Workflow Development "From the Consulting Trenches" There has been a complete update to SharePoint 2013 ’s workflow capabilities and overall workflow architecture, as shown in image below, with new features as well as the underlying workflow engine itself receiving a major overhaul
Once upon a time, Melissa, while pondering the use of SharePoint, asked the question, “Does it have workflow?” Her teacher answered, “Since workflow, defined in your case as the ability to move information through an organization so that a series of activities can be performed to accomplish an overall goal, the answer is yes.” Melissa smiled and asked politely, “Is is suitable for all types of workflow?” Her teacher responded, “Let me explain how I see it being used
Overview of Office 365, SharePoint Online and My Data A major area of concern about Office 365 is the lack of understanding about how and where the data itself is stored and what proactive measures are being taken to ensure that your data is safe
Windows Workflow Foundation 4 is hosted in the new Workflow Manager Client, as shown in the diagram below, and is built on the messaging functionality of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). For you to be able to perform development activities in SharePoint 2013 , Office 365 and/or SharePoint Online and Microsoft Azure , there are core technologies and tools you must have available as detailed below: SharePoint 2013 Development Environment: Visual Studio 2013 and tools Microsoft Office 2013 Professional An Office 365 Developer Site Windows Azure SDK and tools: High-level overview of SharePoint 2013 Workflow and the W orkflow Manager Workflow activities, which are implementations of activity classes and are implemented declaratively by using XAML (e.g. Extensible Application Markup Language), represent the underlying managed objects that drive the overall workflow behavior. Workflow actions, which are defined by the author of the workflow, are wrappers that encapsulate the underlying activities and they are easily reviewable in SharePoint Designer 2013
Standardize your IT infrastructure companywide (databases, software, ERP systems, document management systems like SharePoint, CRMs like Microsoft Dynamics, desktops …) Get your paper documents digitized in a structured way so that you can easily incorporate them into digital workflows. Standardizing your IT infrastructure is nothing we can help you with but when it comes to getting your documents digitized we certainly can – you don not even have to standardize your fleet of multifunctional printers, scanners or copiers
" Keeping it straightforward is the name of the game here and when also talking in a "Custom Application or true AppDev situation for a Business Intelligence or Workflow related type efforts, this will help the "technical business analysts" who have to be able to work with the business and translate "business speak" into "technical speak" and an improved overall application development lifecycle and related end user testing or UAT prior to go live with any small bug fixes or updates. From an overall Information Architecture as well as underlying System Architecture Governance perspective, this will help project teams and organizations draw the "line in the sand" in conversations regarding Out-of-the-box SharePoint 2013 \ Office 365 | SharePoint Online capabilities and what they may understand as a true App or something they may have seen in their browser editing an Excel document via an Office Web App (or of course a custom .NET App that may have been "home grown" over time). -- Just a day after Microsoft launched its OneDrive cloud storage to replace SkyDrive , the tech giant has announced plans to rebrand its Office Web Apps to Office online
Security Governance Best Practices for SharePoint 2013 & Office 365 | SharePoint Online EPC Group understands that security has never been a hotter topic in IT, but in most cases, even though it is being discussed by members of the organization and dominates a good deal of technology news coverage, it is still often not properly addressed in many SharePoint deployments
EPC Group’s Hybrid Governance Framework Step 1 – Understand what to Enforce Step 2 – Balance the enforcement Step 3 – How and where to enforce Step 4 – Prioritize the enforcement solutions Step 5 – Continue to Review and Enforce When and What to Enforce - EPC Group Framework Governance Feature Enforce Nothing Enforce Something Enforce Everything PII Policy Document (‘here’s our policy on exposing PII’) Monthly Audit (manual or physical ; random or comprehensive) Automated Audit on Upload Site Quota No Quotas or Suggested Quotas Tiered Options; business rules Chargeback model Site Creation Training on Where it Goes IT creates for you Fully automated with workflow Site Expiration At owner discretion Manual email sent to site owners asking.. Automated notification/expiration based on business rules Site Removal Up to owner IT manually removes/archives Automated deletion/archival based on business rules / workflow What to Enforce – What is the Balance (EPC Group Framework Example) Governance Feature Enforce Nothing Enforce Something Enforce Everything Site Templates Let users pick from laundry list Limit list of templates Automatically pick site template based on business rules Metadata / Document Classification Users pick metadata columns & manually enter metadata Document Library templates and managed metadata Automated metadata population ; automated business rule enforcement Site Classification Governance Document Site Label (i.e. HBI/MBI/LBI) Automated site placement based on user input & verification Mission Critical Classification Governance Document IT manually creates site in “special” environment Automated site placement bin redundant data-center based on user input & verification Enforcement Scope – How to Enforce (EPC Group Example) Governance Provisioning Tools (EPC Group Example) Object in SharePoint 2013 and/or Office 365 Automatable Create Site Collections Create Sub Webs Create Hierarchy Available on Office 365 People | My Sites | Social ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Web Parts | Apps ✓ ✓ List Templates (STP and XML) ✓ ✓ Web Templates (WSP and XML) ✓ ✓ ✓ Site Quotas ✓ ✓ Web Event Receivers ✓ ✓ ✓ SPD Workflows and Actions ✓ ✓ ✓ * ✓ Feature Stapling ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ * Workflows ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Site Definitions ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Timer Jobs ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Custom Site Provisioning Handlers ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Matching the Policy to the Office 365 and/or SharePoint 2013 Scope (EPC Group Example) Policy Type Scope Possible Options Security\ Identity Management Farm Web Application Provisioning workflows Timer Jobs Web application polices DNS/Infrastructure Reactive reporting Farm Web Application Sites/Webs Timer Jobs External Database Event Receivers Proactive Sites/Webs Custom Forms Event Receivers Feature Receivers Custom Field Controls Auditing Farm Web Application Timer Jobs External Database Changes Sites/Web Features Control Delegates Considerations in Complex Environments • Multi-tenancy ( Office 365 Issues when a user goes outside of I.T. to create a new “environment”) • Multiple farms • Hybrid on-premise and off-premise • Security (FBA, SAML claims, Extranets) • Global Clients with PHI, PII, Safe Harbor, Intellectual Property , EU Pushback, NSA Concerns in recent news Frequently Asked Questions of EPC Group • Terms of Service • Common user interface and navigation • Site directory and Office 365 and/or SharePoint 2013 ’s new Layout • Common header and footer content (standardize and creation of governed branding guide) • Structured provisioning with workflow • Site Mapping | Mapping the Owner to Content • BYOD \ "Bring Your Own Device" Strategies (Mobility) • Custom Branding | Responsive Design in Office 365 \ SharePoint 2013 • Site Backup and Restore (DR) and Archival EPC Group’s Nationally Recognized Practice Areas EPC Group leading SharePoint , Office 365 , Infrastructure Design and Business Intelligence Practice areas continue to lead the way in providing our clients with the most up-to-date and relevant information that is tailored to their individual business and functional needs. Additional "From the Consulting Trenches" strategies and methodologies are covered in EPC Group's new book, " SharePoint 2013 Field Guide: Advice from the Consulting Trenches" covering not only SharePoint 2013, Office 365 and SharePoint Online but Information Management, ECM\RM and overall compliance strategies in this ever changing world of " Hybrid IT
I was in the midst of research around BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) when I saw fellow AIIM SharePoint blogger Rich Blank’s post on Microsoft’s online services offerings and thought, I guess the push to BPOS has started
Deep-Dive of Search in SharePoint 2013, Office 365 and SharePoint Online "From the Trenches" In this article, I will cover key service applications and services that power SharePoint 2013, 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
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