SharePoint Customisation and Development
SharePoint is an ideal portal solution, allowing businesses to provide access to data throughout an enterprise, whilst still ensuring full security and access level control. SharePoint also provides full search facilities, again with the strict access rules being applied. Collaboration between parts of the enterprise (as well as its suppliers and customers) is also enabled, so overall it offers much to any business today. However, such extended powers do come at a price, in that the system, while being relatively easy to use, does require careful handling, especially when attempting any development or customisation. So it makes sense to call in the experts when such things are being contemplated. Contemporary can help, providing you with full consultancy and training on all aspects of SharePoint Server installation, development and customisation.
SharePoint Web Parts
All portal solutions can be made to be rich in content but too much content, provided by just one piece of code is difficult to create and test and also difficult for the user to understand. Users need the power to be able to create the "view of the data" that they want and containing just the data they need for a specific task. Whilst this might seem to be unreachable from the IT viewpoint, it is with the advent of the "Web Part" totally providable.
Web Parts are relatively simple components that are used to build complex personalised pages. These "building blocks" can connect to each other, share data and even complement each other's behaviour. Together they offer an extensible, highly configurable platform allowing developers the ability to produce personalised pages whenever required.
Contemporary can provide both the consultancy and training required to enable your development team to make full use of the power that Web Parts and SharePoint 2007 offers your organisation.
Portal Integration with SharePoint 2007
Just part of the power that SharePoint imparts to an organisation is the ability to draw together, to integrate, many different websites and "mini portals" under one "Enterprise Portal". As with any project this must first be planned, the applications and data that are to be integrated selected and then of course implemented. This process of integration into the one portal is a complicated one and offers many chances to "get things wrong". Contemporary having planned and instigated many such portals, can provide your organisation with all the support it needs, therefore ensuring that your portal integration project is a total success.
Deploying Applications with SharePoint
The ease by which applications can be deployed through a corporate SharePoint portal, together with the ability to create workspaces, both personal and central, as well as "team sites" and "subsites" offer great savings in the IT area, whilst providing users with exactly the access they require. Yet again Contemporary has the experience to provide you with the support you require.
SharePoint - Permission Levels & Workflow Engines
In any business process the level of permission to access and alter data will vary from individual / team, which means that any IT enabled process must be able to mimic this requirement. There is also the need to be able to moderate the input of other individuals and to know who added or altered any information. Such processes today are often referred to as "workflow" processes. Where as the name suggests the job of work flows through an organisation, each area carrying out their allotted task. It is important however, that no one is able to alter that which they have no responsibility for and that senior persons can alter (via the moderation process) any item that is deemed to be incorrect.
SharePoint 2007 covers this area in depth, not only does it provide the different levels of access and editing permissions required, it also enables full collaboration between the different segments of the workflow "job". Further more, one task can trigger another, therefore making the whole workflow process dynamic, in that one part of the flow could trigger different requests and actions depending on the input made.
SharePoint therefore covers many needs that a modern business has today, but as ever careful planning and implementation is required. Therefore, if your organisation is considering implementing workflow procedures, Contemporary, with our years of experience, are sure to be able to assist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a portal?
A: A portal is a word to describe an internet, intranet and an extranet and commonly people now use the word portal to describe all these technologies.
Q: What can a portal do?
A: A portal can do many things, most commonly in the organisation's that we work with it will be the single place for information resources, so if you want to find information, or share information about anything in your organisation the portal will be the place to go.
Q: Can you give me an example of a portal project?
A: Yes, a portal project that we have been involved with over the past few years specifically was built and designed to address the requirements of this organisation, to cut bureaucracy, save ten thousand man hours a year and to improve communication around the organisation. So there were three main strategic objectives of the portal. The portal was designed and built and now handles a whole multitude of activities within that organisation. Content document management, sharing of information, accessing information for the users and pushing information to the outside world as well.
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