(Shënim: ky artikull është ndër-postuar këtu: http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=1912)
Update 09/01/09: Bazuar në reagimet e eksitim, 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, e cila InfoPath përdorimi (madje edhe në MOSS Standard Edition) don’t work in BPOS because their initiation and other forms use InfoPath. Hopefully that clears things up.
Unë kisha një shans për të vërtetë gërmoj në ofertë Online Microsoft në fillim të këtij viti dhe në veçanti suite produktivitetit të biznesit në internet (BPOs). This came along before I even hard a firm plan to set out on my own at Arcovis. I immediately saw, megjithatë, that BPOS could be a key part of my company’s internal infrastructure and over time, 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.
As the word “suite” in BPOS implies, you get a small bundle of applications:
- Exchange
- Live Meeting
- Communicator
- SharePoint
You can buy each of them separately, Unë besoj. It’s all spelled out relatively clearly on the Microsoft online site. You may be able to get better deals through MSFT partners. Arcovis has been working with Strategjitë cloud dhe ata duket se e di stuff e tyre, kështu që unë do të përfshijë ato në listën tuaj të shitësit, nëse ju bëni një kërkim multi-shitësi.
Unë përshkruajë përvojën time dhe mendimet për secilin nga këto respektivisht.
Exchange
Kjo është një mjedis priti shkëmbimi dhe nga perspektiva ime, 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 (i cili është i madh). Good stuff.
Ajo gjithashtu ofron Outlook Web Access (OWA) interface. That means I can get my email on any machine that has a web browser.
Telefoni im celular HTC, running Windows Mobile 6.1(?) connected to it nicely via Active Sync. It did this in exactly the way I expected and wanted.
I don’t consider myself much more than a casual outlook and exchange user so there may be really important Exchange features that just aren’t supported and I wouldn’t necessarily know it.
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. Në të vërtetë, this is better because it simply works.
Bottom line – hosted exchange is what it needs to be and I’m very happy with it.
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, to watch them break my solutions so that I know how to fix them, do sales presentations, etj. 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. Megjithatë, for my purposes, it’s great.
Communicator
Deri tani, 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, kolegët e mi e di kur unë jam në dispozicion, çfarë orari im është si në këtë moment, dhe mund IM mua (pse ndërfaqe IM është shumë e shurdhër, në të mirë). 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, caktuar një detyrë, etj. 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
My favorite bit, sigurisht, 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:
- Marketing information
- Sales (proposals, lead tracking) –> we do plan to invest in a CRM solution but for now, SharePoint is working out as our CRM solution.
- Partner and customer contacts
- Kërko
- Client project information
- Billing (mainly for storing our invoices)
- Discussions
- Prototyping solutions
- Building out demonstration sites (e.g. e re me qira Menaxhimi i Burimeve Njerëzore proces)
- Fletët Koha
- Bashkëpunim dokument
Në parim, të gjitha gjëra që ju do të presin për të përdorur SharePoint për.
Gjatë rrugës, ne përdorim karakteristikat teknike si:
- Administrim Shkarkimesh Faqerojtësa Fjalorë
- SharePoint Designer
- Menu
- Branding
- Llojet Përmbajtja
- CQWP
- Bibliotekat dokument me kontrollin version
- Listat e personalizuara për të gjitha llojet e gjërave (si fletët tona të herë)
- jQuery (dhe të gjithë mirësia që mund të vijnë nga ajo, duke përfshirë thirrjet AJAX për SharePoint Web Services)
Çfarë nuk mund të bëj unë me të? There are a bunch of things that would be nice:
- I cannot provide anonymous access. Në të vërtetë, i don’t think I can do that for any price. I could be wrong, ose MSFT shpresojmë se kjo do të ndryshojë në të ardhmen.
- Asnjë InfoPath të çdo lloji.
- Kjo ka efekt paksa e çuditshme anësore të bllokuar një workflows disa standarde Moss që mbështeten mbi InfoPath.
- No server side code. That means, ndër të tjera:
- No event receivers
- No custom SharePoint designer actions
- No custom field types
- No proper SDLC (i.e. features/solutions).
- No access to stsadm
The last bit is a little sad because we can’t do as much search configuration I would like.
You basically give up a lot of technical capability and are forced to live within the confines of out-of-the-box SharePoint functionality.
I can live with that. I have found myself wanting to slap together an event receiver or use a custom action once or twice,, but for the most part, I don’t notice the lack.
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.
Ease of Use
Microsoft provides a nifty desktop application that enables quick and easy access to all of the BPOS functions:
You don’t need to use it, but eliminates the need to log into each of the applications separately and for live meeting, It’s quite nice because you can do a “meet now” session with just 2 clicks (one on the “web conferencing” button above and another on the web browser that pops up). It’s also nice to get OWA with one click, though you can just put that in your browser favorites as well.
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, I can open up web browsers and connect to my BPOS environment without ever needing to enter credentials.
Full Disclosure
Microsoft made BPOS available to me for free so I am not currently paying the monthly per user fee at this time. Megjithatë, I see value there and you can accept on faith (or not) 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.
Conclusion
BPOS is an insanely feature rich platform. Exchange, SharePoint (MOSS Standard!), presence, instant live meetings – it’s a lot of functionality that I would sorely, sorely miss if I had to live without it. My business would be severely impacted without it. Could I find replacement functionality? Probably, but I think I would have to cobble it together from a variety of other vendors, complicating my life. BPOS has so far proven itself to be stable and reliable. For the right kind of customer (like my company), BPOS is worth strong consideration.
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