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| SharePoint, WSS, Microsoft Technologies, business, associations, news, views and personal blog site of Kartik Shah - Microsoft Technology Specialist and CEO Bitscape. |
12/30/2009Ever since i have seen the first live usage of Microsoft Office Excel 2010 at the July 2009 Microsoft Partner awards, I was astonished to see the capabilities. The demonstration on stage with more than 5000 partners watching, the on the fly BI capabilities on more than 100K row excel sheet (i thought wow! Where is DTS package need now!) with simple few clicks on standard laptop computer!.
Boy! That day onwards i am trying to follow entire Microsoft new generation release and even tested technical preview of Office 2010. Its whole new experience and i am also excited as i try, test and receive feedback on SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010 capabilities. Those who want to learn this from Microsoft's prospective can read this interview of Chris Cap http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Apr09/04-15Office2010.mspx .
So get ready for excitement and great IT tool productivity year 2010.
12/2/2009With introduction to Microsoft Online services and Microsoft Business Productivity Suit online I am excited to compare this really cost effective solution for getting cutting edge enterprise products technology leverage by customers irrespective of SMB to Enterprise. The tight integration of BPOS or Microsoft Software As services with Microsoft Office System makes this as amazing cost saving and productivity enhancement tools for businesses. While it will ensure keeping in check your organization's CAPEX but also it will deliver results which can make your IT team as profit centre rather than considered as cost centre in current economic and competitive business seen. The information i am sharing here is my views only.
Some of Customer benefits for Microsoft Online Services.
On head to head product comparison i can map Google Products with Microsoft like below
Here is the pricing best known to me with my personal information access available to me. I am not claiming this to be accurate but should give some idea to you on pricing.
Google Cost vs Reality
Microsoft Pricing (this supports sync with outlook, access with mobile application and integration option with Active Directory)
Here is further feature list which is included in above unified cost.
While Microsoft word online, Microsoft Access Online, Microsoft Excel Online round the corner the offerings of MS for sure enhances the productivity with simple reason that your workers or employee or users are very well verse with these technology usage and while Google products seems very easy to use for "IT users" Microsoft solution are more friendly to "Business Users".
For more information contact me on kbi911@gmail.com
8/18/2009While the office live small business service is great and it gives great opportunities for small businesses to go online without technical knowledge and know how, it does lack some of the advance database feature and customization. With the same reason I decided to move our domain away from Office Live. However it took me sometime to figure out the procedure. With this post I am trying to explain here the steps carried out by me while transferring the domain to my preferred registrar.
There are following few basic steps involve in doing so.
(Note: This implies for those who have registered the domain name with the office live while singing up or later. If it is registered with another registrar before using at office live, the control will go back to original domain registrar user account you had.)
Sign in to your office live account
Now click on more menu at the top left hand side of the screen and click on add/manage services
On this page choose a Category, click Web Site and E-Mail, and then next to Domains, click Remove.
Under Select which domains to remove (in case of multiple domains in single office live account and you would want to have control or transfer of any one), select Remove? next to the domain names that you want to remove, and then click Confirm.
This will cancel your domain.
Now the important part two : getting control at the Melbourne IT
Manage your domain using Melbourne IT
If you purchased your custom domain name through Office Live Small Business, your domain registrar is Melbourne IT. When you remove the domain name association with Office Live Small Business, you receive an e-mail from the Office Live Small Business team that includes the registry key for your domain. You must use this key to enable Melbourne IT to manage the information and billing for that domain going forward.
Your domain is now managed by Melbourne IT. You can find answers to questions or issues on the Melbourne IT Help page.
Step 3 moving domain from Melbourne IT to your preferred domain registrar.
This is now simple registrar to registrar standard method in which you have to ensure that you have transfer code from Melbourne IT system as well as ensure that the domain is unlocked.
I hope this information is useful for others.
5/19/2009I have been requested more than once by friends, colleagues and clients that how to use Microsoft Word for effective blogging in WSS (windows SharePoint services) based Blog site. So make this easy for all of them I have created this blog entry with screenshots.
Essentially this requires one time setup of your blog account in Word and easy steps to follow to blog easily from your corporate environment.
Step 1: Open your Microsoft word 2007, click on NEW document
Step : 2 – Select "New Blog Post" and click Create
Step 3: Now at this stage there will be two options
- If you already have at least one blog account configured before you will see blank blog post
- Or if you are configuraing for first time you will see new blog account registration wizard. (one time only process).
If you already have one blog account created or configured click on mange accounts and then click on new to activiate following new blog account registration wizard.
If you have no previous blog account configured than you will see the wizard directly like below.
In the wizard please select "SharePoint blog" from dropdown menu and click next
Step 4: Blog URL Registration
Now on Blog URL : please type down your blog URL home page. Usually it is configured as http://blog.sitename.com or http://www.yoursite.com . For example our blog url is http://blogs.sharepointlabs.com (for this site publishing I have used http://www.kartik.info as it is my main blog url)
Step 5: Authentication
Once you click ok after typing correct URL, it will ask you for credential for publishing the blog entry on site. Usually it is your servename\uesrid and password. type your correct credential and press ok.
Step 6: Successful Registration of Blog account.
This will than give you status report of registration like below.
Step 7: Start writing blog
Once it is registered successfully you can now type your blog like any other word document which will look something like below.
Step 8: Publishing Blog
Once written you can than press publish your blog by simply press button publish on left hand side top portion in the Microsoft Word. Please note at this stage you will again asked to enter credential of the blog as per step 5.
Step 9: Blog published confirmation.
You will see a message of post successfully  published on the site in yellow/orange message box as status.
Step 10: See the result.
So you are done now! your blog is live on your site as soon as you receive published confirmation provided your account has the rights to publish content, if not it will be waiting for approval user's confirmation before it can be seen on site like below.
Note:
It is advisable to save this blog post as docx file for future amendments in your hard drive by saving it as a normal word file.
Although I have converted this in to 10 steps processes once you have registered your account, you will have to follow step 1, 2, 7,8 and 9 only for ongoing blogging from your Microsoft Word.
In case of any query or question, please feel free to drop me an email at kbi911 at gmail dot com
Cheers! 5/13/2009Yesterday I went to Mumbai to attend an invite only event organized by Microsoft where we have been provided with options to ask questions to Steve and had a chance to interact with him knowing Microsoft perspectives of what he thinks on various topics. Steve started with some good points and with subject "Partnering for growth - Imperatives in the New Economy" before it went to interactive Q & A session. He talked about windows 7, partnering and partner's important, addressed concerns of going alone with Microsoft Online services to customers, dynamics CRM, NAV, AX, pricing in India for home and student version of products, SharePoint, Google, recent oracle sun deal and more.
 
Here is the excerpt from the event based on best of my memory J
- On recession: I would not tell it recession but we will say this is resetting and this would last much longer than expected. Be prepared.
- On Dynamics : it is very interest products for MS and will continue to grow it with lot of investment in R & D. he also admitted in this recession time the directly hurt product is dynamics and but for India they are optimistic and pushing hard as there are many untapped market segment there.
- On R & D : MS is investing the highest amount by this year end in the globe across any vertical or industry in R & D.
- On Google: they know best is search and they are best. But apart from that we deliver and know what enterprises need. Their apps are too basic and may not have all features of open office which is also free. What MS offers is almost all MS office features.
- On my direct question on Dynamics and SharePoint: it's very difficult for parents to answer which of their kid is their favorite or on priority. SharePoint off course is on priority as well as dynamics and SharePoint is red hot for sure.
- On a question what would you prefer, cash in a bank or doing business from cash in bank. – He said obviously in this time I need cash in bank. (from other sources today, in the history of Microsoft they have gone for debit i.e. they have introduced Microsoft bonds in US market – click here to read the story).
There are many other topics touched and discussed in the summary provided above. If you need to know more on specifics don't forget to email me at kbi911 at gmail dot com.
4/20/2009When I read this story just few moments ago in BBC feed, I said wow that's some development. As far as I know the company was looking for deal of buyout or merger since last few months and the talks with IBM was stopped who has offered $9.40 a share. However this comes to me as surprise that the news refers that Oracle has offered $9.50 per share and not higher. This move will no doubt put Oracle in straight competition with better than before compete with HP, Microsoft and IBM.
With this acquisition Oracle is now in to operating system market.
This is going to be exciting stuff and I see compete in making for SharePoint technologies.
Here is my source of this story http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8008246.stm
4/18/2009What: IAMCP Member Meeting
When: Date: 17th April 2009
Where: Microsoft Kalina Mumbai Office –4 to 6pm
Audience Attended: 30+ at Microsoft Office in Mumbai, 5 From Bitscape Office Ahmedabad and 5 from Live meeting for various locations
Geography of Members: Mumbai, Ahmedabad & Vadodara, Pune
This was an exciting meeting for all of us as for the first time we had guest speakers CIOs from well known companies presenting to us their views on topic.
As usual the meeting started on time and with bit time in setting up things (which was expected as the conference hall at Microsoft was jam packed!) with Suresh (President India West Chapter) took on with the proceedings. It was as usual a 60 seconds introduction of each attendee where they start with self and company introduction and why they are in meeting and what kind of opportunities they have or they expect. Since this time we had guests who are yet to become member it took slightly longer than before.
The proceeding then handed over to Mr. Umesh Mehta - CIO Asia Motor Works (Essar Company) who started his session on " What vendors should avoid" CIO Perspective. In very neat and clean slides and clear presentation including citing real vendor irritating scenario Mr. Mehta gave great insight on what we all as vendor must avoid while we approach CIOs. Some very important points such as maintaining hierarchy and understanding CIOs business perspective were discussed. In all and all it was great presentation skill and value of information which was appreciated by all of even here in our Ahmedabad office.
As soon as Mr. Mehta finished his presentation, Suresh introduced us to Mr. Garde CIO of Tata Chemicals for his next presentation. Mr. Vikas Gadre - CIO of Tata Chemicals started his presentation with "Managing Slowdown" a CIO's Insight. Mr. Garde started off with basic information of the company and went on to drive through scenarios by quoting some realistic approach in implementation by them. The facts presented by Mr. Garde was amazing and had some alarm for IT vendors in one way however there was some positive signals for smaller vendors too. All and all it was great presentation skill of him and the mapping it with real company scenarios made this presentation one of the most valuable for me personally in long time. He not only finished the presentation in style but also addressed to all questions and answers in the same ease and mapping with factual data which was awesome for all of us. The meeting ended with standard b2b interactions and with vote of special thanks to the guest speakers.
At the end I would like to express that this meeting was great success due to great team effort by Sanjay Mehta – CEO MAIA Intelligence and one of the board member of India West Chapter, Chetan Shah Managing Director Xpress Computers Ltd. and board member of the chapter, Suresh Ramani who is great driving force taking the chapter in front along with Microsoft India. Locally at Ahmedabad special thanks to Mr Rikin of Concept Infoway and our chapter member and our two special guest Mr. Manoj Jain of Chattary Ajwan InfoTech Pvt ltd, Mr. Dewag from iValue Systech Pvt. Ltd.
To know more about IAMCP, Please visit www.iamcp.org and select "Asia Pacific – India West" as chapter. The International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners (IAMCP) represents Microsoft´s best of breed partners from around the globe. Our organization was formed in 1994 and provides Microsoft Partners a voice into Microsoft programs, to the IT community at large, as well as a vehicle to facilitate mutual growth and business development among partners. The non-profit organization is operated by an annually elected board of directors, and is funded through membership fees and sponsor grants.
What IAMCP Offers
•PARTNER-TO-PARTNER NETWORKING
•ADVOCACY
•COMMUNITY
•EDUCATION AND GROWTH
IAMCP offers members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals.
To join IAMCP India West Chapter – Please visit http://www.iamcp.org/pages/memberApp_Collect.aspx - select "Asia Pacific – India West" as your chapter and pay your annual corporate annual membership due of $100.
If you have any question or query about IAMCP please feel free to contact me or contact someone from IAMCP website.
4/9/2009Let me start that I really love SharePoint. The affair started as soon as the beta of MOSS 2007 came out and tried out by me. Boy! That feeling of first love was amazing. I was floating on my business focused sales geek mind to relate it with all my then current client situations where they wanted something that was already available out of box in SharePoint. Starting from document management, to accesses LOB on dash board to sharing enterprise wide colanders and events came to me at that moment as dancing star with possibility of implementation to clients. Now after more than 100+ MOSS solutions delivery by us the bond is getting more and stronger. The one company one product focus evolved somewhere around December 2006. I am excited to see WSS's prominence in all Microsoft products including recently worked Commerce Server 2009 "SharePoint Commerce Service" to news of making "SharePoint Designer" a free tool to having close integration of "Groove" in upcoming release and as on 1st April 2009 PerformancePoint Server 2007 being sold as part of Microsoft Office SharePoint Enterprise 2007..oh..its all exciting.
Let's now forget my above business/sales related brag and talk about what there in SharePoint which made this love affair for me.
1) Collaboration out of box for workspace and effective business process automation.
2) It is not only a collaboration tool but it's much more than that. It has features for MIS reporting, BI reporting, CRM, Process automation, document management, presenting LOB data in executive readable formats, accessing complex ERP data with ease as if using Microsoft Word, and the list goes on….the main thing this is a technology catalyst product for all your organizational IT need.
3) SharePoint a Technology Catalyst for business applications: I have used word catalyst as it is really a catalyst to help those great products achieve their true business goals by presenting and interface between most of business applications in use including ERP, Lobs, legacy applications and any other information
4) Customizable to the need of scenario of implementation or even better, create your bespoke or custom module within it as Web Part.
5) It is already a centralized dash board system in use for many businesses and the trend is already moving in the same direction for remaining.
6) Global diverse group of business needs solution with ensuring all compliance with single stack holder view across companies, branches our countries. – Simple out of box and available for customization.
7) Did you know this is part of Office System so this is a business productivity enhancer and faster user acceptance system I have ever seen or heard from client feedback.
8) My speculation and excitement for upcoming release of SharePoint – (read them all here)
9) It helps businesses to optimize overall IT ownership cost. (read in detail here)
10) See these SharePoint customer evidences of SharePoint Technology utilization in their businesses.
This list is endless, however if you like to continue reading on latest trends, technologies, how tos, and our real life implementation experiences, ensure you book mark our SharePoint Technology Blog and read it often. |
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