Mindsharp

Mindsharp Hosts the 2013 SharePoint Best Practices Conference

Bill English — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 11:05:32 GMT

On May 15-17, Mindsharp will be hosting the 2013 SharePoint Best Practices Conference for business stakeholders and business leaders who are responsible for the ongoing success of SharePoint in their environment. We will be holding this at the Rush Creek golf course in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

Why Come to the 2013 SharePoint Best Practices Conference?

This conference will be unlike any other SharePoint conference. What will make it different?

First, the conference speakers will be composed mainly of SharePoint customers from the Fortune 500 space, Non-profit verticles, State and Local plus other businesses. Instead of hearing from the same speaker crew you might hear at SPTechCon, Share, Connections, SharePointFest, SharePoint Saturdays and other events, you'll hear fresh perspectives on what worked and what didn't work from the business leaders who work in the trenches each day to ensure SharePoint is a success for their organization. All of the other conferences will give you technical details, but no conference like the 2013 SharePoint Best Practices Conference will give you insight into the business/SharePoint integration issues.

Secondly, we believe that you can discover and improve your own best practices by listening to what worked from others who have done it in the real world. And because most of our speakers are not consultants, you won't feel like you're being sold something during the presentation. When you listen to what has worked for others, you'll "connect the dots" between what they are talking about and what you can do in your deployment to implement your own best practices.

Thirdly, this is NOT a SharePoint technical conference. There are no "how to" sessions. There will be no developer, ITPro, designer or end-user SharePoint presentations. Instead, every presentation will focus on the who, what and why. We'll focus on business process, enterprise content management, governance/risk/compliance, security, business-drivers for SharePoint adoption and user adoption methodologies. We'll have sessions that are highly focused on solving business problems using SharePoint or on solving business culture issues that were hindering SharePoint's adoption. There will be no SharePoint technical presentations. Instead, this SharePoint conference is designed for the business leaders and stakeholders in your organization.

Who will be at this conference?

Ben Curry from Summit 7 Systems will keynote this event on Wednesday evening, May 15^th. He is one of the brightest and most talented people I know in the SharePoint space and I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing the latest thinking he has on how business leverages SharePoint to solve business problems.

We will have invited and selected sponsors attending this conference. But there will be no exhibit hall. Instead, we'll have a sponsor reception on the evening of Thursday, May 16, at which time you can speak with any of the sponsors who might interest you.

Our speakers will be comprised most of SharePoint customers. The companies represented in our speaker lineup include:

Sprint
PCL
Mindsharp
Walt Disney
National Gypsum
Microsoft
Summit 7 Systems
Fagre Benson Daniels
Early & Associates
Corridor Consulting
HB Fuller
Minnesota Department of Transportation
Think-UK
Magee Rehab
Goodwill
Fresenius Medical Care
HighPoint Solutions
Best Buy
Parsons Construction
Intel
St. Jude Children's Hospital
Medtronic
Coca Cola
MobileIron
Ford Foundation
General Mills
Alabama Department of Mental Health
Applied Materials

Uncommitted speakers include:

3M
Kellogg Foundation
Target
Ecolab
Emerson Electronics

Where can I learn more?

You can learn more at the Best Practices Conference web site. Registration is now open, so be sure to get your registration in early.

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp

Mindsharp Introduces New Registration Discount Program

Bill English — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:04:35 GMT

In an effort to help deliver the best SharePoint training at the lowest cost possible, I'm proud that we have announced our new Early Registration and Pricing Structure. By utilizing this structure and planning ahead, you can get Mindsharp-quality education at a lower cost than ever before. We're already starting to see Mindsharp customers take advantage of this program for their SharePoint Training needs. As we innovate on how we deliver SharePoint education and move into the SharePoint 2013 time frame, we're also innovating on how to ensure we deliver our services at the lowest possible cost to you. If you've not learned about our Early Registration and Pricing Structure, please take a moment now to see how this simple, yet effective program works.

And as always, you can contact me directly if you have any thoughts or questions. Thanks for your confidence and trust in Mindsharp.

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp

Rejuvenate Your SharePoint Implementation

Bill English — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:52:57 GMT

I'm proud to announce that we have expanded our one-day SharePoint Re-Design class to be three days covering a more broad set of business issues that hinder SharePoint deployments. Based on customer feedback, we have made this class available both online and in-person and it will cover the topics listed below. If you've had a disappointing SharePoint deployment, then this class is designed for you. Before you contemplate an upgrade to SharePoint 2013, invest three days into solving the problems that surface from gaps in your business model and culture. You'll find this class extremely worthwhile. This is part of our SharePoint for Business series and falls into the Business Leader and SharePoint Architect tracks.

Here is the syllabus:

Mindsharp's SharePoint for Business Series

Rejuvenating SharePoint Deployments by Addressing Core Business Issues

Overview

This 3-day seminar is designed to help those responsible for the success of SharePoint within their organization to address and solve the core business issues that hinder the organization from experiencing a high ROI on their SharePoint deployment.

The core thesis of this class is that dysfunction in the business model and/or culture will be surfaced through a SharePoint deployment, but those problems will be seen as technology problems rather than business problems. Addressing these issues – which are different in every organization - will lead to an outstanding SharePoint deployment, but solving them is not easy. In order to experience a great SharePoint deployment, you'll need:

Proper governance
Improved management & interpersonal skills
Thorough understanding of your business model
Well-articulated application architecture
Well-articulated content platform architecture
Grassroots SharePoint management and technical skills

Ultimately, the goal of this class is to help you connect how SharePoint can further the goals and strategies of your organization so that your organization achieves success in fulfilling its' vision and purpose.

Prerequisites

Prior to taking this seminar, students should have a general knowledge of how SharePoint works from the desktop viewpoint. If prospective students have not worked with SharePoint before attending this class, then we would ask that students complete the Mindsharp end user course for SharePoint through Mindsharp or Combined Knowledge. In this seminar, we assume that attendees have:

A working knowledge of business process concepts
A solid understanding of business structure
Familiarity with methods of capturing content (Putability)
Familiarity with methods of extracting content from an information system (Findability)
A basic understanding of searching and indexing concepts

Primary Audience

This seminar will be most useful for business people who are charged with the success of SharePoint's implementation and/or ongoing integration with other platforms. The titles for these people vary as much as the organizations who are adopting SharePoint. Essentially, anyone responsible managing information in the business or managing a SharePoint deployment will find this 3-day class to be extremely useful.

As this offering aims to bridge the gap between business and technology, we strongly recommend that organizations send representatives from both the business and IT departments.

This seminar will not have any step-by-step labs nor is a student computer needed for this course. Instructor demonstrations will illustrate how the principles in the seminar are applied in SharePoint 2010. However, this course is not version specific – it will be useful to anyone using any version of SharePoint.

All students and instructors will be required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement so that everyone can feel comfortable discussing their own scenario inside the class.

Day 1: Business Models, Governance & User Adoption

Module 1: Assess and Understand Your Business Environment

Many SharePoint deployments will surface dysfunction in the organization's business models and overall culture because SharePoint is a business operations platform and has a wide "touch and feel" within most organizations. In this opening module, you will learn two distinct reference architectures and discuss how to perform a gap and redundancy analysis to better understand your business and ECM environment into which SharePoint is being implemented.

What you will learn:

How to apply a business reference architecture to your current environment as a method of building an application architecture for your organization
How to use an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) reference architecture to assess the role(s) that SharePoint will play in managing organization content
How to discern where you have gaps (missing elements) or redundancies in your environment relative to the reference architectures presented
How to discern business model or culture problems when they are surfaced by a SharePoint deployment

Module 2: Assess and Understand the Scope of your SharePoint Implementation

Using a simple, but innovative method for understanding the scope of your SharePoint projects, you will learn a matrix that will help you be successful with your SharePoint implementations.

What you will learn:

The Start Big/Small/Top/Bottom matrix that will crystallize your thinking about your own SharePoint implementation.
How to break down your overall SharePoint implementation into manageable "chunks" that can be assessed using the this matrix
How to identify areas of concern that you will need to address as part of your improvement efforts

Module 3: Understanding How Users Adopt New Technologies

User adoption of any new technology – especially SharePoint – is not rocket science. Learning how to use existing, proven research in understanding how users adoption new technologies is critical to a successful rollout. Using Diffusion Theory, you will learn a coherent, practical strategy on how you can achieve a successful adoption of SharePoint in your environment.

What you will learn:

The decision-making process that every person goes through when presented with a new idea
The five fundamental elements that need to be addressed in order for a person to accept a new idea
A practical strategy on how to build a process for user adoption in your environment

Module 4: Understanding the Core Concepts of Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC)

In this module, we'll introduce corporate governance terms and concepts and then broadly apply them to a SharePoint deployment. You'll learn how governance, risk and compliance are connected and why you need to re-state your governance models to include risk and compliance concepts.

What you will learn:

The common threads in how corporate governance is defined and how those threads are broadly applied to a SharePoint deployment
How agency costs can be conceptualized in a SharePoint deployment
Ideas on how to re-state your governance documentation to include risk and compliance
Map the different layers of governance to the core elements of your business model and ECM structures
Understand how politics and dysfunction in the business models or culture can negatively impact good governance.
How a poor ECM architecture and e-discovery pose two core risks to your company and serve as an illustration for how to build good GRC

Day 2: People and Alignment

Module 5: Methodologies to Enforce Governance

How an organization achieves compliance is what governance really is. In this module, we'll look at aspects of different software that will help in your governance efforts. While software isn't the only part of enforcing governance, it is increasingly being seen as a core tool in a governance effort. We don't minimize or ignore the role that "people managing people" plays in an organization. But in this module, we'll focus on how software can help with governance.

What you will learn:

Working with Auditing in SharePoint
Working with Auditing in Active Directory
Enforcing Governance through SharePoint Security
Governance, SharePoint Workspace and Mobile Devices
Third-party software options

Module 6: Mapping Business Requirements to Business GRC

Many times, SharePoint is deployed without well-articulated business requirements. Requirements form the context into which SharePoint is deployed. In this module, we discuss the elements of good business requirements and the process utilized to extract from those requirements any compliance and governance issues that might arise.

What you will learn:

Understanding the core elements of good business requirements
Learning the process of re-stating requirements in Governance Terms
In-Class exercise using your own business requirements

Module 7: "Managing Up" in the midst of tension or dysfunction

This might be the most important module of the entire three days. In this module, we'll discuss how to "manage up" in a dysfunctional environment. This module will focus on you, your communication skills and ideas on how to manage in difficult scenarios.

What you will learn:

How to restate problems in terms managers more fully understand and present to them in a way that will most likely bring about success
How to surface conflict and work to end it, resolve it or transform it into a solution
The six character dimensions you'll need to be successful in business and life
How to provide leadership when you're in middle or lower management

Module 8: Training and Education

Helping people understand how to use SharePoint is visceral to your success for your SharePoint implementation. 57% of those who implement SharePoint never obtain training for their users or are unhappy with their current training solution. In this module, you'll learn about the various management and technical roles that SharePoint will introduce in your environment and gain some ideas on how to plan for staffing for those roles.

What you will learn:

The different management and technical roles that SharePoint assumes is present in your organization
How to conduct a skills assessment for those roles to see who might need education
Staffing ideas for your SharePoint deployment – based on your business model, ECM architecture and Governance model

Day 3: Content Management, Compliance & Platform Integration

Module 9 – SharePoint Elements used for Organizing Information

This module will provide an overview of SharePoint features for storage locations and records management. We will discuss the use of key elements in SharePoint, their connectivity, security and appropriate use.

Document libraries, lists and web parts
Document Centers with drop off libraries
Content Types
Understanding the Microsoft Metadata Services architecture and basic implementation steps
Records Center
Best and Worst Practices plus Trade-off Decisions

Module 10 – Putability: Putting Information into SharePoint

In this module, we'll dive into how information goes into and comes out of an information retrieval system. This module is about the concepts of Putability and Findability. We'll discuss the latest research on these two topics and also take a look at why they are important for your organization to understand.

Understanding Putability
Demonstrations on how information is put into SharePoint
Social network tags and their integration with the MMS
Best and Worst Practices plus Trade-off Decisions

Module 11 – Findability: Pulling information out of SharePoint

In this module we will discuss what is possible using the different search capabilities in SharePoint 2010 and how to organize your information to optimize access across the organization.

Search Topology
Indexing Topology
Corporate Information Policy
Taxonomies, Folksonomies, Metadata
Federated Searches
Demonstrations of the findability technologies in SharePoint

Module 12 – Finding Expertise in Your Organization

This module covers the expertise in your organization through people search. When set up correctly, this will allow better visibility to those that have worked on similar projects through the use of profiles, tagging and status.

Understanding user profiles and MySites in SharePoint 2010
Learning how to customize the metadata for user profiles
Understanding how to find expertise in the SharePoint 2010
Best and Worst Practices plus Trade-off Decisions

Module 13: Integrating SharePoint with Other ECM Systems

SharePoint is often deployed in environments where other ECM platforms are already installed. In this module, we'll discuss the four basic topologies of integrating SharePoint with other ECM systems. We do not reference other specific ECM systems, but instead talk about SharePoint's integration generically with other ECM systems. Specifically, we'll discuss:

Differentiation between data integration and application integration
Understanding the various methods of integrating SharePoint with other ECM systems
Understanding when SharePoint should not integrate with other ECM systems
Best and Worst Practices plus Trade-off Decisions

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp

SharePoint for Business Posters

Bill English — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:15:20 GMT

I'm pleased to announce that we have a set of four posters that support and assist our SharePoint training efforts for business users and business leaders. These posters visualize some of the most important business concepts as they relate to SharePoint deployments. Specifically, the posters visualize:

Governance Model:

Business Reference Architecture:

ECM Reference Architecture:

Diffusion Theory and User Adoption:

You can get a free set of these posters simply by registering for them at Mindsharp. Thanks for your trust and confidence in Mindsharp's SharePoint training.

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp

SharePoint 2013 First Look Opportunity

Bill English — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:08:23 GMT

Be the first to learn about SharePoint 2013 by attending Mindsharp's first webinar on this new platform. This is a great opportunity to hear and learn what's new in SharePoint 2013.

Location: Online, NA
Dates: Jul 18 - Jul 18
11:00 AM CT
Price: Free

https://www.mindsharp.com/Pages/RegistrationFree.aspx?id=CMP-01121-BP88KT&token=1032

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp

Organizing Information in SharePoint Video Clips

Bill English — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:21:40 GMT

You can now view a number of new video clips of me teaching how to organize information in SharePoint. Learn more about this promotion from Mindsharp. I hope you can take some time to view the videos and learn more about ECM in SharePoint!

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp

What Does Mindsharp Do?

Bill English — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 10:21:53 GMT

Nearly every business needs to take a step back and ensure that its' Purpose, Vision and Mission are aligned and that its' products, services and efforts are directed toward fulfilling its' core purpose. We have just finished a multi-month process of aligning our business processes with our Purpose, Vision and Mission so that you, our customer, experience increasingly SharePoint training and education from us.

Mindsharp is known as one of the best SharePoint training companies on the planet. But what may surprise many is just how broad and comprehensive our service offerings are. For example, did you know we have 46 days of unique education on SharePoint 2010? Did you know that you can attend nearly all of our SharePoint training classes online?

We now have 14 days of training that is devoted to the business user (include the 5-day end-user course in your calculations). We have 32 days of unique education for the technical geeks in your organization.

There are many SharePoint training companies out there now. There are many that offer different levels of quality in their training. Some have been around since 2001, like us – but not many. But there isn't another company besides Combined Knowledge in the UK that has been around as long as we have and offers the same breadth of SharePoint training that we offer:

Mindsharp Products and Services

SharePoint for Business Series

At-a-Glance

Web Content Management Developer

Project Management in SharePoint

Re-Design and User Adoption Seminar

Governance for SharePoint (Q4, 2012)

Information Organization

Business Intelligence

Instructor-Led



Online



On-Demand

Q4, 2012

Q1, 2013

Q4, 2012

Total

# of Days

Over 1500 people take our training each year. If you've been hiring the other guys, I invite you to try us out. The next time you need SharePoint training, consider calling the one company that can train literally everyone in your company, world-wide. You won't be disappointed.

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp

What Does a UserVersity for SharePoint Certification from Mindsharp Mean?

Bill English — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:36:28 GMT

Our UserVersity computer-based training products can give you the confidence that your employees or team members have developed the skills they need to use SharePoint successfully in your environment. When you educate your employees or team members on how to use software, you'll get more ROI from your software deployment as well as increased productivity from each individual. UserVersity for SharePoint Certifications means that you'll meet each of these Critical Education Success Factors:

Critical Success Factor	CSF Definition	Mitigated Risks	UserVersity Certification Solution
Train Effectively	Training strategies should be appropriate and minimize disruption.	Disrupted projects; training time is poorly utilized; material is not targeted to support their specific tasks; productivity delays due to calendar synchronization with class schedule	Just-in-Time (JIT) training is conducted in <10 minute increments. Users work on projects and day-to-day tasks while learning necessary SharePoint skills; learning is "fit in" to user's calendar
Train Continuously	Don't treat training as a one-time event	Loss of skills learned but not used; training seen as "necessary evil" that detracts from "real" job tasks	Lessons can be watched multiple times; learning occurs as new skill is needed
Relevance	Your target audience needs to link your corporate strategy to their day-to-day activities	Discontinuity between daily tasks, job performance and corporate strategy and goals	Supports all non-customized uses of SharePoint
Practice	Old habits need to be broken and new procedures need practice	Passive resistance to new technology; use of old procedures avoids the "pain of change"	Resistance is overcome through learning and certifications; prestige is gained through public reward system
Consistency	Uniformity is critical for end-users from understanding to executing procedures	Lack of understanding in how SharePoint really works; using the technology in unintended ways produces unintended consequences	Supports correct understanding of how to use the technology in support of corporate goals
Convenient	Training must be timely when the new system is deployed	Training deployed too early or too late	JIT education provides user-initiated learning on the user's schedule
Thorough Reference Materials	Users need access whenever a problem arises. Courseware must meet the challenge	Lack of alignment between support frames-of-reference and training frames-of-reference	Ambient availability of lessons ensures that users can refer back to individual lessons to further and strengthen their learning

In addition, the benefits of successful training that result in certifications are obvious:

Participation: when you have 100% participation in an education program, then you're confident that everyone has the skills necessary to work together and achieve success. UserVersity certifications give you the confidence that you're users have acquired the appropriate SharePoint skills necessary to their job.
Adoption: Diffusion theory is adamant about users having opportunities to "try out" (Trialability) a new technology before baking it into their day-to-day activities. This ensures that every employee has the skills and understanding necessary to utilize the new processes and procedures the company is relying on for success. UserVersity certifications are rigorous – requiring your employees to answer over 100 questions and successfully perform demonstrations within our testing system.
Updated Materials: UserVersity lessons and certifications are kept up-to-date when Microsoft releases service packs or new features
New Hire Training Improvements: UserVersity certifications are an excellent way to swiftly get your new hires up-to-speed on their SharePoint skills
Employees Self-Service: UserVersity lessons and certifications "fit into" your employee's schedules and lifestyle

Only Mindsharp offers a full line of power user education and certifications that will demonstrate your employee's or team member's learning progress. Try it out for yourself today and learn how UserVersity education and certifications can help your organization achieve success!

Here different samples from our UserVersity certification exams:

Scenario-Type:

For the next 4 questions, you will be asked to configure a list so that users are able to read all items on the list, but are only able to edit items that they created.

Sequence Drag & Drop:

The Marketing Materials library is set up to require content approval, and for only users who can edit items to be able to see draft items. The "UserVersity Brochure" has been checked back into the Marketing Materials library as a minor version. Arrange the steps in the sequence you would perform them so that a team member who has Read permissions in the library can see the document.

Hover Your cursor over the file name and click the down-arrow
Select Publish a Major Version
Click OK in the "Publish Major Version" window
Hover your cursor over the file name and click the down-arrow
Select Approve/Reject

Word Bank Example:

Q: Drag and drop the statement that correctly completes the sentence into the blank space.

When you select "Display the same navigation items as the parent site",

By default, each site is given its own top link bar
The top link bar will remain the same in all sites in the site collection
Links to these subsites and pages will be displayed in the navigation by default if you are inheriting navigation from the parent site.
The top link displays subsites regardless if inheritance is on or off.

Multiple Choice:

Q: On the Document Version History section of the Versioning Settings Page, for the "Create a version each time you edit a file in this document library?" setting, which option creates a new Minor version every time a team member checks out and then checks in the file?

Create Major and Minor (draft) versions
Create Major Versions
No Versioning

Hot Spot Example:

After clicking the List tab, use the image to show what you would do next to configure item-level permissions.

True/False Examples

Disabling ratings removes the fields from the list or library, but not from the underlying content types.
See image.

We think you'll find UserVersity certifications to be essential in ensuring your employees or team members know how to use SharePoint effectively in their job. For more information, email sales@mindsharp.com.

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp

SharePoint Re-Design and Adoption Seminar

Bill English — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 04:50:10 GMT

A one-day intensive course on how to properly re-design SharePoint in your environment and successfully drive user adoption of SharePoint technologies. This is a seminar designed for:

Enterprise Application Architects
System Administrators
Project Managers
Business Analysts
Any title or level of individual who is responsible for improving a disappointing SharePoint deployment

Many SharePoint implementations have generated disappointing results. Yet most SharePoint customers intuitively see the value SharePoint offers and want to "try again" as they upgrade to SharePoint 2010 or as they look forward to SharePoint 2013. This seminar is especially designed for those who have implemented SharePoint and have had disappointing results and need to re-design their deployment for greater business benefit and better user experience.

Taught by Experts with Real-World Experience

Ben Curry
Principle Architect and Managing Partner, Summit 7 Systems

Ben Curry (CISSP, MVP, MCP, MCT) is a well-known author and enterprise network architect specializing in knowledge management and collaboration technologies. Ben is a Managing Partner at Summit 7 Systems, a company focused on the next generation of Microsoft products. Ben's philosophy is that the best solutions are inspired by the best ideas and he encourages his team to continuously generate and share ideas. His numerous publications embody his philosophy.

Ben enjoys sharing his ideas as an instructor, both in the IT world and in the underworld — Ben is a certified scuba instructor with a passion for diving. Ben's other life passions include riding his Harley Davidson through his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, coaching his daughter's softball team. Ben is happily married to Kimberly and is the proud father of their children, Madison and Bryce.

Bill English
CEO, Mindsharp

Bill English - (MCSE, MCSA, MCT) - is an industry leader, author, and educator specializing in SharePoint Products and Technologies. As Chief Executive Officer of EBA Companies (Mindsharp and The Best Practices Conference), Bill draws on his experience in business management to teach and consult about mapping SharePoint features to business processes and information organization needs. As a former psychologist in Minnesota for nine years, English uses his knowledge of human behavior to help companies implement change through software platforms. Microsoft has acknowledged Bill's professional contributions to the SharePoint community by awarding him the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for eleven consecutive years. Since 2000, Bill has authored 14 books on Exchange and SharePoint products, including the Administrator's Companion for SharePoint Server 2010 by Microsoft Press. Bill lives in Minnesota with his wife and two children, where summer is the six best days of the year!

Seminar Details and Outline

This seminar is for those who are responsible for the success of a SharePoint implementation in their environment. This is not a technical seminar in which we will explain how to configure or customize SharePoint.

Instead, this seminar will focus on the business, project and strategic aspects of your SharePoint implementation. Limited to 15 participants in non-competitive businesses, each participant will have the security and confidentiality needed to discuss the problems that exist in their current SharePoint implementation with other participants and two industry-leading experts on SharePoint and business.

This seminar is built around three core principles that must be understood and followed if you're going to be successful with your SharePoint implementation

We will meet in a conference room with white boards and markers, ready to learn and help you re-design your SharePoint implementation.

At the end of the day, Ben and Bill will select two companies that are most representative of the seminar participants and each will spend 30 min going over what they have learned, how they plan to apply their learning back at the office and gain additional insight from the seminar participants and instructors.

This is a unique opportunity to jump-start a disappointing SharePoint deployment and turn it into a great deployment that offers significant business value to your organization.

To ensure confidentiality, each participant will be asked to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before attending the class.

Principle 1: Assess and Understand Your Business Environment

Most SharePoint deployment will surface dysfunction in the organization's business models and overall culture. In this module, Bill English will go over two distinct reference architectures and discuss how to perform a gap and redundancy analysis to better understand your business and ECM environment into which SharePoint is being implemented.

What you will learn:

How to apply a business reference architecture to your current environment
How to apply a ECM reference architecture to your current environment
How to discern where you have gaps (missing elements) or redundancies in your environment relative to the reference architectures

Principle 2: Assess and Understand the Scope of your SharePoint Implementation

Using a simple, but innovative method for understanding the scope of your SharePoint projects, Ben Curry will present the matrix that he uses to help customers be successful with their SharePoint implementations. Ben will present real-world examples on why understanding the scope of your project will result in higher success for your implementation.

What you will learn:

The Start Big/Small/Top/Bottom matrix that will crystallize your thinking about your own SharePoint implementation.
How to break down your overall SharePoint implementation into manageable "chunks" that can be assessed using the Curry Matrix
How to identify areas of concern that you will need to address as part of your re-design effort

Principle 3: Understanding How Users Adopt New Technologies

User adoption of any new technology – especially SharePoint – is not rocket science. Learning how to use existing, proven research in understanding how users adoption new technologies is critical to a successful rollout. Using Diffusion Theory, Bill English will present a coherent, practical strategy on how you can achieve a successful adoption of SharePoint in your environment.

What you will learn:

The decision-making process that every person goes through when presented with a new idea
The five fundamental elements that need to be addressed in order for a person to accept a new idea
A practical strategy on how to build a process for user adoption in your environment

Putting it all Together: Participant Interaction

In the final part of this day, two participants will be given the opportunity each to spend 30 minutes going over what they have learned, how they plan to apply their learning back at the office and gain additional insight from the seminar participants and instructors on how they can be successful.

Other participants will gain significant insight into how to apply the three core principles by simply listening and interacting with the two presenting participants.

Seminar Details

Cost: $995/person. $795/person for groups of three or more. We encourage multiple attendees from the same organization to attend due to the significant learning that will take place.

(Private Seminar Fee: $9,995 for up to 15 participants)

This seminar is not offered online.

Course materials:

Copy of powerpoint slides
Business reference architecture poster
ECM reference architecture poster
Curry Matrix poster
Job aids to fill in during the seminar that will form your action plan back at the office
Location to download the video recordings of the day's activities

When & Where: (Tentative)

June 5: Minneapolis
July 19: Huntsville
August 9: Washington, DC

For more information, contact sales@mindsharp.com or check the Mindsharp web site for additional information.

UserVersity Adds Products and Certifications for SharePoint

Bill English — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:14:05 GMT

Mindsharp's UserVersity computer based training for SharePoint has just released new, additional products and certifications for My Sites and Social Media course. I've copied that information here for your consideration. UserVersity is now being used by Fortune 100 companies to train the 99% of users who will never attend instructor-led training. We're excited to see not only product growth in UserVersity, but increased sales this year over last year. If you need computer based education for SharePoint in your environment, look no further than Mindsharp's UserVersity products. If you want more information on UserVersity and how it can help your organization achieve significant ROI on your SharePoint investment, please email me directly at bill@mindsharp.com.

Lesson Title	Scope	Demo Names	Running Time
Overview of SharePoint My Sites	This lesson gives an overview of the topics addressed in the course and their corresponding UserVersity lessons.	Overview of My Sites	7:46
Create a My Site and Personalize My Profile	This lesson explains how to set up a My Site for the first time and enter information into My Profile.	Set up a new My Site Edit My Profile Assign Privacy Settings	10:32
My Sites and Personalization Sites	This lesson explains how to create a SharePoint site based on the Personalization Site template.	Create a Personalization Site Add Filtered Web Parts Add My Site Information	11:10
Manage Colleagues and Memberships in My Sites	This lesson explains how to add colleagues to your My Site and review your memberships.	Add and remove colleagues Edit colleagues Edit Memberships	10:59
Manage My Content	This lesson explains how to add and manage lists, libraries and other content-related web parts on My Site.	The two views for displaying My Content Add and Manage My Content Manage My Content Permissions	14:41
SharePoint People Search	This lesson explains how to use SharePoint People Search including: Use the basic and advanced people search features and updating keywords used to find you.	Use Basic People Search Use Advanced People Search Help People Find Me	10:54
Use Tags, Notes, and "I Like it"	This lesson shows how to add and view tags and notes as well as how others see your tags and notes.	Add Tags and Notes View Your Tags and Notes How Others See Your Tags and Notes	12:03
Work with Social Collaboration Web Parts	This lesson explains how to add and configure SharePoint "Social Collaboration" web parts including the note board, site users and organization browser.	Work with the Note Board Site Users Organization Browser	9:30

Overview of My Sites and Social Media Certification

The UserVersity My Sites and Social Media Certification exam is made up a series of two tests: My Sites Basics Test and the Social Collaboration Test. Each of these tests is mapped to a group of related lessons.

Taking the Exam

The 39 questions in the My Sites and Social Media Certification exam are divided in to 2 Tests. Questions are weighted by difficulty level. Users must pass both tests to obtain UserVersity SharePoint 2010 Certification in My Sites and Social Media. The following chart shows the breakdown of the points contributed to the UserVersity My Sites and Social Media Certification Exam by each of the tests.

Users have two options for taking the exam: taking the Certification Exam in its entirety or taking the three tests individually.

Certification Option 1: Full Certification Exam

Users take and pass the entire certification exam in one sitting. This version of the certification exam includes combines all five tests into one exam. A final result of at least 70% must be achieved to obtain certification.

Certification Option 2: Test-by-Test

Users take and pass each of the tests individually, with a passing score of 80% on each. This route to certification allows you to group lessons in your LMS based on the test that they map to, and work towards a certification.

Test Details

Candidates need to demonstrate proficiency in the following areas to earn the UserVersity SharePoint 2010 My Sites and Social Media Certification.

My Sites Basics Test

Total Possible Points: 130

Number of Questions: 21

Required skills and Knowledge:

Understand what happens when a My Site is first created.
Know the layout of the Stay Connected Page.
Demonstrate how to navigate to a My Site and make changes to different sections.
Show how to edit the My Colleagues list and understand the sections on the Add Colleagues page.
Understand the options available on the Edit My Profile Page.
How to view your profile as seen by different target audiences.
Understand Membership lists and privacy settings.
Benefits of My Sites in SharePoint 2010.
How to set unique navigation for the site, add links and headings.
My Content in SharePoint 2010 and how other users see this.
Understand what a Personalization Site is and what it shows.
Demonstrate how to create and edit a personalized site in SharePoint 2010.
Differences between Personalization Sites and My Sites.

UserVersity Lessons

Create a My Site and Personalize My Profile
Manage Colleagues and Memberships in My Sites
Manage My Content
My Sites and Personalization Sites

Option 1: Section 1 of UserVersity My Sites and Social Media Certification Exam

Option 2: My Sites Basics Test

Social Collaboration Test

Total possible points: 110

Number of Questions: 18

Required skills and Knowledge:

Understand ways that people can be located using SharePoint 2010 People Search.
Demonstrate how to locate colleagues with knowledge in a particular topic.
Show how to perform a People Search using SharePoint 2010.
Understand how to use People Search results.
Demonstrate how to help people find you in SharePoint 2010.
Understand what happens when using "I Like It" with libraries and documents.
Know how permissions effect Tags in SharePoint 2010.
Options available in the Tags and Notes section and what is displayed on the Note Board.
Work with Tags and Notes: Refine By Type and Refine By Tag.
Demonstrate how to view other users Tags & Notes for a document.
Social Collaboration Web Parts available in SharePoint 2010,
Show the process for adding a Social Collaboration Web Part.
The functions of the Note Board Web Part.
How to use the Site Users Web Part.
Understand the Organization Browser and how it is used.

UserVersity Lessons

SharePoint People Search
Use Tags, Notes, and "I Like It"
Work with Social Collaboration Web Parts

Option 1: Section 2 of UserVersity My Sites and Social Media Certification Exam

Option 2: Social Collaboration Test

Question Details

Question Types

The UserVersity Certification exam uses a variety of question types to test for both knowledge and understanding. These include: Hotspot, Multiple Choice, Multiple Response, True/False, Matching, and, Fill in the blank.

Scoring

Questions are weighted by length and difficulty level. The point value for each question is displayed.
There is no partial credit awarded for any of the question types.

Reporting Exam Results

Both options for taking the Certification Exam provide a way for test takers to record their passing results- in the form of a UserVersity certificate in pdf format- which can be printed or saved from the lesson. For Option 1, this is a single certificate for the entire exam. For Option 2, at the end of each test that users pass they will be able to access the certificate for that test. To obtain UserVersity Certification in SharePoint 2010 My Sites and Social Media, these 2 certificates would be comparable to the singe exam certificate.

Bill English, CEO
Mindsharp