There were some new things from vendors that really stood out, quite apart from the high quality of the event itself.

Enovapoint – these guys have an amazing natural language processing interface to SP (called Emma), that lets you ‘ask’ for things from SharePoint via email or an App (Android and iOS). So you could send an email to the Emma service saying “What are my outstanding tasks”, or “Create a new policy called Diabetes Monitoring”, or “Book a car for tomorrow”. Have a look at this list: http://www.enovapoint.com/SiteAssets/SitePages/default/Things-Emma-Can-do-for-you-v2.pdf

They also have a neat document creation interface (JungleDoc) that automatically creates new documents (from templates), with metadata pulled from an existing document – so you could create a new follow up letter which grabs all the address details, prices, report names name etc from a previous proposal, with a single click. It also doesn’t require you to go to the library where the document needs to be created for this, you can have a ‘Create documents’ link which fires a browser overlay with the document actions on it.

http://www.enovapoint.com/

I’m so impressed I’m going to look at using it in house.

Lightning Tools have some nice components that I haven’t explored before:

• Social squared – A very good discussion list/forum solution, with emailing, awards for posting (‘gratification’) drives user adoption and other neat features.
• Meta Man – a tool for easy integration between SharePoint and other systems without having to write code (uses BCS but let’s mortals like me do clever integration things). I watched it generate the code for a full integration in seconds, something our in house experts would have taken hours to craft.
• Deliver Point – Permissions management across the whole farm. Allows power users to have the right to assign permissions locally (so a Project Manager could manage rights for his team) without having to go through IT (or you), but without being able to set permissions outside the project area, for example. It can also allow an Admin to be able to assign permissions without having access to the content itself (so useful for confidential document, HR records etc). It has reporting that SP can’t natively support, such as who has access to an item of content, all the areas and items a specific person has access to, etc.
• Lightning Conductor– This is very powerful, acting as a super Content Query web part (which is another part of SharePoint that power users can rarely get to do what they want). This includes the ability to aggregate tasks and content for individuals:
  • Roll up/aggregation across site collections, lists, web apps etc
  • build views without writing XSLT
  • Dynamic, user personable filters.
  • Built in XSL styles for Calendars (any number and across site collections), Posts, Announcements.

Infragistics are continuing to develop SharePlus, which is an App for iOS and Android (I use it on my Android phone for mobile access to our intranet). They have an Enterprise version which doesn’t have to be installed via the Apple Appstore, supports branding, offline, encryption etc. Well worth a look for mobile users, iPad users etc.

http://www.shareplusapp.com/

Vizit have some great technology for instant document viewing in SharePoint (with in-library and in-search document thumbnails), plus the ability to add notes to content without altering it. These notes are great for collaboration, for annotating PDFs on the fly in SP etc. We already supply this to some of our clients for use with clinical documents.

http://www.vizit.com/

Avepoint‘s DocAve 6 suite is looking very good and we continue to recommend it to all our clients wanting to do more sophisticated platform management and governance. We have had great success with previous versions for migration (from file shares, old versions of SharePoint etc), granular recovery, connections to legacy content repositories (often file shares again) and more.

http://www.avepoint.com/docave6/

If you want to know more about any of this let us know, we are keen to help.

Lastly a big thanks to Combined Knowledge and their excellent team for a great event.

“Transforming NHS Governance processes using simple, quick to deploy and proven solutions”

We are delighted to hold this one in conjunction with AvePoint in their central London office which is conveniently located in Farringdon.

Two NHS speakers from the London region will demonstrate how they are using leading edge capabilities in SharePoint to address the separate needs of Information Governance and Clinical Governance (especially CQC). Further details on the organisations involved and speakers can be found on the downloadable agenda.

If you are responsible for managing and controlling Governance processes in the NHS and you would like to see how SharePoint can be easily used to put you fully in the driving seat, please sign up here to guarantee your place at this free seminar.

My reaction to this type of ‘journalism’ is fairly scathing. My measured response is that the example in the video is neither a fair test since the unsuspecting suspect was given no guidance at all on what to expect, nor is it exactly a statistical sample. There was not even a baseline of sitting other equally ‘ordinary’ user in front of Windows XP, 7, OS X, Android, iOS etc.
The accusation, of course, is that Windows 8 isn’t intuitive and that it’s different to the previous version. As they say on the other side of the pond “Well, Duh!”

Of course it’s different – that’s the point, it now includes touch elements and a new interface.

Of course it isn’t intuitive – no man-machine interface is.

The first few times I used OS X I had no clue what was going on; it’s completely non-intuitive until you know how it’s supposed to work. Pinch to zoom? Mouse driven interface – how I laughed at people the first time they used one. These interactions are generally great when you are shown, but has no relation to how things work in the physical world. Even real world device interactions are learned rather than intuitive – we turn things clockwise (screwdrivers, can openers, door handles) because we have been shown and learned, not because it’s obvious.

I love Windows 7, but the first time I used it I had to learn what the subtle changes were compared to Vista, XP, NT, 95, 3.1 and DOS. When I laid my hands on Windows 8 I was initially confused; it’s like every other OS: the paradigms and models of interaction need to be exposed first. But once you understand them the physicality of the interaction is lovely. When I showed Windows 8 to my teenage daughter she had it cracked in about 3 minutes – much faster than I did. Whatever that tells us…

I do have reservations about Windows 8 on the desktop. Obviously the touch elements are largely irrelevant. It’s not clear what role the Metro interface plays as desktop use patterns are different to mobile device ones. Desktop devices are left powered up most of the day, usually with several applications always open. In this case one rarely passes through Metro and the absence of the Windows Start menu is a shock. However if I ignore my Start Button preconditioning (and I remember how heavily that was criticised when it was introduced) and simply treat Metro as a really big and powerful Start Menu then it’s not so bad. I wouldn’t leave it open any more than I would leave the current Start Menu open, but as an application launcher it’s pretty good. I prefer the Win7 Windows Key, type approach for combined search and launch, but I’m a power user. I expect the nice big tiles, with colour coding, size, placement and imagers cues, to be easier for ordinary users to look through than the Start Button menu. It’s not that Windows 8 is bad, it seems to be at least as good as Windows 7, but the improvement is not compelling so far.

On a slate the experience is different again. In fact it’s pretty good and when they have more Metro apps I can see me mostly using Metro and only dropping into the standard desktop occasionally for power user stuff. The transition from Metro to Windows is a little jarring, but not as bad as being dumped into a command line. Treat it as a hierarchy:

• Metro – quick, simple, visually appealing, focused on single applications. For ‘process workers’
• Windows Desktop – Powerful, flexible, visually interesting, focused on multitasking. For power users and ‘knowledge workers’
• Command Line/Powershell – Extremely powerful, arcane, visually repulsive, focused on ‘under the hood’ processes. For ‘propeller heads’

Windows 8 provides an extensible OS – as you need more power you step down through the levels and expose the next level of capability and complexity. But no one forces you down that path if you want to stay simple and focused.

It’s great for home users in this regard. It’s good for power users. Nevertheless I can’t see corporates adopting it any time soon.

The theme focussed on how SharePoint intranets can underpin transformational change in a trust by radically improving the way that data is managed and flows around the organisation.

Simon Hudson opened up with an overview of what was possible on our Hadron platform with an emphasis on speed to implementation, proven capability and the improvements in productivity and efficiency that are possible. 

Robert Grimes and Scott Mullett then presented on the new Bradford District Care Trust intranet and their journey through development to implementation. Scott focussed in particular on the sickness absence and annual leave solutions that had been developed.

Taran Sohal presented on how Cloud2 solutions are being increasingly used for managing audit and governance requirements including, CQC, IG, NHSLA and Board Risk Assurance.

Our third NHS speaker, Paul Fearnley from Blackpool teaching hospitals rounded off the case study presentations with a great talk on how their new SharePoint intranet is delivering many benefits and especially around forms and processes for New Starters and eDischarges.

The whole day was lively and interactive and in addition to normal feedback on the event we were very grateful to our participants for providing answers to several questions relating to organisational efficiency and productivity which we are happy to share as below.

These results are broadly in line with our findings from other recent events and show that there are still great opportunities for productivity improvements in NHS trusts.

 And graphical views of the data:

A full enterprise intranet, based on the leading Hadron SA solution, developed for Office 365/SharePoint Online.

Hadron 365 provides a rich, information architecture driven intranet, supporting departmental, team and project collaboration; full document creation, publication and management; Business Intelligence; Enterprise Search and more.

Hadron 365 provides support for geographically diverse organisations, mobile and flexible working, stakeholder and partner extranet scenarios and more.

Hadron includes full SharePoint features for document management, collaboration, approvals, content creation and publication.

It includes many embedded applications, templates and ‘widgets’ to ensure the immediate needs of an organisation are met for day to day administration, content storage and sharing, business processes etc. It also allows new applications to be rapidly built as new business needs are identified.

Hadron 365 is extremely quick to deploy and go live, letting organsations establish their intranet in weeks rather than months.

Further services can be obtained or internal teams used to extend the initial configuration.

These libraries are created for documents and other attachments to a publishing page, as is the system image library, and is not intended for hands on maangement of content.

We advise that you always design and configure specific libraries for user accessible content, complete with appropriate metadata, content types and views. These can then be exposed through web aprts and links in a site. That way you get a well considered information architecture, with appropriate permissions and you don;t compromise the way SharePoint is trying to do things.

Also you should always give these new libraries a suitable description, we often start the description with “SAVE your ??? documents here”, obviously replacing ??? with a brief description of the content to be stored. That way it is easy for users to pick out the user accessible libraries when saving from Word etc.

Finally, when creating new libraries (and sites etc), start by naming them with no spaces in the name; then go back a rename them however you like. This avoids the %20% code you get in URLs.

e.g. ProjectDocuments, then go to library settings and rename to Project Documents would give you a nice url such as: http://portal.cloud2.co.uk/projects/ProjectDocuments.aspx rather than http://portal.cloud2.co.uk/projects/Project%20%Documents.aspx

Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 are now almost 10 years old and will be reaching end of support in April 2014 in accordance with Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle policy. We want to help youavoid the risk of running an unsupported version of Windows & Office, and to assist with your IT planning for 2012. The purpose of this letter, which is based on the standard one Microsoft is sending to clients worldwide, is to highlight the potential risks involved with the upcoming end of support of these products and to outline the options available to mitigate these risks.

What are the implications and what is the potential risk?

Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 will no longer be supported from April 8, 2014 onwards. After this date, Microsoft will not provide any public support for these products, including security patches, non-security hotfixes or incident support.

Running Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 in your environment after their end of support date may expose your organisation to potential risks, such as:

• Security & Compliance Risks – Unsupported and unpatched environments are vulnerable to security risks. This may result in an officially recognized control failure by an internal  or external audit body, leading to suspension of certifications, and/or public notification of the organization’s inability to maintain its systems and customer information.

• Lack of Independent Software Vendor (ISV) & Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Support – A recent industry report from Gartner Research suggests “many independent software vendors (ISVs) are unlikely to support new versions of applications on Windows XP in 2011; in 2012, it will become common“.
  Gartner Research further notes that most PC hardware OEMs will stop supporting Windows XP on the majority of their new PC models in 2012.

See Creating a Timeline for Deploying Windows 7 and Eliminating Windows XP SP3, June 2011.

What are the available options?

• Migration – This option affords customers the best return on investment by deploying a modern PC with Windows 7 Enterprise and Office 2010. Moving to a PC with Windows 7 Enterprise and Office 2010 offers your organisation the ability to improve productivity for your employees and increase operational efficiency through improved PC security and management.
• Purchase a Custom Support contract through Premier Support to stay on unsupported products – If, for any reason, you decide to remain on Windows XP SP3 or Office 2003 after support ends, you have the option to purchase Custom Support. As a condition of buying a Custom Support contract, you must have a Premier Support agreement and we ask our customers to have a migration plan in place. The cost of Custom Support is significantly higher than regular support, and rises annually due to the rising costs of supporting a legacy product.
• Do nothing – Microsoft recommends customers avoid this option for it can put you at risk of potential  security and compliance issues.

Where can you find more information?

Full details on Microsoft product support lifecycle is available at: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle

Full details on end of support for Windows XP and Office 2003 is available at: www.microsoft.com/endofsupport

Full details on Microsoft Premier Support are available at: http://www.microsoft.com/microsoftservices/en/us/support_premier.aspx

Full details on Microsoft deployment guidance, training and free deployment tools for your IT Professionals at: www.microsoft.com/springboard

If you need assistance or advice please let us know. We have experience with helping trusts migrate and we can put you in touch with trusts that have successfully completed this.

We can also advise on the options associated with Office 365 where this might provide an alternative to your current licence approach.

With kind regards,

Simon Hudson

Cloud2

One of the things we struggled with for a while was how to add photographs to our O365 profiles (all sorted now).  Most of us already had nice photographs in our Skype profiles and I was struck, when using Lync, by how much less involving it felt before we worked out how to add pictures to it.  Then it dawned on me…  I couldn’t see the person I was talking to.  Even though it was just a static picture the absence or presence of it made a big difference to how I felt, how engaged in the conversation I remained and whether I became distracted and tried to do other things instead of listening.

It’s only a little thing, but this small personal picture made it about the person and not the technology.  When there is no picture my mind wanders; when the picture is there so, in my sub-conscious, is the person.

I noticed the same thing on my mobile phone; integration with LinkedIn and Facebook means that at least half of my contacts in my contact list have pictures of the people concerned.  I can find those people much more quickly when I need to call them as a consequence and interact with them more strongly when I’m using my mobile.

Simon Hudson

Human beings are programmed genetically to be brilliant at face recognition; activities involving faces engage the deeper, older parts of our brains.  Last week I re-tweeted a comment from the good chaps at Bliss-Systems “User interfaces need to be intuitive because, like words and sentences, people don’t really read them.” On reflection there is more to it than this, user interfaces need to engage people at a primal level not just at the cognitive level; they need to make it feel like we’re interacting with a person not a machine; they need to provide visual cues and social touch points that make it feel like we are interacting with people.

So… make it about people, not tech. We have added pictures all over our solutions now. Personalisation means more than we realise…