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What challenges should I be aware of when considering SharePoint as a content server for SF LMS?

Alkay
Explorer
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Hello everyone,

My company is considering implementing SF LMS. We are also evaluating a possible SharePoint implementation. While SharePoint has the potential to host our training content for SF LMS, I am not sure of all the limitations associated with this consideration. Kindly share your experience if you have considered such a move in the past. If you followed through with it, would you do it again? And if you did not follow through with it, why not?

Thank you for your contribution.

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Former Member
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I would not recommend using SharePoint as the content server to be attached to the SF LMS.  Due to how the current online content communications standards are defined, the content has to be in the same network domain as the LMS itself.  SharePoint would be on your network domain, and the SF LMS would be on the SAP/SF hosted network domain.  So unless you are willing to install the proxy configuration on SharePoint as described by SF in their content integration guides, online courses hosted on your SharePoint server will not be able to communicate with the SF LMS.

While you can certainly set up proxy communications on SharePoint, you will bear the responsibility for updating/maintaining this configuration yourself; which may or may not be cost-effective for you (depends on the size of your organization, how large your IT staff is, etc.).

Under most circumstances, getting an iContent subscription with the SF LMS is the better and easier way to handle content hosting.

Alkay
Explorer
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Hi Michael,

Thank you for your contribution. Let us assume that we are prepared to use proxlet applet as a wrapper for the remote content, and are aware of and prepared for the update challenges that bedevils such solutions. In your opinion, and preferably your experience, what would you say are the functional challenges that await the SF LMS administrator and/ or users that use SharePoint as their remote content repository?

Thank you for your insights.

Regards,

Al

Former Member
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I'm not sure what you mean when you ask about "functional challenges".  If you mean does this increase the workload on the content administrator for the LMS, then yes, it does.  Since you're using SharePoint as the repository you likely won't be able to use some of the functionality to automatically import SCORM/AICC courses and set up items automatically.  So your content admin will need to set these items up manually.  Depending on the size of your organization and the amount of online content you intend to leverage, this could be a minimal impact or it could be a significant impact.

There really won't be a massive "functional" impact on how the LMS itself works.  My experience over the past 20 years has shown that this type of approach has much more of an impact on the IT and IT security infrastructure of the organization than any "functional" impact on the LMS itself.  Most of my customers over the years, once they recognize the changes this approach will make to the IT security policies to enable access to content from outside their network firewall/routers/etc., choose not to go down this path.

Alkay
Explorer
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Hi Michael,

Thanks for your latest response. The limitations you mentioned in terms of ease of use and security are some of the concerns I have. I am not a security guy and outside of adding users to SharePoint resources, I cannot boast of knowing much about administering SharePoint. Would you be kind enough to provide me details of what security policies changes that may need to happen, say for a 2013 version of SharePoint, for our users to access training content outside of my company`s network firewall? Even constraining the users to access the training content behind the network firewall is not without admin support drawbacks. Would you care to comment on that and any other related challenges, please? My company needs to be aware of the challenges ahead if we are to choose this option.

Should you wish to respond to my personal email, please let me know.

Once more, thanks a bunch for your insight.

Regards,

Al

Former Member
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Unfortunately I cannot give you the specifics on security policy changes and the like.  For something to that level of detail, you would need to engage an implementation partner to help with your LMS implementation and to help guide you through these types of implementation/integration decisions.

But, at a general level you will need to look at adjusting the security policies to ensure that everyone on the LMS would be able to access ALL content that would be stored on SharePoint and delivered through the LMS.  You would also have to look at the various security policies in SharePoint that enable external access into SharePoint so the LMS can reach the content itself.  It is that concept which normally dissuades IT from leveraging SharePoint as a formal content repository that is attached to the externally hosted LMS.

Alkay
Explorer
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Hi Michael,

Thank you very much for your invaluable insight. And your statement on the potential changes on the security policies is fair. I think you have provided me with enough information to move to the next level on this decision.

I would like to close this discussion but there may be additional insights on this issue that could benefits others. I don't suppose it can ever be completely exhausted. Leaving the discussion open will encourage the flow of new insights, reflecting developing dynamics in technical capabilities. 

Thank you all for your continued interest in this discussion.

Regards,

Al

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

siddharthrajora
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert

Its mentoned in the guide also, are you planning to use icontent

To set up an online environment, we recommend that you understand the following concepts:●

Cross-Domain Support (CDS): Allows SuccessFactors Learning Administration to communicate with a content server that is set up on a different domain. There are two types of cross-domain support:○

Cookie Cross-Domain Support: Uses cookies to manage the cross-domain communication, but requires the content server and SuccessFactors Learning Administration to share a higher-level domain. Also requires JavaScript to truncate the domain name.○

Communication Cross-Domain Support: Uses an API wrapper to make the cross-domain communication. Requires different pages for different types of content (SCORM, Content, Exams). Does not work with NETg, but is otherwise the recommended approach to CDS. If you are interested in the recommended CDS deployment, there is a separate guide for setting up your CDS.●

Plateau Offline: Takes learning content offline so that users can view the content while disconnected from the Internet. There are other uses for Plateau Offline, but the ability to play content is how it is used in a learning scenario. Plateau Offline is a client application.●

Mobile Offline: Takes learning content offline and onto mobile devices.●

VLS: Manages the communication between different brands of content servers and the application. VLS tabs appear in SuccessFactors Learning Administration so that administrators can tune learning items and scheduled offerings to communicate with the content servers. To use VLS, you must also install connectors. VLS is called VLE in the configuration settings. To learn more about VLS, see the VLS Configuration Guide.●

Tracking: Tracks a user’s progress through online content through an applet and a servlet. For different kinds of content, the servlet can run in different places. You can define the location of the servlet that handles, for example, SCORM content.●

Sites/Portals: Sites (called portals in the configuration) are Web sites where external users can access learning content.

Learning System

Alkay
Explorer
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Hi Siddharth Rajora,

Thank you for the feedback. It indeed addresses the general concept of storing training content outside of SuccessFactors (iContent). I did look at that already. What I am looking for is more specific to SharePoint. While the concept may still apply, I wanted to know the challenges (if any) that have been faced by people who have attempted a solution using SharePoint as their training content repository.

Once again thank you for your contribution.

Cheers,

Al