Accessing Sharepoint from 3rd party programs

Question

We've just implemented sharepoint and are switching to it from a more traditional network drive based setup.

One of the biggest hurdles to this switch is getting it to integrate with 3rd party applications.

An example of this is an employee using Photoshop wants to open up images from a sharepoint photo library. Firstly, the only way to access the library from the Open dialog box is to type the sharepoint URL in the box which isn't friendly. Then when the employee tries to save the image back to sharepoint from Photoshop, it crashes.

Another problem is an employee receives an email with an attachment. They wish to save this attachment into a sharepoint document library. So they goto File > Save As, browse to sharepoint via the sharepoint URL trick again and then want to create a new folder in the document library. But it doesn't let them create new folders, they have to go to sharepoint and create the folder and then upload the file manually.

Both these workflows are slow and cumbersome compared to the old network drive method. I'm interested - how does everyone make Sharepoint integrate smoothly with day-to-day tasks like this??

Thanks so much all :)

Answer 1

how does everyone make Sharepoint integrate smoothly with day-to-day tasks like this??

The short answer, it is a bit of give and take. While some things are more difficult to begin with, there are many advantages. The key is to provide adequate training and manage the change (notifications, nominated "experts" in each dept to provide assistance).

Another problem is an employee receives an email with an attachment.

Once Incoming email is configured in SharePoint, users can send (or forward), documents to a library using email. A library is configured to use a specific email address. Folders do have to be created manually. Though with metadata and columns, folders may not be something which users will care too much about in future.

An example of this is an employee using Photoshop wants to open up images from a sharepoint photo library.

There are several options. You mentioned the method of copying the document Url, however that can be difficult. There is also a function (under the Actions menu in the browser), to open in Explorer. Users can then open the file or copy it to their documents directory to work on.

Recent versions of SharePoint (2013) use SkyDrive Pro, which means users can automatically have selected libraries and documents automatically synchronised to their desktop PCs.

You can also use WebDAV, which means you can use a library like a network drive. While this isn't user friendly to begin with, you can easily map network drives to a library to make the process easier.

The key is not to try to make the process the same as network drives, explain the benefits and provide training and help sources as there will be a change to how staff do their work.