Wednesday, June 18, 2008
#
Many hoped that version three (V3) of Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) would help bring companies closer to compliance with Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) and/or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). I know from personal experience that my hopes were quite high when WSS V3 released, because I had worked with several organizations on the version two (V2) platform, and these organizations were enduring through pain because of their need to be mindful of such ordinances that would have an impact on SharePoint intranets. In fact, just the idea of a companywide collaboration tool sent most security departments down a path of fear and much concern. As you all now know, the c# statement “if (SharePoint == Compliant)” seems not likely to return “true” at any near point in the future. However, I did come up with a solution that proved very successful for one organization. It’s no silver bullet, but it is a step in the right direction nevertheless.
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[cross posted from http://philwicklund.com]
This next best practice in my top 10 list is definitely a matter of opinion on my part. The best practice revolves around SharePoint themes, and my inability to understand how they can be a benefit to someone. The reason why I struggle to see the value with themes is that every company that I have ever consulted for has always wanted to have their brand consistently applied throughout their entire farm. In their case, themes propose a problem because any end user that has full control anywhere can apply a theme on their site and in effect change mess with the company’s brand. Now I am fully aware that not all companies, especially small ones, are always terribly nit-picky about their brand. However, I do feel confident that from what I’ve seen, most are. Most companies desire a consistent and professional experience for their end users. I’m not a usability expert by any means, but my guess is that variation in the look and feel on an intranet cause more confusion that it does excitement and pleasure. Whenever I bring up the concept of themes to various organizations they all almost unanimously ask how to disable them even before I can tell them that it is even an option.
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[cross posted from http://philwicklund.com]