What Is SharePoint

It’s all about connecting.  Today’s business environment requires teams and individuals to communicate, collaborate and access all the tools of their trade quickly and efficiently.  Microsoft SharePoint connects you to every aspect of your business information while connecting every member of your organization to the same network through a single Web-based portal.

SharePoint effectively supports Web-based dashboards that easily and securely allow you and your team members to manage your business.  It provides a center of operations for your team to access, manage, share, and connect with relevant information, documents, and applications.  And while team members are collaborating on projects, SharePoint acts as the “person in the middle”, supporting the workflow that allows you to know who is doing what and where projects are in the process of completion, plus much more.

Why SharePoint

TechnoJava has chosen Microsoft SharePoint as our technology tool of choice because it is a powerful solution that provides the best long-term services at the lowest cost.   SharePoint-powered solutions will meet many of your dynamic needs as your organization grows and changes. 

Consider an analogy to flowers; in particular, perennial flowers that bloom year after year and annual flowers that must be planted each year.  SharePoint solutions designed by TechnoJava are perennial in nature.  They are easy to update, and the cost of new versions is funded by Microsoft.  Therefore, TechnoJava creates a perennial solution with multi-year support at a relatively low cost. 

Custom-designed software applications that are designed to meet a specific need at a specific time are great for a season, but long-term support and adaptability to changing technology is expensive.  If a great deal of time and resources is not invested, the application just blooms and dies. We call this an “annual” solution. 

The annual process keeps many software developers in business but it’s hardly cost-effective. With SharePoint, we can design “perennial” solutions that will outlive the current technology and will continue to meet your needs as your business changes over the years.

The real magic takes place when we combine your needs, the great tool of SharePoint, and TechnoJava data artistry.  We are artisans at designing and implementing simple put powerful solutions that will creatively meet your needs and challenges.

Give us a call today. The process is simple.  We will spend enough time to FULLY understand your needs and concerns, and then we will propose a low-cost solution.

Some of SharePoint's Many Features

In today’s environment, businesses have learned the value of creating a centralized and secure communications hub.  With divergent projects and diverse skills, individuals and teams must be able to access and use the tools of the trade quickly and efficiently. SharePoint opens a web-base portal through which your team members communicate, collaborate and manage their projects through powerful workflow tools. 

• Communicate and integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Office applications your team members are familiar with. SharePoint supports the creation, management and sharing of your business documents and information with Microsoft Office.
• Libraries and lists securely contain your information, documents, images, communications and crucial data in one accessible location.
• A Workflow engine helps you manage business processes.
• Tasks, alerts and invites bring team members together to address specific needs.
• Powerful earch tools will help you find the right data, documents or contact information.
• Collaboration suport allow team members to access, edit and update their project data from anywhere… including their own living rooms.
• Versioning tools allow you to keep track of the status of your documents as they move from raw data to complete projects. You never have to wonder what happened to an earlier version. Versioning also keeps track of who created what within a document or project. Invite others to a worksite and give them access to help complete projects.
• Document security features allow you to maintain control of your intellectual property while allowing specific individuals and teams access and editorial powers
• Assign roles and permissions to anyone accessing your data so you target the right data and information to the right individuals and teams.
• New horizons of customization are available from baked-in templates and personalized features to TechnoJava’s fully-customized modules. Site templates can be used and created that allow you to communicate your organization’s character, look, and branding throughout your sites and publications. Choose a standardized look and feel across web parts and sites to allow users to learn the system quickly and comfortably. When SharePoint can’t address your needs out of the box, TechnoJava customization utilizes the flexibility and power of this unique tool to build low-cost solutions for the wide range of challenges you may face.

Benefits

SharePoint took the challenges of a host of organizations and created tools to meet their information management needs.  Those tools have been pulled together and integrated into one easy-to-use but extremely powerful package.  IT solutions that once took years and millions of dollars to implement are literally available to you out of the box.

Keeping Your Eye on the Horizon:  Like the instrument panel between you and a very complex engine, SharePoint tools allow you simple access to the entire organization from one familiar but powerful website portal. Your team members can keep their eyes on the road of productivity while quickly connecting to key team members, project information, documentation and data through that same secure portal.  And with SharePoint’s workflow management tools, you can measure your forward motion and you know who is responsible for every step along the way.

From “No-Frills” to “Serious Skills”:  Properly tuned, Microsoft SharePoint calmly maneuvers the information highway while just behind the instrument panel hums an unbelievably powerful engine.  TecnhoJava’s data artists specialize in truly understanding your current needs from your perspective and then customizing SharePoint-powered solutions that remain simple and manageable for the life of your organization.  SharePoint has effectively addressed the problem of creating costly short-term solutions that end up creating more problems than they solve. . You may want an occasional tune-up, but the SharePoint engine is designed to power your organization forward for the long haul. 

Connecting People and Resources:  Your team members can access whatever tools and information they need to collaborate and create.  Secure document libraries make use of versions and security features that allow team members to manage the most current and up-to-date information while keeping track of previous versions and best practices.  Special project and team sites can be easily created where members can manage workflow and create, find, edit and share all the information needed to complete a project.

Seamless Integration with Office Tools:  Microsoft SharePoint takes all the familiar Microsoft Office applications your team members already use and opens up a new world of workflow and document management, all within your secure portal.  Without even leaving your SharePoint website, you can be using the Microsoft Office tools that you know and trust.

Low-Cost Solutions: SharePoint is the great equalizer.  Without expensive customization, SharePoint takes the best of tools that were formerly available only to the largest organizations and makes them accessible to everybody.  Right out of the box, Microsoft SharePoint has taken the most valuable features and made them standard and easy to learn.

From Chaos to Creation:  With a formless mass of intellectual capital, information, paperwork, files and documentation, it can be a hurdle just to know what you already have, much less what you need to move ahead.  SharePoint efficiently and cleanly manages multiple forms of data into secure, accessible and editable libraries.  You will quickly have a centrally located tool box and you can manage exactly who has access to what tools. And, when it’s time to create, you can turn your team members loose with the right tools.

The Person in the Middle:  The SharePoint-powered information system IS the “person in the middle”.  You never have to go to Bob for this and Wendy for that anymore.  From managers to end-users, just point your Web browser to your SharePoint site and you and your team members have the freshest and most important information at your fingertips.  Your seasoned team members have access to the same powerful work flow tools and information as your newest employee because they are both communicating with the same system.  And, that system works 24/7 without a coffee break.

Virtuality with Integrity:  SharePoint creates a secure and manageable virtual environment that can be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection.  All your data and document libraries are securely hosted at the hub while your team members access what they need from anywhere and at anytime of the day or night.

3 Levels of Customization

Level I

Out-Of-The-Box:  SharePoint provides many features from the start - all we do is show you how.  Our first priority is to “keep it simple”.  We configure your SharePoint solution so that it can be rolled out and trained quickly for your immediate use.

Once configured, TechnoJava can provide ongoing support or occasional fine-tuning.  And SharePoint out of the box only requires the occasional tune-up to keep humming for years to come.  TechnoJava can also provide all the training materials from manuals to video tutorials to get teams up and running in no time.

Level II

SharePoint Office Designer:  You or TechnoJava’s design team can go to work on a deeper level if your solution requires more specialized tools, reports and dashboards.  We utilize Microsoft SharePoint Designer to quickly and efficiently create templates and web parts that can integrate with a wide variety of applications and uses.   This tool is specifically designed to help make SharePoint flexible and powerful over a wide range of challenges and requires little to no designer code.  That means it can be done at a low cost.

Level III

Customization:  Although we chose SharePoint to power our solutions because it has so many features and benefits right out of the box, TechnoJava has a proven track record creating and supporting fully-customized solutions. Our overriding mantra is “keep it simple” and we will never point you toward more customization when simple will do.