SharePoint

SharePoint Integration With Microsoft Flow

When it comes to electronic technology programs have come a long way.  This is no truer that if you can remember the first offerings from both Microsoft and Apple that contained the kernels of the programs that they have nurtured and raised until today these programs are feature rich and basically indispensable to a huge range of companies which include the top level of fortune 500 companies.

These feature-rich applications complete each of their functions amazing and now we are beginning to see some of these moves into partnership status with other programs.  An example would be Microsoft’s Excel that does a magical role by itself but is now teamed up with Microsoft Access as a completely integrated system with Excel providing front-end data solutions and Access tying into the backend to have its database capabilities further manipulate that data.

It is in this type of application marriage that we see Microsoft’s SharePoint now beginning more closely aligned with Microsoft Flow, an application that on its own does a great job but becomes a stronger tool when used as a backend to SharePoint.

What Is SharePoint?

SharePoint is Microsoft’s document management and collaboration program that combines an intranet platform to allow documents to be better managed in a number of circumstances.  For example, documents are much more easily located, shared, updated and much more.  It allows companies to compile and regulate documents and many other pieces of the companies document structure while having the ability to disseminate this information across multiple platforms such as the internet, extranet, and intranet sites.  It also allows large organizations to partition those information areas that belong to specific company areas, such as assigning the HR department security closed to allow those documents that solely relate to HR or where the organization ownership resides.  In other words, its purpose is to align with documents while Excel is to align with numeracy.

What is Microsoft Flow?

Microsoft Flow or just Flow is one of the newer applications that Microsoft has made available to handle a completely different range of functions with documents and even snippets of documents.  Flow, as its name suggests allows you to streamline a range of functions through self-created automation which is easily handled by its clever graphical interface.  In other words, it picks up a lot of the corporate heavy lifting once documents have made their way into and through the stages of SharePoint.

For example, one of the very cool features for Flow is that your designed workflow can integrate with a large range of third-party applications that are specialized for various communication styles.  Think Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many more.  If your company has a use for Twillo, then this can be added to your content outgoings.  Dropbox, outlook, Google Calendars and more are now a part of your range of tools.  For users of Go To Meetings, RSS and Gmail, each of these are also third-party services that integrate into the endpoint.  In fact, there are 295 of these services that you can have Flow interact with to get your messages out faster and further than ever before.

SharePoint And Flow Integrated

I truly hope that you are excited enough about future possibilities when the integration between SharePoint document management front end and Flows integrated delivery and architectural creative options available for your future campaigns.  While it may take corporations some time to truly grasp the power of this integration, in time this will become an invaluable tool to them and those team members responsible for the inner workings and training of companies in how to squeeze the most from this marriage will be in a position to sell their knowledge and talents for a very good income, that is how powerful I believe that the integration can become in time.

If I think back to the beginning of this article and refer to the initial offerings of Microsoft and Apple as startups, you can see from Microsoft’s perspective that continuing to invest and grow and better define each of their business offerings has now led them to the next stages of development.  What more can come from the coupling of these once great standalone programs?

I expect that the answer to that will be in the take up from a business perspective and once more companies are using, the types of user-based inquiries and suggestions that will fall out from the natural usage of these tools.  In the meantime, Microsoft is working hard behind closed doors to roll out its next technical conquests.  We know that they are currently devoting resources to AI interfaces such as Cortana extended capabilities and one can only imagine that it will tie more of their offerings together with an enhanced AI range of functionality across each of their platforms.  The future is truly exciting.

SharePoint

SharePoint CRM Information

Why would a person need SharePoint CRM or Office 365? Many clients and website owners are searching for SharePoint CRM systems that will offer a variety of solution approaches in the market. The majority of these people will want their SharePoint CRM to already be running on Office 365. They have heard about the easy and smooth integration of existing data, workflows, and processes.

A key advantage when using these platforms is Single Sign On. This unique integration provides a corporate active directory. The good news for clients and website owners is that this platform already exists and will not require any additional investments so as to have a base for a CRM new business app.

It should be noted that CRM is quite difficult to build from scratch because of its many complexities. If you are trying to construct a direct competitor such as Salesforce, SAP CRM, Microsoft Dynamics, for a CRM system then the headline must be right. However, this is something that most people will not want to do from scratch.

When you look at the average customer you will discover that their CRM processes will typically consist of a few simple business objects that have a master detail relation. The more complex processes will require some sort of permission and workflow. Even the highly sophisticated ones require flexibility so that they can offer adequate creation processes. For anyone who is using it for campaigns it should be noted that the requirements for a smooth integration with some newspapers, campaign providers, or emails can be extremely limited.

You will find a repetitive pattern in the majority of CRM systems. SharePoint lists will require standard business objects that are represented in a SharePoint content type. Some of the basic objects that you will require for CRM and for SharePoint include lists of accounts, contacts, activities, opportunities, and campaigns.

In the account column you will need the content types prospects, customers, and suppliers. In the contacts column you will need the content types executives and employees. In the activities column you will need the content types note, calendar item, email, and activity. In the opportunities column you will need the content types forecast, offer, opportunity, and lead. In the campaigns column you will need the content types email, print, newsletter, and email.

There are two reasons why you will require different content types. The first reason is if you require a lifecycle on data such as with the example, prospect to customer. The second reason is if there are different attributes for any content variance such as activity or calendar item. By having different content types in a list it will allow the user to navigate data very easily. It will also allow the user to create various search scenarios that make it simple to navigate data.

For example, let’s say you are searching for sales opportunities but you are not exactly sure if what you find is a sales opportunity, an offer, somebody’s forecast, or a lead. When you use content types you can simply search in Opportunities and this will provide you with all relevant matches. Each of the items displayed will only be relevant data for your search.

Another feature to this type of approach is that you will now be able to create various lookups between the content types for all relations. Since a contact is normally bound to an account, you will benefit by having a lookup field for any of the accounts in the contact list. You can repeat this for any relation that is logical and beneficial for your particular scenario.

Now that you have created a data model it is time to think about the next step. The next step will be about how you view your data. You will need various views for certain scenarios such as inactive data, active data, my data, all data, export – import data, compact data, and detail data.

As you create these various views you will soon realize that you also need some kind of logic or status attributes for all of the lists. This will allow you to create a content column on your website. You will be able to reuse this process in any of the content types that you have created. This basically means that everything will be copied to every content type and also every list.

The most challenging part of designing the user interface is if you do not use any tools. Tools will help you to build a pattern which will allow you to do a variety of things such as navigate to detail views that has context of the data and to display overviews of the data. A context basically means that a detailed view of an account should normally display account details. However, it should also display activities, opportunities, contacts, and so forth.

If you decide to make it easier when designing the user interface it is simply a matter of getting help with a visual low code solution tool. For example, you can use K2 Appit or BPA Solution Builder. If you want to remain with Microsoft technology then you can utilize Power Apps. You can also start to create your CRM interface with any of the various Search Display Templates, Visual Studio, or try one of the more elegant, future orientated approaches that are available by means of Add-ins.

With an Add-in you will be able to build virtually any application that is hosted on any web platform. You can use this application in your Office 365, SharePoint, or Office for a seamless integration. This is perhaps the most elegant way to use a Microsoft ecosystem as you develop an application with modern and slim technologies such as AngularJS, node.js, or any of the others.

Finding the best and most efficient way to help a user with SharePoint CRM and to easily navigate a system, present data, or to display only relevant information is much more of a challenge than simply the technical implementation.

SharePoint

A Guide to Using SharePoint

A Guide to Using Sharepoint

Sharepoint is a powerful server-based platform that allows businesses to share documents between different applications. If someone wanted to be cynical, then they could say that SharePoint is essentially a website that is hosted under Microsoft branding, but that is no longer a truly honest explanation. There is more to SharePoint than that.

SharePoint offers the appearance of a single destination for information that can then be accessed by other partners and customers, but there’s more to it than that. It’s a single source for information, yes, but it provides more ways to access it, and it provides good user access control, to ensure that only the right people get access to the documents on the platform. The challenge is not so much that using SharePoint is difficult, but that the platform has yet to carve out a clear niche, so while people understand how to use it, they often wonder why their office is not just using a Dropbox installation or Office 365 to achieve much the same goals.

Using SharePoint to Share Files and Information

Files in SharePoint are shared using the Document Library, the reason that SharePoint is often thought of as a CMS is because of the Document Library. This library is a network-accessible location which acts as a portal for accessing documents. Microsoft wants to move people towards using OneDrive for simple document sharing, and OneDrive for business is slowly adding the main features that people turn to SharePoint for.

Portals

The main reason to use SharePoint is for Portals. These are a set of tools that allow developers and designers to make portals, which can host, share and index multimedia content. The ease with which portals can be deployed by power users is a valuable part of SharePoint.

SharePoint and the Enterprise Search Centre

The Enterprise Search Center feature was added to SharePoint in 2007, and while it is still going strong it may well be retired in favour of Delve, which is the new name for what was originally codenamed Oslo. Delve offers a number of useful features to improve search. The Office Graph functionality, for example, offers a rich set of associations. The ESC offers some powerful features as well – searches can be conducted to cover both the web and on-premise, and a newly developed hybrid index will offer both sets of results, saving time and offering improved details in search.

Content Management

As the Office 365 brand is taking over a lot of what makes SharePoint popular, there are some features that are remaining squarely in SharePoint territory, one such feature is that of the content management system and the Business Intelligence tools. Office 365 is attempting to secure itself as the service for content and for core customer-facing functions, while SharePoint’s Business Intelligence will be the main reason to use it. SharePoint is focusing on an on-premises Server Edition, and with rapid releases and constant itterations, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the system.

 

SharePoint

SharePoint Corporate Training

The Best Way to Receive SharePoint Training

If you are considering receiving Microsoft SharePoint training, you may have a few questions about it. You might be wondering where to get this training, what you can expect to learn, the benefits of it and how to go about choosing a course. If you are, then read on because we’ll go over all of these things, as well as provide you with other useful information. By the end of this article, you can go ahead and look into receiving training.

Where To Receive Training

There are a number of ways to receive training, such as going to a seminar or online. There are some community colleges in NYC that offer courses in SharePoint, but the best way to receive training is online. There are many benefits of learning about SharePoint via an online course and some of these benefits will be discussed in the next section. However, it is up to you as to which method you decide to use to receive training.

Benefits Of SharePoint Training Online

There are a number of advantages of learning about SharePoint online instead of going in person to learn. For starters, it is far more convenient. You don’t have to go to actual classes, as you just need a mobile device and you’re good to go. However, it might be easier to use a tablet, laptop or desktop computer when it comes to learning SharePoint.

Instead of trying to teach yourself, you can take an online course and learn faster. By receiving training from experts at using SharePoint, you can rest assure you will learn quickly. In fact, you’ll learn a lot faster by doing this.

Finally, you can learn from anywhere. It doesn’t matter where you are, you can access course materials. You will love learning about SharePoint while you’re on the go.

What You Can Expect To Learn

For starters, you’ll learn how exactly SharePoint can help you collaborate with others in the office or in some other kind of work environment. If you’re new to SharePoint, you can take a beginner’s course that will teach you the very basics of the program. By the end of the course, you’ll have a basic understanding of how to use it and then you’ll be prepared to learn advanced aspects of SharePoint.

You’ll learn all about using SharePoint apps, as well as the benefits of using those apps. Another thing you’ll learn will be customizing apps, as well as how to connect specific lists to Microsoft Outlook. By taking an online course in SharePoint, you will find out how to make the most of the apps, and you’ll learn how to check-out when you are co-authoring, as well as how to check-in and how to use the feature and much more.

Choosing A Course

When it comes to finding a place that offers training in SharePoint, you don’t want to go with the first one you come across. You want to compare several courses and find out what’s exactly included in each course. Some courses are more extensive than other courses, and you want to choose the one that offers an extensive learning experience.

Also, find out what materials are given out. Some courses may provide you with physical materials, but many will only include online content. If this is the case, then make sure you know what kind of content is included in the course.

Finally, read reviews on the courses you’re researching. You don’t want to choose a SharePoint course that has a bunch of negative reviews. The more positive reviews a course has, the better the course will likely be.

Cost

As for how much it costs to receive training, this depends in various factors. However, price shouldn’t be the sole determining factor in choosing a training course. Nonetheless, you do want to consider the price of a course and compare the prices of several SharePoint courses before making a final decision.

Make sure you choose the right SharePoint training course by keeping the above tips and advice in mind. Whether you’re new to SharePoint or still new at it, you can benefit from receiving training. With that said, all you have to do now is choose a course and before you know it you will be on your way to becoming an expert at using SharePoint.

Training - Business Cloud Integration
SharePoint

5 Reasons to Use Microsoft SharePoint in Your Business

Now that you have acquired Office 365 and you are ready to get the most out of it, you are presented with the reality that it’s way too complicated to customize without professional training. It can be overwhelming to navigate with this powerful platform that you sometimes think of not using it at all. To make the most out of it, you can either put months and months of professional training in learning on your own, or you can hire a Microsoft, SharePoint consultant. If you are starting to contemplate the above, here are the following reasons why you should use Microsoft SharePoint in your business.

1. Always remember that SharePoint is not dropbox
The Microsoft SharePoint platform (part of MS Office 365)is nowhere near Dropbox. Do not think of it as just a file-sharing site. The main purpose of Dropbox is to store and share files on any devices while the Microsoft SharePoint is already an ecosystem that helps in solving various process issues in a company. It also helps in enhancing the collaboration within your system, not just storage for all your files and documents. Microsoft SharePoint has been in use for over ten years now and for most people it may be too complex system to learn on their own, but once you have the environment built and customized, you will realize it is an extremely powerful to that will cut costs and streamline your company.

2. SharePoint is On-premise AND Online (cloud based) solution for all businesses
Another misconception that you should avoid thinking is that Microsoft SharePoint is only for small businesses. Since it was introduced into the market way back in 2001, it is considered as just an on-premise solution to all types of businesses, most of them are large-scale organizations. In 2011, the Microsoft bundled the SharePoint to the Office 365 cloud offering, and now small businesses and even non-profit organizations can afford it.
What you must keep in mind, is that SharePoint is not a plug and play solution. Once you have started using it, you must incorporate it into your system and introduce it to your employees. It may take some time to integrate into staff daily workflow, but when it is fully implemented, the company efficiency success that comes from it is endless.

3. SharePoint requires structured use
The Microsoft SharePoint is not just simply transferring your files, sharing the URL to your workers, and hoping that it would work for you. Always remember that it will require your full-time attention. SharePoint can be as simple as a file folder or as complex as an airplane. You need to get to know the complicated machinery before you are ready to fly. When you first navigate this tool, you might think it doesn’t make sense, and it’s too hard to use. It is at first glance. That’s why you must invest your time in studying and optimizing the tool. Or, as what we’ve mentioned above, you can hire a Microsoft SharePoint consultant who specializes in using this tool properly and help you improve your business, saving you from lots of headaches later on.

4. It requires a long-term strategy
One wrong move in SharePoint and you can ruin your environment. Hence, it is important that you develop a long-term strategy before anything else. In that way, you can rest assured that the tool can help you grow your business. Start from the scratch by learning all necessary information such as metadata configuration, permissions setup, external sharing, site navigation and the like. It will help you a lot in the long run.

Consider the factors above when it comes to Microsoft SharePoint. It could make or break your company’s strategy. If you want to experience the benefits that it can offer, you can hire a Microsoft SharePoint consultant instead. Inquire now!