Bringing a Mobile SharePoint solution to Your Enterprise

Mobile Man / Thursday, February 5, 2015

Like SharePlus itself, you have many options when bringing this mobile SharePoint solution to your users’ fingertips. We’ve built SharePlus Enterprise with your business needs in mind, and as such, you’ll be able to securely connect to your SharePoint data thanks to the multiple configurations, security, and deployment options presented here. Let’s explore these options in greater detail:

Connectivity

When connecting to SharePoint, SharePlus takes advantage of several network architectures, which ensures a secure communication through:

  • HTTPS protocol
  • VPNs or MDM-provided tunneling
  • Firewalls, Load Balancers and Proxies (including reverse proxies)
  • SharePoint’s authentication mechanisms including support for Custom Login Forms, Windows, Forms based and Office 365 authentication methods.

Security

To maintain the protection of your data, top-grade security measures are built directly into SharePlus at each layer. For example, the app comes with the following features:

For data at rest:

  • Apple’s iOS Data Protection, which augments the AES 256-bit encryption by requiring a user’s passcode to access data inside the device.
  • Secure Data Wipe, which removes all data from a mobile device without destroying the internal storage, based on triggers such as failed passcode-entry attempts when administrators activate Passcode Lock (described below).

For data in motion:

    • Support for virtual private network (VPN) connectivity through built-in VPN support or an MDM solution.
    • Support for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a standard protocol for transmitting data via the Internet.
    • A valuable optional feature is Passcode Lock, which automatically prompts users to enter a four-digit code to open the app when it goes to background or after a specified amount of idle time.
    • SharePlus Authentication, in which user authentication protects access to the app and can be achieved through the combination of several mechanisms, including SharePoint’s authentication mechanisms and the passcode lock feature.
    • Authorization through server permissions grants access to SharePoint resources such as lists and documents through the user’s SharePoint credentials.
    • Application security policies Based on security rules, many restrictions over SharePlus functionality can be included, trimming features like copy/paste or Wi-Fi sharing, specifying the extent of site administration for users, or even restricting the apps that can interact with SharePlus.

Configuration and Optimization

SharePlus Enterprise enables IT Managers to centrally manage the application’s behavior and match corporate and user needs for optimal usage and security, including configuration options around:

  • Look and Feel – change the language, adjust the color and behavior of specific UI components, or go further and personalize the whole SharePlus experience with your brand.
  • Security – set up common Enterprise settings like passcode lock, VPN, or authentication mode, and also advanced security policies like secure data wipe, client-side certificates, data extraction restrictions.
  • App features – turn app features on/off and fine-tune their settings, for example, you can include pre-configured sites and accounts, MDM integration, adjust deployment settings, disable or enable support for specific external editors, and more.
  • App behavior – configure offline settings, the navigation visibility, different visualizations for lists and sites, the networking layer, among others.
  • Personalized views of the information – affecting both app behavior and the look and feel, you are able to configure launchpads to present a customized view for any site or the SharePlus start screen. Launchpads greatly enrich the user experience and display dynamic content from SharePoint such as announcements, events and news, or any other content from the server, even while a user is offline.

Installation / Deployment

From the get-go, setup is a breeze. A corporate IT administrator may enable users to install SharePlus on their smartphones and tablets through:

  1. A corporate mobile device management (MDM) application store. In this method, the user finds SharePlus in the company’s application store and downloads the app.   
  2. A download page on the company’s intranet. If the company uses a Web page to distribute SharePlus, the user may navigate to the installation page from a mobile device and tap the “Install Application” button.
  3. A mailed download link. In this instance, the company may provide the link in an email or text message. The user then clicks on the link or pastes it into a browser to reach the corporate download page and follows instructions described there.  

Once the app is configured, an employee can access, edit and share data and documents on SharePoint, both online or offline. That means they are able to securely view, modify and graphically display content spanning files, lists, calendars, intranets, emails, libraries, announcements, discussion boards and more.

Support

Need help? SharePlus has you covered. Simply tap the Help Center on the application’s sidebar to access In-App Help Documentation, including an FAQ and information on using SharePlus offline. 

And to troubleshoot issues, the Log Recorder generates records that a user can send to the company’s IT helpdesk. The corporate IT staff, in turn, can easily contact the award-winning Infragistics Support Team for assistance.

Conclusion

With a host of great features that allow you to implement SharePlus across your organization, you’ll find it easy to use SharePlus Enterprise to access your SharePoint information, visualize and generate reports from multiple data sources, and to network with colleagues.

Want to try SharePlus Enterprise? Please click here for more information, and share any questions or thoughts in the comments below.