easily and quickly extend the CMS to meet unique functional requirements. We have a tool-box of functions to simply plug into websites and to jump-start custom work.
• Umbraco does not have its own template engines, so we can easily add html templates purchased online or custom design templates from web graphic designers.
• Basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics are easily managed
• There is an active user community, support forums and documentation.
• In addition, there are commercial versions of the umbraco CMS that offers support plans and tools.

TwinEngines uses the base components, and if needed, quickly extends the umbraco CMS to fit any unique interactive functions. An example of this is our own TwinEngines website - built on the umbraco CMS early this year.  Our goal is to share knowledge with our community of customers, vendors, suppliers and friends in our Industry Insights section.   In addition to our newsletter, resources and information on events, we implemented a knowledge base blog to meet this goal.  We believe the blog is also a great way to draw people searching for information to 'find' our industry insights.  TwinEngines developers started with the umbraco blog, and quickly extended it to incorporate key SEO features and other administrative functions to make it easy to share information.  You can explore our blog at www.twinengines.com/knowledge-base.aspx.

Another example showing how TwinEngines extended the umbraco CMS, is the Horse-listing section in the Little Creek Quarter Horses website. Little Creek needed easy data entry and a custom display for the key characteristics of each horse including text, pictures, video and horse pedigrees. As horses are bought and sold at the Little Creek horse ranch, ranchers can easily update the list of horses without having to rely on any third party or html developer.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

While umbraco satisfies the content management needs for simple and complex websites, there are times when an enterprise content management (ECM), like Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, is required to manage web content and more.  ECM includes:

• Document management and imaging
• Web content management
• Records management
• Digital asset management
• Collaboration
• Business process management

SharePoint is considered a closed platform where the code is only modified by Microsoft, and there is an enterprise-like license fee.  SharePoint makes a lot of sense when a business wants to take advantage of the benefits of a common technology platform for their Intranet portal, their customer extranets and their public-facing website.  It also may be the right solution for multi-lingual websites, content publishing workflow approvals, and content heavy sites with auditing and compliance requirements. TwinEngines is an expert with the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server platform, and specifically the application of SharePoint technology for web content management. 

In addition to the expected CMS functions, the key benefits of SharePoint for web content management are:

• Publish Web content in a timely, controlled manner with integrated workflows
• Leverage Active Directory for user administration rights and permissions
• Multi-lingual websites
• Automated Content deployment methods to production websites
• Powerful search functionality

For ABM Industries, SharePoint is the common technology platform for development, administration and content management in their Intranet, Extranet and public website.  TwinEngines started with the out of the box building blocks in SharePoint and implemented a custom design for the ABM Industries website.  All forms engaging users to take action on the website use InfoPath, which allows integration to a third-party sales support system and workflows for processing requests. 

Different departments, leveraging the Active Directory accounts, update their own content, with approval workflows to ensure a consistent marketing message.  New features are routed from the development environment through a staging environment to the production site, with SharePoint deployment tools.  Because SharePoint is the common technology for IT and for front-line employees, the maintenance of the site and the content is accomplished with the same user interfaces and methods found in the company intranet.  This reduces IT support and content management costs, and provides a common environment where employees can quickly and easily get their jobs done.

Conclusion

While corporate websites will have different website designs, content and calls to action, the common thread to a successful web presence is the content management system.  With a content management system, businesses can realize the following benefits:

• Employ search engine optimization techniques as needed
• Use images and copy from off-line marketing efforts
• Empower marketing staff and reduce reliance on IT
• Reduce your cost to update content and products
• Easily deploy coupons, campaigns and promotions
• Support multi-lingual audiences
• Respond quickly to changes in your market and with competitors
• Ensure consistent branding on all pages in the website

Without a content management system for the website, a business risks an out of date, stale, irrelevant and possibly broken web presence for its customers and potential customers.  If a company is relying on a third party, then they are not in control to post updated content at some additional expense.  Either way, it is difficult to respond to the marketplace and search engines, resulting in missed opportunities for sales and leads.

If your website is static or customers cannot find you online, it may be time for a face-lift to the website that employs a content management system for you.  Call TwinEngines today for a free website evaluation, and we'll give you an objective view of where you are today and what improvements will help you achieve your business goals.

MOSS 2007 Search Configuration Tip

By Michael Losapio

Greetings, MOSS 2007 enthusiasts! Just wanted to share a quick tip about configuring search in the Shared Service Provider...

Here was the situation:
When setting up a client's MOSS 2007 environment, the server name was used for the main site collection's URL (server: SRV-MOSS, URL: http://SRV-MOSS). As you can see, this isn't the best URL for daily use, so the client requested a default alternate access mapping of http://portal. After making the change the the default access mapping, something happened - site-wide search continued to work, but searching "This Site" and "This List" no longer worked.

Here was the solution:
It turns out that when I'd configured the SSP's search content source, I'd used the http://SRV-MOSS URL for the URL to crawl. DO NOT DO THIS. For all searching to work properly, be certain that the URL you're crawling is identical to the default URL in your alternate access mappings.

Here were a couple helpful links that led me to my solution:
Microsoft TechNet Article
SharepointSearch.com

Hope this saves you some time!

Site Usage Reporting in SharePoint - WSS 3.0

By Michael Losapio

One of the neat features of WSS 3.0 is the new reporting capabilities. I'm going to go over enabling this usage reporting in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (note: this configuration is different if you're using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007).

First what you'll need to do is create a folder somewhere on your SharePoint server where the usage logs will reside. If you're super anal retentive like me, you'll probably have a small, dedicated partition just for logfiles - this is where you should put your new folder (name it something to the effect of WSSUsageLogs or SharePointUsageLogs). Be sure the ASPNET and Network Service account have full access to this folder.

Next you'll need to open up the Central Administration site on your SharePoint server (Start --> Administrative Tools --> SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration). Once open, click on the Operations tab. You should see a "Logging and Reporting" section on the Operations page, and under that a "Usage analysis process" link. Click on that link.

On the Usage Analysis Processing page, check the "Enable logging" checkbox, put in the path to the log folder you created, and set the "Number of log files to create:" to 1. Finally check the "Enable usage analysis processing" checkbox and set the Start and End times for the processing to occur - this should be non-peak hours, either before or after you run your SharePoint backups... you do back up your SharePoint site, right (If not, more on that soon!).

After setting up logging in the Central Administration, you can then view a site's usage report by visiting the site, clicking Site Actions, Site Settings, and then the "Site usage report" link on the Site Settings page (you must have administrative priviledges to do this). Once on the Site Usage Report page, you can view such nifty things as metrics showing the most-viewed pages/files as well as how often individual SharePoint users are visiting your site. Enjoy!

MOSS 2007 Upgrade

By Michael Losapio

I recently had the pleasure of updating a client's SharePoint Portal Server 2003 environment to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. If any of you have evern upgraded a SharePoint environment, you know that it's hit or miss - I've had some upgrades go without an issue, and I've had some that have resulted in hours of troubleshooting... I dare say I have even had to call Microsoft for their support on occcasion - every upgrade is different.

This particular upgrade went very smoothly, and below are a few pointers to follow to ensure yours does, too.

1. Take an inventory of your site collections, their sites, and their web parts. This will come in handy for testing after your upgrade is complete.

2. For custom web parts, be sure to find comparable web parts written in .NET 2.0 (this may mean custom development for those web parts written in-house). We have used Bamboo Solutions for many of our standard web parts (they have some excellent roll-up web parts available)... definitely check them out. <plug>Did I mention that we also develop custom web parts? Check us out, too.</plug>

3. Create an account in Active Directory that has administrative priveledges that you will use to run all MOSS 2007 related services as well as for database access.

4. When creating your MOSS 2007 databases, use a consistent naming convention on all databases... in other words, don't use all default names. This is what I typically use in my installs - feel free to use them.

• MOSS_MySite_Content - content database for the personalized sites.
• MOSS_WSS_Content - content database for all of your portal sites that was migrated/upgraded from the SPS 2003 environment.
• MOSS_SharePoint_Config - config database for the Central Administration site.
• MOSS_SSP_Content - the content database for the sites associated with the Shared Service Provider.
• MOSS_SSP_DB - this is the config database for your Shared Service Provider.
• MOSS_SSP_SEARCH_DB - search database that stores the indexed content from the Shared Service Provider content sites.
• MOSS_WSS_SEARCH - search database that stores the indexed content from the portal sites.

4. Pay attention to the PreScan and research any warnings and definitely errors. A little leg-work up-front can keep you from spending many hours troubleshooting an unsuccessful upgrade.

5. Back up every SPS 2003 database in case of catastrophe.

6. Use the Database Migration method if at all possible... The In-Place and Gradual upgrades are incredibly risky due to their being performed on live data. The Database Migration method allows both SPS 2003 and MOSS 2007 environments to run side-by-side so comparisons can be made between the two.

7. If using the Database Migration method, set your SPS 2003 content database to Read Only after running the PreScan (setting it to Read Only before the PreScan will cause the PreScan to fail). This allows users to still view their SPS 2003 sites and keeps them from adding/updating content in your live envinroment as you perform the upgrade.

8. After the upgrade is complete, check each of the sites that you inventoried in tip #1, paying close attention to the security settings in each - MOSS 2007 will upgrade the Security Groups you had in your SPS 2003 environment, but verify your users have the appropriate access to their sites.

As I stated before, every upgrade is different - if you customized your SPS 2003 environment, you may hit a few snags but following my tips will keep you organized, prepared for disaster recovery, and help lead you to a successful upgrade.

Death and Digital Property

By Jack Burnett

What happens to your digital property when you pass away?  A morbid topic, I know; but it is a growing question people have to consider with the plethora of online accounts, email addresses, Facebook pages, and other social media information we all have on the Internet.  It was the topic of an NPR radio program involving LegacyLocker.com, a new website where you can store login credentials and inform relatives what should be done with your online assets.  That's right, there is a company that will safely secure your digital property and allow access to your loved ones.  So when you are gone - but not forgotten - you can ensure that the persons you want access to your emails has it.

This has become an issue elevated to national radio coverage because wills typically do not protect your digital assets, and most web sites have little or no provisions for a friend or relative to transfer the account information.  After listening to the program, I considered all the logins to banks, brokers, service providers, my Facebook page, LinkedIn account, Twitter conversations, my photos and music stored online, etc.  I'm not sure I need LegacyLocker yet, but I do realize that I need to plan, collect, organize and secure this information.

Then I considered the small and mid-market companies I work with on a daily basis.  Typically these are family-owned and operated, sometimes with online personal and business accounts co-mingled and serving dual purposes.  What happens when the company founder or owner leaves this earth?  Does the progression plan include access to the company Facebook page or LinkedIn account?  Is the login to a partner's co-branded online service in a secure place or would you need access to their email account to get the forgotten password?  Is there one place where accounts and login credentials to online assests are stored; if so, how is it protected?

At TwinEngines, we built our company Intranet on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server platform.  Besides being our repository for HR information, company work documents and our knowlegbase to support our business, we have created a  place to keep account information for our vendors, suppliers, partners and our social media sites.  Our customer extranet built on the same SharePoint technology, stores information about each customer and the services we provide.  All this information is secured with login access tied to our Active Directory accounts, and backed up nightly as part of our database backup process.  So as employees come and go or change job positions, we manage our Active Directoy network accounts and access to company digital assests as part of our new employee orientation, termination and job transfer processes.  Access to our digital assets stored in SharePoint are protected without any other special efforts.

Are your company's digital assets protected when key employees leave for another company or pass away?  It's not a pleasant thought, but one that has to be considered.  Do you have a plan, and what technology do you have to store information that is safe and secure?  Fortunately, the technology piece to the puzzle may be closer than you think. A lot of small and mid-market companies do not realize that they own Microsoft SharePoint already, since it is bundled with their Microsoft Server software.  For larger companies SharePoint is included with their enterprise agreement with Microsoft.   Read more information about SharePoint here.