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Let employees change their Active Directory Info w/o Admin intervention

What is Sharepoint AD Self Service?

Here's a scenario:

Keeping track of employee records is important. Information has to be handled by Human Resources (HR) as it is private information. Most managers do not have access to these files unless it’s very important.

Another scenario would be that HR might fail to mention the manager that employee info has been changed OR managers are busy to notice the employee-info has been modified.

Close coordination to be made between manager, HR and employee – which need constant update and can get frustrating – as confirmation and validation of this information is made back and forth that it can become inefficient.

What’s worse, payroll signed and approved might be sent to the former address instead of the new one.

To illustrate the course of this flow:

Employee Changes Address

Employee notifies HR

HR sends request to IT for change

IT processes request

IT executes the change

Change approved and applied

With the help of Sharepoint AD Self Service, administrators give permission to users to change their own information without IT intervention. Changes are logged and can be tracked by the administrator.

And when changes are made, employee files an AD file, and a notice will be automatically sent to notify HR. Lastly, there would be no responsibility conflict.

To illustrate the use of Sharepoint AD Self Service:

Employee changes address

Employee executes change himself through Sharepoint AD Self Service

2a. HR is notified

This post actually goes hand in hand with my 2 of my previous posts. We are rolling out solutions for companies with specific needs. This would be part of Solutions for IT Helpdesk – to make IT workflow smoother and organized.

Sharepoint Password Change

Sharepoint AD Administration

Watch this space for more information about Solutions for IT Helpdesk. Go to Sharepointboost for more information! Cheers!

#sharepoint #sharepoint ad self service #sharepoint active directory #active directory #sharepoint self service #change password sharepoint #password change sharepoint #microsoft #Microsoft Sharepoint

Delegating authority to selected users on Sharepoint AD Administration

Most companies have a password policy, and it is usually scheduled every 60 days for password change. The new password change should be different, not to mention the complexity it requires.

Decrease workload by delegating tasks evenly to responsible managers. Sharepoint AD Administration provides system administrator authority but with limited abilities to create, edit, rename, and/or delete OUs and AD properties. Assigned individuals also have the capability to reset passwords, create and manage users and groups, and edit AD progiles from within a predefined Organizational Unit.

Usual password change flow looks like this, in 4 steps:

And on some times, some employees forget the current password as even 60 days sounds like a long time, in fact it’s quite often for a password change. So on some instances, password change would be in a rush that they actually forget which password is used for the change.

With Sharepoint AD Administration:

· Managers can delegate the right to reset the password to IT Help Desk team.

· If a user forgets his password, IT Help Desk will be able to support and reset password without manager’s intervention

Lastly, this saves time without frustrating waiting from IT or managers processing password reset requests.

To know more about Sharepoint AD Administration, check out Sharepointboost!

#sharepoint #sharepoint active directory #sharepoint AD administration #microsoft sharepoint #sharepointboost #active directory #password change

#Sharepointboost now on #Twitter

Quite hard working in a GFW as virtually everything here is blocked. So I hope whatever I post here on tumblr gets re-posted to twitter.

We're on the verge of releasing another product. Hopefully within this month or early next month.

Hmm...now if I can re-post this to wordpress, then I think I'd be blogging on tumblr full-time!

#sharepoint #sharepoint twitter #twitter #wordpress

The biggest complaints about Sharepoint?

As this is a Developers Site, let's talk development:

Insane Development Requirements: You must have a Windows 2003/2008 Server as your Workstation, you really should be local Administrator on it. (Yes, there is a Workaround to Install Sharepoint on Vista, but that's not officially supported. And no, I do not consider "Develop on a Workstation and Upload your code to the test server" an alternative.)

SPWeb/SPSite.Dispose - You usually dispose, except if you don't. And if you dispose when you should not, bad things happen. Unfortunately, it is not really clear when to dispose and when not, there are a variety of Edge-Cases

Debugging/Error Logging. No comment on that, i'm too busy walking through the logfile to write my complaints in detail

Solution Deployment. The Creation of the .xml Files is not really well documented and .ddf Files feel like it's 1993.

Documentation, or more the lack of. What does SPSchedule.EndMinute actually DO? Will it forcefully end a running job? Most of the MSDN Documentation is incomplete or plain unhelpful.

CAML. ARGH! Look at this example of a simple CAML-OR Query. This abomination of "SQL for Sharepoint" is complicated, unintuitive, error-prone, and if you are doing it wrong, you get helpful error messages like "Cannot complete this action"

And one not development related issue:

Backup/Restore. Try backing up the entire farm, including the Configuration Database. Ok, backing up is easy. Now, try to restore it...

Microsoft calls Sharepoint "A maturing Product", which essentially means: It does do a LOT of things really well on the end-user side, but on the Developer and Sysadmin side, I think I have thrown more profanity at Microsoft than on any other company in history... And given the fact that Sharepoint is so expensive, I had expected a bit more from a product that first launched in 2001...

But overall, I think I'm happy with it, because as long as you use Internet Explorer and Office 2007, it offers a really neat and tight integration.

And here is more,

Edit: after an additional 18 months of leading one of the largest Sharepoint WCM deployments in the world, are these reflections still true? Yes.

I can't speak for all developers, only myself (but I suspect I'm not the only one). I have been working deep down in the EWCM side of Sharepoint/MOSS for about two 3.5 years now, and it has been the most wholly unpleasant of my career from a technical standpoint. I love my job, my company, my coworkers, my environment but the platform is a nightmare.

I struggle to fully articulate objective reasons why this is the case, but ultimately it's just not rewarding. Most of the time we developers tackle a problem and get satisfaction out of mastering the system. However, the more I learn about Sharepoint and the more I feel I've "mastered" it, the more I wish I didn't know anything about it. (Whether it can actually be mastered is another discussion altogether).

It's fun and easy to knock the product as crap, but I don't know the people who wrote it or why they designed it the way they did, and they may have had good reasons. It is a solid document sharing/collaboration platform. However, Microsoft has tried to make it so much more than just that. At an architecture astronaut level, it might seem like the fundamental patterns of a document management system are also the good basis for things like, say, an enterprise web content management system - so they built that on top of it. But in practice that may not be the case, and indeed there is a good bit of friction trying to force an EWCM paradigm to fit the Sharepoint model.

Sharepoint is touted as an application platform, but its usefulness ends at making very simple, basic web-part-widgets that get dropped on to a page. If you need to do deep, core application development using Sharepoint and MOSS as the foundation, it is extremely painful.

It was also shipped prematurely. Important things like application lifecycle management, maintenance and enhancements for systems built on top of Sharepoint seem to be afterthoughts at best. Nothing was built with post-deployment changes in mind. It also breaks some really useful things that come out of the box in ASP.NET, like donut caching.

Tools support is only now starting to catch up. Visual Studio 2010 will have some nice tools for Sharepoint development, but that means the community has spent more than 3 years hand-tweaking hundreds of overly sensitive XML fragments and using the command line for complex deployment work.

Architecturally, the system is extremely fragile. It's a black box, with many moving parts which are clearly loosely coupled, but the precise nature of the interactions between various subsystems is opaque at best, and it is alarmingly easy to take a MOSS site down. A bit anecdotal, but out of the maybe few dozen production deployments we have done so far, something different has gone wrong inside MOSS every time. A timer job fails to kick off, one of the servers in the farm doesn't get all the right files, the content database gets locked or worse.

I could go on and on (I might come back and add some more) but I think my point is clear - Sharepoint is great to pop straight out of the box and onto a server for collaboration and document management. Nothing else. The attempts to make it do more than that is precisely what has broken the souls of so many developers.

From StackOverflow, more info please visit http://stackoverflow.com/

#SharePoint #SharePoint web parts #SharePoint add-on

Synchronize Sharepoint 2010 content with Outlook 2010

Here's a good article I found in Microsoft Office website. It's about syncing Sharepoint 2010 with your Outlook 2010. You can check it out here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-foundation-help/synchronize-sharepoint-2010-content-with-outlook-2010-HA101881295.aspx#_Toc262734699

But did you know that Sharepointboost has its own Sharepoint Outlook Integration? Syncs and supports Sharepoint 2010.

SharePoint Outlook Integration allows for expedient distribution of e-mails or attachments from Outlook using SharePoint's lists and libraries. Simply drag and drop your e-mails to appropriate folders in SharePoint Outlook Integration's interface. SharePoint Outlook Integration also provides e-mail archive development for Outlook into SharePoint. These conveniences saves time sharing vital information from Outlook via SharePoint and backs up your critical e-mails, so you can concentrate on your priorities.

Know more about Sharepoint Outlook Integration here.

#Microsoft Sharepoint #sync outlook with sharepoint #sharepoint outlook integration #sharepoint #sync sharepoint 2010 with outlook 2010 #outlook #http://www.sharepointboost.com/outlook-integration.html

Password Change, does it take too much of your time?

Here are some sentiments Administrators would express regarding constant password change in their company:

· Administrators have to attend to the entire population of employees’ password maintenance request. It takes a big chunk out of his time than expected.

· Change/Update request can be time consuming. Administrators have to pass it to higher authority for final approval before they can even process these changes with their own approval… and everything has to be done ASAP!

· With regards to passing approval to higher authority, they can be quite busy and usually out of the office, so the request takes time and it seems overhead process is getting stuck.

· For the employees’ side, it may be a little password change, but it’s a nagging thought that they need to change their password soon thus keeping them unfocused on their work.

· It is a Source of errors, since those information are not related to administrator and they have to double check every time with the employee / HR is concerned

· Confidentiality is also an issue

· Administrator need to organize time to answer to all those requests but would also to check with all the employee concerned availability which make it complicated and inefficient.

· Source of frustration if changes take too long for the employee; what happen if administrator is on holidays?

Sample 1 - Employees need to change their Password

My Company employee headcount is 200. Every 60 days, everyone is required to change their password to log in SharePoint. This is mandatory as it ensures company confidentiality. Basically, I receive 200 Password-change request every 2 months; on average 5 per day.

It seems that employees wait until the last few days to send me such request. I am constantly interrupted to approve these requests to avoid employee being locked out of the system that would result to downtime from work.

The usual password-change scenario would be:

This takes 4 steps. And with those 4 steps, it might actually take a week for the whole process to be done, not unless you employ someone to take care of the password change full time.

With Sharepointboost Password Change, it only takes 2 steps.

Sharepointboost Password Change:

- Lets administrators empower employees to change their own password securely.

Administrator sets a scheduled reminder to send to all users to change their password on-time. This prevents them from having their passwords expire at the last minute and having no choice but to contact the admin for help.

- Display the Company Password policy + instruction to ensure that this change runs smoothly without any IT intervention.

- This saves adminstrator’s time and he can focus on his projects.

To know more about Sharepoint Password Change, click here.

#microsoft sharepoint #sharepoint password change #password change #change password #microsoft #sharepoint #sharepointboost password change

Sharepointboost teams up with ComponentSource

Sharepointboost has teamed up with ComponentSource , a well-known site for Software Components and Tools.

ComponentSource carries about 10,000 SKU’s from 250+ Publishers. Companies that ComponentSource teams up with are trust-worthy and reliable. They even have 52 toll free numbers and online Live help! They speak English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Cantonese and Mandarin and offer impartial sales support and first line technical assistance.

Check out the Sharepointboost lineup here.

Speak Japanese? Then check Sharepoint Japanese list here.

Did you know that ComponentSource pinoeered the open market for reusable software tools and components through electronic software delivery.

#component source #sharepoint #sharepointboost #japanese sharepoint #software components and tools

Sharepoint List Sync - Sync Lists and View on One Main List!

Sharepointboost List Sync is a simple but very useful add-on for managing your Sharepoint lists as well as syncing source list to target lists.

Beijing, China 2011 –Real time syncing of lists is made possible with Sharepoint List Sync. Sync source list with target lists automatically, and even sync target lists back to source whenever a modification is made.

Administrators would find List sync useful for handling and managing numerous teams who work on SharePoint and documents that always changes and needed constant updating. It eliminates the need to switch between many lists just to get updates. Administrators can also record and track sync log activity in downloadable Excel Sheet files.

With List Sync, SharePoint collaborators sync their documents, folders and other files within their workgroups whenever they are edited, revised, modified or added for continuous work development. This is letting collaborators work and get updates among fellow collaborators in <strong>real-time</strong>.

Manage files easily by mapping which items or columns are to be synced to certain targets. It would be clear for target users to determine their tasks and files to handle. Attachments can also be synced; as well as item folder structure. Reverse sync is an option if users wish to sync back any modifications made from the target to the source. This is all done automatically.

List Sync lets users summarize and combine several lists into one through lookup columns. This makes an administrator view several lists in one aggregated list. Moreover, lists can be broken down into different lists based on conditions.

#sharepoint #list sync #sync lists on sharepoint #sharepoint sync

SharePointBoost upgrades SharePoint Outlook Integration to Support SharePoint 2010

An upgraded SharePoint Outlook Integration now supports SharePoint 2010 and 2007. With this tool users can drag and drop Outlook emails into SharePoint folders through a window on Outlook.

Beijing, China – SharePointBoost widens its reach to users as they upgrade their newly-released Sharepoint Outlook Integration from Outlook 2007 to support Outlook 2010.

SharePoint Outlook Integration, which enables users to drag and drop email from Outlook into SharePoint folder, has been upgraded. With this new version SharePoint Outlook Integration, users can drag and drop Outlook emails and attachments into SharePoint 2010 folders or that of 2007.

SharePoint Outlook Integration offers various features which allow users to easily drag and drop Outlook emails to SharePoint folder. Apart from transfer emails, this tool also enables users to move attachments and set permissions on them after being moved to SharePoint folders. All of those operations can be done through a window/panel right on Outlook. This window gives its users a single location where SharePoint folder can be selected, and email and attachments can be transferred. It also provides a convenient way to check email in SharePoint folders.

It is a very useful tool for those who want to store Outlook emails on certain SharePoint folders, both for collaboration or backup purpose. With SharePoint Outlook Integration, users only need to select target folder from a small window presented by this tool, select Outlook emails, as well as attachments if necessary, then drag and drop these emails and attachments into SharePoint folders.

SharePoint Outlook Integration also gives users an option to set permissions on these emails and attachments that will be transferred to SharePoint. At the same time, transfers between Outlook and SharePoint are secure.

Furthermore, SharePoint Outlook Integration also allows users to map metadata of Outlook emails. This feature ensures that all Outlook emails and attachments can still maintain their integrity when they are stored on SharePoint. And it also means users can search emails according parameters like subject, time, sender, and recipient of email, just as they do on Outlook.

SharePoint Outlook Integration is an ideal tool for small and medium size businesses. They can accomplish email backup and collaboration with a small budget and without going through lengthy configuration. SharePoint Outlook Integration also, like other SharePoint web parts and add-ons from SharePointBoost, is a 30-day free trial tool. Users can try before they buy any of products from SharePointBoost.

#sharepoint outlook integration #sharepoint and outlook #drag and drop outlook to sharepoint #transfer outlook email to sharepoint #sharepoint #outlook

trncb

sharepointboost-blog

twobrownshoes:

During my troubleshooting of installing Visual Studio Foundation 2010 and SharePoint 2010, I came across MaxYermakhanov’s Blog in which he has listed the top ten facts concerning Chuck Norris and SharePoint 2010.

Top ten facts about Chuck Norris and SharePoint 2010:

Chuck Norris never...

Tutorial: List Sync - reverse syncing

List sync can sync from source list to target list. Although there are certain rules and limitations as to how Reverse sync is concerned.

Syncing from target back to source only happens when modifications on the target.

However, some columns cannot Reverse Sync, for the reason:

If Source Column can be found in Target Column but a column in Target cannot be found in Source;

Columns that are found only in Source List.

Other special column

Modified: If target column is “Modified”, then source column can only be just “Modified”; reverse sync is not possible.

Modified By: If target column is “Modified By”, then source column can only be just “Modified By”; reverse sync is not possible.

Created: If target column is “Created”, then source column can only be just “Created”; reverse sync is not possible.

Created By: If target column is “Created By”, then source column can only be just “Created By”; reverse sync is not possible.

Be in the know of your lists within your groups to be updated. It will certainly be easier to keep track of changes when several lists are summarized within one list. Drop down menus to sort them in different lists is also available.

For more information, check out Sharepoint List Sync.

#list #list sync #microsoft #sharepoint #microsoft list sync sharepoint #sync #sync lists #list sync #sync lists on sharepoint #lists #syncing lists on sharepoint #how to sync lists on sharepoint

hi, guys, sharepointboost is coming

as one professional SharePoint independent developers, SharePointBoost can provide the customers with the best SharePoint add-ons and webparts.

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