SharePoint Goes Christmas Shopping

It is time to hit the shops in search of Christmas presents and that is what I am about to do. Hopefully the ‘Credit Crunch’ will mean the shops are not quite so full this year. OK, that is a bit mean on the poor Shopkeepers who are trying to keep their businesses a float, but I hate having to spend so long queuing after I have found an elusive present. I am usually a very calm person and not known to get over cross, but the Festive spirit soon goes from me after I have been waiting in a queue at Woolworths for over twenty minutes clutching an empty box for the DS game ‘Curious Village’ only to be told by the young assistant ‘matter-of-factly’ that they haven’t got that game in stock.. Sorry about this moan and I do understand that ‘Woolworths‘ have got enough problem at the moment without me slagging them off in my Sharepoint blog. At least they did stock the 2009 Aston Villa Calendar there which I pointed out to my wife. I must stop moaning though as I can see myself ending up like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koCL3oRvMJ8. The best way to Christmas shop (apart from to leave it so late that your wife has already done it) is to plan who you are buying for and roughly what to get them. Always try and think about buying the same present for more than one person. If it is good enough for Auntie Betty would it do for that Margaret at work in the Secret Santa as well? Now, what is the best tool for planning and managing Christmas Presents? It has to be SharePoint as it is so easy to customise and add calculations to. So before I started my Christmas shopping (yes, while the wife was doing it really) I designed a Christmas Shopping Site Template for SharePoint called the Officetalk Christmas Shopper. The Officetalk Christmas Shopper includes a list of who you need to buy for, what you normally spend on these people, how you will get the present to them, if they send you a present back (although obviously it is the giving that is important even if you do refer to this SharePoint site next Christmas), keep a track of how much you spend and even record the presents you have bought these people in the past. This last part is useful when you realise for the fourth year running you are buying your Dad socks again. Mind you, if he is like me after year he will need new socks as somehow I often seem to lose socks. Well, I seem to frequently lose one sock. One day perhaps they will all turn up. Now, as it is Christmas and the Officetalk Consultants are such generous chaps we are giving this Christmas Shopper SharePoint site Template away FREE OF CHARGE. All you need is too have either WSS 3.0 or MOSS installed. Then just send an email to me by clicking on the link below and ask for help with your Christmas Shopping; Email Andy Dale Oh, I didn’t mention that the Christmas Shopper Template includes a Christmas Planner so you can make a note of all the Christmas Parties that you are invited to even though you can’t go as you have to do your Christmas Shopping. If you haven’t already downloaded it checkout my Christmas Countdown and Advent SharePoint Tips featured in last week’s blog by clicking ‘Christmas Goodies’.