Technology Over the Years

Woody Allen used to say that 80% of success is showing up. I’d add that the remaining 20% is staying there long enough.

I was first introduced to Information Technology when I was in high school, back when the Apollo program was going on and the Foundations were singing “Build Me Up Buttercup”.

I am a member of a very small group of people around town who studied “Computer Science” 40 years ago and stuck with it ever since. I enjoy being at industry roundtables when we go around the room introducing ourselves and stating how long we’ve been in the business. I’m often the granddaddy of them all.

So naturally, over the years I’ve come to see all kinds of technology come and go and I thought this month I’d summarize the ones I think were truly revolutionary.

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Official Microsoft SharePoint Competancy

We’ve been working with SharePoint for a long time, and now we are being recognized formally as having a SharePoint competancy under Microsoft’s Gold Certified Partner program!

Our competancy comes with a specialization in Portals and Collaboration.

Congratulations to Brad and Charles on writing and passing exams to help us achieve this competancy.

And thank you to Dave for working so hard at keeping us on track year after year with our Microsoft Gold certification. This year there are fewer than 30 companies across Canada that belong to Microsoft’s Partner Excellence Program, and Nicom is one of these companies.

Achieving an official SharePoint competancy is huge for us because of the wide use of this technology. Well done!

For Organizational Collaboration, MOSS is Boss

Last month I wrote about all types of server software: Windows Server for sharing files, SQL Server for databases, Exchange Server for email, and Internet Information Server for hosting websites. But I didn’t talk about the fastest-selling server software ever because I was saving it for an article of its own. It is Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, otherwise known as MOSS.

A few months back, I wrote an article on how SharePoint was gaining popularity as a collaboration tool for organizations. That article talked about SharePoint in general, and didn’t differentiate between the free Windows SharePoint Services you get with Windows Server, and the much more expansive (and expensive) MOSS. (Past articles are in my blog; see the caption at the end of this article.)

This article will talk about features only found in MOSS. To help me prepare for this article, I tapped on Nicom’s Senior SharePoint Consultant’s shoulder, Brad George, and this is what he came up with.

“My Site”. This feature provides a single place to go to compile all tasks that are assigned to you—documents, links, contact information, and other content that applies to you. Your very own corporate website.

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SharePoint Portal Makes For Enterprise-Wide Collaboration

What a way to learn. I was with my colleagues Dave and Geoff, a couple of people from Microsoft, and a dozen or so customers at Glen Arbor Golf Course. We called it the Nicom IT Solutions/Microsoft “Golfinar”, a combination golf game and seminar.

Before we hit the links, we had a hands-on demonstration of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, MOSS, the fastest-selling server software in Microsoft history. If you haven’t heard of it, chances are you will soon. Actually SharePoint has been out since 1999, but it is with the latest release along with Microsoft Office 2007 that it has really taken off. Some of our employees have been working with it since 1999, but they tell me it is this release that has reached the maturity required for large-scale enterprise-wide adoption.

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