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HiSoftware and Microsoft: Partnering for Trustworthy Computing Solutions

Computing Solutions

As the amount of electronic information continues to multiply in organizations, the need for a comprehensive, cost-effective accessibility solution is becoming a sought-after priority. HiSoftware and Microsoft have partnered to provide integrated, world-class software solutions that enable customers to plan, develop, build and maintain portals, Web sites and online applications that comply with industry and regulatory standards and promote Trustworthy Computing.

Used together, HiSoftware and Microsoft solutions address today’s new challenges in content policy management. They provide a complete, scalable enterprise test management system that enables validation of content for compliance with standards-based and organizational policies for content defects, privacy, site inventory, Web accessibility, site maintenance and management of corporate standards.

This is achieved with a combination of HiSoftware’s back-end, automated solutions that provide monitoring for applications managed by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) and Content Management Solutions, and HiSoftware’s user-driven interactive desktop solutions that allow developers and designers to test and remediate content as they build it with Microsoft development tools.

Product Integrations

HiSoftware’s solutions can be easily added to an existing implementation of MOSS, an online application or Web site. HiSoftware provides enterprise-wide automated content compliance solutions to monitor, audit, enforce and test Web content and applications for regulatory compliance, in addition to on-demand developer solutions for testing content within the development environment (see chart below). All HiSoftware solutions seamlessly integrate with Microsoft’s Visual Studio®, SharePoint® Designer, Expression®, Office®, SharePoint® Server and InfoPath® E-forms Server.

Accessibility Kit for SharePoint® (AKS)

HiSoftware has joined efforts with Microsoft to create the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint or AKS. It provides reusable tools and components as well as documentation and tutorials to ensure that MOSS provides a basic solution for accessibility. The intellectual property is available under the Microsoft Public License as Open Source code to the community through Codeplex. AKS significantly reduces the time, knowledge, and effort required to implement a SharePoint-based Web site that conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints, that are collectively known as WCAG 1.0 AA. The kit also assists with compliance for the newest WCAG 2.0 AA Candidate Recommendation. Furthermore, AKS can be used to address the exceptions that have been identified in the U.S. government’s Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or VPAT documents for MOSS 2007. Additional adapters and remediation provided through the kit include: Canadian Common Look and Feel guidelines (CLF 2.0), Translated French language version of AKS scenarios for Web Content Management, and automation of control adapters through install settings via Smart Adapters.

HiSoftware's Accessible Rich Text Editor (aRTE)

Additionally, to assist with the accessibility of SharePoint, HiSoftware has created an accessible Rich Text Editor, HiSoftware aRTE. HiSoftware aRTE is a lightweight text editor for SharePoint designed to help the user make more accessible Web Parts for both the content author as well as the content viewer. It provides many of the common features available in desktop editors like Microsoft Word®. With HiSoftware aRTE you can write text, format text, create tables and much more. Through a separate licensing and support agreement with Microsoft, HiSoftware aRTE will be available for download at no charge for use in a SharePoint environment of MOSS and WSS.

HiSoftware Solutions for MOSS

HiSoftware solutions are designed to help you achieve accessibility across you enterprise...

The AKS solution along with HiSoftware’s aRTE will help get you started on the road to Web accessibility with an accessible platform/framework from which to launch your portal or intranet site. Adding HiSoftware’s end-to-end compliance solutions allows organizations to implement a fully integrated Web project life cycle approach that allows customers to start accessible and stay accessible.

HiSoftware’s compliance solutions address Web Accessibility and other Web governance issues (i.e. privacy, PII, profanity, search engine optimization) through the development process and provide ongoing compliance testing through an integrated SharePoint work flow process. This methodology provides the highest level of consistency, quality and stability in a site. HiSoftware’s extended solutions provide an approach that empowers content authors to learn for themselves, along with the “fail safe” automation, back-end trapping and auditing that allow the SharePoint system, along with subject matter experts, to keep non-compliant content from entering the live/production environment. This dramatically reduces the time, cost, and complexity associated with building, deploying, and maintaining a properly functioning Web site that supports the highest level of corporate compliance.

Plus HiSoftware solutions are scalable. Each organization is different and has individual needs, so HiSoftware offers a variety of solutions to fit your requirements from developer’s desktop products to enterprise governance solutions.

AccRepair® for SharePoint Designer

This developer’s desktop solution assists SharePoint Designer users in testing and remediating content and the “architecture” that is built for MOSS sites. AccRepair works in the development environment and provides comprehensive content verification and error identification for standards-based compliance issues. It also produces a checklist of criteria for subsequent manual verification. AccRepair provides Web site checking and automated correction facilities for standards-based accessibility compliance including: W3C WCAG 1.0 Priority 1, 2 and 3, Section 508, and supports the creation of custom accessibility checks. Additionally, it supports usability testing with the Usability Test Manager.

HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff™ for MOSS

HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff for MOSS gives organizations an easy, cost-effective way to successfully develop and maintain best-of-breed Web sites that promote the highest standards in Web governance, promoting a high quality user experience. HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff provides testing and reporting options for standards-based Accessibility and Privacy policies based on the current standards outlined by Section 508, Section 208 and WCAG 1.0/2.0. Unlike other solutions, it also allows users to easily define and conduct custom tests for an organization own unique policies without any costly consulting and or programming. Comprehensive Dashboard Reporting features allow content managers and executives to review site status with multiple reporting levels that allow developers to drill down into pass/fail details for remediation. The result is a complete and concise report on the total accessibility, quality and policy compliance of a site or pages of a site tested, that can be shared with the various groups responsible for Web Governance.

Additional features for HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff include:

Compliance Workflow for MOSS by HiSoftware

HiSoftware Compliance Workflow for MOSS by provides Web governance to every corner of your SharePoint implementation. HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff is used as the engine for HiSoftware’s Compliance Workflow when approving or rejecting content upon submission. If the file passes, it is approved and published. Otherwise, non-compliant content is rejected and the workflow can be customized to provide a warning message, block content from being published, or notify the appropriate Policy supervisor or HR department, depending on the severity of the issue.

HiSoftware Page Tester™ for MOSS

HiSoftware PageTester for MOSS provides accessibility compliance and content validation through a browser-based accessibility testing architecture. Administrators can enable MOSS to allow for client or plug-in independent accessibility testing and validation for individual MOSS pages with PageTester. It provides users with the ability to integrate Web content quality and accessibility testing into daily workflow, without the requirement of deploying executable desktop solutions.

Microsoft and HiSoftware Alliance

Joint Initiatives

Microsoft and HiSoftware have partnered together on a variety of educational sessions focused on accessibility and content quality for internal Microsoft Sales Representatives and technical specialists, and our mutual Government customers. Most recently Microsoft selected HiSoftware as a vendor to develop the Accessibility Kit for MOSS 2007, also known as Accessibility Kit for SharePoint or AKS. The decision was made primarily based on HiSoftware’s in-depth expertise and broad industry experience in providing tools and services for improving software accessibility to the point of compliance with key industry and government standards and beyond. Additionally, HiSoftware and Microsoft have teamed-up together on several other product initiatives including:

• In 2004 Microsoft and HiSoftware jointly created the “Solution for Online Accessibility” to reduce the time required to build and deploy accessible portals and Web sites, and provide extremely high scalability, reliability, and performance for those sites.

• HiSoftware has also created solutions for SPPS, which are promoted by the MSFT Product teams and sales organization.

Microsoft as a HiSoftware Customer

Microsoft is not just a HiSoftware partner, they are also a HiSoftware customer. Microsoft has implemented HiSoftware solutions for a variety of MS/MSN EMEA initiatives, including the use of AccMonitor® for reporting on accessibility status of their Web sites.

Start Your Accessibility Initiative Today

Call a HiSoftware Microsoft Compliance Solutions expert today to discuss your organization’s accessibility requirements today.

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