A few people have asked me via email about where they should go to learn about SharePoint Foundation 2010 (SharePoint Foundation was formerly Windows SharePoint Services aka WSS). All of the links that are out there directly focus on the full SharePoint 2010 suite and rarely have I seen any SharePoint Foundation 2010 only resources. SharePoint Foundation 2010 as it’s name obviously suggests is the core technology for all of the SharePoint stack. Sure it may not have all the whizzy bang that comes with the ueber versions but implemented well it can be equally useful for your organisation. If you are on a tight budget this is your best option to try out if this kind of technology can be implemented in your organisation. Remember you still need to plan accordingly based on your scenarios you want to use the technology for your business. S ...[Read More]

Well the product has been on the market for a few years.. and I see so many people struggle with getting some of the basics of SharePoint right. If you are looking at starting SharePoint development or have been developing sites on SharePoint here is one cool sample site you should look at. Microsoft has made available a great sample site built to showcase the WCM capabilities of SharePoint. Head over to http://www.mssharepointdeveloper.com/ and get hold of the Adventureworks demo site and the sample MSDN guided modules and demos. The new SharePoint On The Web modules cover the following topics: Getting Started with SharePoint Development on the Web Site Structure and Branding Custom Field Types and Mode FBA Authentication Web Interoperability SharePoint Search Content Deployment Minimal Publishing Site Definition ...[Read More]

We recently announced to all our registered delegates about the “Ask the Experts” Keynote panel that will be held at NZSPC on Friday, July 03, 2009 starting at 11:15 AM to 12:15 PM (New Zealand Time) in the Duxton Ballroom. You can now post your questions on the user group site. So far we have received the following questions. We’ll take the best one’s and answer these at the conference. I will also post answers on my blog for some of these. Questions so far.. User Adoption - There are lots of books about SharePoint on the market. If we customise our SharePoint user interface will these books still be useful to my users? Web Content Management - I know there is the reusable snippets library which is great for small pieces of content. But how can I reuse whole pages so they appear in different parts of my website without sending the ...[Read More]

End User Adoption Framework Demonstration by Steve Smith (MVP) Come and see Steve Smith owner of Combined Knowledge and SharePoint MVP demonstrate the brand new End User Adoption software from Combined Knowledge. After a year of development this framework solution is designed to fill a very big hole in any SharePoint deployment - User Adoption. Key points this product solves and covered in the demonstration include : Why companies don't get the most out of SharePoint once deployed Increasing ROI across the business Users having a structured learning and help mechanism without needing to call IT Support A central page to get access to all content available Joining the dots with How to video's , CBT , labs and step and step. Searchable help system structured by category and keyword Measured statistics Scorm 1.2 Compliant for ...[Read More]

Just today I got a question via my blog. Can you recommend any classroom based SP 2007 training- Wellington. Needs to cover lists, libraries, workflows, pages, customisation, reuseable content etc - chris knight Sure thing. First up in Wellington (New Zealand) I can only recommend this guy > http://mctalex.blogspot.com/ Alex Dean. Alex has already done two presentations at the SharePoint User Group and he has a wealth of Knowledge in terms of development practices in .Net and SharePoint. If you are interested in attending any of the following courses make sure that Alex is conducting these. 50049A: Architecting Web Content Management Solutions with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (2 days) 50064A: Advanced SharePoint 2007 Development (5 days) Both of these above tracks should give you a very good starting point as a Sh ...[Read More]

K2 are running a 3 day training course from 15th-17th October 2008 in Wellington - New Zealand. K2 provides business application modelling software which integrates with SharePoint 2007 when you want to take workflow and business driven process modelling to the next level in an Enterprise SharePoint Deployment. The K2 Blackpearl 101 program is an instructor-led, three-day course that is designed to provide participants with extensive hands-on product practice via lab exercises.  K2 Blackpearl 101 has 27 modules (listed below) that are intended to introduce the basic concepts, features and functions of K2 Blackpearl to a business-knowledgeable technical audience.  This fundamentals course is a prerequisite for all additional training. To book your place and for more information contact Hendrik Venter (hendrik 'at' k2.com) Mobile + ...[Read More]

This month we have Craig Carpenter (MCSA, MCSE, MCT) visiting speaker from the UK presenting at the user group. Craig is here in Wellington this week training a SharePoint Administrator class as part of Combined Knowledge Asia Pacific and MindSharp training now offered in New Zealand. Developer training for SharePoint and WCM development will be coming up soon! This months session topic: Best Practices for SharePoint Web Applications. In this session Craig will showcase best practices for deployment of SharePoint web applications. This session is targeted towards all levels of SharePoint enthusiasts. As one of the founders of Combined Knowledge, Craig Carpenter (MCSA, MCSE, MCT) has over ten years experience of training and consulting on Microsoft platforms. Craig started his IT career within the education arena, a start that provid ...[Read More]

So this blog post is to inform everyone about me stepping out into the big world of SharePoint with some great talent to back me up in bringing the best of SharePoint to New Zealand. I am now officially working as an independent SharePoint consultant under my own company brand called Knowledge Cue. Let me tell you a bit about why and how I came to this decision. I have been working in the Microsoft solutions space and was fortunate enough to get involved in SharePoint projects back in 2001 and 2002 when the product was at it's infancy and anyone hardly took any notice of it. This was usually a combination of MCMS 2001, 2002 (Microsoft Content Management Server) and then SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and WSS V2. With the early pre-beta launch of Office SharePoint Server 2007 or "MOSS" as many refer to it these days, in 2006 ...[Read More]