Bo Jackson, an unparalleled
multi-sport athlete who also was a pioneer in brand marketing had the
tag line: Bo Knows. Protiviti knows SharePoint and like a multi-sport
athlete, we know multiple platforms and how to weave them together. In
the start of a series of blog posts, I will be talking to you about the
close integration of SharePoint and Kentico CMS and, more importantly,
how this is done.
What is Kentico CMS?
Kentico is an
industry leading enterprise Web Content Management System (CMS) that is
built upon ASP.net and SQL Server. Does this sound vaguely familiar
(sans Kentico)?
It should, because I could be describing
SharePoint. While there are differences in the platforms, it’s the
synergy that bring them together as collaborators. It is no secret that
SharePoint specifically has guidance that dissuades organizations from
creating public sites on SharePoint including phasing out Office365
public sites. SharePoint’s path is clearly seen in what is being done
with 365. It is a strong myriad of services that glue an organization
together.
Kentico takes the focused path of a CMS that is built
for public sites. Understanding the changes and adapting to the
strength of the web, Kentico is a fully branded Digital Marketing and
Electronic Commerce powerhouse. Out of the box.
Kentico places
its focus on your site visitors experience and the ability to convert
them into a customer. Items like Forms, A/B testing, Events &
Registration are all part of the package. Kentico has been around since
2003 and have thousands of sites running worldwide. Here are a few
other compelling features Kentico brings:
Branding: Kentico is
fully compatible with HTML 5 and CSS modern techniques. No internal
tags tied to the version of Kentico. Upgrades much simpler.
Social media: Connectors and web parts for all the common objects (Facebook, Twitter, ect)
Workflow: Built in visual workflow solution.
What makes Kentico very special to SharePoint Folk? You can use them together. The very definition of collaboration.
SharePoint and Kentico
With
SharePoint’s laser focus on 365, Kentico is a fantastic complement
(Sitecore is another) in terms of public site software that can
surface SharePoint’s information in a secure dynamic fashion. Here is a
key: It is bi-directional. You can write into SharePoint and read from
it!
If you company is already using SharePoint and you are
considering a public site CMS system like Drupal, WordPress and the
like, consider these important factors (blog post unto its own):
* Kentico has a very reasonable and transparent licensing structure
* 24X7 Kentico support
* Kentico is focused on usability and flexibility
* Over 500 web parts and widgets
How to integrate Kentico and SharePoint
Kentico
offers a SharePoint connector. This establishes a connection
bi-directionally to SharePoint in the versions shown below:

Once the connection is established and tested successfully, Kentico
has a SharePoint Connections application to manage the connections as
seen here:

Once this is done then you have the ability to apply this connection
in a page. That is a post for another day. Other questions come to
mind, can you use certain metadata properties, what type of lists can
you use (Image, List, Document Library, etc.)?
Before I finish
this post it is important to understand that another way to integrate
the two platforms is through both systems robust API. Again, this is a
post for another day.
Protiviti knows and Protiviti shares to
make your organizations stronger. In the coming weeks I will share
through different use cases how to make SharePoint and Kentico
collaborate. Do you have a use case in mind, if so, contact me and let
me know what it is, I would be happy to determine if I can include it. You can contact me directly at peter.serzo@protiviti.com or tweet me at @pserzo.