Microsoft SharePoint Server (SharePoint) 2010 is the latest release of this powerful technology for managing information, collaboration and communication across an organisation.
SharePoint 2010 builds on the previous, hugely successful release to add both significant improvements to the editor interface for improved creation and management of content, but also adds a raft of new features and functions to enable better, broader and more complete access for all types of information.
In combination with Office 2010, the stage is set for SharePoint to dramatically change the way ‘Knowledge Workers’ interact with their computer systems. The grand vision of everything being possible through the browser is here, with the browser poised to replace the Windows desktop.
Cloud2 was part of the technical adoption programme for SharePoint 2010 and have specialised knowledge and experience in delivering complete SharePoint 2010 solutions into the NHS and other health sector organisations.
We have redeveloped our highly successful Solution Accelerator to use 2010 technology to provide a rapid and effective way of implementing high performance trust intranets, including NHS specific document management, collaboration and business intelligence.
We are also able to build full applications within SharePoint, replacing the need to develop such applications separately in .NET of java.
We can assist with integrating existing web based applications and with migrating Excel and Access tools into a SharePoint environment where they can be extended, shared and governed.
Top new features of SharePoint 2010 for NHS trusts:
Application Platform
SharePoint 2010 allows rich applications to be built fully within SharePoint, including 2 way interactions with databases and with legacy systems. The intranet becomes the application portal, gathering together all web and desktop applications for a consistent and more integrated user experience. The need to launch separate applications is largely eliminated and existing applications can be embedded and enriched using SharePoint features.
Application Portal
SharePoint 2010 provides “Business Connectivity Services” – an enhancement from the BDC in 2007 - enabling full, 2 way interactions with other systems. This allows the creation of portals that display information and data from multiple backend/legacy systems in one SharePoint page or site. It is now possible to interact with these applications, writing data back to them and so creating far more efficient user applications and workflows. For example the clinical team can view the data about a specific patient from the EHR, PAS and bed management system on a single screen and update elements of these as things change, all from the intranet portal. Meanwhile the finance team may be interacting with the general ledger, estates management system and payroll without leaving the intranet.
Collaboration
Collaboration has always been a key feature of SharePoint. With the addition of Office 2010 it is now possible to have multiple users editing the same document in real time. The need to check a document out to prevent overlapping changes can be eliminated and teams can each be working on their own part of a single document in parallel, aware of the edits of others, and without conflict. The new SharePoint Workspace, plus Outlook integration, allows better, secure working when disconnected. Documents, calendars, contacts and libraries can still be synchronised with Outlook, however whole sites can now be taken offline into SharePoint Workspace, which provides a local version of a site or application for offline working. Naturally changes synchronise back to the SharePoint portal when a connection is available.
Business Intelligence
PerformancePoint, the enterprise class business intelligence tool, is now an integral part of SharePoint in the form of PerformancePoint services. Also Project Gemini – now named PowerPivot, delivers highly sophisticated cubing and analysis to end users directly through Excel and SharePoint without the need for IT departments to build discrete queries, cubes etc.
Microsoft Access migration
Most NHS trusts have large numbers of Access databases. These are often built with the best intentions and provide important business capabilities to the teams involved, yet they present a governance and management challenge that IT departments, informatics managers and the governance team will be very familiar with. In SharePoint 2007 it was possible to publish an Access database to SharePoint and have the Access tables be converted to shareable SharePoint lists, but the business logic, forms and reports continued to reside in Access. In 2010, publishing to SharePoint converts the forms and reports as well, so that entire applications can be migrated from Access to SharePoint. Once in SharePoint these applications provide:
- Improved ability to share data driven applications
- Visibility and governance of applications
- Removed dependence on the Access client – browser based interaction with forms and reports
- Centralisation and normalisation of data sources across multiple, previously isolated applications
- Exposure of data tables for collaborative updates, integration with other tools etc
- Enhancement of the application using SharePoint features
Improved UI
The ribbon interface, introduced in Office 2007, has now been incorporated into SharePoint to provide more fluid and intuitive editing, content management, site development etc. In addition, SharePoint pages, lists and web parts now have extensive AJAX use to provide a fluid editing experience without the need to refresh pages between editing actions. All this makes for a much more efficient and intuitive user experience, especially for content editors.
