(Nota: Este produto está cruzada posta aquí: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=1912)
Actualizar 09/01/09: Con base no feedback do twitter, I need to clarify that InfoPath is supported in the sense that BPOS provides forms libraries. What I mean when I write "not supported in any way" is that InfoPath forms services functions are not supported. That means that you can’t publish an InfoPath form to BPOS and and have it render in the web browser. It also means that some out of the box workflows, que InfoPath uso (mesmo en Moss Standard Edition) don’t work in BPOS because their initiation and other forms use InfoPath. Hopefully that clears things up.
Eu tiven a oportunidade de realmente cavar en oferta en liña de Microsoft a principios deste ano e, especialmente, o Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). This came along before I even hard a firm plan to set out on my own at Arcovis. I immediately saw, con todo, BPOS que podería ser unha parte fundamental da infraestrutura interna da miña empresa e ao longo do tempo, it has become exactly that. Arcovis, uses it on a daily basis. I thought I’d share some of that experience from a practical perspective in case you want to evaluate it for yourself or are just curious about it.
Como a palabra "suite" en BPOS implica, que obtén un pequeno paquete de aplicacións:
- Cambio
- Live Meeting
- Comunicador
- SharePoint
Podes mercar cada unha delas por separado, Creo. It’s all spelled out relatively clearly on the Microsoft sitio en liña. You may be able to get better deals through MSFT partners. Arcovis has been working with Estratexias de nubes e eles parecen coñecer as súas cousas, entón eu inclui-los na súa lista de provedores, se fai unha busca multi-vendor.
Eu delinear a miña experiencia e pensamentos de cada unha delas respectivamente,.
Cambio
Este é un ambiente de intercambio Hosted e da miña perspectiva, it works like any other Exchange server I have ever used. It’s fully integrated with all of my fellow Arcovis partners’ environments and gives me access to the calendar (que é enorme). Good stuff.
Tamén ofrece o Outlook Web Access (OWA) interface. That means I can get my email on any machine that has a web browser.
O meu teléfono móbil HTC, Windows Mobile 6.1(?) connected to it nicely via Active Sync. It did this in exactly the way I expected and wanted.
Eu non me considero moito máis que unha perspectiva do usuario casual e intercambio para que haxa recursos do Exchange realmente importantes que simplemente non son compatibles e non necesariamente sabe que.
I think the strongest recommendation I make for this is that I am completely unaware that my exchange environment is “somewhere else.” I don’t know see any difference in Exchange and how I use it on a daily basis versus the half dozen or so other times I used someone’s exchange environment. En realidade, este é mellor porque simplemente funciona.
Bottom line - aloxado cambio é o que ten que ser e estou moi feliz con el.
Live Meeting
This is a truly indispensible tool when you’re in the consulting business. I fire up instant live meetings several times a week to show intermediate work product to clients, ve-los romper miñas solucións para que eu saiba como reparalos los, facer presentacións de vendas, etc. Live meeting is bundled with BPOS and it’s very easy to use.
I’m even less of a live meeting expert than I am on exchange. Con todo, para os meus propósitos, é óptimo.
Comunicador
Ata agora, I use communicator almost only for presence information. I say “only” but have that presence data available to me whenever I’m connect has become addictive. With communicator installed and running, meus compañeiros saben cando estou dispoñible, o que a miña axenda é como neste momento, e pode IM me (aínda que a interface IM é ben aburrido, no mellor dos casos). It’s one of those things that I really miss when I don’t have it. I actually get a little annoyed when my colleagues aren’t running communicator because the presence information is missing.
The presence indicator feels pervasive. It shows up in SharePoint whenever their name appears as an author to a document, asignada unha tarefa, etc. It shows in email, embedded right in outlook. It shows up in the communicator client itself.
For the most it just sits there running in the background and decorates my outlook and SharePoint screens with real-time presence information. It’s very cool.
SharePoint
Meu anaco favorito, claro, is SharePoint.
BPOS provides a modified version of MOSS standard edition. I’ll explain “modified” below. We’ve been using our BPOS SharePoint portal for stuff like:
- Información de marketing
- De vendas (propostas, levar seguimento) -> facemos plan para investir en unha solución de CRM, pero por agora, SharePoint funciona como a nosa solución de CRM.
- Contactos de socios e clientes
- Procurar
- Información sobre o proxecto do cliente
- Facturación (principalmente para almacenar as nosas facturas)
- Discusións
- Prototipado solucións
- A construción de locais de demostración (e.g. nova contratación xestión de procesos de RH)
- Follas de tempo
- A colaboración en documentos
Basicamente, todo o que esperar para utilizar o SharePoint para.
Ao longo do camiño, usan características técnicas como:
- Alertas
- SharePoint Deseño
- Fluxos de Traballo
- Marcar
- Tipo de contido
- CQWP
- As bibliotecas de documentos con control de versións
- As listas personalizadas para todo tipo de cousas (como follas do noso tempo)
- jQuery (e todo o ben que pode vir de que, incluíndo chamadas AJAX para SharePoint Web Services)
O que non podo facer con el? There are a bunch of things that would be nice:
- I cannot provide anonymous access. En realidade, i don’t think I can do that for any price. I could be wrong, ou esperamos MSFT vai cambiar isto no futuro.
- No InfoPath de calquera tipo.
- Isto ten o efecto colateral un pouco raro de bloquear algúns fluxos de traballo Moss estándar que contan co InfoPath.
- No server side code. That means, entre outras cousas:
- Non hai receptores de eventos
- Ningunha acción de deseño personalizadas do SharePoint
- Ningún personalizado tipos campo
- No SDLC axeitado (i.e. características / solucións).
- Sen acceso a stsadm
No access to a shared service provider.
The last bit is a little sad because we can’t do as much search configuration I would like.
Vostede basicamente dar unha morea de capacidade técnica e son forzados a vivir dentro dos límites de out-of-the-box funcionalidade do SharePoint.
I can live with that. I have found myself wanting to slap together an event receiver or use a custom action once or twice,, pero para a maior parte, Eu non notar a falta.
I should add that this is not a comprehensive list of the differences between a hosted “on prem” MOSS environment and SharePoint on line. Cloud Strategies has a very detailed presentation that goes into all that if you’re interested. I’m speaking from the perspective of a business owner leveraging the tool.
Facilidade de uso
Microsoft ofrece unha aplicación de escritorio bacana que permite o acceso fácil e rápida a todas as funcións BPOS:
Non é preciso usalo, pero elimina a necesidade de entrar en cada un dos programas por separado e para a reunión en directo, É moi bo porque podes facer un "encontro agora" sesión con só 2 click (unha sobre o "web conferencia" botón anterior e outro sobre o navegador web que aparece). It’s also nice to get OWA with one click, que pode só poñer isto nos seus favoritos do navegador, así.
The other major advantage with this desktop application is that it provides a background kind of single sign on service. As long as this is running in the background, Podo abrir os navegadores web e conectar o meu ambiente BPOS sen precisar escribir as credenciais.
Full Disclosure
Microsoft made BPOS available to me for free so I am not currently paying the monthly per user fee at this time. Con todo, Vexo valor alí e pode aceptar a fe (ou non) that I would pay for this service. The fact is that I can’t count on Microsoft providing this for free forever and it’s become so strongly integrated with my business that moving … the mind quails.
Conclusión
BPOS is an insanely feature rich platform. Cambio, SharePoint (Moss estándar!), presenza, instantánea reunións en directo - é unha serie de funcións que eu sería moi, sorely miss if I had to live without it. My business would be severely impacted without it. Could I find replacement functionality? Probably, pero eu creo que eu tería que improvisar xuntos a partir dunha variedade de outros provedores, complicating my life. BPOS has so far proven itself to be stable and reliable. For the right kind of customer (como a miña empresa), BPOS val consideración forte.
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