We had a blast, and we hope you did too. From our keynote sessions to figuring out what SharePoint means to you to our ASUS ultrabook giveaway, so much happened in just two days. We hope you had an aha! moment and are able to take home some new strategies that will help save your company time and money as you automate processes and build new collaborative environments.

In case you weren’t able to make it, or if you were just too busy jumping from session to session, we put the very best online content in a neat package, just for you. You can hop over to Storify to check out all the action curated from conference attendees, speakers, exhibitors, and our ShareFEST team: http://storify.com/sharefest2012.

ShareFEST 2012 was a great success, but we couldn’t have done it alone. We owe an enterprise-size thank you to NextDocs and Microsoft, our platinum sponsors.

Thanks also to each of our outstanding speakers, especially our guest bloggers:

• Dan Matlis, President, Axendia, Inc.
• David Gwyn, Vice President of Research and Development for HighPoint Solutions
• Dux Raymond Sy, Managing Partner, Innovative-e, Inc.
• Evan Callender, Director, West Monroe Partners

And thanks to you! The whole idea behind ShareFEST is bringing new value to you and your company, so we’re thrilled that you came to share your experiences.

Hopefully the conference and this blog provided you with some food for thought and information to continue affecting change at your organization. Our goal was to provide some extra insight into the latest applications and benefits from SharePoint through voices in the industry so you could get the most out of ShareFEST.

While ShareFEST 2012 is over, we want to keep the conversation going. If you’re itching for more content, slide shows from the presentations will be available in the coming week. But stay tuned to the ShareFEST blog for more information about SharePoint and innovations in the life sciences!

Bryan Ennis, Enterprise Program Director at NextDocs

SharePoint is a fundamental shift in how we build applications, how we managing our content, and most importantly, how we work together. More than any system that has come before it, SharePoint is enhancing the user experience and bringing us closer together. This improves productivity and knowledge, and enables the growth of both organizations and individuals.

A key insight occurred to me during the opening keynotes yesterday. The inevitable adoption and incorporation of consumer-style interfaces was a recurring theme in those sessions (best exemplified by demonstrations incorporating tablets and phones). This is hardly a surprise.

But in the face of so much talk about the consumerization of IT, I had been missing an important point. I suddenly realized that the adoption of these radically different styles of interaction is not only inevitable, it’s essential. These technologies (accompanied by great design work) allow the encapsulation of the inherent complexity of our business processes, which in turn allows our users to adopt our systems much more readily and quickly.

The demonstrations I saw illustrated the point. A process that might take 10 pages to describe can be reduced to a few intuitive gestures on a tablet. Now that we’re at this point, our barriers to adoption are reduced dramatically, our users will grow more widely dispersed and independent, and the actual impact of the systems we implement will rise exponentially.

The point was reinforced during a session led by Vasu Ranganathan, the President of ArborSys Group. I was blown away by a demonstration of an interface for assembling documents from “chunks,” using a structured content authoring solution. I have been aware of (and sometimes involved with) these solutions for a number of years, but to me the obstacle has always been the complexity of the process for managing and using content chunks.

In the demonstration, I saw a bizarrely intuitive way to find content chunks from a library through a palette. Users can then drag and drop those chunks into a new document. By masking the complexity of the task – that is, by abstracting the process into an intuitive user interface – structured content authoring solutions can actually work.

Consider the impact of a clinical solution that is easily used by the entire stakeholder set, from investigators to site manager and clinicians, all the way to – get this – patients. With consumer-like interfaces, we can open the door to a much broader set of users to fully connect them into collaborative processes. The result is dramatically improved information flow among all the participants and ultimately faster and better clinical trials.

To best leverage these interface technologies, however, there’s still a great deal of work to do on the design side. We need to design systems so that the inherent complexity is hidden within the system, and not in the face of an easily-intimidated user.

So my two take-aways from the first day at ShareFEST turn out to be pretty simple, but pretty awesome in their implications. The incorporation of consumer-like interfaces into our solutions is not simply an acquiescence to the preferences of a new generation of users. It’s actually the way that we can deliver solutions to a much broader set of users who may only interact with our systems occasionally, but whose participation may be essential to ensuring that the goals of the system are met.

Microsoft’s Role in Today’s Life Sciences Ecosystem: SharePoint, Windows, and the Cloud
Steve Aylward, General Manager, US Commercial Health and Life Sciences, Microsoft Corporation
Michael Gannotti, Technical Solution Professional, Malvern Technology Center, Microsoft Corporation

The big theme in this session was collaboration. While collaboration has been a rallying cry for SharePoint in the past, Aylward pointed to recent changes that have made it more important than ever. Think healthcare reform, a decreased pipeline, the FDA’s lack of ability to approve new medicines and therapies quickly, competition from generics, and costs spiraling out of control. According to Aylward, things have to fundamentally change to improve the state of healthcare, and technology will be the key driver.

Further, the past definition of collaboration no longer fits the bill. Sure, face-to-face meetings, conference calls, and emails all have their place. But the new environment of collaboration is virtual. Collaboration takes place not just within, but also outside your company and outside your firewall.

Gannotti demonstrated exactly what this means. The idea behind Microsoft’s extension of enterprise environments is “anywhere, any time, any device,” a familiar phrase to those advocating the consumerization of IT. An all-around ecosystem brings real-time collaboration that users can extend to other environments. Here are the three innovations:

• Data capture. Whether you’re in a hospital or performing clinical trials, data has to be gathered and made readily available anywhere at any time on any device. For example, SharePoint in the cloud also allows easy access to data. All you need is a browser.
• Creating rich applications without developers. Users are now empowered to create rich applications that are fully-managed, secure, and backed up in SharePoint and Office 365.
• Real-time collaboration is possible. In a hospital setting, time can be a matter of life or death. In clinical trials, time equals money. Real-time collaboration allows for that needed access to share clinical data. Search for patient records, for example, from any device at any time in any location with Internet access.

Real-time collaboration and annotation abilities offer a true innovation, Aylward noted. The seamless collaboration is met only by the seamless access from any device, all with the same interface. And these innovations from the enterprise side are moving toward the consumer side, granting the ability to improve patient care.

SharePoint in Life Sciences: Current Uses, Future Plans
Ken Lownie, Vice President Global Services, NextDocs
Fabien Jolly, Vice President Clinical Technology and Information Management, Sanofi-Aventis
Les Jordan, Life Sciences Industry Technology Strategist, Microsoft
Jeff Burk, Vice President Product Management, NextDocs

This presentation led off with Ken announcing some insights from the ShareFEST survey, the results of which will be shared in a few weeks. Here’s a sneak peek: 21.5 percent of life sciences respondents use SharePoint for regulatory and compliance solutions, and 38 percent plan to in the future.

After revealing the survey results, Fabien Jolly joined Ken on stage as the first guest in a “Late Show with David Letterman” interview format. The conversation was based on the challenges that Sanofi-Aventis faced in its clinical trials and how SharePoint has improved the management of the processes involved. A combination of regulatory changes and cost savings ushered in the shift from paper documents to digital collaboration. For Sanofi, migration to an automated platform offers massive advantages in handling the 200 to 300 trials per year and millions of documents managed during the trials.

They also discussed where SharePoint is headed next: trial management, cloud computing, mobile technology, and orchestration of all processes end-to-end.

Les Jordan then joined the group to talk about Microsoft’s perspective on the life sciences industry and how it’s evolving with its technology and partners. For example, clinical trial patients can log on to a portal to get information about their clinical trial, such as when their next drug is going to show up or how their results compared to others. These portals are a crucial new tool in building strong relationships with patients. Another innovation in the works is the concept of the virtual clinical trial, which would give investigators a closer look at patients’ status at any given time. In turn, patients would have a better view of how they are doing. All of this would be made possible with SharePoint.

Jeff Burk was the final guest to offer a preview of upcoming technologies. This is what he expects to happen next:

• The consumerization of IT ushers in new interactions.
• SharePoint will be integrated across all devices to take advantage of the phones and tablets that have become so ubiquitous.
• The cloud will play a key role in supporting the migration to mobile.

These comprehensive solutions will help deliver the right insight to the right people in order to perform the right actions, all in or around real time.

Don’t forget that tomorrow we have two more keynote sessions that you won’t want to miss. Until then, let us know about your key takeaways from today’s keynotes. Leave a comment below or chat us up on Twitter at @ShareFEST2012. Use the hashtag #ShareFEST2012!

Our presentations are set, our prestigious list of speakers is ready to share their expertise, our vendors are lined up to show off new technologies, and we have plenty of tips, tricks, and best practices for you to take home.

It can be a little overwhelming, we know, so we took the time to gather a few pointers to help you get the most out of your time at ShareFEST. Here, without further ado, is the ultimate guide to ShareFEST 2012.

• We just experienced the first two of four keynotes, the exhibit floor is now open, and our conference sessions are kicking off. You won’t want to miss any of them.
• Use our top five reasons to attend ShareFEST 2012 as your ruler to measure how much you get out of the next two days.
• Have an answer ready for when we ask you the big question: What does SharePoint mean to you?
• Check to see if you won our ASUS Ultrabook giveaway.
• Grab a ShareFEST button to pinpoint your areas of interest, be it clinical trials, records management, validation systems, etc. Birds of a feather flock together, so find others sporting the same buttons to gain insight into what innovations are making an impact today and steering the future.

We’ll be bringing you conference recaps on our blog, but for live updates, keep an eye on the ShareFEST Twitter feed. And join the conversation with the hashtag #ShareFEST2012!

But by framing the conversation in terms of business value, you can bring decision-makers on board to implement or enhance your company’s SharePoint platform. Here are three ways to persuade a manager that an investment in SharePoint is worth every penny:

1. Show managers what SharePoint means for your bottom line. Be ready to demonstrate how SharePoint can eliminate inefficiencies for your company through collaboration, automation, and the use of a single platform. Show how those improvements equal dollars in the bank.
2. Address pain points. Note specific ways your current technology falls short. Illustrate how SharePoint can solve or at least improve your company’s current challenges.
3. Don’t call it SharePoint! Stick to the solutions. You can take a broad approach (how the platform can help content management across the enterprise) or a more specific one (how it can improve conference room scheduling).

I’ll be drilling into each of these points and expanding upon them in my ShareFEST 2012 session, “Deliver SharePoint Success: Achieving Organization Buy-in to Transform Your Enterprise,” which I’ll present tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. Beyond strategies for communicating the benefits of SharePoint, I’ll talk about how to get the most out of SharePoint and effectively manage your SharePoint initiatives. See you there!

But custom branding brings new problems when it comes time to upgrade. We’ve had a number of clients stay with the “old” look and feel just because they weren’t ready to add the ribbon and address their branding elements. The entire look and feel of the sites might change with a new version of SharePoint, potentially creating headaches for companies already knee-deep in clinical trials and government regulations.

Upgrades should be welcome. And even companies with custom branding can efficiently move to SharePoint 2010 by knowing what to look for when upgrading and crafting a clear upgrade plan. Here are four tips for managing an upgrade with custom branding:

1. Use the visual upgrade to check and see how a site is going to look with the 2010 master pages applied. This simple tool will give you a heads up on what might need fixing.
2. Understand how the customizations were applied. Is it just custom CSS code? Was it applied to the entire master page? Are there content editor web parts on pages? This is one of the most important factors when considering custom branding and upgrades in SharePoint 2010.
3. Find out who is using SharePoint Designer and ask them what they have been doing and how. If you had a third party perform your custom branding, give them a call to review your documentation so you understand what was done. Key areas to look at are custom master pages, webparts, and application pages.
4. If you have modified SharePoint out-of-the-box styles and files, get those back into a supported state. This should be a top priority so you don’t have to deal with it again the next time you upgrade or migrate your sites.

I’ll be covering a few more of these topics along with my colleague at West Monroe Partners, Kaumil Dalal, at ShareFEST 2012 in our presentation, “Don’t Learn The Hard Way: 6 Common Pitfalls That Can Derail Your Successful SharePoint Migration,” on Friday, April 20 at 10:45 a.m. Stop by and learn a few more pitfalls you should avoid during your next migration!

David Gwyn, Vice President of Research and Development, Collaboration Practices at HighPoint Solutions

I’ve spent nearly 20 years focusing on the life sciences, especially content management solutions. What SharePoint means to me at this stage, given its maturity, is to be able to deliver the same if not better functionality to customers on a platform that’s faster, better, and cheaper. Now you can check in and out of a document and do PDF reviews. Office 2010 is supported, including Word co-authoring with parallel PDF reviews as needed. Even digital signatures are now possible, all thanks to SharePoint.

Jeff Burk, Vice President, Product Management at NextDocs

SharePoint means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but at a very high level, I love SharePoint. It’s a great tool.

But it’s a tool. We think it’s the right tool from our experience, the right platform to bank on to solve your company’s problems, as long as you understand that you’re going to make the tool work for you. The way to do that is to understand your business and then make sure you really understand SharePoint, and decide whether those two things come together to form a viable solution.

SharePoint isn’t something that you can just use for general challenges and expect it to all work for you. But it’s a flexible, compelling platform that meshes well with the life sciences. Just make sure that you’re aligning your business and the set of problems that you want solved with this great tool. That’s the way you can actually get the solutions going.

How would you answer? It seems like a simple question at first, but it’s one that made our bloggers pause to think when we asked them.

Over the next few days leading up to ShareFEST 2012, we’ll be posting some responses to this question from our bloggers. Then we’ll continue the conversation at ShareFEST, which, as the only life sciences conference focused on SharePoint, is bound to provide some great answers! Check out the first few answers below.

Dan Matlis, President of Axendia, Inc.

SharePoint is a platform that enables communication, heightens organizational efficiency, and supports regulatory compliance. It enables you to grow the capabilities of your platform without having to reinstall or start from scratch every time you need a new system, and it’s intuitive, which minimizes training.

Satwick Seshasai, Vice President, Product Development at NextDocs

SharePoint is a technology platform that allows software vendors to focus on the unique innovations that they build and provide to their customers. For NextDocs, this means providing a base set of document management capabilities and familiar web-based user experiences that allow us to focus on the unique compliance needs of our customers in the life sciences industry. Having SharePoint as a base technology allows us to get to market faster and also get installed within our customer sites faster.