SharePoint In The Mobile 3 - Office And Custom Solutions

It is secure and flexible to store and share information in SharePoint, and there are many ways to use SharePoint in smart phones and tablets.  In two earlier blog posts I have talked about mobile options that are inbuilt in SharePoint and about Microsoft apps that are suitable to use with SharePoint and mobile devices.

In this last post, I will mention some other ways to use SharePoint in the mobile. Microsoft Office gives a few possibilities, and you can of course always have a custom solution, created by yourself or by the kalmstrom.com team.

Office apps
Exporting to Excel is the simplest way of getting data in a mobile format. It works well on SharePoint lists, but it is a one way communication. You cannot change the data in Excel and have it updated in SharePoint.

SharePoint document libraries with the classic experience interface, have a “Connect To Outlook” button, which allows you to synchronize the library with Outlook. When you do that, you can view, edit, delete and create files in Outlook even if you are offline. Whenever you do a Send and Receive, the SharePoint files will also be synchronized. This method handles conflicts as well as check-in/check-out.

Custom solutions
It is possible to create customized mobile web pages in SharePoint, with full touch, drag and drop etc. The kalmstrom.com ShareTask app is built in this way. All data, as well as the code, is stored in SharePoint, but for the users it looks like a dedicated app.

Another option is to host the app on your own server. When you do that, you can use server-side code and interact with non-SharePoint services, and you can develop in C#, Python, Java or whatever server-side language you want, really! The possibilities are endless, but there is also the added complexity of authentication and doing all SharePoint-integration through REST calls.

Need assistance?
In three blog posts I have given a summary of useful options when you want to use SharePoint in the mobile, but maybe you need advice on which solution is best for users in your organization? I would be happy to assist you.

We offer services on several levels, from workshops to discuss your goals and how to reach them to very advanced custom solutions. Currently we have ongoing custom projects for organizations in Egypt, Sweden and USA. Welcome to contact us, you too!

By Peter Kalmström
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions