SPTechCon: Where You Should Have Been on Feb. 7

SPTechCon, a SharePoint convention designed for professionals, managers, analysts, and developers, was a great opportunity to learn, and it was our honor to be present there. Didn't make it to the San Francisco event earlier this month? In addition to missing out on an opportunity to visit with representatives from SharePoint Engine, your favorite SharePoint consulting group, those who didn't make it to lost an opportunity to learn a lot of incredible things, attend some valuable workshop, and hear addresses from some industry leaders. Here's a brief rundown:

Keynote speeches from Jared Spataro, the Director of Microsoft Office's SharePoint Server division. His speech covered ways to maximize your investment in SharePoint. Spataro drew on his nearly five years of experience working directly at Microsoft, in addition to lengthy related experience prior to that. A second keynote speech was given by Joel Oleson, the Senior Product Manager of Quest Software, who discussed some bad examples of SharePoint deployments and the most commonly found worst practices.

A huge array of other talks and lectures were also given, including speeches from names like Owen Allen, Marc Anderson, Robert Bogue, Chris Beckett, Christian Buckley, Michael Doyle, Randy Drisgill, Jeff Fried, Ruven Gotz, Steve Hansen, Brian Jackett, Scott Jamison, Jennifer Mason, John Ross, Laura Rogers, Paul Swider, and dozens of others.

Attendees could also participate in a number of classes and workshops, which included instructions on expanding the developer toolbox, strategic considerations in SharePoint migration, best practices, controlling ad hoc deployments, common ways that workflow breaks down, major case studies for SharePoint, how to go into offline space, using fixed query searches, advanced document management, and more.

Are you drooling with eagerness yet? Don't worry. Since SPTechCon happens twice yearly, you can catch it in Boston this June. You can also visit us at several conferences in the meantime, including the AIIM Expo on March 21st, where we will be discussing the benefits of SharePoint consulting. Stop by and chat for a minute! We're glad to say hello.

Thanks,

The SharePoint Engine Team

SharePoint in Explosive Growth

Users of the SharePoint platform, and especially those of us in the SharePoint consulting industry, are already fully aware of how powerful the system can be. However, SharePoint 2010 has been spreading like wildfire in other circles as well, seeing major growth over the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011.

According to a report from the "Global 360" survey group, deployments of the SharePoint platform have increased by 500% over the course of just six months. Commenting on the study, the SVP of Global 360 stated that "When organizations need to support complex, mission-critical processes they turn to enterprise business process management tools," such as SharePoint. As one of the most heavily developed, customizable, and effective ECMs on the market, SharePoint has been the primary platform of interest for companies, whether small business or enterprise level in scale.

The success of SharePoint certainly isn't the only item contributing to Microsoft's current strength in the market, with Windows 7 showing vast improvements over Vista, Bing steadily growing in search share, and the upcoming Windows 8 focusing on the world of mobility. However, the ECM platform is also one of the key reasons that Microsoft has seen approximately a 5% improvement in stock price in the first quarter of 2011.

If you're looking to see what's drawn users to this platform, or if you're trying to make the most out of your existing SharePoint deployment, consider SharePoint consulting. These services will help you adapt  the platform to your company's needs. You can contact SharePoint Engine today at (877) 368-7207.

The Super Bowl is a time for celebration and mourning (depending on the outcome) for football fans, but it's also an enjoyable past-time for those with less athletic interest. After all, the game is so packed with humorous advertisements that even those who fail to understand the rules of football can enjoy a large segment of the airing time.

This year, a variety of technology ads made their way to the scene, including several data management and technology clips. The following is one of the more entertaining pieces:



Beyond catering to the usual addiction to celebrity cameos (and with quite an oddly mixed pair, with Ozzie Ozbourn and Justin Bieber), the advertisement makes a point about modern technology: it moves fast. There's no guarantee that what you invest in now will be standard in a couple years.

While Best Buy has a solution for those buying devices, it's not so simple when it comes to enterprise content management solutions. For precisely that reason, it's important that you invest in SharePoint consulting. By doing so, you will ensure that your framework is built in an expandable way, catering to your business now and in the future. Too often, companies focus on the immediate needs while disregarding the company's upcoming decade.

Technology has many iterations, and your company will have many versions too. To keep up with the swiftly moving cusp of technology, it's important that you construct your technological interface in coordination with your desired growth. SharePoint is an excellent starting point, and with appropriate consultation and customization, this powerful Microsoft tool can serve you company's needs for many years to come — even through "Bieber 6G Mania."