SharePoint
SharePoint Online
Many companies are utilizing Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud services in addition to, or even instead of, their on-premise environments. While it does have a couple of limitations, its ease of use and reliability are very high.
I’ve used SPO daily for the past couple of years doing projects, workflow development and administration.
SharePoint 2013
Perhaps the most widely used version to date. The majority of the time I’ve worked on SharePoint I’ve used 2013. Projects have been very diverse including higher functions such as planning and implementing new site collections, creating and maintaining term sets and Managed Metadata.
Server-side maintenance and troubleshooting has also been done extensively, including keeping environments updated with new patches from Microsoft.
SharePoint 2010
Although newer versions have come out, SharePoint 2010 is still very widely used. Of the companies I’ve been with in the last 10 years, almost all of them either still had their 2010 environment in use or archived and available.
I’ve studied and completed business courses in its installation and administration as well as worked on numerous projects, but mainly focused on the end-use cases of lists and libraries and the 2010 workflow engine. It wasn’t until version 2013 that I began the creation of larger items like site collections in a business environment.
Power Platform
Power Automate
While it’s typically seen as a replacement for the SharePoint Workflow engine, Power Automate gives tools to all parts of Office365 implementations, allowing the integration of tools like Teams, Azure, and more. The options for integration has been incredibly freeing, allowing me to create tools, notifications and cross-application functions.
Projects completed using Power Automate include:
Schedule Request Systems
Document Approval Process
Financial Crediting Process
Email / Teams Notification Systems
Timed Task Updating and PowerAutomate Flow cancelling system
Power Apps
The uses for Power Apps are incredibly diverse and not just limited to forms. Applications can be highly customized and utilized to streamline business processes for end users. Like Power Automate, it’s uses also leverage things like Azure Identities and Office365 business connections.
Projects completed using Power Apps include:
Company Store used to order items from a catalog using points
Recognition Center, where you can c
Various document uploading systems
Complex forms replacing functions from Nintex and InfoPath forms
Power bi
Powerful data tool used to visualize data. While my expertise is not in data manipulation, utilizing these dashboards as well as information stored in SharePoint and other areas has been incredibly useful for quickly determining useful information from large amounts of data.
One major project I did utilizing data models was for a transition project for moving data from an old system to a Dynamics 365 system where we needed to quickly find work orders from hundreds of returned query items.
Development software and tools
Sharepoint designer
An essential tool to SharePoint development and high-level administration, I’ve used both the 2010 and 2013 versions extensively. While it’s now deprecated and not utilized in the cloud space, I still think learning it’s use is necessary to understanding how SharePoint functions. I do hope that a similar product is released because the ability to make things like columns and modify settings very quickly is missing in the modern version.
sharegate
Specialized suite of tools used to audit, report and perform migrations within SharePoint environments. I’ve used this tool for migrations and would highly recommend that anyone migrating an environment to another version use this tool. The ‘Remove Orphaned Users’ function is also highly recommended for keeping your environment up to date.
nintex
An incredibly powerful tool set used to make dynamic, robust, and complex workflows and forms, Nintex can perform tasks beyond what out-of-the-box workflows can achieve such as document creation and state-machine logic.
Examples of projects completed using Nintex workflows and forms include ticketing systems, CI assignments and strict document retention libraries.
Sharepoint framework
Using SPFx or extended webparts has expanded the usability of our environment. Using a SPFx webparts I’ve implemented a global navigation bar that really tied our whole environment together, dude.
These extensions have also let us create custom javascript/html search forms and custom view.
Other Experience and Interests
powershell | PNP/SPO/ISE
Necessary knowledge for a SharePoint admin is utilizing PowerShell, both for the uses of running scripts to automate large amounts of batch functions but also as a way to manipulate the environment in various different ways.
Recently I’ve begun using PnP more often for things like editing page layouts in our SPO environment.
Azure Cloud and Admin Centers
While not as often as the SharePoint center with the work I do, I’ll often need to use Admin center to make adjustments to permissions plans and troubleshoot account issues. Azure administration isn’t something I do but I’m interested in expanding my skills to the complete cloud environments that Azure can provide such as Azure AD and the Dataverse.
Currently I’m looking to utilize an Azure based SQL server to store employee data for reference in things like a birthday and anniversary list.
Hyper-v and other virtualization tools
Almost every server I’ve used for SharePoint and other projects have been virtualized. I’m interested in the further development of my administrative skills in the management of virtualized environments, such as vSphere, Hyper-v Clustering and Azure Virtualization.
In my personal life my home server runs several hyper-v VMs while I’m working on labs to learn new techniques and testing out builds.