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Rich Blank

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Collaboration & Social Software Evangelist and SharePoint SME, NewsGator

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My passion is helping organizations change the way people connect, share information, and manage knowledge. Since the dawn of the internet, I have worked with hundreds of organizations evangelizing, architecting and delivering social computing, collaboration & content management solutions. My expertise ...

My passion is helping organizations change the way people connect, share information, and manage knowledge. Since the dawn of the internet, I have worked with hundreds of organizations evangelizing, architecting and delivering social computing, collaboration & content management solutions. My expertise includes information & systems architecture, end user adoption, governance, business process improvements, and technology strategy.

I'm a featured MS SharePoint expert and regular blogger on AIIM.org (Association of Information & Image Management) and was selected to participate in a Microsoft Vision Team Panel for Office and SharePoint. I've also published articles about collaboration, ECM, and social business in CMSWire.com, SocialMediaToday.com, and Greater Charlotte Biz Magazine. I've also has been invited as a guest speaker at the 2008 IT & Business Alignment Conference, 2010 SharePoint Summit, and regional SharePoint User Groups. I have held senior technology and management consulting roles at IBM and EMC, obtained my MBA from Babson College and BBA from the University of Michigan, and am a certified PMP and Six Sigma Green Belt.

You can read some of my insights on my personal blog: www.pmpinsights.com, follow me on Twitter: @pmpinsights, and connect with me on LinkedIn: www.richblank.com. Or email me: richb@newsgator.com

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Oct. 22, 2011

Rich Blank and 3 other people answered this question

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

document collaboration and intranets is primary use. With SP2010 organizations want to see more value of the platform and increase user adoption. With that focus, more and more focus on social collaboration by using products from vendors like NewsGator for example. They're rethinking the intranet ... more

Information Technology

Oct. 10, 2011

Rich Blank answered this question

What do you see as the newest trends in collaboration? Are they different for SMBs and enterprises?

Lots of trends and it really doesn't matter if you're an SMB. An SMB has the advantage of leveraging the cloud. Collaboration as a service is the first trend right now both inside and outside the firewall. The second big trend is consumer social media ... more

Information Technology

Sept. 15, 2011

Rich Blank answered this question

Are there mobile options to access SharePoint? How do they compare? What devices are covered?

NewsGator's Social Sites 2010 offers a mobile client for blackberry, ipad/iphone, and android. You can view your personal activity stream, connect with colleagues, share photos and files, and see activity streams for community sites you follow as well....all from your mobile device. more

Information Technology

Sept. 13, 2011

Rich Blank and 1 other person answered this question

How does SharePoint stack up when it comes to social networking tools?

Have to agree with Veronique! SharePoint 2010 has some gaps compared to features/functions of the public social networks. Solutions like NewsGator increase adoption and offer a rich set of social capabilities with a TCO less than other 3rd party tools that claim they integrate with ... more

Information Technology

Aug. 23, 2011

Rich Blank and 7 other people answered this question

Do you think HP's decision to bet 80% of their cash reserves on Autonomy is a wise decision? Y/N?

Radical but not crazy. Was EMC's purchase of Documentum crazy? Vmware? EMC transformed itself a decade ago. HP has been coasting with PCs for 2 decades and they've simply become a commodity business. They bought Palm with no strategy. Palm was a dying business and ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

Enterprise Search

Aug. 5, 2011

Rich Blank and 1 other person answered this question

How do enterprise social networking vendors such as Yammer and Chatter price their software?

Can't comment on specifics of anyone vendor. However, you have to first decide whether you want a SAAS or on-premise solution. Most SAAS solutions charge a per user / per month fee which hits your operating budgets. In an on-prem situation (as in the case ... more

Information Technology

July 25, 2011

Rich Blank and 2 other people answered this question

Do organizations use Yammer and SharePoint differently? Are there different use case?

Big difference is Yammer is a SAAS play while SharePoint is generally on-prem. SharePoint is also a robust multi-purpose platform while Yammer is simple a niche social application. A lot of organizations think Yammer is easy to get started with, etc... Yet you're adding another ... more

Information Technology

July 21, 2011

Rich Blank and 3 other people answered this question

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

Yes in many ways social is the personal portal, dashboard, a central point of information aggregation, consumption, and collaboration. more

General Management

Information Technology

July 1, 2011

Rich Blank and 3 other people answered this question

Would it be useful to have something like Yammer integrated into a project management tool?

Definitely. If you're using SharePoint for project management, you could also look at NewsGator for "socializing" project team sites among other collaboration capabilities. more

Information Technology

June 29, 2011

Rich Blank is now following Jason Tardif and 5 other people

June 29, 2011

Rich Blank and 14 other people answered this question

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

for really large orgs....no.
small to midsize companies who have less complex requirements...yes.

Information Technology

June 23, 2011

Rich Blank and 1 other person answered this question

Does Sharepoint integrate with any social media tools?

NewsGator makes SharePoint social bringing a facebook like experience to SharePoint and also allows you to connect to external social networks as well.
www.newsgator.com more

Information Technology

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