Weblog BOOZTER - English Edition

When MVPs speak about SharePoint 2010…

At the Microsoft MVP Summit, Jean-Michel Davault, Managing Director at HOMMES & PROCESS, Rob Foster, Matthew McDermott, Randy Drisgill, John Ross, Sean Wallbridge, Asif Rehmani and Yaroslav Pentsarskyy shared their thoughts about the SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Workspace 2010.

In this 9-minute video, they discuss the ribbon User Interface, social features, Site and feature enhancements, Office Web Applications, Themes and branding, Search improvements, Business Connectivity Services, SharePoint Workspace and SharePoint Designer.

For more details about these features, follow this link.

Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint Workspace 2010 evaluation

Last week Microsoft officially launched their latest Office 2010 Enterprise Suite.
This latest mould of Microsoft Office is available in four distinct versions:

• Office Home and Business 2010 including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote.
• Office Standard 2010 includes Office Home and Business 2010 version’s programs plus Publisher.
• Office Professional 2010 includes Office Standard 2010 version’s programs plus Access.
• Office Professional Plus 2010 includes Office Professional 2010 version’s programs plus Infopath, Communicator and SharePoint Workspace.

Obviously if you follow this blog avidly you will understand that it’s the latest  version that interests you. You can evaluate this version for up to  60 days.
Below we’ve proposed two download links for you to evaluate Office 2010 :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee390822.aspx

or

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee390818.aspx

To optimize the integration de SharePoint Workspace 2010 with Office Outlook 2010 and SharePoint 2007, use GrooveIT! for Outlook and GrooveIT! for SharePoint ! You will gain even more in treating documents and efficiency.

Ready for the future

Techdays’interview with Jean-Michel Davault, Groove/SharePoint Workspace MVP and Managing Director at HOMMES & PROCESS.

Discover what’s new at HOMMES & PROCESS and learn more about readiness for the “2010 wave”:

More about Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010

Following the WPC 2009 (Worldwide Partner Conference), which took place last week in New Orleans, we know more about SharePoint Workspace 2010.

First, SharePoint Workspace 2010 is now equipped with Ribbons. It will create 3 types of workspaces:

• "SharePoint Workspace" to recover all or part of a SharePoint list for offline and mobile use. These spaces will be "closed" (no invitation possible) as in the style of the special edition of GrooveIT! for Microsoft Office SharePoint.
• "Classic Workspace" which prolongs the use of Microsoft Office Groove 2007 workspaces and therefore maintaining their use for secure team work.
• "Shared Workspace" to exchange files and Windows folders.

InfoPath forms are now compatible with those of SharePoint and are used to synchronize their content whilst working offline and mobile. SharePoint Workspace 2010 will be better integrated into Windows, allowing navigation in workspaces from explorer windows. And finally, a very interesting new feature is the ability to extend searches to include all workspaces content.

The news in video

Paul Cannon, Product Marketing manager at Microsoft, reviews the new SharePoint Workspace 2010 in this video:

Announcement: Groove will be called SharePoint workspace in the coming Office 2010 release

Whereas the current release of Groove already offers integration possibilities with SharePoint, in its official announcement of May 13th, Microsoft clearly positions the future release as their preferred offline client for SharePoint.

At HOMMES & PROCESS, we are pleased with this deliberate and well considered choice, entirely in line with our conviction and our past efforts. We have been promoting and deploying the co-implementation of Groove and SharePoint for a long time as demonstrates our white paper (download at the bottom of this page).
 

As SharePoint Workspace 2010 will be available in Office Professional Plus 2010, you may be willing to dive in a Groove – SharePoint experience, in preparation of a future implementation of release 2010.

As recognized experts on Groove technologies (since 2001), HOMMES & PROCESS proposes to accompany you in this new experience.

Besides it expertise, HOMMES & PROCESS has developed solutions and services that make it easy and manageable to co-implement Groove 2007 and MOSS 2007.  


For any complementary information, please contact us at + 33 170 085 125 or complete this form.

Service Pack 2: What’s new about Microsoft Office Groove 2007?

Last week, you have certainly been invited to update your Microsoft Office suite with Service Pack 2. If not, you can download it here.
Service Pack 2 includes some patches for different Office products and security updates. It also brings some updates for Microsoft Office Groove 2007. Here is what we have noticed for you:

• Groove 2007 form tools improved. Particularly for international users,  local parameters such as currency values are fully supported.
• Limits the number of file-sharing workspaces to 64 to make sure that all workspaces can be synchronized. If you already have more than 64 file-sharing workspaces, you can continue to use them.
• Optimizes synchronization reliability.

You can also enjoy the updates for Microsoft Office InfoPath (with a stronger compatibility with Microsoft Office Groove) and for Microsoft Office Outlook which you can easily link to Groove using GrooveIT! for Microsoft Office Outlook.

Office server products benefit also from Service Pack 2. As for Office Groove Server 2007, these are the changes we have noticed:

• Office Groove Server 2007 Data Bridge now limits the number of file-sharing workspaces to 64 to make sure that all workspaces can be synchronized. This limit applies only to newly added file-sharing workspaces. If you already have more than 64 file-sharing workspaces, you can continue to use them.
• Improves synchronization reliability.
• Groove Server 2007 Manager can be installed and run with SQL Server 2008.
• Improves the Groove Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) connectivity and auto-activation functionality.
• Improves error reporting in the Groove Relay Server.
• Improves the robustness of Groove Relay Server.

We recommend you to install Service Pack 2 and enjoy…

Learn more about Services Pack 2:

• About 2007 Microsoft Office Suite: http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B953195&x=10&y=10
• About 2007 Microsoft Office Server: http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B953334&x=11&y=8

Extend human trust to your collaborative networks

As you already know, Microsoft Office Groove is a secured solution for distributed and/or mobile collaboration. Groove is also a solution that allows create confidence between people working on common projects, within an organization or beyond frontiers.

Increased security (encrypted local data and encrypted data transfer), identity certificates, trusted collaboration, … Microsoft Office Groove is a decentralized collaboration tool that garantees security and confidentiality.

In this context, Jean-Michel Davault, HOMMES & PROCESS Founder and Managing Director, and Frédéric Sitbon, Microsoft Office / EPM / Groove Technical Specialist at Microsoft Central and Eastern Europe HQ have recently published a French book entitled "Microsoft Office Groove : La Confiance Collaborative en Réseaux" (Microsoft Office Groove: Confidence Collaborative Network) at editions Hermes.

The book might be available in English version in a few months, to learn more about the book please do not hesitate to contact us.

Solutions for IT Departments to streamline Office Groove 2007 deployments

Our goal help organizations save time, save money, gain efficiency and reinforce security. In 2009, HOMMES & PROCESS will deliver new solutions dedicated to IT management to ease Microsoft Office Groove 2007 infrastructure control, management and integration in a secured way. To learn more about H&P’solutions for IT administrators.

 

• Reinforce data security and data recovery

• Make sure data are being backed up
• Manage data recovery - PCAs
• Integration in the organization information system

• Manage deployment

• Install, configure servers
• Manage users and security rules

• Manage usages

• Automate workspace creation
• Manage rights

• Manage human resources

• Manage social networks for business
• Optimize human resources
• Business Intelligence

Learn more about H&P solutions, give us a call +33 1 7008 5125 or contact us.

Case Study: Featuring Microsoft Office Groove 2007 and the 2007 Office System

Business School Enhances Student Learning with Collaboration Software

 Discover how leading business school EM LYON educates entrepreneurs for the world, using state of the art collaboration solutions.

"At Ecole de Management de Lyon (EM Lyon Business School), students learn about real-world uses of information technology in business. Just as today’s business workplace has become increasingly decentralized, with employees using technology to stay connected while working remotely, EM Lyon students need to remain in contact with peers and complete group projects while working at off-campus internships and other assignments. Students found this difficult using traditional desktop software, so the school explored options for building a robust collaborative platform that would facilitate communication while also teaching students about real-world information sharing strategies. By carefully analyzing student needs and taking advantage of the power and flexibility of Microsoft® Office Groove® 2007, EM Lyon created a virtual office solution that met its requirements and was easy to use."

Learn more: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies

Microsoft Office Groove 2007 training sessions in Paris led by HOMMES & PROCESS for Microsoft France

Microsoft France organizes Groove 2007 “Quickstart” training sessions on 12th and 13th June 2008. Training will be led by Fabrice Barbin, Hommes & Process’ Technology Director.

Both trainings are dedicated to Microsoft partners, especially for those who specialize on SharePoint, Small Business Server, Exchange or Project Server Technologies.

At the end of these Groove trainings, attendees will be able to understand:
- How to position  Groove
- Integration between  SharePoint & Groove
- How to deploy and to maintain Groove

Training session on 12th June will be dedicated to sales and marketing persons (difficulty level medium) and the 13th June training session requires technical skills (advanced level).

Learn more on Microsoft Partner Trainings portal