SharePoint 2010 impresses at Intervate's pre-launch preview

Interface enhancements, an easier deployment methodology, enhanced scalability and a new 64-bit architecture are due to see Microsoft’s SharePoint 2010 take the market by storm.

That was the key sentiment resulting from a recently concluded SharePoint conference, held in Cape Town by Enterprise Information Management specialist, Intervate.

Marc Fletcher, Sales and Marketing Director at Intervate Cape Town, says the fact that the conference garnered an attendee volume of more than 100 delegates from the local IT and general business markets speaks volumes about SharePoint’s relevance in today’s IT industry.

Predominantly, he says the conference served to introduce the latest version of Microsoft’s popular SharePoint enterprise content management system, Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

Many notable industry leaders spoke at the pre-launch preview including Intervate’s Knowledge Management Practice Lead, Steven Magid, a noted author of papers on intranets and portals and recent Las Vegas SharePoint conference attendee. Godfrey Voegt, a Business Productivity Solutions Specialist at Microsoft, spoke about business connectivity services for the enterprise.

“Discussions at the conference focused on the many new product features, including the dropping of the complex MOSS 2007 label (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007) for the much simpler title of ‘Microsoft SharePoint 2010’ and the addition of the familiar ‘ribbon’ toolbar seen in Microsoft’s popular Office productivity software.” Explains Fletcher

“The improved interface places SharePoint’s powerful functionality within far easier reach than previous versions, addressing users’ concerns that some of SharePoint Server 2007’s key functions were buried beneath an unnecessarily complicated menu system. The improved product scalability also opens the product up to new markets,” he says.

The conference also revealed that significant revisions have been made to SharePoint’s deployment methodology, making it far easier to install the solution throughout enterprises of any size.

“Intervate’s SharePoint conference succeeded at imparting the knowledge necessary for key decision makers and system architects to evaluate the new technologies present in SharePoint 2010 for possible adoption within their enterprises”, says Fletcher.

Intervate gained first- hand experience when it became the first South African Microsoft partner to deploy Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 during the solutions launch in 2007. Over the years, Intervate has uniquely positioned itself as the perfect player to introduce the updated version of the product in this solution space owing to its collective experience. .

“We were extremely impressed with the enthusiasm and interest the solution received at our conference,” Fletcher adds, “and some of the questions we faced suggests a growing maturity in the market and an appetite for enterprise information management.

“This,” he concludes, “bodes extremely well for the future of the product and enterprise collaboration over the coming years.”

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About Intervate:

Intervate is a specialist provider of Enterprise Information Management solutions improving productivity and collaboration. Areas of expertise include web content management, intranets and portals, imaging and capture, enterprise search, document and records management and workflow and process automation.

Intervate has extensive experience in developing and deploying Microsoft SharePoint intranet and portal solutions and in creating key components and versatile platforms for the delivery of information and knowledge management systems.

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with Information Worker Competency, Custom Development Competency, and Data Management Competency, Intervate holds expert Microsoft® skills and provides a range of add-on products and solutions for the Microsoft platform.

For more information visit: www.intervate.com