Free Webinar - Top 10 reasons to Upgrade to SharePoint 2010

March 04, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (Eastern Time)

(Approximately 60 Minutes Long)

i3solutions is one of only two partners from the DC Metro Region selected for the Technology Acceleration Program (TAP) for SharePoint 2010. In June 2009 i3solutions was invited to send our developers to Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond to work with the SharePoint product team on an early release of the new version of SharePoint.

This advanced experience has given our consultants the opportunity to develop an intelligent understanding of the new SharePoint 2010 environment and more effective methods for designing solutions that capitalize on the benefits offered by this product. SharePoint 2010 builds on the successes of features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 with innovative new advances in metadata management, faceted searching, and social networking that will enhance information sharing and collaboration in organizations across multiple sectors.

Join i3solutions as we explore the top 10 reasons to upgrade to SharePoint 2010!


Thursday, March 04, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (Eastern Time)

Register Now!

New Blog series started on PMIS

Just released the 1st part to a 6 part series on building a PMIS in SharePoint - Check it out

http://bit.ly/14cNjV

Free Webinar: Combating a Weak Economy With Strong Proposals

Transform SharePoint into a Platform that Manages Performance and Increases your Win Rate

Is your proposal team agile and able to rapidly respond to the changing market? Are you winning all the opportunities you should be? Are you bidding the proposals you should be? Are you producing proposals at a fast enough pace and to a strong degree of quality?

If not, you might be facing tough issues like:
• Managers spending too much time coordinating assignments and chasing down documents
• Documents are stored in multiple locations everywhere • You do not know which is the latest version
• Content is duplicated and often rewritten each time
• Content is out of date, no longer relevant, and used over and over again

Ready to have the ability to organize, monitor and manage individual proposals and the proposal process?

i3solutions SharePoint Proposal Resource Center Solution provides individual sites for collaboration on each proposal, as well as the ability to build dashboards that present information across all your proposal efforts!
Ready to have a proposal process that coordinates and interfaces with you line of business applications? The i3solutions SharePoint Proposal Resource Center has helped organizations decrease their turnaround time for proposals, eliminate redundant work, and increase your win rates.

The solution is built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to provide a central repository for all proposal related documents and to establish a collaborative forum in which to create, track and modify proposals.

Join i3solutions as we explore how to utilize SharePoint to create a dynamic and robust Proposal Resource Center!

Where:
Online Web Seminar

When:
August 7th at 1 PM (EST)

Go here to Register

SharePoint 2010 Test Drive

Today I got a chance to test drive the SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010. There are a ton of new features and functions. I wanted to take a few minutes and tell you about some of them

SharePoint 2010 http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx A new SharePoint 2010 sneak peak…and the new Overview Video by Tom Rizzo.


“Value Pillars”
This is the central pitch around SP2010
Connect and Empower People
Heavily pushing on multiple devices: multiple Browers (IE, Safari, Firefox); mobile

Cut Costs with a Unified Infrastructure
One platform with multiple solutions

Rapidly Respond to Business Needs
Quickly skin SharePoint and “mash it up” business processes

Nicest new features in my opinion

After takeing it for a spin and playing with the features here are the ones that I liked and saw good potential in impacting a Project Managers world:

• Live Editing of text on page in Office 2007
  This is a critical factor in document creation and collaboration! Imagine that I am working on a Costing document in SharePoint. I open it up and start working. Meanwhile Steve the BA on my project opens it up and starts working. Each section of the document I work on is locked and Steve can see it visually (green bracket with my name associated with it). As Steve changes items those sections are locked to me. At anytime that is good for me I can sync this changes with a simple click of a button. It is cleaner – nicer and not forced (it does not interrupt me with prompts or other distractions!) I did it in Word and powerPoint
  
• Content Controls
  This allows me to go into a document and create SharePoint Tasks directly in the document. When they complete the task and attach the created document. SharePoint takes the task document and integrates it into my document. So imagine if you will that I am writing an Costing document that is sensitive in nature. I have section that requires a person outside my team to write a blurb. I can assign the task and not have to give them access to the document itself. This is very powerful! I can also kick off workflows with content controls.
  
• Visio web integration
  Now I create a process diagram and use it visually show the progress to the user on the diagram – without the need for the user to have Visio and it can pull data from LOB apps or SharePoint
  
• Upload images as content is seamless
  No more upload to a picture library then add to a webapart – do it all in one step
  
• Browser Support for Firefox and Safari
  I saw no difference
  
• Office Ribbon everywhere!
  All the apps including SharePoint now have the ribbon. Easy access to commands and functions that are relevant
  
• Nicer BDC integration (now BCS business catalog service)
  Read – Write Easier management
  
• Clientless web version of Office
  Acconding to the keynote speach at the partner conference all windows live accounts will have access to use the web version of Office 2010
  

More to come Later!
Linc

An introduction to the PRC Template

This is my Proposal Resource Template for WSS 3.0

You can download the template by registering at HTTP://www.i3solutions.com/prc

This template is not meant to be the end all - be all PRC. My intention was to show some of the things that you can do with SharePoint and Proposal Management. This is a starting point The template is using the one site to manage multiple proposals style for several reasons.

1. It is a good starting point for most organizations that are just getting started


2. I wanted a template that was easy to install and use
   

Once again a Special thanks to EndUser SharePoint and Path to SharePoint Blogs for providing great material and concepts used in the template.

Some of the features added to this template are:

Expanding / Collapsing Left Navigation

Tabbed Navigation, Google Charts and Print Web Part Functions

A Series of Dashboard Pages for common KPIs (generated with google charts) based on the RFP Request and Task Lists

The RFP Workspace Tab
This Area is intended to be the main working area for managing all the Active Proposals. The area allows you to have a simple dashboard using HTML calculated columns to provide a quick overview of all the proposals.

The lists

• RFP Requests
  
  This list is used to enter in new RFPs that are being worked on. I have extended the columns to collect more information on the proposals

You can also relate the RFP to the Documents that are for the RFP using the RFP documents look up field

• Tasks – A standard SharePoint Task List that has been extended with a look up to the RFP Request Lists - Used to create the tasks that are necessary to complete the RFPs – each is associated with a RFP
  


• Vendors, Announcements, Links - standard SharePoint Lists
  

The Document Libraries

• Request Documents – Extended to add a reference to the RFP Request List – this is where you put the RFP originals and addendums
  


• Past Performance – Standard Document library for storing your past performance documents
  


• Proposal Templates - Standard Document library for storing RFP templates, example sections, guidance and help files
  


• Resumes - Standard Document library for storing employee and contractor resumes
  


• Statements of Work – used to store SOW that you create for your subcontractors
  


• Proposals - Extended to add a reference to the RFP Request List – This is the working and final Proposal storage area
  


• Views – This stores all the custom and dashboard pages.
  

Update from the National APMP Conference.
I have met some exciting people out here in Arizona and the topics are excellent.
We have released the Proposal Resource Center Template and it is being received well. There is lots of excitement about it.

Here are some preview images for people to look at. I will be posting a link for the general public to download the template next week.

The template was built for Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0. It uses Google Charts and Jquerry for the functions. Special thanks to EndUser SharePoint and Path to SharePoint Blogs for providing great material and concepts used in the template.

More to follow!

Linc

Off to the National APMP Conference today! In Phoenix AZ

Off to the national APMP conference today! In Phoenix AZ

I will provide one or two updates on the conference while I am there and some full posts when I get back!

For those of you interested in a single site proposal mangement solution I am currently developing a single site template that will provide rich features to get you started.
Pictures will be posted at my blog later this week

I will be unveiling this at the National Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) conference in Phoenix AZ this week. It will be available for download shortly thereafter!