SharePoint KM out of the box
Layer2 has released version 2.4 of its Knowledge Management Suite for portals based on SharePoint Server 2010 and 2013.
Centrally managed metadata or enterprise taxonomies are the key to success with knowledge management projects based on SharePoint. The Layer2 Taxonomy Manager for SharePoint improves the default metadata management features with advanced import, export, update and deployment features.
To make use of commercially available taxonomies the widely used XML-based SKOS format is fully supported for data interchange. The solution also adds content classification rules to terms managed in the SharePoint Term Store as a pre-consideration to simplify content categorisation.
The Layer2 Tag Suggester for SharePoint simplifies the addition of metadata to SharePoint items or documents. Content classification rules managed directly in the Term Store are used to make content-based suggestions to guide users while assigning metadata.
The Layer2 Auto Tagger for SharePoint goes beyond this: Content is classified automatically with metadata, based on rules, existing content properties, item context and document text content.
Out-of-the-box SharePoint already provides features that can profit from content classification, e.g. metadata-based list filters or faceted search. The Layer2 Tag Navigation Web Part for SharePoint adds additional navigation options to the SharePoint default. The tree-structured enterprise taxonomies can directly be used for content discovery. Users can simply browse the corporate knowledge - independent of the storage location.
The Layer2 Tag Directory Web Part for SharePoint offers some kind of index or glossary of corporate keywords based on the Term Store.
“The Tag Directory can help employees to find a common corporate language and understanding based on the enterprise taxonomy. The automatically built index of terms also allows to find and share content very fast alphabetically – a must-have for each SharePoint portal”, said Frank Daske, Product Manager at Layer2.
Layer2's Tag Cloud Web Part for SharePoint allows users to find content by the importance or usage count of the terms assigned. The Layer2 Related Content Web Part for SharePoint - as a next generation, search-driven SharePoint application - displays related content completely automatically, depending on page context.
Most users might know this feature from Amazon or other B2C portals. Contacts, related documents, similar news, further links etc. can be presented automatically always up-to-date and easily be found by users with one click.
Using the Layer2 Business Data List Connector for SharePoint or the Layer2 Cloud Connector for Office 365 it is possible to seamlessly integrate almost any external enterprise data sources like file shares, database records or ERP/CRM items with the SharePoint Knowledge Management and Social Collaboration features.