3 Things to Keep in Mind With Virtual Meetings
Online collaborations are the norm today. To have the best experiences, read the three top considerations for hosting engaging virtual meetings.
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Entrance Demonstrates How to Frac Your Data at Microsoft Global Energy Forum
Showcasing Custom Software Solutions
Entrance is a proud sponsor of the annual Microsoft Global Energy Forum, to take place on February 20th in Houston at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Now in its 11th year, this prestigious technology-focused energy industry event welcomes business leaders from both the Business Operations and Information Technology arenas.
As a long-standing Gold Microsoft Partner, Entrance will showcase custom software solutions for oil and gas. The SharePoint enterprise content management company, KnowledgeLake, will be joining as a co-sponsor to share how upstream companies can leverage digitization solutions.
Actionable Insight for the Field
Attendees of the Global Energy Forum can stop by booth number 116 to learn more about:
- Business Intelligence and Data Management: Tying together disparate databases to reveal actionable insight for the field
- SharePoint and KnowledgeLake: Instant, searchable, digitized access to any paper assets
- Business Process Automation: Reduce overall lifting costs by automating data from the field
Entrance president, Nate Richards, commented on the upcoming event, “Information is the next unconventional play for oil and gas,” said Entrance president Nate Richards. “Decision makers need to be able to frac their data across departments to access intelligence that is readily available and accurate. This is the key to driving up production and pushing down costs for the successful producer.”
The Move Towards Digitization
Now more than ever, the oil and gas industry is grappling with an overwhelming amount of unstructured paper data and paper. Entrance and KnowledgeLake have partnered for the Global Energy Forum to showcase a digitization and well management solution based in SharePoint for land and well files that will help drive true competitive advantage.
“We are excited to partner with Entrance Software to provide the next generation of Energy Information Management solutions based on Microsoft SharePoint. By leveraging SharePoint to manage unstructured content and structured data, we are able to provide upstream customers with real time actionable information for Well File, Land and corporate records groups that was only before possible with multiple point solutions,” said Vice President of Engineering at KnowledgeLake, Ben Vierck.
Visit the team on February 20th for a demo, or to pick up a copy of the first annual Outlook on Energy.
For more, check out our presentation that explains how your company can frac your data to avoid lease jeopardy. Or find out more about the Microsoft Global Energy Forum.
Business Intelligence Deployment Misconceptions
Deploying Business Intelligence
Business intelligence, also commonly referred to as BI throughout the industry, is a piece of technology that allows a business to obtain actionable information that they can then use throughout their day-to-day operations. While business intelligence solutions certainly have their fair share of advantages, it is also important to realize that they are not the be-all, end-all solution for guidance that many people think they are.
There are certain business intelligence deployment misconceptions that businesses make over and over again to their detriment. Understanding these misconceptions will allow you to successfully avoid them and use BI to its fullest potential.
The Benefits of Business Intelligence
- The information provided is accurate, fast and, most importantly, visible to aid with making critical decisions relating to the growth of a business, as well as its movement.
- Business intelligence can allow for automated report delivery using pre-calculated metrics.
- Data can be delivered using real-time solutions that increase their accuracy and reduce the overall risk to the business owner.
- The burden on business managers to consolidate information assets can be greatly reduced through the additional delivery and organizational benefits inherent in the proper implementation of business intelligence solutions.
- The return on investment for organizations with regard to business intelligence is far-reaching and significant.
Business Intelligence Deployment Misconceptions
One of the most prevalent misconceptions about business intelligence deployment is the idea that the systems are fully automated right out of the box. While it is true that the return on investment for such systems can be quite significant, that is only true if the systems have been designed, managed and deployed properly.
A common misconception is that a single business intelligence tool is all a company needs to get the relevant information to guide themselves into the next phase of their operations. According to Rick Sherman, the founder of Athena IT Solutions, the average Fortune 1000 company implements no less than six different BI tools at any given time.
All of these systems are closely monitored, and the information provided by them is then used to guide the business through its operations. No single system will have the accuracy, speed or power to get the job done on its own.
Another widespread misconception is the idea that all companies are using business intelligence in the present term and your company has all the information it needs in order to stay competitive. In reality, only about 25 percent of all business users have been reported as using BI technology in the past few years. The 25% number is actually a plateau – growth has been stagnant for some time.
One unfortunate misconception involves the idea that “self-service” business intelligence systems indicate that you only need to give users access to the available data to achieve success. In reality, self-service tools often need additional support than what most people plan for.
This support is also required on a continuing basis in order to prevent the systems from returning data that is both incomplete and inconsistent.
One surprising misconception about the deployment of business intelligence is that BI systems have completely replaced the spreadsheet as the ideal tool for analysis. In truth, many experts agree that spreadsheets are and will continue to be the only pervasive business intelligence tool for quite some time.
Spreadsheets, when used to track the right data and perform the proper analysis, have uses that shouldn’t be overlooked. Additionally, business users that find BI deployment too daunting or unwieldy will likely return to spreadsheets for all of their analysis needs.
According to the website Max Metrics, another common misconception is that business intelligence is a tool that is only to be used for basic reporting purposes.
In reality, BI can help business users identify customer behaviors and trends, locate areas of success that may have previously been overlooked and find new ways to effectively target a core audience. BI is a great deal more than just a simple collection of stats and numbers.
For more on this topic, check out our series, “What is business intelligence?“
SharePoint ROI Part 2: Developing a Road Map for Collaboration
What does SharePoint success look like?
Earlier this year, our SharePoint team lead, Carol, published a blog on calculating SharePoint’s return on investment. Based on my SharePoint consulting work, I’ve developed a few more thoughts to add on to this topic.
Microsoft Campaign Highlights Collaboration Tools Like SharePoint and Yammer
Last week, Entrance covered an article that shared statistics around the usage of collaboration tools like SharePoint, and how most people mistake social collaboration for Facebook or Twitter. This week, I ran into another article in TechCrunch announcing a new campaign by Microsoft to help businesses understand how social collaboration can make business teams more productive.
SharePoint’s Return on Investment; How to calculate your SharePoint ROI
SharePoint’s ROI
It’s not always straight forward, so make sure to check under the cushions on your couch!
I hang my spurs in Houston, Texas and around here, people tend to love ‘one stop shopping’ for the sake of saving time and let’s face it MONEY. Our big super stores allow us to get in, find what we need quickly, get everything from an oil change to bread and then get us back on our way. When it comes to information and collaboration, SharePoint is that one stop shop, so if you’re starting to think about what return on investment should look like, keep that in mind!
SharePoint 15 Beta this week – are you prepared?
SharePoint 15 – Better, Faster, Stronger!
SharePoint 2010 is old news, forget everything you know and start over! Ok, enough drama. Indeed the rumor mills are saying the SharePoint 15 beta is scheduled for this week, with a product release in early 2013, and there is sufficient reliable data for us to believe this is true.
So what features should we be looking for? It is expected that SharePoint 15 will make use of HTML 5 and CSS 3.0 – which will pave the way for the new Metro UI. Tighter integration with mobile devices is very likely, and expanded features for the cloud offering on Office 365 is all but fact. Here at Entrance, we’re preparing a specialization in Windows 8 application development, and SharePoint 15 is an exciting movement toward best of breed technology capabilities for Enterprise Content Management, Business Collaboration and Business Intelligence – and more.
Using Technology to Grow Your Business
Growing a business is challenging. What used to work in the ramen days with two people in your garage suddenly doesn’t work anymore as the company grows. Understanding what drives your productivity is the most challenging and rewarding part of being a business owner.
At the start, you’re powered by passion. Your group works all night toward a common goal to get the job done. But you can’t continue to hire employees and hold everything together with passion alone. So you start focusing on your people.
Save users valuable time with custom SharePoint Search
SharePoint is a great tool for managing files, documents, and anything else you can put into a list, but if you aren’t careful you could end up with unmanageable lists and libraries (especially if documents are added frequently). One solution is to use views with different filters and groupings, or to split your data across different folders. Then the problem changes, if you don’t have all the details you need to traverse through the tree of views and folders you will have a very hard time finding documents.
SharePoint Security – The myths, the facts, and the how-tos
Myths about SharePoint Security
Data security is not nearly as exciting as Hollywood or the media at large would have you believe. Most of the threats to your organization’s data aren’t going to come from malicious bespectacled hackers using cleverly-written applications to bypass your organization’s firewalls and hardware security measures. In fact, a recent survey found that over half of the threats to your organization’s security are coming from inside your own walls! Intrusions from outside accounted for only 14% of security threats, according to that same study.
The time is now to upgrade to SharePoint 2010
If you are using SharePoint 2007 or older, and are wondering whether and when you should upgrade, the answer is a resounding “Yes and now!” Microsoft is advertising an end to mainstream support for Share Point Server 2007 on October 9, 2012. As outlined by Microsoft’s support policy this means the end of non-security relates fixes (unless you pay for an extended agreement), non-charge incident support, warranty claims, and design changes and feature requests.
Collaborate or die: Business Collaboration as survival of the fittest.
Why Business Collaboration is kinda a big deal:
No matter what industry we find ourselves in, we can all benefit from collaborating with other people in our business, whether those people are sitting next to us, down the hall, on a different floor or clear across the globe we benefit from others’ experience and knowledge. We already do it – work on documents, learn who knows what, categorize our work and work through data to try and make our best decisions. But Share Point software has revolutionized mundane activities and made them true business insights. Businesses profit most when collaboration is seamless and, let’s face it, captured to build a knowledge base for the future. And it’s is a proven model for growth: “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin
SharePoint Mobile – The now (and the future) of professional collaboration!
Consistent observation:
If a person is idle for more than 5-10 seconds, the odds are very high that they will produce a mobile device of some kind and bury their attention in it. My point? Mobile devices are here to stay and growing ever more quickly. In fact, Flurry.com found that in June 2011, consumers spent 81 minutes per day on mobile apps compared to 74 minutes per day web surfing!
Knowledge is Power – Keep yours.
Every company has ‘that guy’ who you go to when you need information about ‘x’. But then ‘that guy’ moves on and suddenly a wealth of knowledge goes with him. Good companies have strategies and methods for capturing and retaining knowledge capital. Great companies use state-of-the-art tools to guarantee that their strategies achieve practical results. Knowledge should be pro-actively gathered, and then made searchable and accessible to all levels of your organization. Use one of the most powerful, flexible and user-friendly tools available: SharePoint 2010 Wiki!
Hawaii – land of pineapples, Pearl Harbor, surfing, beautiful beaches, and the source of the term “Wiki”. For those who aren’t aware, the Hawaiian term ‘Wiki, Wiki’ translates to ‘quick’ and has been attached to the relatively new form of information sharing known as a Wiki. Ask anyone who is engaged in post-graduate studies where they find their inspiration: I would argue that a large percentage of the time Wikipedia is involved in this process, even if JSTOR or other official article archives are their stated references.
Decide: Your most courageous decisions are your most informed
“We react to what’s in front of us, whether it truly matters or not.” Tony Schwartz, Harvard Business Review Blog.
Know what is most important, and keep that front and center at all times. Your success comes from being one step ahead of the competition and, at the same time, being prepared to react to changing circumstances. Well-informed and agile decisions are essential to your leadership and your team’s success. How do you split your time between two areas of your business that are not performing well? What should be the top priority for your scarce resource? Sophisticated software tools can help your brain get to a good conclusion faster.
SharePoint and E-mail: Never lose an attachment again
It’s incredible that we’re now over a decade into the 21st century and e-mail—a standard that was first developed and implemented in the 1970s—still reigns as the king of business communication. Invoices, meeting invitations, contracts, and automated alerts are just a few of the critical items that might be sitting in your Outlook inbox right now. Interestingly enough, you can manage all of those things using SharePoint 2010, though I would not suggest dumping your Exchange server outright in favor of this software. Instead, I’d like to talk about some e-mail-enabled features of SharePoint 2010 and how you can use them together to get the most out of your SharePoint implementation.
Anyone with a little bit of SharePoint software experience knows that one of its most powerful features is its out-of-the-box e-mail alert capability. But in case you’re not familiar, the SharePoint 2010 software allows you to enable e-mail alerts on any document library, list, or page in the system. This means that any time an item is added or changed in a library, or if a page is edited, you can receive an e-mail alert letting you know what has changed, when, and who changed it. I’ve personally seen this feature used in a variety of different ways, from organization-wide e-mail alerts on announcement lists to group-wide alerts on project pages and Wikis. The fantastic thing about SP’s out-of-the-box alerts is that they are simple for any SharePoint user to set up and manage.
Orient: Don’t fly blind
Your data at-a-glance and flagged for action with SharePoint 2010.
You’re busy. The faster you can make informed decisions, the better. Every moment you spend poring over charts and numbers is a moment that could have gone to changing your business for the better. Even with the absolute best data available, if it’s not in a form that gives you immediate insight into what to do, you are losing valuable time. You should always know exactly where to get the latest, best information. And that data should immediately guide a decision.
Observe: Good Data = Good Decisions
Beat the competition with Custom Applications and SharePoint 2010.
If you look at the way you gather and maintain information about your business, and it involves multiple users entering data by hand, a complicated excel sheet with variants owned by different people, or a highly trained engineer chugging through data for days to create a report, then you could get better quality data faster. Your competition probably already is.
In our last post we talked about how to compete in the fast-paced energy market by making faster, better decisions all the way down the line. With our own Air Force captain on staff, we look at speeding up and improving your decision-making in military terms. Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. Let’s drill down into ‘Observe’ to make sure that you are gathering good data and verifying it. Huge improvements to your bottom line can already happen when you work based on the absolute best observational data.
Managing a SharePoint Migration
There’s a popular phrase in science and engineering that I’ve always loved: “Garbage in, garbage out.” It’s used to impress upon system developers that even the best code or software solution can’t create good information from bad input. And the same applies for robust, enterprise software solutions like SharePoint 2010. Though this software is an intuitive product with lots of features to make collaboration, automation and centralization possible, it’s only as good as the data you bring into it. So before moving to the SharePoint platform, it’s important to properly manage your migration and not bring any garbage with you.
For instance, migrating to this software is the perfect time to assess your organization’s data management and retention policy. How many weeks, months, and years need to pass before your data is no longer “living?” How many old documents—untouched for years—are currently bogging down your organization’s ability to find good information? Experienced SharePoint consultants can help you separate the old from the new and plan a retention policy that can be built right into SharePoint! Old or static documents can be moved to and flagged based on retention policy rules, keeping the most relevant data and information in front of your users.