Your First Search Should Be Delve

Real-World Scenario: Today a colleague let me know that he just created a new document that I need to review, and tells me he put it in the Intranet Portal in SharePoint Online (Office 365). That's kool - except that he forgot to give me a link to it.

Okay, I know the general area where the document probably resides. But instead of traditional search tactics, I go to Delve. It automatically shows me a bunch of relevant docs from different people, including my colleague above. To scope further, I add his name to the filter, and voila - the 4th doc down is the one I'm looking for - modified 1 hour ago. (in comparison, a standard Search Everything query in SharePoint required a couple of tries, required a good keyword, and still didn't give me the reassuring info regarding Modified 1 hour ago)

The Lesson: Delve is a powerful personalized Search tool that many times should be considered first before doing traditional searches, and definitely before trying to point-n-click your way around sites to find content.

I’m just saying… : )

Moving Your SharePoint Development to the Cloud

I enjoyed my trip to Cleveland last nite to speak at Bennett Adelson’s .NET SIG event on the topic of developing for SharePoint in the Cloud. When I say Cloud, I specifically mean SharePoint Online and Windows Azure. With such a big topic, I was glad to be able to fit a coherent presentation in 1 hour. There’s probably 10 more presentations I could do as jump-offs from this one – we’ll see what the future holds.

You can find my presentation on slideshare.net, or below on OneDrive:

 

SharePoint to feature at DogFoodCon 2014

Once again, Columbus Ohio will host the 2-day Microsoft Dog Food Conference on Sept 29-30th 2014. Many technologies will feature, including of course SharePoint and its related technologies.

First, let’s get the important news out of the way:

• July 9th is the deadline for speaker’s to submit topics
• July 29th is when Registration opens
• Sept 29th is the beginning of your mind being blown by the tons of topics at #DogFoodCon being given by great speakers and experts!

Next, let’s take a look at some of the posts from last year’s conference from many of it’s participants, speakers and fans (click images to view the posts in their entirety):

And for a view of all the slide decks from last year, check it out here!

Looking forward to seeing you all at this year’s conference!

Microsoft DogFood 2013 Conference–Day 1

What a great kickoff for DogFood 2013! A large number of attendees showed up for the first day of this year’s Microsoft DogFood Conference in Columbus Ohio. Tons of Microsoft topics were being presented, including topics like Windows Phone App development, automated testing strategies, InfoPath, and of course SharePoint. 
As we now move into Day 2, I’m looking forward to presenting on PowerShell with PS guru Ryan Dennis. Be sure to follow the conversation on Twitter at #DogFoodCon.

Attendees listening to Ricardo Wilkins discuss
SharePoint 2013 development features

I delivered two presentations on Day 1:

• Leveraging the Powerful Forces of InfoPath
• “I’m a Developer and I Hate SharePoint…” – Why SharePoint 2013 Will Change Your Mind

Each had great attendance, and great participation. You can find the slidedecks below, or on Slideshare:

Update: below you’ll also find the PowerShell talk mentioned above, as well as the slides from fellow colleague Eric Grover on Windows 8 App development:

Eric grover strategies for sharing code with windows 8 and windows phone 8 apps from Eric Grover

Speaking at DogFood Conference 2013

Once again, I’m honored to be speaking at the DogFood Conference in Columbus, Ohio on November 21-22.

Dogfooding is all about using the very tools that you produce, and this year Microsoft will show once again how they make use of many of the products and technologies that they sell to us. Whether it be Windows 8, SharePoint, Surface, Xbox, or the Cloud, the Dog Food Conference this year will showcase tons of topics presented over 2 days by community IT professionals.

This year I’ll be teaming up with SharePoint Ryan to give a new talk called:

SharePoint PowerShell for the Admin and Developer: A Venn Diagram Experience

As you may have guessed, this talk will be about the koolness of Powershell, and how it can be a powerful tool not just for the SharePoint Admin, but also for the SharePoint Developer, and with some kool scenarios in-between. In addition, I’ll be giving a refreshed version of my SharePoint 2013 Dev Features talk as well.

Also, be on the lookout for talks from my fellow Blue Chip colleagues, including:

Eric Grover:	Strategies for sharing code with Windows store & Windows phone apps
John Azzolina:	Get Into The (Data) Flow: Using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) to Move Data Around Your Organization

The evite can be found here – remember, registration begins October 21!

Premier partners, today’s tools, and all that good stuff

A few months ago, I made a transition and decided to accept an invitation to join the Content & Collaboration practice at Blue Chip Consulting Group. Blue Chip is a Gold Certified, Microsoft Managed Partner specializing in Infrastructure Optimization, and providing quality consulting services within the Microsoft stack. They’ve also been recently named as one of the Top 5 Microsoft Consulting Services’ Premier Service Partners for FY13, a distinction they’ve achieved 2 years running.

My consulting toolbox hasn’t changed much since my last role. In fact, Cloudshare is still as much a part of my tool set as it was in my last related post. And with the addition of their persistent DNS and vanity URL features, it’s now even easier to quickly fire up my VM’s when I need them, even on my Surface Pro tablet PC. These days, tho, I’m also making more use of VMWare for offline access.

But what is somewhat new to my list of dev toys is my personal Office 365 SharePoint account (recently upgraded to 2013 a few months back). I find that this is useful to have in order to get up to speed on the deployment and development differences between cloud and on-premise SharePoint projects, especially as more of our customers continue to explore Office 365 as an option for their SharePoint environment. And, at $8/month for a SharePoint-only E3 plan, it’s very economical as well.

Stay tuned for future posts as I continue to explore these tools & technologies to enhance my SharePoint 2013 delivery.

Using a Touch Tablet for SharePoint Planning

As a SharePoint consultant, I’m often involved in whiteboard sessions where some aspect of SharePoint planning is being discussed and documented. This process can be facilitated in many ways, and with many tools, some of which may be more effective than others. As a happy owner of a Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet PC, I’m starting to explore new ways of using it to enhance the value of the consulting that I provide to my clients.