Asif's Blog

Training and Empowering SharePoint Users, Developers, Administrators

Jan 20

Asif RehmaniGeneral, SharePoint Training, Videos No Comments

If you have been following our site or newsletters, you know that our commitment is to train, empower and support SharePoint users at all levels. I would like to focus on exactly how our corporate offerings help accomplish that goal.

Our SharePoint Content

• 100 SharePoint 2007 video tutorials
• 250 SharePoint 2010 video tutorials (growing at a rate of about 4 to 6 additional tutorials every month)

Video tutorial average length: 10 minutes (with the exception of end user videos)

Type of content: Tutorials discussing the ‘why and how’ to accomplish various tasks and functionalities related to SharePoint (using minimal or no PowerPoint slides)

Target audience:

• End Users
• Power Users
• Developers
• Administrators

Content categories:

SharePoint Fundamentals, SharePoint Designer, InfoPath, Workflows, Branding, Business Connectivity Services, Access Services, Project Management, Reporting Services, Records Management and more in the works…

Direct competition covering the breadth of content we offer: None that we are aware of!

Corporate Licensing of Videos

To facilitate training and supporting all SharePoint users, we offer two options:

Option 1) Deploy our end user videos in your environment

It is best for end users of SharePoint to get the help they need directly within the SharePoint environment they are working in without the need to hunt for the information on the web. In addition, there are many ‘bad practices’ that you want to steer your users away from and teach them the ‘best practices’ for interacting with SharePoint (working with documents, pages, list items, subsite settings etc).

To support you with your end users’ training needs, we ship you 105 end user videos that offer on-demand help to SharePoint end users. These are short, to the point, tutorials of 2 minutes or less with full voice narration and visual cues to help the user understand why you do certain tasks in SharePoint and how to do them.

Option 2) Online access at SharePoint-Videos.com for all SharePoint Administrators and Developers

Our list of videos targeting SharePoint administrators, developers and power users has been and will continue to grow on the site. The best way for us to provide you access to all of that information is to setup a corporate log-in id for your organization that your SharePoint personnel can use at anytime to view the tutorials on the site.

Depending on your need, either option 1 or 2 or even a combination of both options would serve your organization best! I am a big believer in the phrase ‘seeing is believing’. If you are like me and would like to visualize how the process would work, check out these short 3 minutes videos on SharePoint End User and SharePoint Admin and Developer training.

We have been serving our corporate clients for many years now. Read our testimonials and check out the list of some of the companies we currently serve.

So what’s the next step?

Get in contact with us through either simply replying to this email, filling out the form on our corporate licensing page or by calling us directly (630) 786-7026. Whatever works best for You. We can help to qualify if your organization is the right fit for the solutions that we offer. Let us know how we can help your SharePoint needs!

Short and to the point End User Training Videos (Beta)

Oct 27

Asif RehmaniGeneral Videos No Comments

We have been getting a lot of feedback from our current and potential customers that they need short and to the point end user training videos. So we went ahead and made a test batch of them here:

http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/sharepoint-2010-training-for-end-users/

(The page might take about a minute to load since there are 19 video thumbnails there. Sorry)

I would Really appreciate it if you can take a few minutes to check some of them out and provide us some feedback. There is a quick anonymous poll on that page you can take and also post some comments after taking the poll. You are also welcome to email me back directly with your thoughts/comments. Thanks in advance!

SharePoint 2010 Posters / Technical Diagrams

Sep 16

Asif RehmaniGeneral SharePoint 2010 No Comments

Have you seen the SharePoint 2010 posters by Microsoft? They are especially helpful if you are in one of the following roles:

• SharePoint Administrator
• SharePoint Developer
• SharePoint Governance Guru (or a Governance team member)
• A Business User (asked/forced to act like a SharePoint Expert in the company)
• “The SharePoint Guy/Gal” at your company

Imagine having a bunch of reference charts you can put up in your office or cubicle that guide you with a specific need or role like Governance, Services available in SharePoint, Authentication models, Farm Topologies, Search mechanisms, SharePoint Databases and more. Of course, they are all available from Microsoft at no-cost.

Here they are:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263199.aspx

These are a result of Microsoft folks like my good friends Dan Evers, Tom Werner, Cathy Brennan, Susan Potter and their teams who are determined to boost SharePoint adoption in organizations around the world. Great job all and keep up the great work. We all appreciate it very much!!

Donate to Help End Global Poverty

Sep 14

Asif RehmaniGeneral No Comments

The usual use of this blog is for SharePoint related news, tips etc. However, once in a while, I blog about things that I really care about like the Haiti relief effort and the flood relief effort in Pakistan.

This blog entry is related to a Walk that I participate in together with my family every year: PartnershipsInAction Walk.

PartnershipsInAction is an initiative of Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. and its network of volunteers across the United States. 100% of all funds raised for Partnership Walk go directly to projects in the developing world (hard to believe I know, but it’s true! I have personally checked it out)

Partnership Walk is a public event to raise awareness about how people can make a difference in ending global poverty. It promotes partnerships among Americans and people in the developing world. Since 1995, 53 Partnership Walks have been held in U.S., attracting thousands of participants and bringing a spark of hope to vulnerable families in Africa and Asia.

This Walk is set to take place this Sunday on September 18, 2011 at Millennium park in Chicago.

I encourage all to donate to this effort if you can!

One Year Access to All Videos on SharePoint-Videos.com

Sep 13

Asif RehmaniGeneral, SharePoint SharePoint Videos No Comments

The Offer

Access to All of our SharePoint Videos (current and the ones that are added regularly to the site) for 1 full year for $179.55. After the year is over, the access is automatically terminated and there is no recurring charge.

Here is the link:
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/SecureCart/SecureCart.aspx?mid=E3B7E8B5-AFFB-470E-8E74-F741CA168A51&pid=c36e3c7b07f346538b103f76408d8808

You can use the above link and then use the following coupon code:
sp10disc (please be sure to click Apply button after entering the coupon code)

That will give you a 10% discount on the regular price of $199.50 making the total to $179.55.

The membership will start automatically right after the payment is made.

(Note: This membership is not available through our site. The one on the site is the yearly recurring membership for $199.50/year)

Details about the Videos

• Current video count: 271 (More videos are constantly being added every other week)
• Video tutorials are created by experts in the SharePoint field – http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/about/
• Video length is from 5 minutes to 30 minutes each video. Almost all of the videos are entirely demonstration to show you how to do tasks and create your solutions on top of SharePoint. PowerPoint is minimized as much as possible
• Videos are categorized, tagged, compiled in courses and also easily searchable – http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/video-categories/
• Videos work on all platforms: PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, iPods, Android phones etc.

Sample the Videos before making the decision

Lots of our videos are available here to be watched at no cost: http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/all-free-videos/

SharePoint Resources – September 2011

Sep 08

Asif RehmaniGeneral SharePoint 2010 No Comments

Guidance and Best Practices

Data Storage Changes for SharePoint 2010
With the release of SharePoint 2010 SP1 and some new guidance Microsoft is changing the supported data size limits for SharePoint content databases. Prior to SP1 the content database limit was 200 GB for collaboration and 1 TB for document archive. The content database size includes both metadata and BLOBs regardless of where the BLOBs are located and use of RBS does not bypass or increase these limits.
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blog/Pages/BlogPost.aspx?pID=988

Project Professional 2010 and SharePoint Online in Office 365
Learn how project managers can collaborate with teams to share schedule details quickly with Project Professional 2010 and SharePoint Online task list synchronization.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/project/archive/2011/06/29/microsoft-project-professional-2010-and-sharepoint-online-in-office-365.aspx

White Papers and Articles

Security in Office 365 white paper
This white paper provides an overview of the security practices and technology that support enterprise-grade security in Office 365 for businesses of all sizes.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26552

Customizing SharePoint Online with SharePoint Designer 2010
This is a whitepaper I (Asif Rehmani) wrote for MSDN. It was released in August 2011.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh428136.aspx

Managing multi-terabyte content databases with SharePoint 2010
This white paper provides guidance about capacity management, performance, and data protection for SharePoint environments that have large content databases.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26700

Webcasts and Videos

TechNet Webcast Recording: Talk TechNet with Keith Combs and Matt Hester – Episode 47: SharePoint with Jason Kaczor (Level 200)
orginally held on 8/3/2011 9:00 AM Time zone: (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Jason is a Microsoft SharePoint MVP focused on architecture, implementations, governance, and best practices. He has been providing technical solutions to business problems for over 18 years; covering nearly all industry sectors
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032490784&culture=en-US

Database attach upgrade videos on-demand
These two videos demonstrate how to use a database attach upgrade method with read-only databases to upgrade from SharePoint Server 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh315922.aspx

Info on SharePoint Service Pack 1 and Hotfixes

Description of the SharePoint Designer 2010 hotfix package
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2536592

Technical details about the SharePoint 2010 and Office Server 2010 SP1 releases
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2532120

List of all SharePoint 2010 and Office Server 2010 SP1 packages
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510766

July 4th Sale on all Single User License DVDs

Jun 30

Asif RehmaniGeneral Videos No Comments

We have not held a sales event on the single user DVDs for many months now. So we have decided to commemorate the July 4th weekend by holding a sale on All of our single user DVD-ROMs (SharePoint 2007 and 2010) listed here:

http://www.sharepoint-videos.com/products/

This includes titles such as SharePoint Fundamentals, SharePoint Designer Workflows, Business Connectivity Services, Reporting Services and more. Once you own the DVD, you can play it on multiple computers, but it is for a single user’s usage. Let us know if you need a multi user license for the videos.

When checking out using the shopping cart, use the code SPD2010DVD (Please don’t forget to click the Apply button for the discount to apply before completing the transaction).

The sale will terminate at the end of the day on July 5th.

This deal applies to all whether you are in USA or not. Happy Independence Day everyone!

SharePoint Easy Start – An easy way for anyone to start or continue their SharePoint Journey

May 05

Asif RehmaniGeneral SharePoint Videos, Training, Videos 1 Comment

Check out the SharePoint Easy Start page!
 
After years of teaching, consulting, writing and speaking on SharePoint, I realize that each of us is still learning and discovering the power of all you can do with SharePoint. You might be a beginner or have been using SharePoint for a number of years. You might be using SharePoint 2007 or maybe you were one of the first to jump on SharePoint 2010. In any case, we are all still continuing on our SharePoint journey and it is important for us all to understand how the different pieces on the SharePoint platform fit together.
 
Since each of us has a different need and a starting point, I created the SharePoint Easy Start page to make it easy for everyone to dive right in. Just pick the version of SharePoint you are using (either 2007 or 2010) and we will guide you on your SharePoint journey. If you have any feedback about the page, we would love to hear it. Thanks!

Train your users on SharePoint 2007 functionality

Apr 06

Asif RehmaniGeneral Training No Comments

Now that SharePoint 2010 is out in the market, most of the companies (including ours) are very much focused on providing training on that product. However, what about the companies that are using SharePoint 2007 and are not planning on migrating to the next version anytime soon? Look around and what you are sure to find is that there is not much ‘quality’ training available on that product anymore. Being in the training industry for a long time now, I know this for a fact that expert trainers usually move on quickly to the latest and greatest because that’s where most of the training opportunities and interests are.
 
So what do we do if our company plans to remain on SharePoint 2007 for the foreseeable future?
We might be able to help with your training needs! We have a robust library of 100 SharePoint 2007 related videos. They are fully narrated and are anywhere from 6 minutes to 45 minutes in length each. These videos are for all levels of SharePoint users (end users, power users, site administrators, site collection administrators, IT professionals and developers). Many companies have used our videos to provide their employees with on-demand training as they need it.
 
What about when we upgrade to SharePoint 2010?
No worries. When you are ready to upgrade to SharePoint 2010, there is a significant discount offered on the pricing of our SharePoint 2010 video packages to our existing customers.
 
How do I get more information about your offerings?
Fill out the form on our site to get started. Provide us with some information about your need in the ‘Description’ field of the form. We can then discuss via phone or email the various options we have to offer and will tailor them to your needs.

SharePoint Designer 2010 ebook on the Kindle

Nov 15

Asif RehmaniGeneral, SharePoint Designer Books No Comments

Beginning SharePoint Designer 2010 book now available on the Kindle:

Also available on the Nook and as an electronic eBook to read on other devices.