Microsoft Office Groove Collaborative Solutionsdownload.microsoft.com/download/D/D/2/DD26CDAF-97B8-49A2...Microsoft’s Collaborative Solutions Microsoft Office Groove 2007 can be

http://www.microsoft.com/groove/

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Microsoft® Office Groove® Collaborative Solutions January 2007


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Table of Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................ 3

Introducing the New World of Work ...................................................................... 3

Microsoft’s Collaborative Solutions ...................................................................... 4

Collaborate through Integration ............................................................................ 4

Empower Effective Teams ................................................................................... 5

Create a Groove Workspace ...................................................................... 7

Add a SharePoint Files Tool ................................................................................9

Set a Synchronization Schedule .......................................................................11

Share a Workspace ............................................................................................12 Synchronize Work “On the fly” ........................................................................... 14

Create Flexible Project Teams ..........................................................................15 Protect Company Assets .................................................................................... 17

Archive Work ...................................................................................................... 19

Summary ............................................................................................................ 22


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Abstract

With the release of Microsoft® Office Groove 2007, Microsoft brings a powerful new tool into

its collaboration suite.

Office Groove 2007 adds new flexibility to the collaborative solutions already realized by

users of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. This paper discusses the out-of-the-box

capabilities available to users of Microsoft Office Groove 2007 in conjunction with

Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and Microsoft® Windows SharePoint® Services.

The power of these solutions is presented in the context of common business scenarios that

require simple and secure collaboration from behind and across corporate servers and

firewalls.

Introducing the New World of Work The work environment is not what it was ten or even five years ago. With more powerful

software and computing systems, wireless connectivity, and a proliferation of mobile devices

from laptop computers to Smartphones, the definition of a workplace or team now cuts

across locations, organizations, and cultures. An office is no longer simply a room or a

building. It can be any place information workers create, share, and store information, and

wherever they collaborate with employees, partners, customers, and others on projects and

business processes.

In this new world of work, project teams need to form quickly and share information easily.

Because teams often are composed of individuals from multiple offices and companies as

well as mobile workers, teams often are forced to rely on a patchwork of tools to share

information and work together. These tools may include e-mail, phone, voice mail, file

shares, and Web sites.

Email is frequently used for document sharing and information exchange because shared

drives and other server-based file-sharing tools are rarely accessible by colleagues in other

offices or by partners and customers on different corporate networks. As a result, file

versioning issues increase, e-mail account sizes grow, and security breaches are common.

While each of these tools has strengths for particular work activities, together they fail to

provide a persistent, contextual work environment that is accessible to all team members—

anywhere, anytime, on any network. In addition, many of these tools were only designed to

support internal company work. Infrastructure costs and security risks increase when they

are used for work that crosses organizational boundaries.

Microsoft Office Groove 2007 provides an environment for team members to complete

projects more effectively by working in contextual, collaborative, workspaces. And it

provides enterprises with a flexible forum where they can gather information from disparate

sources, create virtual teams, and foster dynamic collaboration among team members who

are separated by geography, time zones, and corporate firewalls.


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Microsoft’s Collaborative Solutions

Microsoft Office Groove 2007 can be used in conjunction with the latest SharePoint portal

product, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, to satisfy the needs of many in the

organization; from information workers and mobile sales representatives to project

managers and executives. Moreover, the benefits of SharePoint integration can be realized

right out of the box by using Groove’s flexible SharePoint Files Tool.

Collaborate through Integration The SharePoint Files Tool, new with Microsoft Office Groove 2007, allows information

workers to access resources stored in SharePoint document libraries while collaborating on a

project in the Groove workspace.

Overvview

The SharePoint files tool can be added to any standard Groove workspace, and

regular synchronization between the tool and the associated SharePoint site ensures

that the team always has access to up-to-date information.

Users don’t need to worry about uploading or downloading files—updates are

automatically synchronized between the Groove workspaces of all team members

and with the files in SharePoint.

Because files in a Groove workspace are stored securely on the user’s hard drive,

users can continue to work offline and changes will securely synchronize with the

workspace members as soon as they reconnect.

A PC with an Internet connection is all that is needed to stay in touch with other

workspace members, allowing highly mobile employees to work together on projects

wherever they go.

The integration between Groove and Sharepoint allows users who do not have

Groove installed on their PCs to view the latest version of a work-in-progress simply

by navigating to the SharePoint library.

Regular synchronization also allows Groove workspace members who cannot access

the SharePoint site to see the files in the SharePoint library, simplifying the process

of extending a project across corporate boundaries.

The integration between Groove and SharePoint can be used to limit access to

sensitive material and confidential info. Company trade secrets can be kept separate

and safe.


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Empower Effective Teams

This paper presents an example of how a team can work together and share information on

a project that involves

An internal sales team connected to the corporate LAN

Remote employees not connected to the corporate LAN, working in different time

zones

External contractors and vendors who need access to information without

compromising corporate security The players: Contoso Ltd. Is a medium-sized manufacturer of specialty shoes. Employees include

Mark, sales representative for Contoso Ltd.

Rosa, the Contoso sales manager.

Bob, a senior footwear designer temporarily based at Contoso’s factory in Italy.

Bill, a Contoso project manager.

Jane , a Contoso product manager. The set-up Northwind Traders is a popular outdoor recreation retailer who is accepting bids for the design and manufacture of a new line of hiking boots. Contoso has worked with Northwind Traders in the past and wants to win the opportunity work on the hiking boot project. By collaborating, Contoso can win the bid….


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Create a new SharePoint document library Mark, a sales representative for Contoso, Ltd, sees a great opportunity. He knows that Contoso has worked with Northwind Traders before so there’s information about the company and the proposal-writing process already stored in a SharePoint site on Contoso’s corporate server. Mark navigates to the Northwind Traders SharePoint site on Contoso’s server to do some research before meeting with Northwind’ Trader’s representatives. He finds the documents he needs to prepare a Northwind Trader’s request for proposal (RFP) for the new hiking boot line. At the conclusion of a successful meeting with Northwind Traders, Mark is ready to start working on an RFP. He creates a new library in the Northwind Traders SharePoint site on the Contoso server. Mark selects the request for proposal (RFP), his meeting notes, and the schedule for drafting a proposal to Northwind Traders for the project. Next, Mark needs to retrieve a copy of Contoso’s proposal template. He knows this template is stored in the templates library in Contoso’s SharePoint site. Mark navigates to Contoso’s SharePoint home page to get started. As Mark begins to work on the proposal, he sees that the new hiking boots must meet a very specific set of criteria, and he soon finds that he needs help. Rosa, the Contoso sales manager, suggests that Mark get in touch with Bob, a senior footwear designer who is based temporarily at Contoso’s factory in Italy. Mark wants Bob to take a look at the RFP and he also wants to show Bob what he has done so far on the proposal, but Bob can’t access the SharePoint sites on Contoso’s server from his remote location in Italy.

Mark quickly sees that he can use Groove to work with Bob on the proposal, and to give Bob

secure access to the documents on the Contoso site.

He wants to run this idea by Bob but Italy is nine hours ahead of Mark’s local time. He sets

up a call very early the next morning to bring Bob up to speed.

After the phone conversation, Mark is ready to create a new workspace and use the

SharePoint Files tool to point to the new proposal library he’s created for Northwind Traders

on the Contoso SharePoint site.

It takes Mark no time at all to create a new workspace, add the Groove SharePoint Files tool

and point to the new library where he’s working on the proposal.

Create a new SharePoint document library and upload content 1. Click Create from the Site Action drop-down

tab in the upper right-hand corner of the All Site Content page.

2. Click Document Library, enter a name and description for the new library, and click Create.

3. Click Upload and select Upload Multiple Documents.

4. Browse to the location of the files to be uploaded.

5. Select the files to upload. SharePoint uploads them to the new library.


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Create a Groove Workspace

Mark starts with a Standard Workspace that he can easily modify for his project. A Standard Workspace allows members of the workspace to

Share documents

Participant in discussions

Send messages

Use additional tools (like the SharePoint files tool) to enhance collaboration

Create a new Groove workspace 1. At the top of the Groove

launchbar, click New Workspace. 2. Type a name for the new

workspace. 3. Choose the type of workspace to

create: File Sharing Standard Template

4. Click OK. Groove opens the workspace in a workspace window.


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Add a SharePoint Files Tool

Having created the standard workspace in Groove, Mark is ready to enhance it with the SharePoint Files tool. This tool allows teams to work together to produce and modify documents in SharePoint libraries through automatic integration in Groove.

Add SharePoint Files tool to a Groove workspace 1. Choose New – Tool –

SharePoint Files from the File menu.

2. Click Setup on the Welcome screen.

3. Type the URL for the SharePoint site containing the library or folder to synchronize or select it from a list of network places. Groove populates the dialog box with the libraries and sub-sites on the SharePoint site.

4. Select the library or folder you want to synchronize and click Open.

Groove displays the contents of the library in the SharePoint Files tool.


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Set a Synchronization Schedule

Mark wants to be sure that the files are updated and synchronized. Groove provides a synchronization schedule that he can set and modify as a manual or automatic process..

Set File Synchronization 1. Click the calendar icon in the

synchronization bar. 2. Choose Manually to synchronize

files manually. 3. Choose Automatically and specify

a schedule in the Every: field and time unit drop-down list.

4. Click OK.

Groove synchronizes the files according to the schedule that you specify.


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Share a Workspace

After setting up his Groove workspace, Mark invites Bob to the workspace so Bob can view messages from Mark and can access the documents Mark has added to the SharePoint site through Groove. Mark invites Bob to the workspace and types a detailed message, reviewing the issues and concerns he expressed to Bob over the phone. He clicks Send Message to send the invitation. Within minutes, and just before he leaves his office in Italy (it’s the end of the work day for Bob), Bob receives an e-mail inviting him to join the workspace. Bob clicks Accept and Mark receives notification of the acceptance and confirms it. Now Bob is able to view Mark’s message as well as the documents in the proposal library on the SharePoint site (see Figure 1). The next day, back in the office, Bob looks over the RFP and the proposal document. Using the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Office Word, Bob adjusts the proposal document to address Mark’s concerns and saves it back to Groove as a new version. Later, at the start of Mark’s day in the US, he logs on and sees the change notification beside the proposal document in the Groove workspace. He reviews Bob’s changes, accepts them, and uses the Groove discussion feature to thank Bob for his help. In the afternoon, Mark realizes that part of the cost estimate will have to be adjusted to accommodate Bob’s changes. Mark sends Bob a Groove message asking for his input. Bob opens the cost estimate document in the proposal library. After calculating an adjustment, Bob inserts it into the document and saves it. Groove updates the document in the workspace and Mark, who is working late at home, sees the change notification and sends Bob an acknowledgement.

Share a workspace 1. Under Invite to Workspace, type

the email address of a person to invite to the workspace and click Go.

2. Type a message to the invitee and click Send Message.

Groove sends an email message to the invitee to accept. Accept an invitation

Choose Accept to accept an invitation to a workspace.

Accepting an invitation gives the invitees full access to the workspace with all its features, tools, and functions.


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Figure 1


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Synchronize Work “On the fly” The next morning, Rosa, the sales manager, holds a meeting of the sales team. She wants to discuss current sales prospects and proposals so that she can do some resource planning. Mark is enthusiastic about the Northwind Traders opportunity, and Rosa asks to take a look at Mark’s proposal. Rosa wants to contribute to the proposal, but doesn’t necessarily want to join the project. She’ll need access to the proposal on the Northwind Traders SharePoint site but time will tell if she’ll need access to the Groove workspace that Mark and Bob share. It’s easy to invite her later, if needed. For now, Mark directs her to the proposal on the Northwind Traders SharePoint site. That afternoon, Rosa navigates to the proposal library on the Northwind Traders site where she opens and reads the latest version. Rosa was involved in the creation of a hiking boot proposal for a European retailer last year and wants to compare it with the work Mark has done on Northwind Traders. She notes some similarities with the European proposal and she inserts language copied from that proposal, which she feels is a little clearer, into the Northwind Traders proposal. She sends Mark an e-mail asking him to take a look at her changes. Mark receives Rosa’s e-mail, but he has to catch a plane and doesn’t have time to review it. Before packing up his laptop and leaving the office, Mark opens the Groove workspace and uses Synchronize Now to synch up his Groove workspace with the SharePoint document that Rosa made changes to. He’s synchronized her changes with his workspace version so he can review her changes while he’s on the plane and disconnected from the corporate network. While on the plane, Mark is able to view Rosa’s changes from within the Groove workspace. He agrees that Rosa’s wording is an improvement and, after making some additional edits, he sends Bob a Groove message asking him to take a look at the linked proposal and accept the changes if he has no objections. That night in his hotel room, Mark’s Groove workspaces are automatically updated when he connects to the Internet. Bob instantly receives the updates, and after reviewing the proposal, he accepts the changes.

Synchronize Now] 1. Choose Edit.

2. Click Synchronize Now…

Groove synchronizes the files immediately.


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Figure 2 When Mark returns from his trip, any changes made while he was away synchronize again with the SharePoint site. Over the next few days, Mark and Bob put the finishing touches on the proposal. The scheduled synchronizations also keep the SharePoint site updated so that Rosa can track their progress as well (see Figure 2).

Create Flexible Project Teams Northwind Traders likes Mark’s proposal and negotiates an agreement with Contoso for the design and manufacture of the hiking boot line. Now it’s time to move from the proposal stage to kick off the project, Mark creates a separate SharePoint site for the Northwind Traders hiking boot project. He uploads the final project specs, budget, and schedule from his hard drive into the document library on the new site. Mark wants Bob to be part of the project team because of his familiarity with the proposal but Bob is still in Italy, so they will continue to collaborate in Groove but using a new workspace. Mark creates a new Groove workspace and adds a SharePoint Files tool to synchronize with the library in the hiking boot project site. Mark also adds a files tool that points to the library in the Northwind Traders proposal site so that all project members will have access to the final proposal document.


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Figure 3

Now that the workspace has been set up, Mark invites other members of his team to join. In addition to Bob, Mark sends a Groove invitation to Bill, a Contoso project manager. After accepting the invitation, Bill, in turn, invites Jane, a Contoso product manager into the workspace. It’s easy to add new members and you can match existing configuration of teams in the work place or bring together people on a more ad hoc basis. Mark schedules a conference call with all workspace members to discuss the project and he uses Groove to viewing and update documents during the meeting.

Mark, Bill, and Jane meet in the conference room and Bob joins the call from Italy.

Mark projects the schedule document from the workspace onto the screen in the conference room.

From his office in Italy, Bob goes to the project workspace and opens the project schedule. Groove allows him to view the same document that Mark is projecting on the screen in the conference room. When Mark makes adjustments to the schedule, he is prompted to save them back to Groove and they become accessible to Bob only moments later (see Figure 3).


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Protect Company Assets The Northwind Traders project is off to a good start. And the team is growing. Jane, whose job is to ensure that the boots have the right look for the target market, wants to bring in John, an outside design consultant she has worked with in the past. She wonders, how can she best give John the information that he needs to work on the project without compromising design secrets that are stored on the Contoso SharePoint site? When Bill approves Jane’s request, she asks if he can help her think of a way to invite John into the hiking boot project workspace without exposing the privileged information that should not be shared outside of Contoso. Together, Bill and Jane realize that Groove offers a way to resolve this issue. Jane can create a design folder in the library on the hiking boot project site and copy the documents relating strictly to design into it. She can next create a new Groove workspace for design planning and add a SharePoint Files Tool pointed at the design folder on the SharePoint site. Because the design planning workspace will be synchronized only with the design folder on the SharePoint site, and John will only be a member of the design planning workspace, he will not have access to any of the more sensitive materials in the hiking boot project site library. Satisfied with the plan, Bill gives Jane the go-ahead.


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Figure 4 Jane sets up the folder, creates the workspace and sends John an invitation to join the workspace as a participant. After he accepts, John is able to view and manipulate only the files synchronized between the Groove design planning site and the design folder on the Northwind Traders SharePoint site. As John’s design evolves, he updates the files in the workspace. Groove synchronizes the design changes to Jane’s computer, which in turn synchronizes with the folder in the hiking boot project SharePoint site.

All members of the project team workspace are able to see John’s work, because the Groove project workspace is synchronized with the library in the SharePoint site that contains the design folder (see Figure 4).

When Bob spots a potential conflict between one of John’s design elements and the ergonomic requirements of the new boots, he sends a Groove message to Jane with a link to the requirements spec;

Jane is able to give immediate feedback to John.

John adjusts his design so that it conforms to Bob’s specifications, and Bob sees the change soon after John saves them back to Groove.


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Archive Work Once the boot design is approved, Bob (still offsite in Italy) is assigned to head the team for the creation of a hiking boot prototype. A prototype of a hiking boot includes a physical boot and all of the documents and design specifications that are used to created it. Bob recruits three shoe technicians to help him; Donna, who is located in Italy, Carl and Earl who both work out of Contoso’s U.S. headquarters. Bob uses Groove to allow the four of them to collaborate efficiently. He creates a workspace that he labels “Northwind Boot Prototype” in Groove and invites Donna, Carl, and Earl into the workspace. This workspace contains documents initially created by Bob and is independent of the Northwind Traders hiking boot project SharePoint site on the Contoso server. (See Figure 5)

Figure 5

Soon after work on the prototype hiking boot begins, Bob invites Jane into the workspace to keep her up to date on their progress. In accordance with Contoso best practices, Jane sees that the documents relating to and describing the hiking boot prototype also need to be archived on the hiking boot project SharePoint site, both to allow


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access for other members of the team while the project is ongoing, and to create a record once the project concludes. Jane does the following:

Creates a folder in the Northwind Traders hiking boot project site on SharePoint for the prototype documents

Adds a SharePoint Files tool to the Groove workspace that holds the prototype documents

Points the SharePoint Files tool in Groove to the new folder she created for prototype documents in SharePoint

Jane opens the prototype workspace root folder, then right-clicks the SharePoint files tab at the bottom of the workspace and selects Open in New Window. In the workspace window, she selects all the documents related to the prototype and drags them into the tool window. When she clicks Synchronize Now, the files are published to the SharePoint hiking boot project site on in the new folder she created for the prototype files. see Figure 6). As the prototype phase continues, Jane synchronizes the documents back to SharePoint manually whenever she sees a change notification. After the hiking boot prototype is delivered to Northwind Traders, Bob confirms that Jane has synchronized the final versions of the files with the SharePoint site before deleting the prototype workspace. Under File, Delete Workspace, he selects For All Members. The workspace is deleted from the hard drives of all five computers, but the files it contained remain part of the permanent project record archived on the SharePoint Northwind Traders site.

Point Groove SharePoint Files tool to a SharePoint library 1. Right-click the SharePoint files tab

in the lower-right corner of the Groove workspace.

2. Choose Open in New Window. 3. Select and drag documents to the

tool window. 4. Click Synchronize Now to

publish documents to the folder on the SharePoint site.

Groove synchronizes the files immediately.

Deleting a Groove Workspace 1. Choose Delete Workspace from the File

menu. 2. Select one of the following:

From This Computer (Groove account on this computer) From All My Computers (All computers with your Groove account) For All Members (All workspace members’ computers)

Groove deletes the workspace in accordance with your selection.


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Figure 6


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Summary Microsoft Office Groove 2007 is an important addition to the Microsoft collaboration tools, providing rich out-of-the-box functionality that includes:

Simple user interface for creating and maintaining workspaces. Groove workspaces can be created from the desktops of information workers as easily as they create new documents in Microsoft Office Word, making it easier to use than more complex systems.

Ability to collaborate securely both behind and across firewalls. End-to-end, always-on encryption allows for the sharing of information without the exposure inherent in the sending of files as e-mail or IM attachments or copying them to CDs and storage devices.

Support for Microsoft Office. Both Groove and SharePoint are designed to work in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Suite, reducing training time in organizations where the use of these applications is already well-established.

SharePoint files tool for easy access to SharePoint libraries and folders. A member of a Groove workspace with access to a SharePoint site can synchronize with an entire library or a single folder on the site simply by typing the appropriate URL into the SharePoint Files Tool.

Choice of manual or scheduled synchronization with SharePoint files. Any member of a Groove workspace can synchronize with SharePoint manually by clicking a button. Alternatively, a workspace member can set up a regular schedule for synchronization.

Ability to archive workspace files to the SharePoint server. Files in a Groove workspace created independently of SharePoint can be archived on the SharePoint server by adding a SharePoint Files Tool pointed at the appropriate site, dragging the files from the workspace into the tool, and synchronizing the tool with the SharePoint site.

Microsoft partners and customers who need to create secure virtual workspaces without extensive IT support will be well served by the addition of Microsoft Office Groove 2007 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2007 to their business environments. Simple and secure collaboration begins right out of the box.