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Paul Galvin

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Principal SharePoint Architect, BrightStarr

40 points

Paul Galvin has been working as a technical consultant for over twenty years. His experience covers a wide array of business applications, ranging from ERP and CRM to custom development frameworks. His long experience in the field and hands-on background ...

Paul Galvin has been working as a technical consultant for over twenty years. His experience covers a wide array of business applications, ranging from ERP and CRM to custom development frameworks. His long experience in the field and hands-on background combined with technical expertise help him ensure that customer solutions are both technically correct and well-suited to meet the business needs of the customer. Paul has contributed to and technically edited several books on SharePoint and is currently writing a book on SharePoint workflow (to be published by Wrox in summer 2011). In July 2008, Microsoft recognized Paul’s community contributions and naming him a “Most Valuable Professional” (MVP). Microsoft renewed the award in July 2009 and again in July 2010.

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WEB: Blog

March 23, 2012

Paul Galvin and 4 other people answered this question

Why is Windows often perceived to be more vulnerable than Linux of Mac OS?

I think that Andrew B's response is right on.
I'd add in addition that Apple owns their hardware so they can be deeply knowledgeable about he environment in which their stuff runs, almost right down to the pins of the CPU. MSFT doesn't have that ... more

Information Technology

Oct. 31, 2011

Paul Galvin and 11 other people answered this question

34% of Americans over the age of 20 are obese. Should the workplace play a role in fixing this?

I think they should do it for competitive purposes. Provide a really good program that is supportive and not punitive. I suspect that as people become more and more aware over time that being overweight is a terrible drag on your health (no pun intended) ... more

Human Resources

Health & Wellness

Oct. 24, 2011

Paul Galvin and 17 other people answered this question

What is the key to teamwork?

I think there are a couple of really important elements to successful teams:
1) Ability to compromise. People really need to keep their ego's in check.
2) Strong but *not* overbearing leadership.
3) Chemistry. People who genuinely like each other will work together better than a similar team ... more

Human Resources

Information Technology

Oct. 20, 2011

Paul Galvin and 3 other people answered this question

What are you seeing as the top uses for SharePoint within the enterprise?

6 to 12 months ago, I think that the top use was intranet-focused and centered around standing up an a SharePoint farm with useful company-waide IA and functionailty that supported light information publishing, document management and search.
I think today it's much the same way, but ... more

Information Technology

July 29, 2011

Paul Galvin and 1 other person answered this question

Do you find SharePoint case studies to be helpful?

I agree with Steven Fowler. I do the same thing. I also find them helpful just for the sheer idea-generating value they can provide.
They are great sales tools as well, particularly when people are looking to move to SharePoint for the first time. more

Information Technology

July 29, 2011

Paul Galvin answered this question

What are some tips for automating your SharePoint environment? Are there any drawbacks?

Automation is great all around but there are definitely drawbacks.
Automation is key to implementing a sustainable sharepoint governance plan that works for the long run. If you leave it up to people to follow the governance plan, it almost always devolves over time into something ... more

Information Technology

July 23, 2011

Paul Galvin and 3 other people answered this question

Aren't the enterprise collaboration tools just a fancier version of what we used to call "portals"?

Well, I don't think so. When I first starting working with "portals" they were basically a bunch of links to useful (or not useful :) ) resources, such as HR policies, timesheet systems, external sites for vendors and customers.
V2.0 of "portals" did some roll-up ... more

General Management

Information Technology

July 23, 2011

Paul Galvin and 1 other person answered this question at this roundtable

SharePoint in the Cloud: Evaluating Impact, Pros and Cons [7/21 @ 11 am]

Can you talk about risk/liability of SaaS providers with Customer IP.

From my POV, it's a trust issue. The service provider ultimately has complete access to your data unless you encrypt it. If you don't trust the provider then don't use them.
There are obviously other angles to look at this too, and I look forward to ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

July 23, 2011

Paul Galvin and 3 other people answered this question at this roundtable

SharePoint in the Cloud: Evaluating Impact, Pros and Cons [7/21 @ 11 am]

K-12 Enterprise -- need to set up Sharepoint (fast/cheap) -- in house or Office 365?

I think that it's a big challenge to do both.
There's a real common anti-pattern in the SharePoint world that a lot of organizations accidentally follow. They stand up a SharePoint environment for some relatively narrow purpose and use its out of the box features to ... more

Information Technology

Cloud Computing

Enterprise Applications

July 18, 2011

Paul Galvin recommends this answer by John Holliday

When rolling out a SharePoint training program, is it best to go with external or internal training?

I have been conducting SharePoint developer training courses on behalf of Critical Path Training for a number of years. From my experience, it is better to immerse the students into a classroom setting with an external instructor. They are more comfortable exposing their unfamiliarity with ... more

Human Resources

Information Technology

July 14, 2011

Paul Galvin and 26 other people answered this question

POLL: How strongly is the current recession affecting you? (Rate 1-5)

3 - in the sharepoint world, it's been just as busy this year as it was in 2007. Overall, no lack of work and no real pressure to reduce rates. more

June 29, 2011

Paul Galvin and 3 other people answered this question

What are your initial thoughts on Microsoft's Office 365?

My initial thought is that MSFT has a real opportunity now to basicaly take over an entire market segment. The smallest of my small clients can barely manage their sharepoint environments and they have 100+ employees with a part time kind of IT department. Now ... more

Information Technology

June 29, 2011

Paul Galvin and 5 other people answered this question

What's the most creative way you've used SharePoint?

In one of my early projects, I helped to build a Permits Management solution for a manufacturing company. The corporate office didn't renew permits, but they needed to keep on top of the individual plants to ensure that permits were being renewed as needed. There ... more

Information Technology

June 22, 2011

Paul Galvin and 14 other people answered this question

Do you think many companies will abandon SharePoint for Office 365?

I think that in the long term, many firms (probably at least a bare majority) will look to cloud based sharepoint in favor of on prem. I am working all the time with company IT departments that are already overwhelmed with other technology components like ... more

Information Technology

June 22, 2011

Paul Galvin and 2 other people answered this question

What's been your biggest SharePoint challenge to date?

One of the biggest consistent challenges is putting together a really nice user interface that "doesn't look like SharePoint" (common user request). It's easy to do this poorly on multiple levels - bad design to begin with, poorly implemented from a technical perspective and then ... more

Information Technology

May 31, 2011

Paul Galvin and 2 other people answered this question

What bug/ issue tracking software does your organization use?

We're a SharePoint consulting firm and we've been using SharePoint itself for issue tracking. It's not a canned package, but platform features help a lot. more

Information Technology

Issue Tracking Software

May 31, 2011

Paul Galvin and 20 other people answered this question

Does a project manager need to have an IT background?

I don't think that a PM necessarily needs a technical background but all things being equal, a technically experienced PM will do a better job than others in a technical project. I think that PM skills transcend the details of any given project, but nothing ... more

Information Technology

Project Management

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