Resources from AUTechEd Talk: Designing for Enterprise Grade Document Management Systems using SharePoint

I attended this great talk on using SharePoint for designing a enterprise wide document management system at recent Microsoft Tech-Ed in Gold Coast, Australia. The Speaker (John Wise) shared huge number of resources with the audience. I think it you gone through this path of implementing DMS using SharePoint, then you might have known the path involved! The resources below should shed some light for us in implementing better SharePoint DMS solutions and/or maintain the existing ones.

More Information about Document Management:

TechNet: Plan document management

TechNet Presentation: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Document Management

MSDN: Enterprise Document Management Overview

MSDN: Document Management Overview

Managing the Full Lifecycle of Documents:

ECM Team Blog: Walkthrough – Using the SharePoint Server 2007 Approval Workflow

TechNet Presentation: Designing, Deploying, and Managing Workflow in SharePoint Sites

TechNet: Understanding Workflow

MSDN: Workflow Information Center

MSDN: Workflows in Office SharePoint Server 2007

Increasing IT Manageability and Efficiency:

MSDN: Information Rights Management Overview

MSDN Blog: MOSS Architecture and Shared Services

TechNet: Plan Shared Services Providers

TechNet: Analyze document usage

MSDN: Item-Level Auditing with SharePoint Server 2007

Increased Adoption through Usability:

MSDN: Document Information Panel and Document Properties

Microsoft SharePoint Technologies Blog: Getting Started with Personalization in MOSS 2007 (Audience Targeting)

MSDN: User Profiles and Audience Targeting Overview

TechNet: Plan versioning, content approval, and check-outs

Integrating and Extending Your Document Management Capabilities:

MSDN: Document Information Panel

TechNet Presentation: Content Types and Metadata

Video: Extending the Document and Records Management Features of SharePoint Server 2007

MSDN Blog: InfoPath Forms in Office SharePoint Server 2007

MSDN: What Are Composite Applications?

Interoperability TechCenter

Customizing the Document Information Management Panel

Customizing the Document Information Panel – Presentation

Customizing the Document Information Panel – Script

Program Governance

Governance Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Whitepaper – Information Worker Competence Center

Microsoft Australia – Information Management home page

Microsoft Australia – Information Management home page

SharePoint out of the box answers many of the DMS requirements. But when it comes to compliance it take a step back. It is a good idea to checkout the partner solutions to enhance the SharePoint functionality in order to get compliant! The image below summarises different partner solutions for DMS requirements.

Links to partner sites

AvePoint

K2

Metalogix

OBS

Quest

SchemaLogic

SeeUnity

Unique World

Note: if you happen to know of any better third party solution for SharePoint DMS please feel free to share!

How to start Information Architecture Planning for SharePoint?

Information Architecture is the back bone for any SharePoint related projects. It is quite important to get the information architecture right for the success of the project. To get it right, we need to ask the right questions during the IA planning sessions. Here is a good run down of the list of questions to ask as part of the IA Planning. Please note that, this list is not definitive and can alter from project to project. This is just an indicative list.  

Category	Question
Users	·         Who are your users? ·         Where are your users located? ·         What languages do your users understand and want to use? ·         How do they want to use your information? ·         How are your users grouped? o   External customers o   External partners o   Internal divisions o   Internal departments o   Internal various locations (national and international) ·         Will you need to target information at specific users or audiences?
Topology	·         Do you require multiple farms? ·         How many top-level site collections do you require? ·         What subsites do you require? ·         Will you require a multitier publishing infrastructure? ·         Will you have a common security infrastructure for all users? ·         What are the site-specific security requirements? ·         Are there any unique subsite security requirements?
Appearance	·         Do you want to use a common brand across your sites? ·         Do you want to design your own: o   Master pages? o   Site or List Templates? o   Page layouts? o   Style sheets? o   Custom controls? o   Web Parts?
Navigation	·         Will you use the default navigation tools? ·         Will you require custom development for personalized navigation?
Information	·         What information types will your users want to work with? ·         What metadata will you require? ·         What additional content types will you require? ·         Will you implement search? ·         How will you configure search? ·         How will you optimize search? ·         Will you need to integrate LOB or other external data?
Information Security	·         What are your auditing requirements? ·         Do you have defined information management policies?

 The above list is part of the Module 1 – Web Content Management Overview. For complete document and other WCM Training Modules, please refer to http://www.microsoft.com/DownLoads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8b2c7980-b604-493f-b5ee-52c562458e34&displaylang=en 

List of Major updates to SharePoint 2007 till date

I cam across this very important list of all major updates to SharePoint 2007 till date. This is a great little resource to keep track of the updates and check if your current SharePoint Installation is up to date (Fron the Version Number). Mind you, some of the updates are only necessary if you are facing some issues and this are covered in the update. As I always recommend test your updates before deploying them on your production. I am presently documenting a best practice approach on how to patchup SharePoint for a client.

Name	Description and Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number
Office SharePoint Server 2007	The RTM version of Office SharePoint Server. Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number: 12.0. 4518.1016
October public update (2007)	For more information about the software updates in the October public update, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 937832: Description of the security update for SharePoint Server 2007: October 9, 2007 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=102083&clcid=0×409). Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number: 12.0. 6036.5000
Service Pack 1	Service Pack 1 (SP1) includes a number of hot fixes across Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, new Stsadm commands for repartitioning databases and renaming host site collections, and updates to product documentation that address performance and capacity planning concerns. For more information about what this service pack contains, read the introductory white paper, Service Pack 1 for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=105704&clcid=0×409). Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number: 12.0.6219.1000
Post Service Pack 1 rollup	This rollup provides fixes that were made after the code was locked for SP1. For more information, see the following KB article, Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 post-2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 1 hotfix package: July 23, 2008 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955586). Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number: 12.0. 6300.5000
Infrastructure Update (IU)	This update fixes issues in Office SharePoint Server 2007 and adds new Enterprise Search features to SharePoint Server 2007. For more information, see Description of the Microsoft Office Servers Infrastructure Update (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=121886&clcid=0×419) and Issues that are fixed in Microsoft Office Servers by the Microsoft Office Servers Infrastructure Update (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=133369&clcid=0×409). Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number: 12.0.6320.5000
August Cumulative Update	For more information about this update, refer to the following KB articles, Cumulative update packages for the 2007 Microsoft Office core suite applications and for 2007 Microsoft Office servers (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=133370&clcid=0×409) and Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (Coreserver.msp): August 26, 2008 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=133371&clcid=0×409). Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number: 12.0.6327.5000
October Cumulative Update	To learn about the issues that are fixed in this update, see Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (Coreserver.msp): October 28, 2008 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=133374&clcid=0×409), Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (Coreservermui.msp): October 28, 2008 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=133376&clcid=0×409), and Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (Dlc.msp): October 28, 2008 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=135715&clcid=0×409). Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number: 12.0.6331.5000
December Cumulative Update	This update contains hotfixes for all the Office SharePoint Server 2007 issues that have been fixed since the release of Office SharePoint Server 2007. For more information, see Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 cumulative update package (MOSS server-package): December 16, 2008 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139508). Microsoft.SharePoint.portal.dll version number: 12.0.6335.5000 This update contains: ·         Coreserver-x-none.msp ·         Coreservermui-en-us.msp (and all the other languages for the product) ·         Dlc-x-none.msp ·         Dlcmui-en-us.msp (and all the other languages for the product) ·         Ifswfe-x-none.msp ·         Lpsrvwfe-x-none.msp ·         Msxml5s-x-none.msp ·         Pjsrvapp-x-none.msp ·         Pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp ·         Xlsrvapp-x-none.msp

For the complete article, refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263467.aspx

[Update: 28th August 2009]

Find the list of recent cummulative updates and version numbers on the SharePoint Admin Wiki. http://sharepointadminwiki.com/display/SharePointAdministrationWiki/SharePoint+Versions 

Please make sure you test run the updates on a dev/stagging server before applying them on PROD.