Microsoft SharePoint 2013 contains significant improvements in key areas such as mobility, productivity, social capabilities, search, and websites. Some of the major new features include improved support for mobile devices like iPad, a more robust social networking platform integrated with Yammer, more powerful search capabilities, and enhanced tools for collaboration and productivity. The update also includes an app store and improved digital asset management for websites. Microsoft aims to position SharePoint 2013 as a leader in enterprise content management and web content management with these updates.

1. briefing Portals, Content and Collaboration
Microsoft
SharePoint 2013
Preview
Early insights on the upcoming release
of Microsoft SharePoint
During July 2012, Microsoft As with earlier versions of SharePoint, the
What else is in Microsoft
publically shared details about platform can be used on its own as an
Office 2013?
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 for the enterprise content management solution or
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 is one
first time. Coinciding with its web content management solution, but
member of Microsoft Office 2013,
announcements around Office 2013, even greater value can be derived through which comprises several desktop and
Microsoft also released beta its integration with the other applications server-based applications. All of these
software, including that for in the Microsoft Office range, and the other products – including Outlook, Word,
SharePoint 2013. While no release enterprise applications (such as the Excel, PowerPoint, Project and
Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions) that will OneNote – are receiving updates,
date was given, we can expect the
and on the server-side, both Lync and
final version of Office, including take advantage of its capabilities over time.
Exchange are being refreshed.
SharePoint, towards the end of 2012.
Intergen has already been working with While all of these solutions will each
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 contains a SharePoint 2013 for over six months as part receive updates, there are some
significant number of improvements to of the early beta programs. This means consistent changes: user interfaces are
previous versions of SharePoint, in key we’ve already seen it in action in an streamlined to allow for better touch
enterprise setting and can advise you on support on mobile and desktop
areas such as mobility, productivity and
devices; Office will be more closely
social. We recommend that if you’re the best way to move forward with this
integrated with the cloud and, in
considering a new SharePoint new technology. particular, Microsoft’s SkyDrive online
deployment or upgrading from a storage service, allowing access and
This paper provides a high-level overview of
previous version, then now is the time collaboration from multiple devices;
the key improvements in Microsoft
to understand the new features on and social experiences will be more
SharePoint 2013 and what benefits these closely tied into all of the applications.
offer and use this as the basis of any
provide organisations.
assessment you might make. Most updates are expected to be
available in late 2012.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this document is based on pre-release software and is subject to
change without notice. If you have specific questions about SharePoint 2013 please contact us.
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2. briefing MICROSOFT SharePoint 2013 PREVIEW
Social for the Enterprise
Compared with SharePoint 2007,
SharePoint 2010 took a big step
forward in the Social space, with rich
My Sites and some micro-blogging
capabilities. SharePoint 2013 goes
well beyond 2010 and brings the
capabilities of Yammer, Twitter and
LinkedIn to the enterprise space. The
main benefits of these capabilities are
information sharing and connectivity
between staff in order to reduce silos
and speed up knowledge transfer. Key
capabilities of Social include:
»» Rich micro-blogging with ‘@’ and
‘#’ tags and replies allowing staff
to quickly communicate with a
small or broad audience.
»» A full activity feed allowing users
to see all activity in one place and Mobility
stay in the loop on key events or
SharePoint 2013 on iPad
communications.
The user interface for SharePoint 2013 is almost exclusively
»» The ability for users to follow
written in HTML5, and in addition to the standard client
people, sites, tags and documents
support options, full support is also planned for the Safari
and get updates in their activity
browser on the Apple iPad. Users can browse, contribute and
feed.
edit documents directly from iPads. There is also a new
»» New Community Sites (think Channels capability which allows easy mapping of pages and
fully-featured discussion boards) web parts to devices, allowing the experience to be tailored
with experts, badges and for different devices.
reputation points. Perfect for
special interest groups, new staff The vast majority of organisations have iPads in their
or general communications and ecosystem and are considering mobile experiences for web
collaboration. content. These capabilities are a huge benefit for mobile
access, and in many cases they eliminate the need for complex
With Yammer, the enterprise micro-
development or the use (and additional cost) of third party
blogging service, now owned by
applications. We think
Microsoft, Microsoft has signalled that
that native iOS support
it will aggressively evolve the
will be a key driver for
SharePoint solution – with Yammer –
organisations
to ensure the “social enterprise” will
considering moving
become a reality. While details of how
quickly to upgrade
Yammer and SharePoint might be
from SharePoint 2010
packaged and integrated are yet to be
to the new version.
disclosed, Microsoft is well-positioned
to become a leader in workplace
social software.
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3. Portals, Content and Collaboration
Search
With so many versions to choose from – Foundation, Standard, The App Store
Express, FAST – the range of search options from Microsoft has
Apps are here in a big way and Microsoft has
always been challenging to understand. Now there is only one version
fully embraced this concept in SharePoint 2013.
of search, and it is amazing! The best capabilities of all products have
A full-featured enterprise app store is now
been combined into one. Think search suggestions, document
provided, allowing staff to access company-
previews, continuous crawl, recommendations, social distance ranking,
built, purchased or externally available
deep refinement, auto identification of company names, advanced
applications. There are lots of options to control
analytics, even more integration, easy customisation and you are
how this works, but essentially you can think of
getting close to what the new search capabilities provide.
the app store as a highly organised and
What does all this mean? A highly engaging search experience for controlled way to manage add-on features
end users that provides the fastest, most accurate results ever seen which business areas might want to leverage.
in SharePoint.
Productivity
Accessing knowledge and enabling »» A new area in My Sites rolls up a »» A new Share feature allows users to
collaboration have been cornerstones of user’s tasks across the entire easily share sites and content with
Microsoft SharePoint since its first release SharePoint environment as well as each other rather than dealing with
in 2001. There are a number of Microsoft Project Server and complex permissions.
improvements in this space which take Microsoft Exchange. This creates a »» There a number of new and well-
SharePoint to the next level: proverbial “one-stop shop” for users designed collaboration templates
instead of going to tasks lists across available, delivering organisations
»» Users have a folder on their desktop
the platform. This delivers a huge great value from SharePoint 2013
which syncs directly to their My Site.
productivity boost! straight out of the box.
Companies use this instead of
personal drives, making it easy for »» There are a number of general user »» Access Services has been completely
staff to store documents within their interface improvements such as easy rebuilt and now exists as a
own space, conforming to templates list creation, searching and editing standalone solution, separate from
and enterprise metadata. Essentially and drag and drop document SharePoint. Access now has far more
this provides Dropbox-type-simplicity uploading. You’ll be surprised at how capabilities for rich forms and reports
with full enterprise level control at much easier SharePoint is to use and now than were provided in
the back end; the best of both worlds. user adoption and training will SharePoint 2010.
benefit from these improvements.
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4. Portals, Content and Collaboration
Websites
SharePoint 2010 provided some great functionality for »» Digital asset management has greatly improved, with much
intranet, extranet and public-facing websites. The capabilities better handling of images and video content. For example
in SharePoint 2013 have raised the bar and positioned you can select the thumbnail used for a video just through
SharePoint well and truly as a leader in the web content the browser, display YouTube videos and manage multiple
management space. Features that are new to SharePoint renditions of digital assets.
2013 include: »» Search Engine Optimisation has been implemented, with
»» A new Product Catalogue capability allows site navigation friendly URLs and auto sitemap generation.
to be defined using metadata. Product pages then »» A new Design Manager puts all the branding aspects of the
aggregate content from a number of sources onto the page site in one place with the ability to import non-SharePoint
using the new Content by Search web part. This powerful HTML from a designer and apply to a site and a much
capability allows eCommerce and knowledge-based sites to simpler theming engine. Designs can also be easily
be quickly developed and to adapt over time as product exported and imported. Overall these capabilities make
categories and taxonomy changes. Site collection designing websites much easier.
boundaries are no longer an issue for publishing content!
Next steps
Microsoft SharePoint 2013 provides many additional features to those discussed in this paper. SharePoint also provides a range
of additional features including full support for running 2010 sites (to allow easy migration), improvements in eDiscovery
(allowing full search across SharePoint and Exchange, including export capabilities), and versioning that now stores only the
differences instead of the full document each time a new version is checked in.
Contact us if you would like to better understand these new features and how they could help your organisation.
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