SharePoint – FIS, FAST Search and the Overall Value to Customers

The SharePoint 2010 For Internet Sites has two versions — SharePoint FIS Standard. There could be some organizations which need web content management capabilities and some basic functionality and not all the features. So there’s a simpler entry point to internet solutions called SharePoint FIS Standard edition and has support for a single domain website. For advanced features like Business Intelligence, insights into your website, electronic forms, or enterprise-wide searches then opt for SharePoint FIS Enterprise version.

 

Then there is FAST Search Server, which consists of FAST Search Designer, interaction Management Services and content transformation services. Then you have support for a variety of languages.

 

It is important to bring in a different level of experience to your customers; how do you get them engaged with your organization on your website and actually present information pertinent to them.

 

SharePoint products work big time for its customers. In the Media and Online retail industry for example, there are many sites like Yellow Pages and PriceGrabber.com which have enterprise search at their core. If you have an organizational setup with a call center, it makes sense to have a website with good search features which will help visitors to find what they are looking for which would indirectly affect call center costs. FAST Search for Internet Sites can thus deliver a great user experience and also save on costs! Social media is an important component for the Education vertical. Ease of publishing and managing web content are ways education sector can benefit from using SP FIS. Powerful search, digital media assets and social media are very important for Industries such as CPG, Food and other retail sectors (not just online retail).

 

SharePoint For Internet Sites & Fast Search Features

 

Capabilities such as SharePoint workflows and the approval process helps in improved quality content publishing. Social computing elements can be incorporated while posting content on websites. For example, you can let a community rate the content of a website which will help you to get quality content for the site.

 

In regards to customer service, SharePoint-FIS for Enterprises is recommended since we are looking at business intelligence attributes. We might have to look for data visualization capabilities that can aid in decision-making too.

 

For extranets, obviously you can use the whole Microsoft SharePoint platform for creating forms, for business processes, and even for having complete interaction with partners about your own products. You might even have to take the experience beyond SharePoint boundaries to provide offline experiences with tools like SharePoint WorkSpace and SharePoint Workspace on a Windows Mobile smartphone.

The Elements of the Modern Website and SharePoint 2010

With the advent of social media and new strategies implemented within search engine optimization, the target market and the overall website strategy have changed drastically. Here are some of the new elements and parameters of the modern website which can boost success of your company too.

 

The core tenets of the website primarily include user browsing experience and the overall site navigation along with the content. The brand boosters of the site include the mobile apps and company blogs which are useful media for publicizing one’s products and services. One can avail customer feedback with the help of surveys. Social media channels on the site include the various plugins integrated within the website redirecting to relevant pages on Facebook and Twitter along with other social media channels.

 

The embedded photos and videos in the site improve communication and collaboration with prospective customers. Forums and associations bring in dynamic content to the site which greatly enhances the site rankings and also helps in content collaboration on relevant topics.

 

Search engine optimization strategies like the use of meta tags go a long way in enhancing the search engine rankings and keyword specific boost in the web page searches. Google, Bing and Yahoo rule the search world and their search results are prime indicators of the popularity of a site. Targeted advertising on the other hand, relies on specific domain ads which appeal to the intended audience only.

 

SharePoint 2010 has delivered as a comprehensive business management solution and a collaborative platform. But with its product SharePoint – For Internet Sites, the solution can now be used to create a public-facing site too!

 

SharePoint 2010 & website elements implementation

 

Speaking about the core tenets of the website, SharePoint 2010 implementation services consist of out of box features which are perfect for managing user roles, permissions, page level views and item display. Components for a website like blogs, discussions, contacts, social module integration etc. are readily available in SharePoint and can be included on any site.

 

SharePoint 2010 development facilitates mobile views, i.e. the lists and views within SharePoint are easily compatible with a plethora of mobile devices and thereby ease the development of a world-class website as a worthy brand booster too.

 

Out of the box integration with SharePoint forms allows creation of simple forms and even collection of regular customer feedback.

 

Out-of-the-box social networking web parts that will help link users and permissions from specific social modules help in fulfilling in parameters related to social networking. Specific web parts related to social media also play a major role for amplifying the features of the site as well as the site owner’s services.

 

Photos and video sharing is easily done and configured using SharePoint since the Microsoft solution consists of ready-to-use controls for both photo and video upload. Content collaboration can be set up easily with SharePoint. The content admins can manage and regulate content without any hassle and even publish pages simultaneously.

 

With respect to targeted advertising, Microsoft SharePoint can help create sub sites for different user groups and allow them to share relevant content of their preferences.

 

A Strong Digital Marketing Future with SharePoint and its Products

Digital marketing is a solid form of viral marketing where you promote your business by getting other people to do the talking for you and adapting to the core. With digital marketing, advertising, branding, contextual marketing, social media marketing, and transactional marketing all find a common platform.

 

What we now want is to create this vision for tomorrow where it is a single unified platform that basically has things like content management, search, digital asset management, and a whole series of other functions built into this simple platform, that’s easy to use, that everybody is very familiar with. And that’s essentially what the digital marketing platform is.

 

The website as you know encapsulates several mediums of digital marketing. With digital marketing, chances are that one might get lost in the maze of several marketing platforms and options. It is important to prioritize and visualize which options are feasible, which ones are important and which ones should be prioritized.

 

A handy digital marketing tool - SharePoint 2010

 

SharePoint 2010 and its products can serve as a great tool for digital marketing for your company. SharePoint 2010 for Internet Sites has two versions. There could be some organizations that do not need all the components of SP but may want to have the web content management capabilities and some basic functionality. So there’s a simpler, reduced cost entry point to internet solutions called SharePoint FIS Standard edition. This basically gives you all the web content management capabilities, the workflow collaboration elements as well as social computing and site search. SPFIS Standard will only support a single domain website. If you want to introduce other elements such as Business intelligence, insights into your website, electronic forms, or enterprise-wide searches then you would need to have the Enterprise version.

 

Microsoft SharePoint has the ability to fulfill 3 different goals:

Connect: It can federate offsite content. So it can do a search in real time. It can also provide Search generated topic pages, interactive product experiences and blended user generated content.

Adaptability: SharePoint 2010 can do recommendations. If there are two things that need to be sold together based on the behavior of users, then they can be automatically presented together. It can personalize it for you and provide dynamic visual navigation in addition to location-based, mobile search and social ranking and tagging.

Guide: It can guide in your online promotions and cross selling, for targeted lead generation, one stop account servicing and interactive customer support.

 

SharePoint 2010 products can surely serve as one of the best digital marketing tool. It can make digital marketing activities way too easy and flexible.

 

MS Dynamics AX — Extending Mobile Deployment with Mobile Apps

The Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for ERP in the mid-market places Microsoft Dynamics AX at the top spot which is testimony to the growth of the ERP solution. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant is basically a graphical representation of how selected ERP vendors measure a given ERP solution in terms of functionality, usability, and technology for a marketplace.

 

In terms of the trends we see for new initiatives for existing AX customers, most tend to fall into a small set of categories. These include extending AX functionality through the use of mobile apps or implementing real time integration to other applications in the business. Additionally, the creation of BI dashboards and adding new business features through AX customization are also receiving attention and funding. Finally, with the rapidly impending release of AX 2012, many existing AX customers include an upgrade in their IT plans.

 

You can transform the business through mobility on the Customer Side by identifying new intelligent products and on the Employee side through process innovation and new styles of collaborative work. Mobile apps help grow business by providing new channels and communities to Customers and by supplying role specific applications to Employees.

 

Lastly, mobile apps help you run the business by providing light weight communication options to your Customer and also provide basic productivity tools such as mobile e-mail and connectivity to your Employees. Managers and Executives typically desire mobile apps on their smart phones that deliver information, including key performance indicators, dashboards, financial data & results, and compliance requirements.

 

Mobile App Integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX

 

When it comes to the sales force, the mobile imperative lies in order processing, inventory and price verification, customer profiling and customer relationship management. For Plant personnel, mobile apps may be used for order picking, inventory tracking, supplier relationship management and goods receipts. The Field Service team can use mobile apps for work recording, service execution, contract reference and route and travel planning.

 

Selecting the right platform for a smart phone depends on a variety of parameters ranging from library of apps available to native features and functionality. Additionally, you will want to consider ease of communication, design and performance factors, and security and reliability issues. As you determine your mobile app requirements, inevitably you must consider the question of whether you should buy a mobile app or build it. On the benefits side, you need to account for both tangible and intangible returns.Tangible returns include incremental revenue, repeat business, improved productivity, faster inventory turns, a reduced sales cycle and targeted promotions. Intangible returns typically include improved customer satisfaction, competitive advantage over your competition, improved reporting, and improved employee utilization, quality of life, satisfaction, and retention.

SharePoint 2010 and Enterprise Content Management — Solutions Matter!

Enterprise Content Management has emerged with the advent of diverse technologies and the potent combination of their services. Enterprises create diverse content every day; intentionally and unintentionally as part of their business processes. For effective management of content, one needs to manage their data more effectively. It is important to focus upon the connections and collaboration between people and content. The system should also detect patterns related to behavioral barriers in the workplace.

 

Additionally, ECM’s promise of integrated tools required to capture, manage and deliver critical data has yet to be realized.

 

Defining an ECM roadmap

Identification of both organizational and user requirements and needs.

Engagement of users throughout the ECM implementation.

Relevant adoption plan related to organizational ECM strategies and tool sets to train users.

 

SharePoint compared to other ECM platforms

 

SharePoint empowers users and this fact remains a differentiating part compared to ECM platforms. It is tightly integrated with Microsoft tool sets like Windows and Office and hence users find it easy to get engaged with the platform. In addition, SharePoint is cost-effective since it is time for tight budgets in enterprises. As an enterprise platform, it offers solutions other than ECM too. Lastly, its seamless integration with different tools related to social computing, business intelligence and enterprise search makes it a compelling offering for enterprises to invest.

 

Demarcating Features of SharePoint 2010 as an ECM solution

Document ID: This new feature generates a unique id for every uploaded document even after it is moved.

Metadata: SharePoint utilizes metadata in organizing information which is different from the traditional hierarchical file/ folder structure.

Document Sets: Documents can be grouped together in different sets and worked around as a unit in SharePoint 2010 which comes in handy in project environments.

Search: Enterprise search is now in its enhanced version and the queries and results are quite streamlined. Query-less searches are available which helps in searching out photos and videos.

Records Management: This module is well streamlined and every document can be part of a record. It also features including author, hold, expiry details etc. are available.

Social Computing: SharePoint 2010 enables users to define social connections and impart information with category in MySites which allows them to see the tags made and the jobs that they are working on. One can send messages too.

Integrating External Platforms: Various platforms such as SharePoint Designer, Business Connectivity Services (BCS) can be brought together. External lists can be integrated as external data sources into SharePoint.

Ease of Use: Tight integration with MS Office allows Office document content to interact directly with SharePoint 2010 making it very efficient for users.