Ciall’s SharePoint Development Team have just completed sign-off of a Performance & Development Review System (PDRS) solution which offers rich end to end functionality specifically designed to enable HR departments streamline the manager/employee appraisal process. Built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and powered by InfoPath Forms Services ’PDRS’ uses workflow functionality to send the completed review directly to HR. Workflow also provides email alerts when an action is due. This leads to an efficient system whereby hard-copy paper forms are no longer required in the process.

 The key advantages of ‘SPDRS’ are as follows –

• Establish a performance-based culture in your organisation
• Use a system and a set of processes that will encourage both management and employees to actively engage in the Performance review
• Reduce the pain of having to chase down forms and feedback
• Standardise the legal monitoring of performance reviews
• End the cumbersome outdated process of having to print-off, scan and email documentation back to HR
• Deliver a platform where employees can assess any shortfall in their competencies and book training courses where necessary 

Ciall would welcome an opportunity to talk to you about this, feel free to give us a call or request a call-back via any one of our pages on Ciall.com.

Osvaldo Sousa Enterprise 2.0, Microsoft Home Page, SharePoint

‘SDPS’ from Microsoft enables customers who have purchased Software Assurance (SA) to avail of free consulting days for Microsoft Office SharePoint. These days typically in the form of 1 – 15 day engagements with a certified ‘SDPS’ partner allows the customer build a roadmap for SharePoint within their organisation.

The length of the engagement will depend on the customers ‘SA’ benefit level. Typically companies use these free consulting days to understand where SharePoint will fit in their organisation, how it can be leveraged to build specific solutions such as an IT Support Helpdesk, Performance & Appraisal System and a platform for better communication across the company. Ciall would welcome an opportunity to meet with you and discuss the benefits Microsoft SharePoint can bring to your business.

SharePoint team an informative blog post here:http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2008/05/19/announcing-sharepoint-deployment-planning-services-sdps.aspx

Osvaldo Sousa Microsoft Home Page, SharePoint

We’ve been using the SharePoint wiki for some time to provide our KM platform within Ciall.  Out of the box functionality may not be considered the most sophisticated – but we’ve found the product useable, useful and scalable.

EnduserSharePoint has a great review of the SharePoint WIKI: Wiki-in-the-Box – Is SharePoint Wiki Really that Bad?

The posting gives a good feel for the inherrent functionality of the WIKI as delivered and the additional functionality associated with its being part of SharePoint.  Good article and goes some way to balancing the books.

Barry O'Gorman Microsoft, Technology Home Page, SharePoint, wiki

While Microsoft has not announced an official release date for Office 14, the next version of SharePoint is expected to be out by the end of the year and according to rumours, the server version will be available only in 64 bit, which will require that many companies upgrade not only to a new software version but also in terms of hardware.

Osvaldo Sousa Microsoft Microsoft, Office 14, SharePoint

Interesting to see that despite the straightened economic times, the Microsoft SharePoint conference, scheduled for October 2009, is already looking very popular. Apparently all the early bird places (discounted rate) have already been sold. Just more evidence that SharePoint continues to be selling like hot cakes and attracting massive interest around the globe. I guess the upcoming Office14 release will be a great curiosity for all of us involved in this space.

Michele Microsoft Home Page, SharePoint

Interesting post from Dion Hinchcliffe re Sharepoint in the context of Enterprise 2.0.  Hinchcliffe titles his post – ‘the good, the bad & the ugly’.  We have several implementations of SharePoint behind us with a range of clients.  Our experience has been that the power of the product generally goes unused.  There are no ‘free lunches’.  If you want to use SharePoint to improve/ support collaboration within your organisation you need to commit resources to the initiative – both in the planning, design & build phase and the post go live. 

With the appropriate investment major benefits can accrue to any organisation.  Some of the concerns expressed re complexity of SharePoint (in the context of Enterprise 2.0) are best addressed through careful planning and phased introduction of additional functionality.  The same would apply to any organisational change.

Barry O'Gorman Enterprise 2.0, Microsoft Collaboration, SharePoint