June, 2012

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Web Seminar Recap: What is SharePoint?

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

On Thursday, June 28, 2012 John Voorhees presented the web seminar “What is SharePoint?” In this one-hour web seminar, John defined clearly what SharePoint is, explained the core SharePoint components and functions, and how to to get started.

SharePoint has become quite a buzzword in many organizations today. But the problem is using the phrase Microsoft SharePoint is like using the phrase “Microsoft Office.” It refers to several aspects of web-based collaborative solutions. Unfortunately there seems to be a lot of confusion around SharePoint’s actual core functions, and Microsoft’s product websites aren’t really that clear in their own explanation.

By the end of this seminar you will have a clear understanding of what SharePoint is and what it can do for you and your organization.

Recording
Listen to a recording of this web seminar in its entirety by clicking View Event Recordings (at the top right).

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Web Seminar Recap: Integrating SharePoint & SalesForce to Drive Business Productivity

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

To achieve a high level of business productivity, it is important for organizations to continually break down the information “silos” that can form amongst business units. Organizations must also prevent knowledge workers across the enterprise from working together and sharing important information. Until recently, organizations using both Microsoft SharePoint and SalesForce.com CRM faced challenges that resulted in duplicative processes, increased data recovery costs, and an inability to generate intelligence for decision makers to take action.

On Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Bryon Brewer presented the web seminar “Integrating SharePoint & SalesForce to Drive Business Productivity.” In this web seminar, he discussed ways in which companies can take full advantage of their SharePoint and Salesforce.com investments by opening up the lines of communication as well as integration between two platforms. Bryon also reviewed tools available to facilitate integration and available out-of-box options.

Recording
Listen to a recording of this web seminar in its entirety by clicking View Event Recordings (at the top right).

Posted in ASPE-IT, SharePoint, Web Seminar | Comments Off

White Paper Wednesday: Introducing Virtualization

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

By Chris Knotts, PMP – ASPE Creative Director

Last week, we offered four free white papers exploring several virtualization topics which are highly relevant to the ongoing “virtualization explosion.” This rapid growth in virtualization technology is having a huge impact on IT efficiency, cloud computing, and business transformation.

But what is virtualization? When you operate in the technology sector, as we do, it’s easy to forget that virtualization is still in the process of entering the mainstream. So for folks who just want a high-level view of what virtualization is, we offer our first white paper for this week: “Virtualization 101.”

Our second white paper is “VMware View 5: What’s New?” As enterprise virtualization has begun to be widely adopted, VMware has established itself as a primary player in the virtualization product space for enterprise cloud computing. We take a look at the most recent version of VMware’s View product for  end users in the enterpriseand what it can offer in terms of new features.

Today’s two white papers are brought to you in conjunction with Global Knowledge.

Download both white papers now

White Paper #1 – Virtualization 101

What exactly is virtualization and how can it help your company? The term ‘virtualization’ can be applied to many aspects of an IT infrastructure: applications, networks, storage, hardware, and end-users. In this white paper, we’ll define virtualization and focus on how certain trends, such as server virtualization, are changing the datacenter. We’ll look at what makes virtualization so compelling to companies in terms of efficiencies, improved resource utilization, cost reductions, and automation, to name a few. We’ll also address the ways in which virtualization optimizes the performance of servers, desktops, applications, and users.  This white paper covers:

  • What is Virtualization?
  • Advantages of Virtualization
  • Types of Virtualization
  • Major Virtualization Players

Download this white paper now

White Paper #2 – VMware View 5: What’s New?

VMware View 5 leverages many of the improvements present in vSphere 5 from a virtual machine perspective. The central focus on View 5 appears to be in improving the end user’s experience to near-native, allowing for greater flexibility in both how the virtual desktops are presented and in the actual capabilities within these desktops. These changes include enhancing the performance of the PC over IP protocol (PCoIP) to connect users to their virtual desktops, allowing much greater optimization on throttling and caching than there was in the previous version. VMware states that these changes alone can result in up to 75% bandwidth reduction over the previous version. There are also numerous improvements to how virtual desktops are managed and provisioned. This white paper covers the following major updates to VMware View:

  • PCoIP Improvements
  • Enhanced End User Experience
  • View Media Services
  • View Persona Management

Download this white paper now

Posted in Cloud Computing, IT Solutions, Virtualization | Comments Off
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White Paper Wednesday: Exploring Virtualization

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

By Chris Knotts, PMP – ASPE Creative Director

These days, virtualization is a topic that needs little introduction. Exponential growth in computing power and memory capability has drastically transformed (and disrupted) the way IT administrators have conventionally approached IT infrastructure and architecture. As these resources become more and more powerful, the ability to use virtual machines to make huge gains in IT efficiency is becoming the new norm.

We have focused on cloud computing and virtualization in previous White Paper Wednesdays, but today we’ve published four new white papers which explore virtualization even further. It’s a topic that any IT pro or technology professional should constantly be learning more about.

We have four new white papers for you today, brought to you in conjunction with Global Knowledge.

Download all four white papers now

Click to continue »

Posted in ASPE-IT, Cloud Computing, Data Centers, Hyper-V, IT Professionals, Tech Trends, Virtualization, White Paper | Comments Off
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Third iPad Winner of 2012 Chosen!

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Congratulations are in order! Christopher Henderson from Pennsylvania was chosen as our third iPad winner! When we notified Christopher he said, “I was very excited on this dreary Monday morning where everything seems to be going wrong.”

Don’t worry, there are still three more chance to win! Our next winner will be chosen on October 19th.

Sign up at www.aspeinc.com/ipad for your chance to win the last remaining iPad, an exciting way to experience the web, email, photos, video, & more.

Enter to win a FREE iPad from ASPE!

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$595 July/August Sessions: A Thank You to Our Students

Monday, June 18th, 2012

We know that there are a lot of training options out there, and we want you to know that we appreciate the fact that you chose us. To say thank you, we are offering all of our July and August online students the option to train additional people for just $595.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our customer service, our high-quality products, our classroom experience, our desire to be you partner (not just a vendor), and most importantly, the skills, tools and techniques you bring back to the office. We recognize that in today’s economy most people are being asked to do more with less. Many times that means you are overworked and taking on responsibilities that are not necessarily in your job description. More and more of our students are coming to class knowing that they are expected to return to the office and teach these new skills and knowledge to coworkers and team members. Others return to the office with critical projects or software deployment resting on their shoulders. We want to help relieve some of that burden.

Make it a team effort. You will get even more out of your training if you are able to discuss how to apply the material to your unique situation. Having a teammate or coworker in training with you can be a tremendous asset. It will aid you in retaining the information, but it also increases the real tangible value for your company. Together you can return to the office and drive the changes needed to upgrade processes, increase efficiency, deploy software and move your company forward.

That is why all of our July and August online session attendees can bring additional people for just $595 per person.

To take advantage of this offer, simply contact your training advisor or call 877-800-5221.

Posted in ASPE, ASPE-IT, Microsoft, Microsoft Project, Professional Development, Project Management, SharePoint | Comments Off

White Paper Wednesday: Virtualization Mistakes, Must-Have IT Skills, and Mobile Strategy

Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
By Chris Knotts, PMP – ASPE Creative Director

Today’s White Paper Wednesday is a bit of a technology mashup, but there’s nothing wrong with that. We’re taking a break from the past few weeks’ deep focus on SharePoint and Microsoft, and looking at some topics that touch on a few of the most-discussed technologies of the last few years: virtualization, mobile development, and IT job skills.

Today we are publishing three new white papers: these pieces include our perspective on the most essential job skills you should have if you’re a professional working in IT, how to avoid common virtualization mistakes, and concrete steps to take in implementing a mobile development strategy. We hope you find them useful, and we hope you’ll let us know what you think.

These three white papers are brought to you in conjunction with Global Knowledge.

Download all three white papers now

Click to continue »

Posted in ASPE-IT, Cloud Computing, IT Professionals, Professional Development, Technology, Virtualization | Comments Off

White Paper Wednesday: More SharePoint and Microsoft Resources

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

By Chris Knotts, PMP – ASPE Creative Director

Over the recent months, a couple of our White Paper Wednesdays have focused on SharePoint and other enterprise Microsoft tools. Both were pretty popular, and since both topics are specialties of ours, we’re glad to announce that today’s White Paper Wednesday will once again focus on Microsoft resources. We include two new SharePoint pieces: Customization Best Practices and how to use Workflows (we show you setup procedure step-by-step).

We also have two additional Microsoft white papers on SQL Server 2012 and Windows Server “Sysinternals” tools. For system admins, the Sysinternals white paper is particularly interesting, with great tips on freeware for administrating your Windows environment.

We hope you find this information useful, and as always: thanks for joining us for White Paper Wednesday.

These four white papers are brought to you in conjunction with Global Knowledge.

Download all four white papers now

Click to continue »

Posted in ASPE-IT, IT Professionals, IT Solutions, Microsoft, SQL Server, SharePoint, White Paper, Windows | Comments Off
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Why Training Budgets Go Further When It’s Hot

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

Are you currently making your summer plans? Maybe a drive down the coast with Jimmy Buffet blasting is in your future? Or will you be found sipping a Corona on the beach this Fourth of July? Whatever your summer plans, ASPE wants to be included. Come take advantage of our July and August specials and train with us this summer!

Believe it or not, the summer months offer a great opportunity to get the most out of your training dollars. Because the business world slows down during the summer, several opportunities open up for anyone who needs training. While the slowdown can present a challenge, savvy folks can actually take advantage of it. Here’s how:

  • Your competition is sluggish during the summer slowdown.
    Gain an edge going into the fall.
    Training builds enthusiasm and gives your people fresh new skills. By the time business begins to pick back up, those skills have really been mastered and integrated into the organization. You’ll enter the fall market with an edge, while your competitors are busy trying to shake off the lull of the summer blues.
  • With a slow in business, employees often have time to pick up some new skills.
    With a decade of experience training all sectors of the corporate world, we’ve found that employee flexibility is at its peak during the summer months. If your people experience a lag in their schedule, backfilling with new skills or certification training is a good move.
  • Training doesn’t just improve your people; it can upgrade your business processes.
    A potential slowdown can offer an opportunity to upgrade processes, as well as employees. Your busy time of year isn’t the best time to adopt a new methodology or deploy new software. If you have a bit of summer flexibility, you can afford to upgrade without disrupting your flow of business.
  • Virtual training allows you to train at any location.
    Many times the date or location of training conflicts with schedules. With virtual training you can keep your summer schedule and fit in training. Our virtual training goes anywhere you go. So take ASPE to the beach with you this summer!

You can currently save 24% on July and August sessions or 20% on other sessions if you book your upcoming training this summer. Click to continue »

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Web Seminar Recap: The Hows & Whys of Using SharePoint as a PMIS

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
More and more successful project managers are utilizing SharePoint Server to drive their projects and operational initiatives.  Out of the box, SharePoint Server offers many features that enable effective project management.  Lists and libraries allow you to consolidate and manage project information in a central place. While business intelligence features allow you to report on that information in real-time. By utilizing SharePoint along with other business tools such as the Microsoft Office suite of applications, organizations can create a customized Project Management Information System (PMIS) to assist with the daily management of enterprise projects.

On Thursday, May 31st Mark Weinstein presented the web seminar “The Hows & Whys of Using SharePoint as a PMIS.” In this web seminar, he discussed the many benefits of using SharePoint Server as a Project Management Information system. Some of which included using SharePoint to manage project data, consolidating project data using SharePoint libraries, reporting on project data using SharePoint’s business intelligence, and automating project tasks with SharePoint workflows.

Recording
Listen to a recording of this web seminar in its entirety by clicking View Event Recordings (at the top right).

Posted in Project Management, SharePoint, Web Seminar | Comments Off