Have you ever gone to the Doctor, explained your symptoms and then were disappointed when they didn’t seem to know the source/cause of the issue or how to treat it? Each symptom could indicate a variety of things or a combination of trigger events that make it difficult to determine the underlying cause and the needed treatment. In house Technology “Doctors” have the same difficulty in troubleshooting SharePoint problems. The Technology Doctor specializing in on premise SharePoint related issues, needs to be an expert with both the underlying technologies and SharePoint itself because the root of the problem is seldom clear. For SharePoint to work properly, all these other technologies must be running perfectly:
• Windows (Operating System)
• Internet Information Server (IIS)
• Active Directory
• Enterprise networking
• Structured Query Language (SQL) database(s)
• Domain Name System (DNS)
• Incoming and outgoing e-mail servers
• And more
Any misconfiguration, glitch or failure in any of these components can cause SharePoint to fail. The technology “cough or choking” sends a ripple affect across all systems. When that happens, all that an end user may see is that a portal they want to access has gone offline. The actual cause will likely be hidden deep in the IT infrastructure. The loss of the portal can bring a company to its knees and the loss of productivity impacts performance, customer service and/or revenue.
Businesses can take action to reduce the risk and here is the good news – great news in fact! What once was a costly, difficult part of the system to maintain can be moved off premise to be managed through Microsoft’s Office365 solution. For a nominal fee ($5-$12 per user per month) businesses, both large and small, run on a top-tier IT infrastructure and have the support of the best Technology Doctors. This leaves companies with being able to focus on their desktops/laptops and use SharePoint solutions to automate core business processes. This opens up the ability to collaborate between staff members, partners or customers with ease. It allows for the small business to compete at the same level as large companies.
Taking advantage of the technology landscape change and moving away from on premise systems brings a new focus, reallocation of resources and energy to drive revenue up. Technology Doctors are still needed, but those services can be outsourced and used when symptoms arise.
Linda Amaro
Linda Amaro is a featured columnist for Women Taking Charge, the official blog of Connected Women of Influence, where she covers topics, tips and tricks surrounding The Virtual Office and using Microsoft SharePoint to improve collaboration. Linda Amaro, has been in the Information Technology (IT) industry for over 30 years and has risen to the position of CIO in the corporate arena managing multiple departments with over 150 staff members and projects for tier one customers ranging from $2.5 million to $20 million. In 2010, she started Klarinet Solutions, a SharePoint consulting firm that provides SharePoint Design, Site Branding, Workflow Automation, On-Line Forms Development, Document Management, Custom Development and Business Intelligence.
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