This document discusses SharePoint apps from an end user perspective. It defines apps as third party features that add value without needing to be built internally. Apps are analogous to smartphone apps, allowing users to find and install solutions to meet their needs. The document reviews the history of third party solutions in SharePoint and how apps have expanded what is possible. It also covers finding, purchasing, and managing apps, noting the variety of pricing models available. Examples of free and paid apps are provided to illustrate popular options.
2. What are Apps?
“If your reading this, there’s an app for that.”
The lineage of Apps
Back in the “old” days when flip phones
still ruled (SharePoint 2007), we had
“Farm solutions”
Next (in SharePoint years - i.e. 2010)
came the need for a design which was
less taxing on the “Farm”
This birthed “Sandbox solutions”
Finally, in today’s smart phone ruled
society, everything needs to be an App
In SharePoint 2013, everything is an App…
sort of
Lists are apps
Libraries are apps
Templates are apps
Apps are apps
Web parts are web parts
Nice and clear, right?
3. What are Apps – Breaking it down
Lists, libraries, and several other things have been “renamed” to Apps
But really that’s not what we’re talking about when we refer to apps
What we really mean is the idea of some feature that is not built-in to the product, and
which is available via some 3rd party, and obtained via a browsing mechanism (like a store)
Example:
A tool used to load CSV data (comma separated values) into a SharePoint list
Apps add value to your SharePoint environment, without the need for you to build them
yourself
4. What are Apps – Analogy Time
Think of SharePoint Apps a lot like you’d think of Apps for your Smart Phone (iPhone,
Android, etc.)
Adding Apps to SharePoint is really no different (from the end-users perspective) than
adding Apps to your phone
Platform: Phone Platform: SharePoint
Find a need: Must know the weather in
Hong Kong!
Find a need: Hey, I need that too!
I bet there’s an App for that!
Go to the Apps Store
Find the App you want
Add it to your phone
Go to the Apps Store
Find the App you want
Add it to SharePoint
5. Where did (SharePoint) Apps come from?
Apps as a concept are something
SharePoint has never been able to offer
(successfully) before
Once upon a time, SharePoint 2010 had
the concept of “office.com” templates
This concept was seemingly abandoned
long before it baked into a proper
solution
6. Where did (SharePoint) Apps come from?
With the growing popularity of Office 365 and other online SharePoint providers, 3rd
party solution authors wanted a way to tap into that growth market
Nintex Workflow (an awesome product) couldn’t fly in the “old” Office 365
Sandboxed solutions were limited in the functionality they could offer, and therefore
were typically only good for smaller tasks
The existing framework wasn’t sufficient, since it didn’t allow anyone to install larger
scale 3rd party solutions (like Nintex) into online environments
Enter Apps – Trusted 3rd party solutions with the capacity to extend SharePoint (both
on-premises and online) in ways not previously possible
8. Why should you care about Apps?
There are concepts in the Apps Store that MS wouldn’t be inclined to build themselves
A million minds are better than
a thousand
Apple, Google, other “platform”
creators aren’t responsible for the
vast majority of the most popular
apps in their stores
Why should we think Microsoft
would have all the answers to
our SharePoint needs?
9. Some of the benefits of Apps
Developer
Money, Money, Money, Mooooo-neeeeey!
Business
Where the product falls short, a 3rd party solution can pick up the slack.
For instance, a tool used to load CSV records into SharePoint can be bought for $5, whereas
building that yourself may take days – or at least hours. How much is your employees time
worth?
End-User
Able to get a solution to their problem without ever having to involve IT (assuming IT have
set it up as such), or having to go through a long, drawn out acquisition process (user
requests)
10. The cost of (SharePoint) Apps dissected
Paid vs. Free
Trials
X users for N # of days
Licensing by user
Up to a maximum # of users
Office 365 vs. On-premises
11. Cost / License Relationship
Total cost of a single license (Cost per
License)
$1.49 $999.99
Number of licenses before reaching the
maximum, whereupon all additional
licenses are included (# of Licenses)
1 1000
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
TCO = # of Licenses * Cost per License
Developer’s Responsibilities
Developer decides the cost per license
Developer decides the maximum number
of licenses (before all additional are
essentially “free”)
Purchaser’s Responsibilities
Purchaser decides how many licenses
(each one at the cost decided by the
developer) they wish to acquire at the time
of purchase
Additional licences can always be
acquired later on
12. A few unrelated things about apps…
1. SharePoint License Management
http://mmman.itgroove.net/2013/04/sharepoint-app-
license-management/
Everything you need to know to manage your licenses
2. Also note the white background of apps (frame) on
themed sites
3. Types of Apps include:
Immersive (full page app)
Webpart (app parts – iframe on a page)
UI custom actions / Extension app (little or no User
Experience)
4. Apps Require Permissions –
anything from
to…
to even…
13. Demo
Colin’s Sandbox
I am a Site Collection Admin
I’m going to show you:
• What Apps looks like in SharePoint
• The SharePoint App store
• How to add an App to SharePoint
• How to manage Apps (though this is
beyond the scope of an end user)
14. A few Apps to dip your toe into
Free
lots of geo-location apps (Bing Office Locator, Location Finder, etc.)
Picture Rotator / Slider apps (Collage App, CarouselSlider, Gallerific, etc.)
AvePoint Task & Calendar Sync – Best App in Show (Feb 2013 @ European SharePoint
Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark) - Two-way synchronization for tasks and calendar
items
Paid
CSV Uploader (Import CSV files to a SharePoint list) $4.99
vSlider Video Carousel (Supports Sharepoint, Youtube and Vimeo – Really Cool) $5.99
Print List (Adds a “Print button” to a list and shows it in a print preview frame) $1.99
15. SharePoint Apps “Price is Right”
How it works:
Take the cost of a single licence for an App, and add up what you think the total cost of the
5 most expensive apps would be.
Winner: Closest to the total without going over will win a prize
Cost of 1
license
for App 1
Cost of 1
license
for App 2
Same
for App
3
Same
for App
4
Same
for App
5
Tell me Your
Name and Your
Guess
Ex. 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 35
16. App #5 Most Expensive
This App:
$249.99
Running Total:
$249.99
17. App #4 Most Expensive
This App:
$299.99
Running Total:
$249.99 + $299.99
= $549.98
18. App #3 Most Expensive
This App:
$349.99
Running Total:
$249.99 + $299.99 + $349.99
= $899.97
19. App #2 Most Expensive
This App:
$399.99
Running Total:
$249.99 + $299.99 + $349.99 +
$399.99
= $1299.96
20. Bonus Question!
Given that you’ve now seen the 2nd – 5th most
expensive apps, what will the most expensive app
cost?
Maybe it will simply follow the trend (essentially $50
more expensive than the last) -- Maybe not
21. App #1 Most Expensive
This App:
$699.99
Running Total:
$249.99 + $299.99 + $349.99 +
$399.99 + $699.99
for a grand total of
= $1999.95
22. Most Popular Free Apps
Free apps are surprisingly popular
Some are both amongst the most
popular and highest downloaded
Samples of the most downloaded
include the following
23. Most Popular Paid Apps
There are many paid apps out
there which are doing quite well
Both expensive and inexpensive in
the running for most popular
Some examples include the
following
Corporate news has a separate
free app, which likely (for the most
part) explains its popularity, while
layer 2 has a trial (also valuable)
24. The App we’re most proud of
We learned a lot from making this
app – both the coding side, and the
deployment side
Originally developed when the
store was still in “beta”, so many
hiccups along the way
The easier Microsoft can make it
for developers, the more and better
the apps will ultimately be
25. In Summary
Microsoft still has some challenges left to overcome
(there’s presently no “killer” app(s) out there).
Apps are a useful addition to both online and on-
premises installations and should (ideally) be made
available to end-users to explore
Apps are growing in popularity, and Microsoft is
encouraging new growth in the app space going
forward
Price is Right is fun!
Contact Info
itgroove
groovin@itgroove.net
blog: conversations.itgroove.net
Editor's Notes
Sean is in a band, he can sing the “money” song for you
Note about the “white space” of an app on a themed site (frames and transparency)
Burn this depending on timevSlider URL: https://colinphillips.sharepoint.com/sites/colinsandbox/_layouts/15/storefront.aspx?source=https%3A%2F%2Fcolinphillips%2Esharepoint%2Ecom%2Fsites%2Fcolinsandbox%2F%5Flayouts%2F15%2Fviewlsts%2Easpx&sname=Colin%27s%20Sandbox#vw=AppDetailsView,app=WA103980480,clg=0
Downloads = 0 (hence no rating)Get your SkyDrive documents and pictures on SharePoint. ConnectToSkyDrive app is simple and easy to use. You only need SkyDrive account to use the app. Documents are not copied to SharePoint. ConnectToSkyDrive app integrates directly to your SkyDrive.Deleted documents on your ConnectToSkyDrive app, can be found in the Recycle Bin on your desktop.There are two ways to view the folders and documents, Metro and Tree view. Also, ConnectToSkyDrive app adopts the colors and fonts of your SharePoint site. Tiles in Metro view are made to fill up your computer screen. Documents are opened and edited with Office Web Apps that you already have with SkyDrive.You can also view pictures and videos, and download files and folders that are shared with you.
We didn't invent the needs assessment. We just invented simplifying it.The Lean BA, Inc. introduces "The Needs App" an innovation in understanding customer needs. We believe all companies should have competency to assess customer needs is common sense. Our mission- is to improve collaboration around customer needs, business requirements and proposals as a science and technology. The Needs App provides a collaboration application to both define and agree on customer needs and proposals.Quick plug-in to SharePoint 2103 and you are on the way to pleasing your customers! Features[#LI Unlimited users for one low price][#LI Built in Needs App 3 Step Process][#LI Green Light of Agreement provides real-time measurement of progress][#LI Consistency in assessing customer needs][#LI A Collaborative App]After the fun and games of today's enterprise social media, eventually you need to agree on real content. That is where "The Needs App" comes in. "The Needs App" provides companies, organizations and people a better and faster way to agree on needs, requirements and proposals.The Needs App comes built in with the simplified process: "People paint the picture to get the results is 3 steps." We don't think understanding the customers' problems, or getting what you want and need, should be so difficult. We didn't invent the needs assessment. We just invented simplifying it.
Note: no trial, so likely difficult for people to buy into an app for such a steep price, when they don’t know what they’re getting.Content on all 18 page layout scales up with your screen size. Page layouts are made for 1024px wide computer resolution. Both text and images auto-scale when displayed on computers with screen resolution wider than 1024px (watch the video). Content on the page has 20px margin between content zones. First five page layouts are suitable for site welcome pages. They display content without left menu. All 18 page layouts can be used on sites with or without left menu.Page layouts range from a very simple "Full page" layout with one content zone to a page layout with 9 content zones. Content zones range from page fields such as "Title", "Page Content", "Page Image", "Rollup Image", "Description", and web part zones, to "Contact" field that allows you to set an Author, a contact person.For Chrome and IE10 users, page layout 16 and page layout 18 have a content zone with multiple columns for laying out text like in newspapers.
400 * 116 = 46,400This app provides a customizable news slider that can display news announcements from the current site or from a site in a different site collection. Custom colors and themes are also supported to match corporate branding standards.
32 * 700 = 22,400Resource Planner is a tool for the HR Department and Consultant Managers. It provides an overview of what the staff/consultants/resources recently has been engaged with, currently is engaged with and possible future activities.Functionality:- Manage resources- Manage activities- Manage tags- Manage categories- Visual calendar presentation of resource activitiesResource planner is not compatible with Internet Explorer 8.