Sharepoint

[copter]

Hi,

Anyone here have any experience with sharepoint. I am getting really peeved with the document collaborations tools we currently have and am slowly getting pushed in this direction.

I am open to opensource versions as they fit better into our work environment. But if I have to I will go the microsoft route.

I am looking for ease of install and maintenance, something thats stable and allows access via office/web etc etc.

Cheers in advance.

copter

[iGoD ReleNtLeS]

well they have just installed Groove at the workplace and everything has grounded to a halt while everyone gets used to the software. I have been using the software for about a year now and have come to grips with it quite well. I much prefer the new SharePoint i use from home, much easier and a totally new layout and file system.

Just dont go MS Office 2007, the working of Groove is very bad. But SharePoint has a much better flow to it, much more user friendly.

EDIT: Have just heard about a program called dropbox (http://forum.novatech.co.uk/www.dropbox.com) it allows you to simply drop documents from your home PC into the 'dropbox' and is then sync'd accross all the PCs that have dropbox installed registered to your used. There is a free 2GB versions and you can get an extra 1GB per person you invite upto a total of 20GB (i think), there are also 50 and 100GB versions for hard cash payments, and relativly cheap i thaught. Seems to be quite a good service.

[mrgoose]

Two products leap to mind, though they approach the matter with radically different concepts. I have been experimenting with both of these for some time now. I can even set up working demos of both if you wish.

EyeOS (http://eyeos.org) - a complete online virtual OS in a browser.
EGroupware (egroupware.org) - Ralf Beckers OSS collaboration suite.

I would definitely avoid proprietary products for this, even if you have to sacrifice some functionality (though I think that the OSS road will actually provide more functionality as it happens). But once an organisation adopts technology such as this, the last thing you want is to be locked to the proprietary products of a large foreign corporation.

Can you tell us a bit more about your work environment and explain in a little more detail what you hope to achieve please?

Best wishes, G.

Edit:- EyeOS has a test server already setup and working. Just make an account for yourself and have a play. http://eyeos.info/
Just to make it clear, EyeOS is a cloud where your business actually owns the cloud. I.e. your company's data resides on your company's server.

[copter]

The company has basic services for offcie based users thats all built on a normal AD, exchange, bes, msoffice and terminal services.

The backend systems (mail, antispam, av, dns, web, company backup etc etc) running the company and engineering are all running on either solaris or debian.

The offic setup isn't a problem and works fine but I want to add a document collaboration layer which controls and allows access to certains documents (site surveys, build guides etc etc) which does versioning control and allows access to docs via a secure portal.

The vpn setup we use doesn't have a linux client (it's a real bummer but I cannot switch firewall due to customer requirements) and as such this would extend just normal document shares to a web portal and thuis allow them read/write access?

I would like a opensource software platform as it's easier to harden a copy of solaris or linux and I don't have to pay out £500 for another copy of windows.

Does that all make sense?

[mrgoose]

Hmm, seems this is a job for eGroupware then.

Best wishes, G.

Edit:- There is also a demo for egroupware on its site. http://www.stylite.de/egroupware_demo
Sometimes it is difficult to log in because lots of folks are using the demo account and entering their credentials incorrectly. But I can set you up an account on one of my EGW installations if you think that would help. I have one with all the standard plugins loaded too - so you can see what it is capable of.

Edit2:- I stumbled across an interesting discussion comparing SugarCRM with MS Sharepoint that also discusses eGroupware. FWIW, SugarCRM is another very good package you may wish to consider though I think eGroupware is much more flexible. http://www.sugarcrm.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11420

[copter]

Hi,

cheers for your help, when I get a moment i'll have a look at the egroupware stuff. I am determined to stick clear of sharepoint but unless i can demonstrate a good alternative I know it will beat me into submission.

I don't mind microsoft there is a time and place for eveything but I do mind being forced into a decision of compromise because everyone assumes you must run it and as such all the extra tools only ever work with exchange or windows.

copter

[mrgoose]

Hi,

cheers for your help, when I get a moment i'll have a look at the egroupware stuff. I am determined to stick clear of sharepoint but unless i can demonstrate a good alternative I know it will beat me into submission.

I don't mind microsoft there is a time and place for eveything but I do mind being forced into a decision of compromise because everyone assumes you must run it and as such all the extra tools only ever work with exchange or windows.

copter

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. But times change. In the 1980's it was said "No one ever got fired for buying IBM." Then look what happened! lol :D

FWIW, eGroupware developers have gone to a lot of trouble to make it platform-independent. Obviously the server part is much better run on Unix or Unix-like servers - much like any webserver I guess. But the clients can be Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris or whatever you want, really.

Anyway, let me know if you need any help. Best wishes, G.

[blondeandy]

I do have a fair bit of experience with Sharepoint, but the experience is of custom modifications rather than using it. Im a coder not a user sorry! But if you have any Qs about that fire them my way.

[cpezzer]

Share point is not the most realiable. I keep getting errors when I try to edit documents (automatically puts it in reservce and then downloads to open - can then save it to sharepoint directly from the ap).

It's easy to use, simply to track documents, but it can be incredibly slow at times!

[blondeandy]

Sharepoint has no purpose, its over complicated, bloated and clunky. There are better solutions out there. For the budget given I could have created a custom app to do what the customer wanted but they wanted it in SP, so I had to spend that time making it work...

[copter]

I require intergration with outlook and office and the web portal, so I can avoid vpn's. Which does limit what I can do else where.

How long did it take you to get it to work?