By: Geir Mathisen, Skill

Information Architecture

Before jumping into evaluating technology and functionality it is essential that one has a good understanding of the business requirements the organization has with regards to implementing new information management tools.

The best way to approach this is to build a high level “Information Architecture” for the organization. This can be done by breaking up the huge area of Information Management into smaller units that each

1. Cover an independent functional area.
2. Has relationship to other functional units in order to provide a consistent and integrated solution.

A company’s “Information Architecture” is then build by defining the high level business requirements within each functional unit, and guidelines on dependencies between units.

A framework for building a company unique “Information Architecture” can look like this:

Figure 1 – “Information Architecture” framework

The functional units that should be specifically mapped out related to business requirements are:

Storage

Involves looking at requirements for various types of storage technologies, in order to preserve information during the lifecycles defined.

Issues to rise are:

· Scalability requirements. Do we need a shared pool of storage that can be scaled and reused without affecting running operations?

· What databases to use, and how to optimize for the expected load.

· Do we have preservation requirements that require use of permanent storage media, like optical disks (WORM – Write Once Read Many). It so; what kind of storage systems do we need to meet expected response times (disk robots, etc).

Records Management

Deals with establishing how documents that were produced as part of a business activity/transaction should be saved, managed and preserved.

The governing rule, based on international standards, is that such documents are to be retained as “Records”. This implies storing them according to a predefined classification system, and in a way that prevent any changes or modifications to the document content.

Records should also be associated with a given “Disposal Rule”, which dictates its preservation time and end-of-life activities. Rules for migrating the document across various storage tiers (eg. DB à Disk à WORM) based on given criteria (last reference, creation time, document type, …) can also be included.

If there are legal processes going on that affects documents it can be required to place a “Legal Hold” on the documents to prevent any disposal activity to happen.

Other areas to investigate regarding stored records are:

• Requirements for digital signing of documents, and management of digital signatures and certificates.
• If final documents should be preserved in a fixed file format to preserve future readability. Typical formats used are PDF/A or TIFF. If so; should this format replace the original document, or be stored alongside the original?
• How is the organization expected to reuse stored records?
• Do we also need to register physical items (like paper documents) in the archive, and manage them according to the same rules as electronic documents?
• What audit information do we require to ensure company policies, and trace activity related to stored information?
• How should correspondence, in particular using email, be stored and tracked to business activity in the archive?
• Duplication detection for preventing the same document from being saved in multiple locations.

Document Management

Is about how we work with documents while they are still under development.

Involves defining the classifications needed to represent the various document types used throughout the organization. As part of this, looking at what metadata is required to ensure unique and practical identification of each document – for simple and intuitive location and retrieval by business users.

Documents can also be associated with taxonomies in order to associate them uniquely to their business relevance. Taxonomies are predefined keywords that represent various terms that give information on business relevance. Examples could be vessel name, office location, suppliers, country, departments, etc.

The main taxonomy tends to be the primary folder structure that is defined. The structure and nature of this should be carefully planned within each business unit to ensure that the filing structure visible to the end users is as intuitive and easy to use as possible. At the same time the structure need to support the business needs for all document types, as well as the defined management rules in a good way.

When documents are to be shared and worked on by several employees a security policy need to be defined to allow for this openness.

Features like versioning, locking and check in/-out are essential when working with documents, and the organization should plan for how to use these features in a consistent manner.

Today, many users are travelling between various office locations, as well as works from remote locations not connected to the company network. The organization should investigate their requirements for offline access to centrally stored documents.

The transition where a document moves into being a record is something to discuss within the various business units. Technically this tends to be a small change, where the document is given some new attributes. But this change need to be defined related to the business processes and procedures involved in document production, and made into a natural (preferably automatic) activity in the daily tasks of each employee.

Business Applications

Every company has a number of business applications that is being used throughout the organization to support the primary business. These are a variety and mix of standard enterprise applications like SAP, a CRM system, etc – and more specialized systems to support individual line of businesses. Business applications can be standard systems, or special made systems – with a variable degree of integration to other systems.

Related to an “Information Architecture” it is important that the requirements for integration between existing business applications and the components making up the consolidated information platform is well defined.

Typically this includes requirements for documents produced within business applications to be stored and managed by the document archive, and at the same time give access to centrally stored documents from within the business application.

There might also be requirements for a workflow tool to access and store information directly to business applications, and for a search tool to include information from business systems.

Workflow / BPM

Workflow or Business Process Management (BPM) is used to streamline the way repeatable business processes are executed throughout the organization.

By modeling the sequence of activities that makes up a given business process and assigning the rules that control the flow – a workflow server can monitor each execution of the process and make sure all actions are performed according to the business rules embedded in the model. Typical rules that make up a process definition are:

• Users or groups of users to participate at a given stage in the process.
• User interface rules on information to be given to, and requested from users at given stages.
• Expected response times for task assigned to users.
• Escalation actions when expected response times are not met.
• Key performance indicators (KPI’s) that contain key information about the running processes.
• Integration with external systems applications that provide or receive information from the running process.
• Exception handling

In order to optimize business processes “Simulation” can be added to test a given process model in various operational environments. In addition to feeding live data from the running environment it is possible to vary workload, available resources and task response times to get a feeling for the scalability and potential for improvements in a given process.

Collaboration

Collaboration spaces are used to collect pieces of information that has common business relevance, and present these through a central interface. Typical information types to be included are documents, calendars, contacts, news lists, task lists, discussions and links to information contained in external systems.

This information is collected in team rooms, given a common look and feel and presented to registered users through a web interface.

Team rooms should be used primarily as containers for tasks that are limited with regards to time, participates and scope of work. Typically projects. When the work is completed the team room should normally be shut down and removed – with information being moved to the archive and managed as records for future reference and management according to the company retention rules.

Collaboration spaces can also have value as more permanent structures. This can be as information exchange rooms for smaller departments, for given products or as individual playgrounds for each employee.

Search

The search mechanism is a vital component for retrieving information, and as such need to reach into all the various components that make up the “Information Architecture”. Most search tools do this by indexing the various information sources in use, and provide a search interface that spans across everything.

Search should be organized in two flavors:

1. Simple search – that searches across all content and metadata for the given word(s).
2. Advanced search – that allows for search only in individual systems or data types. All metadata and taxonomies defined should be available for specific searching – also in any combination.

To improve usability it is common to predefine some search strings that is of general use, and make these easily available to relevant users.

It is vital that all security settings throughout the infrastructure are honored by the search engine when indexing information. A user should never be allowed to locate information through search that he/she could not access from the underlying system directly.

Clients

Client applications are the interface between users and the products that make up the “Information Architecture”. In most situations there will not be only one client application available for accessing this information. To make information flow as smoothly as possible through the organization it is important the make documents and relevant functionality available to business users in the client environment they are currently using and are familiar with.

This requires integration into standard office applications like MS Office, email clients, web browsers, but also business applications like ERP/CRM systems and in-house line-of-business applications.

The bigger picture

Figure 2 – "Information Management" as part of the overall architecture

When building an “Information Architecture” it is important to also give thought to the more general environment in which the information platform will live

In particular there will be some dependencies with regards to the IT infrastructure already in use. Typical areas to consider are preferences to operating systems, databases and other SW components that make up the server backbone. Tools and procedures for securing data and recoverability need to be taken into account, as well as platform preferences that can be vital for achieving good integration between components.

If an overall security policy exists within the company, this will give important guidelines to how the “Information Architecture” should be mapped out.

And of course, the general company policies will have to be taken into account as well to make sure that the “Information Architecture” supports and strengthens the business in general.

Value-add

Building a consolidated platform for information management will have a number of organizational benefits, and enable the company to focus on its key business.

Some value-adds to look for are:

• Reduced manual operations
• Increased throughput in communication
• Improved control over running activities/processes
• Improved quality in document production
• Improved access to information
• Improved internal and external customer satisfaction
• Reduced load on key resources
• Improved security
• Reduced system management and support
• Improved compliance with quality standards
• Reduced email traffic and storage

Next Steps

It is recommended that each organization spend some time in defining a high level “Information Architecture” before moving into evaluating technology and products for their document repository requirements.

The goal of this work should be:

1. To better understand the various procedures and tools currently in use throughout the organization
2. To better understand the bottlenecks that prevents efficient information management today.
3. To engage key people in the various business areas and raise the awareness and their focus regarding how to improve information management within their business line.
4. To establish a company vision for information management.
5. To define a core set of requirements that can be used as a base for evaluating technology and vendors.

During previous implementations typically many of these issues were addressed. It is recommended to use the material from these projects as a starting point for the consolidated “Information Architecture” to be defined.

Any existing quality certificates (ISO ++) should be used actively in this work, as they will contain information on many topics that need to be looked into. Given that these documents are up to date they should be able to provide details about

· The current business processes in use

· What documents are being produced as part of the business process?

· What reports are expected?

· Which users and functions have document responsibilities?

As these processes are known to employees new tools based on these will reduce the training requirements and the “fear factor” related to introducing new technology and procedures into the organization.

Startup activities

1. Ensure management commitment

2. Build company security policy

3. Define main document types

4. Define document preservation rules

5. Model key document processes

6. Use of e-forms as communication tool

7. Define reporting requirements

8. Define vision for information exchange

Risk assessment

As this phase deals solemnly with mapping out information from within the organization the main risks will be around getting access to key people.

If external resources are to be used as advisors in some activities, there is a risk involved with getting access to quality people – and have them available according to the project plan.

As with all internal projects there is a risk that business priorities are made that conflict with projects plans, and delays activities.

Når er det mange som kjører Sharepoint 2010 og de aller fleste av oss er veldig fornøyd med dette produktet men alle produkter kan jo forbedres og disse forbedringene distribueres i form av Service Packs og Cumulative Updates.
Det er nå høy tide å installere Service Pack 1 for SharePoint 2010 samt June 2011 Cumulative Updates. Disse inneholder mange feilrettinger og forbedringer.

Noen av disse er

• Forbedret støtte for Internet Explorer 9.
  Papirkurven: Lar deg gjenopprette en områdesamling eller et webområde som ble slettet.
• Remote Backup Systems (RBS) og grunn kopi kan redusere nedetiden og øke effektiviteten ved å flytte pekere til databaser i stedet for å flytte databaser.
• Du kan se hvilke mapper som bruker verdifull plass, med den forbedrede funksjonen for administrasjon av lagringsplass i innstillingene for webområde.
• Støtte for Microsoft SQL Server 2011.
• En mer robust distribusjonstjeneste for søkevert som forbedrer feilgjenoppretting og ytelse under kravlesøk.
• Legger til funksjoner for sikkerhetskopiering og gjenoppretting for å gjenopprette slettede områdesamlinger og webområder.

June 2011 Cumulative Update
June 2011 Cumulative Update inneholder ytterligere feilrettinger (som ikke var med i SP1) og er basert på Service Pack 1.
Den legger til nye oppdateringer til noen av de pakker som Service Pack 1 installerer. Her er det kanskje mest intressante alle forbedringer som gjorts i User Profice Syncronization (UPS).
Denne synkroniseringen er noe som mange har hatt problemer med og i denne Cumulative Update har man forbedret ytelsen vesentlig. Dette gleder vi oss til.

Mer lesning

Her finner du Microsofts beskrivelse av SharePoint Server 2010 SP1
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460045/no

Det kanskje høres sånn ut men det er ikke bare Install+ Click next, man bør kartlegge og tenke igjennom noen ting først.
Ta kontakt med oss så kan vi bistå og veilede deg i hva du bør tenke på før- og når du skal gjennomføre oppgraderingen/installasjonen.

I dette blogginnlegget skal jeg vise hvordan dette kan gjøres i praksis, med å ta utgangspunkt i et enkelt eksempel hos oss i Skill.

Som sikkert mange andre bedrifter har i disse Ski-VM tider, så har vi en intern tippekonkurranse. Denne ligger på en en intern IIS server, hvor poengene for tippingen blir løpende oppdatert underveis. Siden vårt intranett er basert på SharePoint, så hadde det vært nyttig å kunne vise hvem som leder konkurransen til enhver tid i en Web Part. For eksempel slik:

En slik XML Web Part må konfigures med en XML kobling og en XSL kobling. XML koblingen er selve dataene som vises i listen, mens XSL koblingen brukes for å formatere dataene som HTML. For vår løsning blir XML dokumentet generert dynamisk via en ASP.NET side (xmlpoeng.aspx), og formatert med en transform fil (xslpoeng.xslt):

Nå er det jo ikke så vanskelig å legge til og konfigurere en XML Web Part hvis man allerede har XML dokumentet og XSL filen. Dermed må dette gjøres først.

Vi kan se på XML dokumentet først. I vår løsning er XML dataene generert slik:

Nå er jo ikke disse dataene statiske, de blir generert automatisk via en database. Det skal jeg vise en annen gang i et nytt blogginnlegg.

XML dataene må nå via XSL formateres til HTML. I vårt eksempel er XSL formatert på denne måten:

Nå må man jo kunne litt HTML formatering for å bygge et XSL stylesheet, men kort fortalt så viser XSL’en over at mellom <html> og </html> så refereres det til “<xsl:apply-templates select=”items”/>. Dette betyr at det skal hentes data fra “items” i XML dokumentet, som igjen vil inneholde mange “item” som da er de enkelte dataradene i XML datakilden.

Den neste seksjonen i XSL dokumentet over er seksjonen <xsl:template match=”items”>. Under her har jeg definert et bilde (img), samt en overskrift og begynt en tabell som skal vise de ulike navnene og poengene. Legg merke til at etter den første overskriftsraden ligger det en <xsl:apply-templates select=“item”>. Det er her hvor det vil vises de enkelte radene med poeng. Dette er definert i den neste delen av XSL dokumentet:

Med <xsl:template match=”item”> behandles hver enkelt item i XML dokumentet. Her er det enkelt satt opp en ny tabellrad for hver deltager. For å hente verdier benyttes for eksempel <xsl:value-of select=”navn”/>, som samsvarer med navn elementet i XML dokumentet.

I tillegg har jeg lagt inn et spesial element innenfor <span> taggen, som benytter SharePoints innebygde IMNRC funksjon (klientside JavaScript) som brukes for å gi presence status for de som har Lync/Communicator installert. Dermed kan man se hvem som er online og peke på navnet for å få frem mer status og kontaktkortet:

Lykke til med din egen XML Web Part!

En mindre kjent variant er å bruke SQL Server 2008 Integration Services (SSIS). Du får en rask og stabil løsning, og enkel management for IT-avdelingen hvis den mot alle odds skulle feile. CodePlex har laget “SharePoint List Source and Destination” som gjør jobben enklere for deg.

http://sqlsrvintegrationsrv.codeplex.com/releases/view/17652

Andreas Munch

I Skill er vi opptatt av å være tidlig ute med å teste ut ny teknologi. Sharepoint 2010 lanseres i mai, men i Skill har vi allerede jobbet i flere måneder med Sharepoint 2010. I forrige uke lanserte vi vår egen web – www.skill.no og om få uker lanseres vi ny web for en av våre største kunder basert på nyeste versjon av Sharepoint.

Etter 1 uke på lufta, ble vi i dag kvalifisert til oppføring på www.topsharepoint.com! – Klikk her for å stemme på oss!

Den ene virtuelle maskinen inneholder følgende forhåndskonfigurert programvare:

• Windows Server 2008 SP2 Standard Edition x64.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP2 Enterprise Edition.
• Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Ultimate Edition.
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition Beta 2.
• Microsoft Office Web Applications Beta 2.
• FAST Search for Sharepoint 2010 Beta 2.
• Microsoft Project Server 2010 Beta 2.
• Microsoft Office 2010 Beta 2.
• Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2.

Den andre inkluderer følgende:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64.
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Active directory.

Filene kan lastes ned fra microsoft.com. Maskinene krever Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise eller Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard. Videre må Hyper-V role være aktivert, og selve PC-en må ha en prosessor som støtter Intel VT eller AMD-V. Les mer på microsoft.com.

Kilde: Bink.nu

Det er en stund siden jeg gjesteblogget her, men jeg synes det er passende nå som jeg sitter på SharePoint Conferansen i Las Vegas, der vi i Microsoft viser frem SharePoint 2010 offentlig for første gang. Alt innholdet fra denne konferansen blir gjort offentlig, og det er MYE!

Førsteinntrykket etter keynote til SteveB og Jeff Teper, er at alle tingene vi skulle ønsket var i 2007 er her i 2010, OG at man tar i bruk alle de nye fordelen i Web2.0 (3.0) Ajak, Silverlight ++ for å gjøre brukeropplevelsen mest mulig behagelig. Når man ser de første demoene av SP2010 opplever man det mer som en enterprise applikasjon enn en webporal, dette er VIKTIG!

Gui-messig er fullstendig implementering av “Ribbon” (som vi kjenner igjen fra Office 2007). Den er der enten vi jobber med artikler, siteinnhold, dokumentbibliotek, WebContentManagment ++. “The Ribbon” er kontekstavhengig og forandrer seg dynamisk utifra hva man jobber med i SharePoint, det føles virkelig som en applikasjon.

Jeg sliter litt med å se som er mest relevant å skrive om da jeg er noe overveldet av alt det nye jeg ser:
Ribbon
Fast for SharePoint, nå i .Net
Ajax – sjeldnere siderefresh
SharePoint WorkPlace – Tidligere Groove, nå for sync av SP siter
Visio Services – Visualisering av Workflow, og eller datasett (BI)
Business Connectivity Services – (tidligere BDC), men nå toveis, push/pull :)
ECM – Taxonomi Services, Tagging, Rich media libraries, Record Management, WebConntentManagement
Demo med løsning i WinServer 2008 R2 og SharePoint 2010, der man med regler migrerer filer fra fileshare til SharePoint ifra regelmotorer i WinServer (File classification infrastruture, dette viste få om) med metadata og arkivveringsregler ++ . Dette er nødt til å være noe for nesten alle! Fileshare er der fortsatt med alle filene er erstattet med linker i SharePoint.

To be Continued

/Thomas fra Vegas

Mange fikk tilgang til Office 2010 Technical preview i forrige uke, og Skill er i gang med testingen allerede. Det er alltid noen utfordringen når man bruker beta og preview versjoner i drift, og vi vil oppdatere dere gjennom denne bloggen med nyheter i produktene og utfordringer med bruk mot eksisterende løsninger.

Det første jeg oppdaget var at det ikke gikk å åpne dokumenter i Word 2010 fra MOSS2007 og WSS3 dokumentbibliotek. Dette er jo mildt sagt en utfording for oss i Skill som har alle dokumenter lagret på intranettet som er basert på MOSS 2007 Enterprise.

Løsningen er å konfigurere proxy oppsettet i Internet Explorer, selv om du ikke benytter proxy!

Følgende fremgangsmåte fikk meg til å puste lettet ut: (NB! Ikke bruk denne om du faktisk benytter proxy!)

• Gå til instillinger for internet i IE
• Velg Connections
• Trykk Lan Settings
• Sett kryss i “Use proxy….”
• Sett kryss i “Bypass proxy server for local addresses” 
• Klikk på knappen “Advanced”
• Ta bort krysset for “Use the same proxy…”
• Fyll ut som vist i skjermbildet under: Det behøver ikke være en reell adresse i øverste felt. Det aller viktigste er å legge til ;*.* i exeptions feltet.

Etter å ha gjort dette kan jeg igjen åpne og lagre dokumenter til MOSS 2007!

Les flere nyheter om Office 2010 her

PS! En annen viktig opplysning: Sharepoint Designer 2010 kan ikke brukes mot WSS3 eller MOSS2007 servere, ihvertfall ikke i Technical Preview.

Samme funksjonalitet og muligheter finner vi jo også i Sharepoint og det er ingen tvil om at disse to teknologiene sammen vil kunne gi mye nyttig funksjonalitet. Dette ville kunne løse mange av dagens utfordringer med f.eks offline funksjonalitet til Sharepoint, håndtering av epost i Sharepoint, drag and drop av dokumenter osv. uten tredjepart løsninger som f.eks Colligo.

SharePoint Workspace 2010!

Groove 2007 blir Sharepoint Workspace i 2010! Dette vil gi en vesentlig enklere tilgang til Sharepoint dokumenter og forhåpentligvis en mer sømløs online/offline opplevelse. Dette vil kunne føre til en kraftig forbedret brukeropplevelse for Sharepoint brukere.

Produktet blir som idag blant annet en del av Office Pro Plus for kunder som har Office med SA.

Les mer om Groove / Sharepoint Workspace 2010 her:

http://blogs.technet.com/groove/

Mer om lanseringen: http://blogs.msdn.com/groove_development_team/archive/2009/05/13/makeover-for-groove-sharepoint-workspace-2010.aspx

Akuratt nå befinner jeg meg i Las Vegas på et Enterprise Search seminar; FASTforward 09. I går annonserte vi her vår “roadmap” for Enterprise Search. En stor nyhet er at samtidig som neste versjon av SharePoint (kodenavn “14”) lanseres så slipper vi en tilpasset versjon av FASTs søkemotor: “FAST Search for SharePoint”. Det betyr at kunder kommer å kunne ta i bruk FASTs avanserte søketeknologi på en enklere måte, søkefunksjonliteten kommer for eksempel å kunne administreres via SharePoint.

Kunder som er lisensiert for SharePoint Enterprise versjonen kommer å kunne kjøpe “FAST Search for SharePoint” til en meget gunstig pris. En annen nyhet er at kunder som ønsker å ta i bruk FAST sammen med SharePoint allerede i dag får mulighet å kjøpe dagens versjon av FAST ESP til samme gunstige regler (hvis de er lisensiert for SharePoint Enterprise).

Så hvorfor er søk viktig? IDC har for eksempel kommit frem til at ansatte som arbeider med informasjon benytter nermere 1/3 av sin arbeidstid til å lete etter informasjon. Det er et skremmende tall, som det absolut er mulig å gjøre noe med!