SharePoint Embedded: Full Featured SharePoint Inside a Custom Application 

SharePoint Embedded

Custom applications that require a lot of document management have always been a challenge to build. Historically, we would build an ASP.NET application and then pass content back and forth to Azure blog storage or make the document available for immediate download (but not store the document in the application after the download is complete). Microsoft has released SharePoint Embedded, a new way to store and manage content in custom applications. SharePoint Embedded offers a headless, API-only pattern to build content apps that integrate management capabilities like collaboration, security, and compliance into any app by storing content inside an enterprise’s existing Microsoft 365 tenant.  Enterprises can use SharePoint Embedded to … Read more

Custom Global Navigation Using SPFx Application Customizers

SPFx Custom Applications

Out-of-the-box navigation in SharePoint Online has come a long way over the last number of years. Hub sites and hub site navigation provide much more customizability and consistency for navigating around a hub. However, modern intranets in SharePoint Online are generally made up of multiple hubs. Maintaining a consistent experience across all those hubs and sites can become a daunting task. While infinitely better than what we’ve had in the past, it still falls short of a truly unified and engaging experience. The ever-expanding lists of links can make it difficult to keep organized and make it difficult for users to find what they are looking for. In this blog, … Read more

Data Migration to SharePoint Online Improves Data Manageability

A government financial services organization had a significant amount of data on Windows File Share and wanted to move it to SharePoint Online. While transferring the data would be a simple data migration, they also wanted to make changes to some of their internal file structure.   Migrating from Windows to SharePoint would allow them to have improved document management, as well as to take advantage of the numerous benefits of SharePoint. Before contacting Imaginet, they lacked document tracking or versioning, and permissions were difficult to manage. They also don’t own the servers – other people control them, so there was a communication gap between our client and the team managing … Read more

Power BI Reporting Improves Data Quality and Accuracy

An Information Technology organization specializing in business solutions contacted Imaginet to create a more effective approach to their data reporting. They had been using Excel for reporting purposes and relied on manual manipulation of their data. Using Excel was neither effective nor efficient, and the manual work was leading to data quality issues. We determined the best solution for our client would be through Power BI reporting.   What We Did:  We recreated some of their existing reports in Power BI and created reports using data from Salesforce based on the following 2 requirements:  We changed their data reporting system report by report. To begin, we created the semantic model in … Read more

Power Automate Solution Automates Processes and Reduces Errors

A North American capital management organization contacted Imaginet to create separate libraries for each of their fund types – direct and indirect. They did not have a solution in place to separate data and were relying on manual work. This led to errors, lost information, and wasted employee resources. We determined a Power Automate solution could solve the issues our client was experiencing.   We used Power Automate to create folder structures in document libraries that were based on data from a list provided by the client. When a new fund was created by someone in the organization a flow would automatically allocate it to the correct library (direct or indirect). … Read more

Migrating to Azure Data Factory Leads to Improved Security and Improved ROI

A major Canadian oil & gas company reached out to Imaginet to rewrite some of the old infrastructure they currently had in place and pursue an Azure Data Factory migration. Imaginet had built their data warehouse 10 years ago, but changes in technology prompted the client to make changes to their existing data loading processes. We had previously used SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) to build their data factory, however, migrating to Azure Data Factory had become the better option for their business needs, as they wanted to move from on-premises servers to cloud services in Microsoft Azure.  Our client had started to experience issues with their current on-premises SQL … Read more

Upgraded Development Stack Improves Data Governance & Quality

A leading real estate and financial services asset management company needed assistance migrating their legacy on-premises data environment that had become difficult to manage. Some key parts of the legacy system relied on Microsoft Excel and a web application. Loading data was complex and manual, and a lack of data governance needed to be addressed. The client asked Imaginet to upgrade the application using a more modern development stack to clean up and standardize how data was loaded and processed.  Using Azure Data Factory as the primary method for data integration (ETL) processes, the Imaginet data engineering team moved the data environment into Microsoft Azure cloud services, with a data … Read more

Modernized Application Results in Increased Productivity and Better Control Over Technology 

A provincial agricultural services corporation had been using IBM Domino Designer to complete their organization’s projects. Designer is an outdated tool making it difficult to find someone who can support the maintenance of it. Very few developers are familiar with Designer due to its decrease in popularity. They approached Imaginet for assistance in developing a more modern application. Outdated applications and technology result in a variety of challenges. Making changes or adding additional requirements becomes almost impossible because of the lack of knowledge of these tools. Therefore, our client was experiencing outdated processes resulting in inefficiencies and a harm to productivity. In addition, the client could not see the developer’s … Read more

Modernized API & User Interface Optimizes Application & Performance

A leading asset manager with an emphasis on real estate and financial services had been using an older REACT application to view and track data about loans and transactions. The user interface could have been faster, and the database on the backend more convenient to use. The client engaged Imaginet to modernize their API and user interface to increase team productivity and ease of use.  The Imaginet Application Development Team rebuilt the API in .NET 6 and C#, using a modern controller-based approach with a mediator pattern setup between the controllers, servers, and database layer. The old application had many different pieces working together, and we focused on keeping the … Read more

Updated Parcel Tracking Portal Allows Customers to Access Most Recent Business Features

A leading Canadian retail logistics provider had an existing parcel tracking portal based on a .NET 5 backend and a React frontend. However, these technologies had become outdated relative to their business processes due to a lack of resources to support them at the required pace. As a result, their customers had no access to the most recent business features. They contacted Imaginet to develop an updated portal for parcel tracking and to reduce the effort required for future support and development.  To fulfill the client’s requirements, Imaginet developed a new portal which included the following features:  With this project, we also introduced new Blazor technology and followed clean architecture … Read more