What does content management and SharePoint mean to you?

Well it’s that time of month again! I’m just a few weeks away from writing and going to press with my next magazine issue (Q42009, SMB PC). So I gotta get started on my primary research. The good news is that I remain deeply committed to original content in our journal and I constantly hear how much you, the beloved reader, appreciate our efforts to “keep it real!”

So the current survey is about how the SMB space views content management. Hmmm….I view it as mission critical because I work with words and “content” all day. The CompanyWeb feature in Windows Small Business Server literrally drives our editorial workflow for my e-mail newsletter and our SMB PC magazine.

Please participate in our SMB content management/SharePoint survey. TIA…TGIF…harrybbbb #smbnation

COMPLETE THE SURVEY HERE: http://bit.ly/3S0Tzu

PS  – Robert Crane from Australia (Mr. SharePoint) will be delivering one of his killer speeches at the 7th Annual SMB Nation Fall Conference (Las Vegas, Oct 2-4, 2009) so how ’bout that!

The Greatest Fax Improvement in SBS 2003 [book excerpt]

Happy Labor Day!

I am harry brelsford, the author of Windows Small Business Server 2003 best practices and I am posting pages from this “purple book” up until SBS 2003 ships WW in mid-novem ber 2008. So enjoy – my pleasure!

Today I post up a few pages revealing the GREATEST FAXING IMPROVEMENT in the SBS 2003 time frame!

 

enjoy…harrybbbb

Harry Brelsford, CEO at smb nation www.smbnation.com

Microsoft Small Business Specialist SBSC, MBA, MCSE, MCT, MCP, CNE, CLSE, CNP

PS – did u know I host an annual conference in Seattle each october for SBSers and SMB consultants? This year we help launch SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server (EBS) between October 4-6!

 

###

The Greatest Fax Improvement in SBS 2003

I’ve saved the best for last on the server-side discussion: the Configure Fax Services link! It’s a long story, but the faxing functionality in the SBS 2000 time frame was left in the oven a few weeks longer than originally anticipated in order for it to be well done. But the chef—in this case the team at Microsoft Israel—didn’t put the topping on the faxing application before delivering and presenting it at the dinner table. That is, the shared faxing application in SBS 2000 wasn’t known for its attractive user interface and had to be configured manually from the property sheet discussed in the Swiss Army Knife section of this chapter (ouch!). That’s changed in SBS 2003 with the Configure Fax link under Management Tasks on the To Do List. Let’s run it now!

1                    Log on as Administrator on Springers1 with the password Husky9999!. 2                    Launch Server Management from the Start button. 3                    Select To Do List under Standard Management. 4                    Click Configure Fax.

 

BEST PRACTICE: Just revisiting one of the major methodologies of this book here. If you’re tracking with me page by page, we’ve truly completed the To Do List in order as I’ve preached from early on.

Right now you will complete the Fax Configuration Wizard. In Chapter 11, you will complete the backup wizard by selecting the Configure Backup link from the To Do List. In Chapter 12, you will complete the server monitoring wizard by selecting the Configure Monitoring link from the To Do List.

5. Click Next.

6. Verify the information on the Provide Company Information page.

 

BEST PRACTICE: First, notice the default field information on the Provide Company Information has been taken from the company information you provided in Chapter 3 when you created the SPRINGERS1 server machine. Then notice the Company name field truncates at 20-characters, which doesn’t fully spell out the full company title of Springer Spaniels Limited. Rather, it creates a funky variation of that name where “Limited” is truncated to “Li” which is unfortunate. I’d recommend that you append the Company name field to reflect something more meaningful like SPRINGERS, which I’ve done in Figure 9-6.

Figure 9-6

Complete the Provide Company Information screen similar to above.

 

1                    Click Next. 2                    Select your fax modem on the Outbound Fax Device page. As seen in Figure 9-7, this is the Sportster 56k Data Fax PnP. Click Next.

 

Figure 9-7

The outbound fax device in the SPRINGERS methodology is a Sportster 56k Data Fax PnP.

9.         A similar-looking but different page to Figure 9-7 (you’re eyes are not deceiving you), Inbound Fax Device will display the Sportster 56k Data Fax PnP. Accept the default setting of Set routing desti­nations for all devices and click Next.

10.       The Inbound Fax Routing page appears. You will configure this extensively for SPRINGERS. Select and configure as per Table 9-1. After configuring, click Next.

 

BEST PRACTICE: This was the most difficult fax configuration to get right in the SBS 2000 time frame. That’s because you had to manually configure routing from the property sheet for the fax service. We bless the Fax Configuration Wizard in SBS 2003.

Table 9-1: Inbound Fax Routing Configuration

Item Configuration Route through e-mail fax@springersltd.com Store in a folder N/A (not applicable) to the Springers methodology. Youwill store your faxes in the Exchange public folder, notan NTFS-based folder. But if you are dying to know, thefax is stored in the Fax Store. Store in a document library Click the Browse button. You will be directed to theCompanyWeb (which is the SharePoint site). SelectIncoming Faxes and click OK followed by another OK. Print Select HP5 on the Print dialog box that appears (inthe Route incoming faxes to this printer field). ClickOK.

11. Save the information to your SBS network notebook folder on the

completion page (click the here hyperlink) and click Finish. You have now completed the Fax Configuration Wizard, the greatest improvement to faxing in the SBS 2003 time frame. And that, my friends, means your faxing capability is now functional for sending faxes (you will need to turn on the receiving fax capability when you right-click Sportster 56k Data Fax PnP modem beneath the Fax (Local) object under Standard Management in the Server Management console (drill down further into Devices and Providers, Devices).

Windows SharePoint Services in SBS 2003 [Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices book excerpt]

Hello there – I am the author of Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best PRactices and I am posting a few pages in the WILD each day until SBS 2008 SHIPS!

Today we start chapter seven(7) which focuses on WSS (SharePoint to you buddy boy) in the SBS 2003 product.

cheers…harrybbbbb

harry brelsford, ceo at smb nation, www.smbnation.com and your fellow Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC)

###

Chapter 7 Collaboration with Windows SharePoint Services

Perhaps you’re seeing the other side of 40 and you remember a popular band called “Tower of Power” from the 1970s. This funky band had a well-received song called “What Is Hip?” That had jive, man! So one thing that’s hip in SBS 2003 with tons of jive is Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). Thus, it gets its own chapter and my guarantee (or I’ll eat a floppy disk) that you’ll find this one of the coolest things in SBS 2003. Get out your boogie shoes and get ready to do the WSS dance.

BEST PRACTICE: Expectation management time again! Remember that this SBS 2003 volume, dedicated to introductory and intermediate readers, is covering one heck of a lot of ground. And it’s doing so at a specific point in time (current as of the book print date). For that reason, I show you appropriate (and cool) uses of WSS in SBS 2003. But the footer on the bottom of each page points you to the SMB Nation and the Microsoft TechNet for updates to any SBS feature that have occurred since this book was penned. I also think that the resources section at the end of the chapter sends you forth with more resources to dig deeper into WSS than I have the page count to do here.

What Is Windows SharePoint Services?

I’ll start the WSS definition at the 50,000-foot level and descend to sea level (where you perform some procedures). At the broadest level, you could say WSS means different things to different people. It’s a “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” thang. This section will divide the discussion between technical and business.

Visit http://www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.

Technical Definition

The official party line is that WSS is a collaboration application. You’ll see this “message” by observing the collaboration language (along with team hugs) in Figure 7-1. Note that collaboration in this context primarily means an intranet portal page.

Figure 7-1

An overriding theme on Microsoft’s public SharePoint site is collaboration, collaboration, collaboration!

BEST PRACTICE: I wouldn’t accuse Microsoft of speaking with forked tongue, but it currently refers to other robust applications as supporting collaboration: Exchange public folders, Microsoft Project Server’s Project Central, bCentral’s Web Collaboration (www.bcentral.com), and previously Outlook Team Folders. Your challenge here is to separate the wheat from the chaff and decide what collaborative solution best meets your needs. In the SBS 2003 space, clearly WSS is going to be the most efficient and effective collaborative environment to deploy.

So one term you didn’t observe in Figure 7-1 above was “document management.” When I was teaching SharePoint as part of the Spring 2003 Go To Market hands-on labs, the emphasis was on collaboration (much like the language on the Microsoft site) and not on document management. But, just because Microsoft publicly deemphasizes document management doesn’t prevent me, as a third-party author, from doing just the opposite. The one thing getting me and my small business customers JAZZED on WSS is, in fact, the document management capabilities.

Why? you ask.. In Fall 2003, as I showed off the SBS 2003 Release Candidate to clients, they thought having an intranet page was cute, such as in announcing the annual company picnic. But they were sold on SBS 2003 when they saw the document management capability with their very own eyes! Finally, these small business owners believed they could bring order to the abyss of document management in their little fiefdoms. WSS presented an opportunity to extract themselves from the quagmire of mismanaged information. In short, my client, Mr. Wallace, could finally organize all of the existing real estate leases in his realty company. He’s been wanting to do that for years!

Business Purpose

WSS is an MBA’s dream come true. It represents, better than any other component in SBS 2003, the marriage of bits and bucks. It’s the intersection of income and interface, accounting and ActiveX. You get the picture. But, just in case you didn’t: WSS IS WHERE YOU WILLADD REAL BUSINESS VALUE ON THE SBS 2003 NETWORK.

BEST PRACTICE: I’m not going to repeat 625 pages of business stuff from my SMB Consulting Best Practices book here. I’m just planting seeds that WSS has a technical and business dimension to it and you’ll want to read that other book for more of the business discussion.

You should also take in Microsoft’s top 10 reasons to use Windows SharePoint Services at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/ techinfo/sharepoint/top10.mspx. I’ll save some “timber” and not rewrite those reasons here, so you’ll need to surf over to read ‘em.

Visit http://www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.

Acquiring WSS

The logical follow-up question to defining WSS is how to acquire it. There are four ways to acquire WSS:

•                      SBS 2003. Relax and take a deep breath. You already have WSS in SBS 2003. •                      Windows SharePoint Services site. You can simply download WSS from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/sharepoint/ wss.mspx (if for some reason this link changes, simply select Down­loads from the WSS site at Microsoft). •                      SharePoint Portal Server (SPS). Fact of the matter is WSS is buried on the SPS media. •                      bCentral. Using an application service provider (ASP) model, you can use WSS via the Web at bCentral (www.bcentral.com).