The Secret to Planning SharePoint 2013 or Office 365’s Taxonomy and Navigation
It is important to keep in mind that there is no single path or magic bullet to developing a best practices Information Architecture (IA), but rather core guiding principles will ensure that your overall design is implemented in a structured manner that will accomplish your current business needs as well as have the ability to […]
Understanding On-Premises, Cloud, & Hybrid Environments in SharePoint 2013 & Office 365
The on-premises versus cloud environment debate about SharePoint started several years ago. That debate became much more heated when Jared Spataro, Director of SharePoint at Microsoft, announced during a conference that SharePoint 2013 was being developed using a “Cloud First” strategy and that Office 365 customers could expect to have access to the benefits of the new release sooner than on-premises […]
Developing and Implementing Your SharePoint 2013 and/or Office 365 Roadmap
SharePoint will more than likely grow in content and user requests at a much faster pace than planned. It is critical to have your SharePoint 2013 support model and defined processes in place for managing end-user requests in the early stages of your SharePoint initiative. Initial Roadmap Questions – Examples of Sample Questions from EPC […]
Deep-Dive of Search in SharePoint 2013, Office 365 and SharePoint Online
In this blog post, EPC Group’s Sr. Search Architects will cover the key service applications and services that power , Office 365 and SharePoint Online’s search to enable your organization’s data to easily be found on-demand as well to enable the accuracy of your search results. SharePoint 2013’s search applications and related services are as follows: ? SharePoint Server Search […]
Core Records Management Features in SharePoint 2013 & Office 365
In the article, I will provide details of the records management (RM) capabilities available within SharePoint Server 2013 as well as Office 365 | SharePoint Online from over 50 projects implemented by EPC Group over the past year. It is key to ensure you have a deep understanding of the licensing model and capabilities available to you and your organization so that you […]
My Sites in SharePoint 2013, Office 365 and SharePoint Online
The My Site social architecture in SharePoint 2013, as shown in the figure below, has undergone several major updates and the “personal site” (My Site) as it is now being technically referenced, drives a great deal of the overall social technologies and experience in this new release. The My Site drives the aggregation of the way […]
SharePoint 2013 & Office 365 APIs & Development Options for Accessing Data
SharePoint 2013’s APIs allow apps, as well as other elements, to connect and integrate with SharePoint’s core features. EPC Group’s development teams use APIs, as shown in the image below, provide apps their ability to view content or integrate with a workflow or even perform searches. For example, if you were developing an app for a […]
A Business Intelligence (BI) Deep-dive into SharePoint 2013
Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities in SharePoint 2013 are vast and in many cases are achieved with a combination of SharePoint and Microsoft Office or SharePoint and SQL Server’s capabilities. I have worked with a variety of organizations in presenting SharePoint 2013‘s BI capabilities and have found that it is best done by showing examples rather than […]
What is a SharePoint “Private Cloud”
To first describe and baseline a “private cloud deployment, the following items and elements will typically be considered and implemented: Hosting SharePoint as infrastructure for a specific or a combination of workloads such as: o Enterprise Search o Application Platform for Line-of-Business (LOB) application o Business Intelligence Implementations o Collaboration, community and/or project sites o Internet […]
ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT & RECORDS MANAGEMENT: SHAREPOINT 2013
SharePoint Server 2013, and its Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and/or Records Management (RM) capabilities, continues to be recognized as an enterprise platform leader and in the magic quadrant that many organizations look for when measuring the capabilities of a technology platform.ECM and RM efforts have also one of the biggest pushes for SharePoint 2013 initiatives as organizations […]
Office 365 Consulting Services – Industry Leading Strategies
EPC Group’s Office 365 consulting and management services provide for a tailored and time-tested approach to ensuring your organization’s implementation is a success. Whether you are looking to move away from an existing SharePoint or another on-premise collaboration platform into a new Office 365 environment or in need of a proven partner for consulting services […]
Defining Your Organization’s Office 365 and/or SharePoint Vision and Mission Statement
A common question that EPC Group receives from our clients or potential clients is around how best they should define their organization’s Office 365 and/or SharePoint vision and related vission statement for these powerful platforms. Related posts: Scalability Planning in Your SharePoint 2013 & Office 365 Roadmap Developing and Implementing Your SharePoint 2013 and/or Office 365 Roadmap Building a […]
SharePoint 2010 or 2013 Roles, Responsibilities & Support Policies from a SharePoint Consulting Perspective
The purpose of this article is to share EPC Group’s consulting experience to standardize the nomenclature and define the responsibility of individuals who participate in SharePoint 2010/2013 projects, support and users of the overall SharePoint Enterprise Ecosystem. This is a great template to utilizes and keep in mind when thinking about your organization as a […]
SharePoint Problem & Change Management Procedures Governance – Consulting Best Practices Example
I. Introduction The purpose of this example “document” from EPC Group is to define the procedures used to manage SharePoint 2010 / 2013 support requests, assign resources to those requests, and implement solutions to those requests, as well as provide ongoing support to ensure reliability and availability of information systems. These procedures apply to all […]
Managing Your Current SharePoint 2010 Initiative with 2013 in Mind
With the SharePoint Server 2013 Preview being released yesterday there are a lot of organizations who are currently involved in large SharePoint 2010 deployments who are wondering how best they can adjust or minimize any system architecture or information architecture changes as well as governance updates to their current initiative. I have had the pleasure […]
Best Practices for SharePoint Cultural Change Management – From the SharePoint Consulting Trenches
Introduction It is not unusual for those implementing SharePoint 2010 to experience a fair amount of change and conflict as part of their deployment process. Other than e-mail, no other product that you will implement will have as wide or personal “touch and feel” as SharePoint 2010 if you intend to implement this product in […]