Though SharePoint is one of the most popular business management applications still many businesses are not sure whether they can deploy SharePoint for their business. If you have lot of data sharing within your organization then SharePoint is one of the best ways of dealing with information and document management within your organization irrespective of your industry or business vertical.

SharePoint 2007 can be effectively deployed in any industry as this is not an industry specific software. You will find even pharmaceutical companies using SharePoint for their document management needs. You will just need to find a reliable service provider that can deploy SharePoint for your company. The experience of your software development company is highly crucial here because to deploy SharePoint 2007 for your organization, your service provider should be capable of understanding your businesses processes thoroughly. Lack of understanding or partial understanding of your business can lead to problems.

Before you deploy SharePoint you must discuss with your application development company that will deploy Microsoft CRM in your organization and understand their capabilities and their strengths. There is no doubt that Microsoft SharePoint is one of the most powerful CRM tools that we have today; but its fullest potential can be tapped only by an experienced service provider. So it does not matter to which business niche you belong, just make sure to deal with the right company and you will be able to work wonders with this business application.

Your company will be able to benefit from SharePoint 2007 deployment if can find an affordable company to set up the entire system and train you to use the system. Whether you run medium sized or large business operation, you will have to make sure that your overhead costs do not shoot up too high. Very often small sized businesses hesitate to deploy SharePoint within their organization because of the overhead costs involved in the setting up of the system. So many small businesses think that they cannot benefit from SharePoint and that is meant only for big companies with a hefty budget for their CRM. Contrarily, you do not have to spend a lot of money for deploying SharePoint. You just need to pool in minimal funds and you will be able to enjoy long term savings. You will also be able to improve your organization’s efficiency a great deal. This will only result in higher profit levels. So if you have been thinking that SharePoint is not for you just because you are a small or medium sized enterprise, then it is high time that you changed your views. By finding the right company, you can have SharePoint deployed at a very reasonable budget.

Realizing the importance and the advantages of digital forms in data collection and in surveys, many companies are moving from conventional data collection methods to digital data collection strategies. Using digital forms or using form software certainly enhances the productivity and the efficiency of the data collection team. However, this does not mean that this path is totally without challenges and without any hassles.

The first factor that comes as a major area of concern to the entrepreneurs with limited budget, is the cost involved in creating and managing these digital forms. Several factors come into play while implementing such a system. First of all, it will involve developmental costs. Secondly, it will involve implementation costs to implement the system through out the organization. Thirdly, it also involves training costs as the data collection staffs that are used to conventional data collection strategies using paper and pen method need to learn to use the respective tools, PDA forms, online forms or digital forms. Though there are long term benefits and long term cost savings, not all companies can afford the overhead costs. So it is important that the entrepreneurs find the best software development companies to create suitable digital forms within their budget.

Secondly, many companies do not have the technical expertise to review their software development companies and their skills. As a result, they end up with unreliable service providers and inexperienced software development companies to have their form software developed.

Thirdly, the transition from the conventional data collection methods to digital forms itself can be a challenging process. It has to be done in a seamless way. You will certainly require a reliable company that will work closely with you to make the transition as seamless as possible.

If you can see, most of the areas of concern discussed are revolving round the software company that you choose to develop. So if you can lock on to the right company to develop your digital forms, most of your problems will be solved or will not occur at all.

One of the things that you should do before you hire your software development company to create digital forms for your needs is to spend time learning about digital forms and digital data collection. When you have sound background knowledge, you are likely to make the right decisions with regard to their service providers. There are companies that take advantage of the ignorance of their customers. If you happen to work with such a company, you are likely to end up in loss and with an ineffective system.

Never make your decision with meeting just a single service provider. Added to that, you should not make your decisions merely based on the cost.

When you are in the process selecting your company for SharePoint deployment, you need to take into consideration number of factors. One of the major factors that you should take into consideration is the reputation of the company that you choose for your SharePoint deployment.

Reputation is not just a single factor, your SharePoint deployment and planning service provider will enjoy good reputation only when their overall quality of the service is good. Before hiring your company for SharePoint consultancy and deployment, you should first make a thorough survey of all the top service providers. You will be able find feedback about your SharePoint deployment company by making quick searches on the internet using the name of the service provider. This will reveal a lot of things. If there are any negative feedbacks or reviews, they will come to light. This will also help you find your company’s strong points. Because customers will not keep mum in both cases. If they experience very poor service, they will go online to air their views. Customers will also share positive reviews if they are overwhelmed with the quality of service and with the support they receive from their SharePoint integration company. You will therefore be able to learn a good deal about your SharePoint deployment company by making quick online research.

Many people try to choose their SharePoint consultancy service providers just based on the costs involved. This cannot always be the best way to assess your company. This does not mean that reliable service providers are always expensive. For instance at Igroupltd.co.uk, all the services are offered at a very competitive prices but at the same time the quality of the service offered and the customer support is unmatched in the industry.

Your SDPS, SharePoint Deployment Planning Services Company should have vast experience because only experienced companies will be able to understand your requirements fully. Inadequate knowledge about your business vertical and your requirements can result in poor deployment of SharePoint across the organization. Experience is also one of the constituting elements of the reputation of your service provider.

If you hire a brand new company in the industry, one, they will lack experience and two you will have no way of establishing their reliability as they will not have any history that you can link their services to. Only when you choose a service provider that has been in the industry for a considerable number of years will be able to assess their credibility and reliability. If you rush to select your SharePoint deployment service provider without proper review, you are likely to be disappointed if not frustrated.

One of the concerns raised by customers when they approach a software development company to outsource their software requirements is the timeline issues. Whether it is business application development, business management software or windows mobile applications development, if you do not work with the right service provider, you are likely to run into timeline issues. If you want to deal with software development timeline issues then you should know the common problems that result in timeline related issues.

The first important factor is of course the experience of service provider or software development company. The company you choose to work with should have specific experience in dealing with similar projects. They should not be experimenting their skills or use your project as a test ground. Only when they have experience in dealing with similar work, they will able to match the schedule. If they lack experience, they will spend a lot of time in learning rather than on executing the work.

The second problem could be that your software development company can be an experienced company in the related field but the specific resource that is allotted to work on your requirements may not have sound knowledge about your requirements. Either because he or she is newly recruited or their specialty area is something other than your requirements.

The third common problem is your software company taking up too much work than it could actually handle with the resources they have. This happens very frequently with most companies. The number resources a company has is often outdone by the number of projects they take up. As a result each resource is dumped with work and they are distracted too much with multiple projects. This will also result in poor quality work and increase the number of issues in the work done.

It can also happen that your software development company has fixed unrealistic timelines either because they have not understood your requirements fully or because they wanted to impress you with their turnaround times. This will obviously result in your service provider not meeting their deadlines.

Yet another problem is poor communication cycle. If the communication cycle is not synchronized properly, then too you can face timeline issues. In some cases, customers may also fail to respond in a timely fashion resulting in deadline issues.

There can be more than one problem why your project is facing timeline issues. Most of the problems can be avoided completely by choosing the right service provider and by having a systematic approach to the task at hand. If your service provider is highly experienced in the respective field, then they will have highly streamlined procedures which will anticipate all possible bottlenecks in the development cycle.

Selecting the right software development company is always a huge challenge because you will never be able to know what is actually in store for you when you are hiring a software development company to help you create custom forms or to deploy PDA forms. Here are some of the factors that you should take into consideration while selecting your software development company to create web forms or digital forms for your organization.

The most important factor here is the experience level of the organization that you want to work with. Your software company should have very specific experience in creating PDA forms, digital forms, mobile forms or survey software. There are many software development companies in the industry but not all of them specialize in this niche. You will be able to get more reliable solutions by choosing a software company that has worked with digital forms solutions.

The second important factor that you should consider is the reputation of the organization. The software development company that you choose may have experience in creating PDA forms or digital forms but they may not be good service providers. Experience alone does not make a service provider a good company, there are number of factors that go into the making of a good service provider.

Your software development company should be able to provide you with customized solutions. They should not give you some off-the-shelf software with little customization. They should be capable of creating custom forms that suits your specific needs. Besides that, you should be able to get good pre-sales and post-sales support. Many companies offer excellent pre-sales support but once the payment part is over, you will get very little or no attention from them. You should therefore review the reputation of your software development company in terms of their post-sales support. For instance, we respond to all your concerns and queries in 60 minutes or less during regular business hours. Only when you can get dependable support, you will be able to deploy and manage your digital forms successfully.

The solutions they provide you should help you increase your profitability by enhancing your productivity. Look for a company that will not try to meet your requirements but exceed your expectations. Your software company should be committed to helping you achieve financial success through their solutions.

Above all, your service provider should provide you with cost effective solutions. Higher the cost of your digital forms deployment higher the overhead costs. When the overhead costs are too high, it will certainly minimize your profit. So it is vital that you get your solutions within your budget. Added to that timely completion of the work is also important so that you can start enjoying the benefits of the digital forms solution that you are deploying in your organization.

Are you in the process of finding the best business management software solution for your business to enhance your efficiency and improve your productivity? Here are some important factors that you should consider.

Before approaching your business management software solutions provider, you must first set your goals. You should first be clear about what you want your business management software to do. In other words you should establish the scope of the business management software.

Secondly, you should decide whether you would like to go for readymade or off-the-shelf software products or custom made software applications. When you go for ready to install software solutions, you will have certain limitations. Such products may not meet your requirements 100%. The main reason for such limitations is based on the fact that readymade business management software products are not designed keeping your business in mind. Such products are developed using general business needs. If yours is a highly specialized niche, then it is best to go for custom application development. One of the major constraints here could be budget. Custom application development will indeed be more expensive than using readymade software products. However, it is worth the investment as you will be able to accomplish exactly what you would like to using custom developed business management software.

Thirdly, you should find an experienced company that is capable of dealing with your requirements. You must make sure that your software development company is well staffed to see through the completion of the work they start in a timely fashion. They should be a well established company. Look for the certifications and accreditations they have. For example igroup is Microsoft Gold Partners, Microsoft Small Business Specialist and ISO 9001 – 2000 certified company. Such certifications increase the credibility of the company that you would like to deal with. There is lot of difference between hiring a small group of freelancers that offer application development services in their free time and a full service Microsoft certified company for your application development needs. Using a well established company you can also ensure on going support for the software you develop. Moreover, if you want to upgrade your business management software, it is much easier to deal with such needs if you were to engage a reputed software firm where as you have no guarantee of finding your freelance application developers again for further support and upgrading needs. You must always make your decisions based on future needs and requirements and ensure that you are covered for such needs as well.

SharePoint is one of the most versatile software products for businesses from Microsoft. Today more and more business organizations are realizing the potential of SharePoint integration and implementing the same to take their business operations to the next efficiency level. SharePoint helps businesses enhance their business processes with its vast collection of inbuilt software tools. This is one of the most powerful business content management systems ever known.

Organizations will be able to streamline their business processes and their operations using SharePoint. Implementation of Microsoft SharePoint is easy and fast. The learning curve here is also very short when compared to the other similar solutions available in the market. Coordination between various teams within the organization will be enhanced and the top level management will have lesser hassles in coordinating the teams with the use of SharePoint.

SharePoint comes with a number of inbuilt tools using which all the electronic content can be organized and managed easily. Every electronic transaction within this system can be tracked easily. Sharing of information between the individuals of the same team and between the teams and among the entire organization is very easy. Various grades in access to information can be set using the inbuilt programs. This gives organizations complete control of information. SharePoint also allows organizations to create online information sharing in the form of web pages or wiki pages.

Various queries can be set for document organization and document retrieval. SharePoint also allows collaborative editing of documents with complete tracking facility. Other useful features that will help the members of the organization include contact management databases, to do lists, workflow planning, programmable alerts and discussion boards. On the whole SharePoint will help you enhance your staff’s productivity level.

Though SharePoint is an effective content management tool, it is vital that it is implemented well. Finding the right SharePoint consultant is very important for the successful implementation of the system across the entire organization. Depending on your requirement you can implement SharePoint for the entire organization of just for a certain section. The SharePoint consultant you hire to deploy SharePoint in your organization should be a certified SharePoint partner.

Effective communication within the organization is the key to success and that is what SharePoint deployment will help you with. If well deployed, it will minimize the normal constraints of organizational communication that are related to location and technology used. SharePoint creates a stable platform where all the members of your organization can effectively access, share and manage documents effectively. Very often organizations struggle to make important decisions because of the lack of availability of the required information at the right time. Once SharePoint is implemented in your organization you can do away with all such problems. These are just some of the many benefits in deploying SharePoint in your organization. Contact us for SharePoint consultancy needs.

Are your overhead costs shooting high because of the huge sum of money that you spend for data collection and data processing? Are the problems involved in data processing pulling down your efficiency? Today several organisations try to explore alternative options to minimise their data processing costs. Some companies try to outsource their data processing requirements to outsourcing hubs like India, China, Philippines and other Far Eastern countries in an effort to minimise the expenses involved. However, the entire process of identifying the right outsourcing partners in these countries, managing the operation, verifying the accuracy of the data that is processed by third parties etc., leads to a lot of complications. Added to that if the data to be processed is of confidential nature then such information cannot be processed outside the organization as it involves security and privacy concerns. The quality and the accuracy of the work are a major concern here. With all these issues, many companies have started looking at more effective and hassle free solutions.

Dynamic forms or digital forms come as a great source of relief for many companies. PDA forms or digital forms help companies reduce duplication of work and the associated costs. Digital forms help you collect the required data directly into digital form and thereby reducing data processing needs. When you use reliable form software to convert your paper forms into digital forms, you will also be able to minimize accuracy issues that erupt with manual data processing.

When you create web forms or digital forms, using robust form software, you will be able to collect information fast and also validate it quickly. Your ability to process information will be highly enhanced and as you will not have to spend additional time on accuracy, checks and reworks etc. PDA forms have helped several organizations become more efficient and accurate with their data processing. Moreover, it is easy to work with the data that is available at hand. All the information or the data collected can be made available instantly. Whether it is customer survey or order requests, web form or PDA form is the way to go.

As every business is trying to reduce the expenses on their overheads, you should take advantage of the latest technological tools especially when they not only help you to reduce the expenses involved but make you increasingly efficient. Today there are many digital form solutions available and you will have to review these solutions very closely before you select them. Whichever solution you choose, you should make sure that it is easy to deploy. The initial setup costs should be within reasonable limits while it meets all your requirements.

SharePoint is one of the most versatile software products for businesses from Microsoft. Today more and more business organizations are realizing the potential of SharePoint integration and implementing the same to take their business operations to the next efficiency level. SharePoint helps businesses enhance their business processes with its vast collection of inbuilt software tools. This is one of the most powerful business content management systems ever known.

Organizations will be able to streamline their business processes and their operations using SharePoint. Implementation of Microsoft SharePoint is easy and fast. The learning curve here is also very short when compared to the other similar solutions available in the market. Coordination between various teams within the organization will be enhanced and the top level management will have lesser hassles in coordinating the teams with the use of SharePoint.

SharePoint comes with a number of inbuilt tools using which all the electronic content can be organized and managed easily. Every electronic transaction within this system can be tracked easily. Sharing of information between the individuals of the same team and between the teams and among the entire organization is very easy. Various grades in access to information can be set using the inbuilt programs. This gives organizations complete control of information. SharePoint also allows organizations to create online information sharing in the form of web pages or wiki pages.

Various queries can be set for document organization and document retrieval. SharePoint also allows collaborative editing of documents with complete tracking facility. Other useful features that will help the members of the organization include contact management databases, to do lists, workflow planning, programmable alerts and discussion boards. On the whole SharePoint will help you enhance your staff’s productivity level.

Though SharePoint is an effective content management tool, it is vital that it is implemented well. Finding the right SharePoint consultant is very important for the successful implementation of the system across the entire organization. Depending on your requirement you can implement SharePoint for the entire organization of just for a certain section. The SharePoint consultant you hire to deploy SharePoint in your organization should be a certified SharePoint partner.

Effective communication within the organization is the key to success and that is what SharePoint deployment will help you with. If well deployed, it will minimize the normal constraints of organizational communication that are related to location and technology used. SharePoint creates a stable platform where all the members of your organization can effectively access, share and manage documents effectively. Very often organizations struggle to make important decisions because of the lack of availability of the required information at the right time. Once SharePoint is implemented in your organization you can do away with all such problems. These are just some of the many benefits in deploying SharePoint in your organization. Contact us for SharePoint consultancy needs.

Many companies have their executives in the filed collecting various types of information from their customers, prospective customers or even from general public at various levels. All the information collected will have to be processed once again at the back office to make the data gathered into meaningful information. However, both data collection and data processing are highly time consuming. You will be able to minimise the time required for both by converting your paper forms to electronic templates which can be used in PDAs, tablet PCs or laptops.

You will just need reliable form software that will allow you to create custom forms. Once your paper forms are converted to electronic forms, then both data collection and data processing will become completely hassle free.

One of the major advantages of using digital forms is that you will be able to have instant access to all the information your workforce has gathered without having to go through tedious back office processing work. You will not need a back office team to manually type the data collected to convert it in to digital format. Rather than collecting the data in paper to pen format, electronic forms allow you to create data directly into digital format. You therefore save a considerable amount of time and money. When compared to the set up costs involved in converting paper forms to digital forms, the long term savings are far greater than the initial investment. If the volume of data collected is huge, you will need a huge back office team. On the other hand by using digital form, you can do with a much smaller team just to download the digital data to the required network or computers.

As the data collected is already in digital formats, you or your executives can produce instant reports. You can also generate real time reports. You will be able to accomplish a lot in just few clicks. Digital forms are highly suitable for surveys on customer satisfaction, customer expectation, census surveys, taking order requests, etc.

Data management will be fully simplified and data manipulation in terms of generating multiple report formats will be much easier and faster. Your mobile executives will be able to process information on the go without having to depend on back office staff. Moreover, the information can be made available instantly on the internet making it possible to access the data from any part of the world. This will make the data available for the entire organisation right from the data collection stage. The entire organisation need not have to wait until the completion of back office data processing which otherwise will be the case with paper forms.

As digital forms have number of benefits more and more organizations are moving towards electronic forms.

Many companies have started using Windows Mobile Applications to increase the efficiency of their work force. In a fast paced business environment, the challenges are many especially when the competition level is very high. Your sales force needs powerful tools to leverage the market potential. They cannot afford to wait to reach their desks to accomplish or to complete their order entries or to provide their customers with the required services. To help companies and executives do business on the go, many companies go for Windows Mobile Applications. Using such Windows Mobile Applications you can certainly take your business to the next level. Such applications will help you prove to your prospective customers that you are an efficient group.

As Windows Mobile Applications help you take your business several notches high than your current performance level, you need to choose your Windows Mobile Applications development company very carefully. You cannot afford to take risks in this regard as the results of your carelessness in choosing the right Windows Mobile Applications company.

While it is worth investing money on high-end Windows Mobile Applications, you should make sure that you get the best value for your money in return. By dealing with companies with inadequate experience, you will not be able to get the desired results. You will need a reliable and stable application that will not let you down before your customers.

When you are choosing your Windows Mobile Applications development company, you should check their experience and their reputation in the respective industry. If your vendor has developed several applications, then you can be assured that they will be able to understand your specific requirements and provide you with a reliable solution.

It is also all the more crucial to find Mobile Applications that will fit within your budget. At the same time, you should never compromise on the quality of the Windows Mobile Applications that is developed for your need in an effort to keep your costs low. By working with highly experienced Windows Mobile Applications companies you will be able to get scalable solutions within your budget. Furthermore the reliability of a company should also be seen in the level of post sales support they will provide. It is best to get a clear picture of the nature of support that you can expect from your company prior to signing up for their services. If your service provider should let you down at a later stage in terms of product support at a later stage, you will not be able to find another service provider that is ready to provide support for the Windows Mobile Applications developed by a different company. So you must take into consideration all these factors while selecting your development company.

When it comes to having their software development needs met, many companies consider in-house software development as one of their options. A number of companies even opt to hire in-house software application development experts, windows mobile applications developers and other software development professionals. One of the reasons why companies opt to hire their own in-house team for software development rather than using a software development company is to reduce costs. However, the question is whether such an approach really helps the company in effective cost cutting and whether it is a viable option.

On the outset, it might seem to be one of the best ways of cutting costs, but in the long run many companies switch to outsourced software development. There are many hassles involved in going for in-house software development.

First of all, you need to have the right team in place. You will be spending a lot of time, money and energy in the recruitment drive. Not many people take into consideration the costs involved in running a recruitment drive for finding the right software development team. Secondly, you should have a person monitor and assess the quality of the work, the output given and the productivity of the team hired. You will have to either do it yourself or make use of a team manager. This is going to cost you more money either in terms of your time or in terms of the salary paid to the team manager.

Furthermore, the attrition rate in the software industry is very high so you will be forced to look for frequent replacements to ensure that your project is completed in a timely fashion. This again will increase your overall expenses. That is not all, the final solution that is offered by your software team should be a stable and usable solution. You will end up micro-managing the entire process besides handling the hassles of providing the required infrastructure for your software team, getting required software licenses, etc.

You can completely avoid all this pain and even save a considerable amount of money by outsourcing software development needs. You will just need to make sure that you hire the right company to work as your software development partner. They will deal with all the other hassles including finding the right resources for handling your project, finding replacements if the assigned resource should quit, ensuring stable and usable solution etc. This will certainly leave you with more time that you can use to focus on the core functionalities of your business. These are some of the main reasons why a outsourced software development model saves money.

Customer relationship management or CRM is the lifeline of a business. The CRM solutions that you implement for your organization should be able to cover all the aspects of your business so that all your operations are simplified. One of the important reasons why organizations implement CRM solutions is to improve the efficiency of the operations. With the help of right CRM implementation company that possess enough experience you will be able to get the best solutions possible for your organization.

Today we have number of CRM solutions available from various companies but unfortunately, not all of them are reliable. Before you select your CRM solution, you should make sure to perform a complete research or survey so that you will be able to get an effective solution within your budget.

One of the top-rated CRM solutions that we have is from Microsoft. Microsoft Dynamics CRM business management solutions is a highly comprehensive solution. Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution can be implemented for almost all the industries. You will be able to customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions to meet your specific needs. By far, this is one of the most reputed CRM solutions that we have in the market today. You will be able to manage information within your organization easily without any difficulties or confusions. You will be able to have access to your customer information from any part of the world and data manipulation and data retrieval for a variety of queries will be made simpler than ever.

The basic criteria for choosing your CRM is to make sure that the solution you are trying to implement will simplify and enhance your business operations. You should be able to identify simpler ways to interact with each individual within the organisation and with your customer information. Microsoft Dynamics CRM will help you deal with your CRM requirements in the easiest way possible.

When you have a strong customer relationship management, you will be able to see faster growth within your organisation. Your customer satisfaction too will be enhanced further. The money you invest in your customer relationship management solution should help you increase you profitability by reducing the cost and effort required to handle your day today operations. It is also very important that the solutions that you implement should be extendable to every aspect of your customer relationship management needs.

igroupltd.co.uk specializes in Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution. We will be able to provide you with comprehensive CRM solutions within your budget. Our experts will review your requirements after a thorough analysis of your operations and provide you with customised CRM solutions.

Are you in the process of identifying a software development company to handle your software needs? When you setout to search for your software development company you are very likely to get confused because there are many software development companies in the industry claiming to offer the best services in the industry. Though you would wish that all of them meet their promises, many of them unfortunately fall short of their own claims. If you happen to end up with such a software development company, then you will be left with nothing but frustration. Here are few important factors that you need to take into consideration while choosing your software development company.

First of all, you need to consider the experience of the company in providing customized software development solutions. Without enough experience, it is not possible for a company to offer satisfactory software development solution. They require a high level of experience to understand your requirements fully. Without a clear understanding of your requirements, they will not be able to come up with a solution that will meet your specific needs.

Secondly, your software development company should be a well established company. Try to avoid working with freelancers though you may get cheaper quotes. You will have no guarantee of completing your work as your freelancer can walk away any time. If that should happen, you will be in a highly difficult situation. You may have to find another software development company that is willing to take up software projects that is incomplete. Not many companies take up such work. You will be forced to search for a new service provider to have the work started from scratch. This will waste you a lot of time and money.

Thirdly, the reputation of your software development company is also equally important. Only when a company offers satisfactory service, they will be able to enjoy good reputation. By choosing a company with good reputation, you are also choosing a company that gives importance to customer satisfaction. This is one of the reasons why you should choose well established software development companies because newly started companies will not have a track record of providing successful software solutions.

The next important factor that you should consider is the cost of the software solutions provided by your service provider. You should be able to get your software developed within affordable prices. Find a service provider that will offer you solutions that are cost effective and at the same time solutions that are not qualitatively compromised.

Yet another factor for consideration is the standard of customer support provided by your company. Dealing with companies that provide poor customer service can prove to be highly frustrating.

If you see this post it means that BlogEngine.NET 1.5.0 is running and the hard part of creating your own blog is done. There is only a few things left to do.

Write Permissions

To be able to log in to the blog and writing posts, you need to enable write permissions on the App_Data folder. If you’re blog is hosted at a hosting provider, you can either log into your account’s admin page or call the support. You need write permissions on the App_Data folder because all posts, comments, and blog attachments are saved as XML files and placed in the App_Data folder. 

If you wish to use a database to to store your blog data, we still encourage you to enable this write access for an images you may wish to store for your blog posts.  If you are interested in using Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, VistaDB, or other databases, please see the BlogEngine wiki to get started.

Security

When you've got write permissions to the App_Data folder, you need to change the username and password. Find the sign-in link located either at the bottom or top of the page depending on your current theme and click it. Now enter "admin" in both the username and password fields and click the button. You will now see an admin menu appear. It has a link to the "Users" admin page. From there you can change the username and password.  Passwords are hashed by default so if you lose your password, please see the BlogEngine wiki for information on recovery.

Configuration and Profile

Now that you have your blog secured, take a look through the settings and give your new blog a title.  BlogEngine.NET 1.4 is set up to take full advantage of of many semantic formats and technologies such as FOAF, SIOC and APML. It means that the content stored in your BlogEngine.NET installation will be fully portable and auto-discoverable.  Be sure to fill in your author profile to take better advantage of this.

Themes and Widgets

One last thing to consider is customizing the look of your blog.  We have a few themes available right out of the box including two fully setup to use our new widget framework.  The widget framework allows drop and drag placement on your side bar as well as editing and configuration right in the widget while you are logged in.  Be sure to check out our home page for more theme choices and downloadable widgets to add to your blog.

On the web

You can find BlogEngine.NET on the official website. Here you'll find tutorials, documentation, tips and tricks and much more. The ongoing development of BlogEngine.NET can be followed at CodePlex where the daily builds will be published for anyone to download.

Good luck and happy writing.

The BlogEngine.NET team