Get Control of Your SharePoint Colleagues
One of the downsides to SharePoint 2010's 'follow' style colleague connections is that users cannot control who is and is a colleague. In SharePoint 2010, you simply add Colleagues and you can start seeing their Activity Feeds, Profile and other information based on their security settings. The downside is that if your organization works with a lot of external staff (contractors, volunteers, etc.) you will want to protect your organization's and user's privacy by requiring that everyone 'Approve' who a colleague much like other Social Networking sites. SP Colleague Connect allows you to enable this capability in your SharePoint environment and provides the additional web parts you will need to review and approve colleague requests.
SP Colleague Connect Overview
SP Colleague Connect is an add-on for SharePoint 2010 that fully leverages the SharePoint 2010 Colleague capabilities while providing users the ability to approve who their colleagues are. When activated, SP Colleague Connect intercepts a typical Colleague request and places it in 'Pending' status and emails the user that they have a request waiting their action. The user then makes the determination of whether to 'Accept' or 'Ignore' the request. Once a request is accepted, the colleague connection is made in SharePoint and all colleague benefits are activated (i.e. Activity Feeds, Profile Access, etc.)
Who Uses SP Colleague Connect?
Organizations that require a greater level control of their profile data, in particular, organizations that provide SharePoint access to external (non-staff) users such as consultants, contractors, volunteers, etc. These organizations understand that the 'all or nothing' approach will not work for them.
SP Colleague Connect Highlights
Two Way Colleague Connections in SharePoint 2010
Approve or Ignore Colleague Requests
Colleague Requests Web Part Shows Pending Requests
Easily Enable and Disable Two Way Colleague Connections
Enhanced Colleague Web Part
What's Included with SP Colleague Connect
My Colleague Web Part
The My Colleague Web Part for SharePoint 2010 included with SP Colleague Connect provides an easy way for users to browse and add colleagues directly in the Web Part.
Colleague Request Web Part
The Colleague Request Web Part for SharePoint 2010 included with SP Colleague Connect is design to be used exclusively with the two way colleague features. This web part displays any pending requests for the users and provides 'Accept' and 'Ignore' buttons for each.
Product Licensing
A valid SP Colleague Connect license is required for each Web Front End (WFE) in the farm where the User Profile Service will reside. The cost of SP Colleague Connect for each WFE is $995. If you have any questions on licensing SP Colleague Connect please contact a product specialist at 1.888.603.0304.
Software Assurance
We are constantly enhancing and improving the SP Colleague Connect product and release updates on a regular basis. In order to receive these updates and to submit product support and enhancement requests you should purchase Software Assurance for your SP Colleague licenses. The price of Software Assurance for SP Colleague Connect is $199.00 per year.