Technically Speaking

Many times policies are put in place for a reason at the time of their creation.  Once this happens, very rarely are these items visited again (unless a good majority complain).  The times may change and tools once at the top of mind may fall to the bottom of the heap when new more advanced technology comes along.

This has been quite the hot topic on the Internet lately, do we or don’t we love the smart phone.  By that I am looking solely at corporate supportability of the do everything devices.  Many companies either do not care because the IT group is the only set to have them, or have a so/so policy on them dictating they are not to be support but can you help me out with my smart phone.

Deciding how to proceed… tread carefully.

In many ways, having a smart phone is great for employees.  It allows them to have technology right at their fingertips and see their e-mail, calendar, and other things anywhere they might be.  However setting a standard for these devices is next to impossible if you are trying to exclude a certain type of device or carrier.

I believe that those who provide the support should decide the support.  Since the IT group will be responsible for ensuring mail works on any devices capable of getting email, they should make the call or generally provide the settings which allow for devices to be used.

The second option is my personal favorite.  Allowing personal technology to be used by making the needed settings available to the user of the device and allowing/requiring them to configure their own technology.  This is likely to be a popular choice for all because it removes physical support for the device from the IT group, but still allows the employees to carry whatever they want assuming the back-end technology (like mail) is up to speed enough to support the latest phones and devices.

My overall position

I created a document outlining how support will be handled for blackberry devices.  It provides the needed settings and directs the user to their carrier for other issues.  Seems to be the best move, and as I can test additional phones to build documentation for similar support, they will surely be added as needed.  If the organization wants to add support for additional phones that is ok too, but make sure they give the ample opportunity to test/try the device within the existing infrastructure.  If the latest iPhone release doesnt work with the items your company needs it to, then supporting it is irrelevant.  This should be known/tested prior to telling anyone to get/use the phone.

Stand by your documentation

If the documentation for a particular position is circulating, make sure all the employees in the support area know that and understand the document.  This way when asked, they can provide both the document and likely a statement over the phone about how to get things moving.  It will avoid the “what do I do?” scenario when a user calls for help and the tech employee isnt sure they should help because of the company position.

In the event that the company does not wish to support a device, make sure the support staff explains this to the user.  Just saying no might not get the information across to the user.  If there is definite position of no support, make sure the support group also understands that as well as the reasoning behind it.  If they do not know why the devices aren’t supported, they are likely to send mixed signals to employees by having some support the devices and others not.

Bottom Line…

Sometimes the best thing to do is simply provide information that will get the users started.  Since most smartphones do exclusively (or can) use Outlook Web Access (OWA) to connect to Exchange, it may be a simple settings outline for them and a very open document that explains where to click and what to type in.  This is more like encouragement for the user community to try a device and its config for themselves than actual support and can be a win/win for everyone.

Have been hooked on the idea of Groove and secure file sharing/collaboration for a while now, but the new version SharePoint Workspace 2010 is an even better application.

I am by no means an expert just yet, although I am hoping to dig in even more as I get my more opportunity with the product.  I did try a large file transfer within a Groove workspace and it was surprisingly fast across the LAN.  The file was about 500Mb and it was completed within 10 minutes.  Somehow I expected more delay than that.  Not sure if I would try such a big file across the Internet, well unless I knew the connections on both ends were fairly good.

What does SharePoint Workspace 2010 do?

This application is billed as the offline client for Sharepoint, however it still supports work group style collaboration that was available in Groove, but adds SharePoint functionality.

Personally I have found that disconnected collaboration works very well in both Groove and Workspace.  Suppose I am going to work on a project with two other individuals and they do not work for the same organization as I do.  Workspace 2010 (and Groove) allow me to create a collaboration session (or workspace) for the project and invite them to join.  When they do this all parties can trade files, messages, and other information.  Without the need to worry about firewalls or access rights.

Since all the content is encrypted share away, there is not too much need to worry about file transfer (although there is always some need).

Another way I have used SharePoint Workspace (and Groove) is to trade files with my other computers.  Suppose I am working on something at home and need to get it to the office.  Sure I could use a flash drive or cart my laptop to work.  Or I could put it in a workspace to which both of my computers belong.

This scenario might be good for those who are occasional road warriors.  In the office most of the time, but attend trade shows or other events from time to time.  Maybe they have access to the VPN, but if they are occasional travelers they may not.  Using a tool like SharePoint Workspace, the traveler could use a workspace on their work computer and on their laptop (or a company one that they checked out) to allow access to needed files while on the road.

Does it work?

So far, in the testing that I have done it works very well.  I have a few work spaces configured to trade files between my various PCs.  Another nice feature is that you can create an account (associated with your Live ID unless a Groove Server is used) and open or subscribe to as many work spaces as you need without the need to log in separately for each one.  Of course the multiple account scenario seems to be supported as well.  I tried that for a while, but didn’t like logging on to other identities to work with certain files.

When Office 2010 gets to you (it is already available on TechNet and MSDN and maybe even to business) I recommend giving SharePoint Workspace 2010 a look.  It might be just the collaboration tool you need, both with and without SharePoint.