This month's spotlight feautures Brian Jackett:
I moved to Columbus 2 years ago and now live in the north Worthington area. In my spare time I enjoy recreation league volleyball, softball, maintaining a technical blog, volunteering as a chaperone at my parish’s youth group, and keeping up with new computer technologies. I’ve been an active member of the Central Ohio SharePoint User Group since mid 2008 and regularly attend most meetings and functions.
I currently work at Sogeti as a Senior Consultant and am the Microsoft Collaboration and BI technology lead. My primary focus areas are SharePoint, database applications, and BI solutions. In 2008 I passed the MOSS 2007 Configuration and Project Server 2007 Configuration MCTS exams and am currently working towards the MOSS 2007 Development exam. Recent client projects have involved implementing Project Server 2007 at the Ohio Department of Taxation for their Project Management Office, developing a sales agent newsletter intranet using SharePoint at AmerAssist, providing administration consulting for a Project Server 2007 installation at Emerson Network Power, and currently developing custom web applications hosted in SharePoint for a store portal at Express. Additionally I support our sales team by writing proposals, estimating project timelines, and architecting SharePoint solutions.
As a consultant I have drawn on my experiences at various clients and in different workplace cultures to provide best practices when it comes to designing, implementing, and supporting solutions. One great piece of advice I received this past year relates to using the right tool for the right job. SharePoint is a very versatile and powerful tool, but certainly not the solution for all business needs. When you start to think of a certain technology (SharePoint included) as the “fix everything” hammer, then all problems begin to resemble nails when in fact they could be screws, bolts, or hinges. I’m glad to be a part of communities and groups such as COSPUG that have helped me to discover lessons like this.