Barend De Saeger

Atlas Copco required a new version of their Digital Cockpit SharePoint / Project Server platform. Inetum-Realdolmen was tasked to design the new platform using a SharePoint Online / Project for the web integration using Azure Logic Apps and Azure Functions.
Barend was responsible for designing the mechanism that was provisioning the Project for the web projects and the connected SharePoint sites using Azure Functions and Azure Logic Apps.

Recticel was integrating a competitor as part of a takeover.
Barend handled custom automation plugins for the Teams and Planner migrations.

DKB needed a SPFx plugin to display aggregated information on a page.
Barend created the plugin.

Picanol had a requirement to phase out their SharePoint 2013 environment and move it to the cloud. Barend was responsible to migrate the data, transforming Classic Search pages and rebuilding Nintex Workflow/Forms solutions to Power Automate/Power Apps.

Atlas Copco is shifting their SharePoint Communication Portals to the cloud.
Barend was assigned as technical migration lead overseeing the migration automation while reporting to the program manager and the rest of the team.

As a part of their Microsoft 365 rollout, Gemeente Beernem ordered a Teams Governance Workshop for IT. Barend provided insights regarding managing a Microsoft 365/Teams environment.

Broeders van Liefde had a requirement to sync documents between a fileshare and a SharePoint Library. Barend built a PowerShell timerjob using PnP PowerShell and SharePoint Migration Tool PowerShell.

DKB was using an Access database that needed to be translated to SharePoint. Barend took over from a colleague and handled some of the required customizations and the migration.

Barend handled the migration from SharePoint Server 2013 to SharePoint Online

The customer shifted their SharePoint Server 2010 environment to Azure and had issues with InfoPath. Barend resolved the issues.

Barend was hired as a SharePoint Support Engineer to reinforce the existing SharePoint Experts team.
This team is responsible to monitor, document and service the DEV, ACC, PRD and Cloud SharePoint environments. Furthermore, the team supports suppliers developing customizations for these environments and handles SharePoint related Incident Management.

Barend is an operational team member responsible for daily tasks regarding SharePoint operations, maintenance and monitoring. In this… Show more

Barend was hired as a SharePoint Support Engineer to reinforce the existing SharePoint Experts team.
This team is responsible to monitor, document and service the DEV, ACC, PRD and Cloud SharePoint environments. Furthermore, the team supports suppliers developing customizations for these environments and handles SharePoint related Incident Management.

Barend is an operational team member responsible for daily tasks regarding SharePoint operations, maintenance and monitoring. In this setting Barend was, amongst other things, responsible for a tenant to tenant migration because of a merger, configuring Outbound Hybrid Search, Troubleshooting Nintex Workflows, creating MS Flows, writing diagnostic PowerShell, SharePoint patching, etc… Show less

AZ Sint-Lucas had questions regarding their Search setup on SharePoint 2013.
Barend pointed the customer in the right direction and helped them with resolving some issues.

In the context of an intranet setup some list items needed to be migrated to a different location.
Barend wrote a script that provisioned the items in the new location.

NMP had a classic setup on SharePoint Online and was having difficulties with some of the constraints.
Barend helped the client with resolving the issues by doing some migrations and enhancements.

Kovag needed integration between a Java based application and SharePoint Online.

Barend wrote a PowerShell Timer Job that did a query in Dynamics 365, Merged files to PDF and moved files to a SharePoint online document library.

PSA was having issues with the User Profile Service, Search and a site that was unavailable in Power BI.
Barend helped the client with resolving the issues.

Migration from Documentum to SharePoint Online

Barend wrote a migration script that migrated Documentum records and documents to SharePoint Online.

Crops had issues with uploading legacy documents to SharePoint Online and wanted a walkthrough of new functionalities in SharePoint Online.

Barend built a PowerShell SharePoint Migration Tool solution and gave the client insights on new features in SharePoint Online.

Familiehulp had upcoming migrations and required a Sharegate training.

• Sharegate Concepts
• Sharegate Reporting
• Sharegate Migration
• Sharegate PowerShell
• Migration Portal - SQL

Realdolmen was assigned to implement a Dynamics CRM solution that included document management. Office Groups where chosen to host the documents and an Azure Website was built to make the connection between the 2 systems. For the automatic provisioning of the Office Groups, the Application relied on Azure Functions and Azure Logic Apps. An existing File Share with 150000 documents needed to be imported into the 14000 new Office Groups.
Barend was responsible for performing the migration with… Show more

Realdolmen was assigned to implement a Dynamics CRM solution that included document management. Office Groups where chosen to host the documents and an Azure Website was built to make the connection between the 2 systems. For the automatic provisioning of the Office Groups, the Application relied on Azure Functions and Azure Logic Apps. An existing File Share with 150000 documents needed to be imported into the 14000 new Office Groups.
Barend was responsible for performing the migration with Sharegate, setting up an Azure Database to oversee the migration, creating scripts to automate the process, optimize and create Azure Functions when needed and provide technical support for the Project Manager. Show less

Barend was tasked to create a synchronization job that synced contacts from Dynamics 365 as external accounts in Azure Active Directory. These accounts needed to be added and removed from security groups dynamically based on Dynamics 365 properties.

Barend was hired to develop a SharePoint solution for storing procedures and reports that had to be based on multiple templates and needed to be subject of an approval process. The solution needed to be built with minimal customizations yet Nintex Workflow was available.
Barend was responsible for the development of the JavaScript, Nintex Workflows and the creation of all required SharePoint objects. The project was managed by an internal Project Manager / Business Analyst.

Ordina was assigned to rebuild the Lineas intranet using “Cloud Ready” and OOTB techniques.
Barend was assigned several tasks including Provisioning the AppStore, patching ACC and PRD environments, developing a lightweight provisioning engine and resolving various issues with the environments.
Barend worked closely with the Lineas Systems team to bring the project to a successful end.

Ordina was asked to do a full health revision for the ACC and PRD SharePoint 2013 environments.
Barend was the lead in this project responsible for the strategy and execution regarding Health Analysis, Patching, Service Instance re-distribution, Error Resolution, Artefact Detection and Clean-up, Permission Management, Best Practices check-up, …

The assignment at Lineas was 2 fold. At one end the production environment needed to be replicated on the test environment and on the other end custom functionality needed to be debugged. Barend moved the farm's Content Databases and replicated the content of the Managed Metadata Service Application to the test environment. He also made sure that a custom IIS website was addressed correctly in JavaScript Client side code and that the Property Bag was correctly filled. Afterwards the issues… Show more

The assignment at Lineas was 2 fold. At one end the production environment needed to be replicated on the test environment and on the other end custom functionality needed to be debugged. Barend moved the farm's Content Databases and replicated the content of the Managed Metadata Service Application to the test environment. He also made sure that a custom IIS website was addressed correctly in JavaScript Client side code and that the Property Bag was correctly filled. Afterwards the issues could be reduced to a permission issue and the fix could be implemented on production. Show less

Ordina’s SharePoint team needed standardized Development environments. Azure was chosen as the platform and the IT Pro’s were asked to come up with an installation procedure. Barend was responsible for creating scripts that could roll out Azure servers with a standardized configuration. Barend was also involved in optimizing the SharePoint installation procedure and was responsible for installing the LMS365 OnPrem to the SharePoint environment. He also rolled connected the farm to an Office 365… Show more

Ordina’s SharePoint team needed standardized Development environments. Azure was chosen as the platform and the IT Pro’s were asked to come up with an installation procedure. Barend was responsible for creating scripts that could roll out Azure servers with a standardized configuration. Barend was also involved in optimizing the SharePoint installation procedure and was responsible for installing the LMS365 OnPrem to the SharePoint environment. He also rolled connected the farm to an Office 365 tenant and rolled out all hybrid features. Furthermore he installed, configured and connected ADFS to the farm. Show less

Proximus had a highly customized Web Application that was used to collect the CMI Market & Competition team’s reports, news items, newsfeeds, etc… on a single platform. As it was not clear who frequented this platform Barend was asked to arrange for a SharePoint Analytics tool (developed by a 3rd party supplier) to be installed. Barend was also asked to set up additional landing pages for Proximus management on one side and all Proximus users on the other. Since the platform was to be shared… Show more

Proximus had a highly customized Web Application that was used to collect the CMI Market & Competition team’s reports, news items, newsfeeds, etc… on a single platform. As it was not clear who frequented this platform Barend was asked to arrange for a SharePoint Analytics tool (developed by a 3rd party supplier) to be installed. Barend was also asked to set up additional landing pages for Proximus management on one side and all Proximus users on the other. Since the platform was to be shared company-wide the design had to be updated to be on par with the Proximus style guide. Furthermore Barend was also asked to look into the possibilities for integrating the platform with Proximus MicroStrategy report environment and to add a “Subscribe” functionality on top of the existing custom alert solution.Barend adapted the design by modifying existing css and JavaScript, adapting Display Templates, creating JSLink overrides, writing JSOM/REST functions and adding pages to the platform. Barend also worked together with Proximus IT to ofload IIS logs from the UAT WFE servers to an intermediary server to later import the into the database the 3r party analytics solution used to render site analytics. Barend also provided 1st line support to CMI users, updated and created documentation and was also involved in planning for an upcoming migration to SharePoint 2016. Show less

The customer required a new collaboration platform to replace its old “Communities” environment. SharePoint 2016 was chosen as the correct tool and Ordina was asked to realize this project. Barend was tasked to roll-out the environment at the customer that had no prior experience with SharePoint. Barend determined the optimal architecture in collaboration with Ordina’s architect, rolled out the environment by using the standard Ordina installation procedure en made sure the customer's wishes… Show more

The customer required a new collaboration platform to replace its old “Communities” environment. SharePoint 2016 was chosen as the correct tool and Ordina was asked to realize this project. Barend was tasked to roll-out the environment at the customer that had no prior experience with SharePoint. Barend determined the optimal architecture in collaboration with Ordina’s architect, rolled out the environment by using the standard Ordina installation procedure en made sure the customer's wishes were respected. Show less

The customer needed a system to revise outdated procedures that where being published by a Nintex approval workflow. Barend created a site workflow that re-triggered the approval based on a date property.

The customer wanted to migrate away from their obsolete SQL cluster to a dedicated SQL server. The customer also wanted the test farm aligned with the current production Farm. Barend planned and executed the database migration on the SharePoint end, backup/restored PRD databases to the TST farm and updated the configuration where needed. He also updated existing documentation to meet the customer’s standards.

Barend completed the process under direct supervision of the architect. He was responsible for additional scripting, execution of the defined procedure and of creating the documentation. He performed the tasks while also being in charge of a parallel migration to SharePoint 2010 as an intermediate between SharePoint 2007 and 2016.

Emmaüs has a Service Level Agreement with Ordina and Ordina was asked to solve some issues the Sint-Jozef hospital in Malle was having with Nintex workflows created by their previous partner. The workflow contained a custom PDF Converter and Ordina decided to replace this converter by Muhimbi Pdf Converter.
Barend was responsible for installing Muhimbi and re-building the Nintex workflows. Barend was also asked to reconfigure the approval flow.

Axa decided on group level to migrate many of their services to SharePoint Online, a substantial amount of SharePoint Site Collections, representing roughly 3 TB, needed to be migrated. Advised by Ordina, Axa Tech decided to use Sharegate to perform the migration. At the beginning Barend was the executing technician (on-site everyday), after 6 months he became the projects senior whose task was to assist the executing technician 2 days a week. This project relied heavily on the use of CSOM… Show more

Axa decided on group level to migrate many of their services to SharePoint Online, a substantial amount of SharePoint Site Collections, representing roughly 3 TB, needed to be migrated. Advised by Ordina, Axa Tech decided to use Sharegate to perform the migration. At the beginning Barend was the executing technician (on-site everyday), after 6 months he became the projects senior whose task was to assist the executing technician 2 days a week. This project relied heavily on the use of CSOM PowerShell as Barend and his colleagues used it to fill the gap between the requirements and Sharegate’s abilities. They also used it heavily to automate the Migration. Show less

As Ontex decided to create new SharePoint sites in SharePoint Online (Office 365), an automated process was required to provision requested Site Collections and Subsites on the new platform with functionality to manage Retention and Navigation. Ordina was asked to create a structure for the new Intranet and to create a lightweight tool that is able to take some load of the Administrators’ shoulders.

Barend was responsible to create several CSOM PowerShell scripts that will run as an… Show more

As Ontex decided to create new SharePoint sites in SharePoint Online (Office 365), an automated process was required to provision requested Site Collections and Subsites on the new platform with functionality to manage Retention and Navigation. Ordina was asked to create a structure for the new Intranet and to create a lightweight tool that is able to take some load of the Administrators’ shoulders.

Barend was responsible to create several CSOM PowerShell scripts that will run as an automated task and execute the required actions. Barend was also asked to handle several support tickets for Ontex Users. Show less

Since B Logistics was migrating to a new domain, 3 of its SharePoint environments needed to be migrated to a new farm. Advised by Ordina, the customer decided to join these environments (1 x WSS 3.0 and 2x SharePoint Server 2010) to a temporary SharePoint Server 2010 farm from where could be later rearranged into a final location. Barend’s role in this Project was to set up the temporary Farm, create and execute migration pre-checks, determine which problems a Content Database Backup-Restore… Show more

Since B Logistics was migrating to a new domain, 3 of its SharePoint environments needed to be migrated to a new farm. Advised by Ordina, the customer decided to join these environments (1 x WSS 3.0 and 2x SharePoint Server 2010) to a temporary SharePoint Server 2010 farm from where could be later rearranged into a final location. Barend’s role in this Project was to set up the temporary Farm, create and execute migration pre-checks, determine which problems a Content Database Backup-Restore would cause and how to solve them. Barend was also responsible for moving the SharePoint users to the new domain. Show less

SharePoint metrics are a big thing, every manager wants to see them. Unfortunately SharePoint offers limited functionality out of the box. As Barend had built some previous experience with the matter he was asked to look into it again. Barend contributed to the project by Setting up an Azure environment, reviewing some existing scripts, centralizing project information, creating some dashboards and developing an installer.

As Configuration Support became (as of February 2015) a “Managed Service” Ordina performed for Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez), there was a need for accurate documentation of all the tools, procedures, exceptions, etc … that Configuration Support Workers came across during their activities for the service. Before Configuration Support was managed as a service, all documentation was managed at Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez) but understandably Ordina desired documentation on their platforms as they were to provide… Show more

As Configuration Support became (as of February 2015) a “Managed Service” Ordina performed for Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez), there was a need for accurate documentation of all the tools, procedures, exceptions, etc … that Configuration Support Workers came across during their activities for the service. Before Configuration Support was managed as a service, all documentation was managed at Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez) but understandably Ordina desired documentation on their platforms as they were to provide a continuous service to the customer.
Barend suggested SharePoint Wiki Pages to be used as documentation tool, organized a team site to host these Wiki pages and wrote most of the documentation that was written before he left the project. Show less

As Configuration Support was a relatively new team within Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez)’s IT department some of its tools needed to be developed, adapted or upgraded as the procedures evolved. To inform the users of their software, rights or hardware "configurations", Configuration Support Workers used several Macro Enabled Excel Workbooks (.xlsm’s) to generate the .pdf’s they used to communicate these “Configurations” to the users in order to perform the "Handshake" the procedure required. Data for… Show more

As Configuration Support was a relatively new team within Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez)’s IT department some of its tools needed to be developed, adapted or upgraded as the procedures evolved. To inform the users of their software, rights or hardware "configurations", Configuration Support Workers used several Macro Enabled Excel Workbooks (.xlsm’s) to generate the .pdf’s they used to communicate these “Configurations” to the users in order to perform the "Handshake" the procedure required. Data for these .xslm’s needed to be gathered from several systems such as the Peregrine Service Center ticketing system, the IS Workplace Catalog (see previous projects) and Active Directory. This data had to be looked up and inserted manually which caused unnecessary delays and was prone to error. When the “handshake” with the user was finished Configuration Support also need to configure several tools which also had to be done by hand.
Barend took it upon himself to re-engineer the .xlsm’s to automatically gather data from Peregrine Service Center through an SQL query, enable searches in the IS Workplace Catalog through Office Connection Files and check records in Active Directory through VBA Macro’s. He also upgraded the Macro's to write data to the IS Workplace Catalog and Active Directory allowing Configuration Support operators to skip some routine actions that would otherwise cost them a lot of time. These developments allowed Configuration Support operators to perform their tasks quicker and more precise and in the end reduced costs for Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez). Show less

Configuration Support is a department that was originally founded to check the hardware/software configuration of to be delivered workstations with the user and to make sure that all new machines were according to the user’s wishes and requirements. After a period of time the department’s scope was widened with threating requests for software and with administering local admin rights. Because during this project, Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez) was making the switch from XP workstations to Windows 7… Show more

Configuration Support is a department that was originally founded to check the hardware/software configuration of to be delivered workstations with the user and to make sure that all new machines were according to the user’s wishes and requirements. After a period of time the department’s scope was widened with threating requests for software and with administering local admin rights. Because during this project, Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez) was making the switch from XP workstations to Windows 7 based machines, there was a certain need of a department that was aware of the software present within the rather complex environment of Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez). This need existed because during the XP era everyone was equipped with local admin permissions and after the migration to Windows 7, management would like to come to software-standardization where the amount of users with these rights was seriously minimized. Given the complexity of the rendered services within the companies of Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez), where a lot of employees work Off-Site and there is a lot off department-specific software, it’s not always possible to maintain this philosophy. These exceptions concerning permissions, software and hardware are all treated by Configuration Support.
This project provided Barend with his first experience within a large IT-environment and he got to know the complex situations and challenges they provide. His effort and involvement were essential for the functioning of the services Cofely S.A.(GDF-Suez) provides to his customers. Show less

In addition to the project below barend was responsible for migrating the "IS Workplace Catalog" Site Collection to SharePoint 2013, restoring the desired custom look and feel of the website. During this project Barend further sharpened his skills of jQuery, CSS and the OOTB SharePoint GUI.

Since Configuration Support was keeping a software inventory of all applications (1000+) used within the organization it was necessary to share these with the users. Ordina was appointed to analyze the requirements and decided to use SharePoint because of its List structure and Search capabilities. SharePoint also fit the strategy to standardize the environment and to add functionalities in a phased approach. Other systems Configuration Support was using could then later be migrated to… Show more

Since Configuration Support was keeping a software inventory of all applications (1000+) used within the organization it was necessary to share these with the users. Ordina was appointed to analyze the requirements and decided to use SharePoint because of its List structure and Search capabilities. SharePoint also fit the strategy to standardize the environment and to add functionalities in a phased approach. Other systems Configuration Support was using could then later be migrated to SharePoint what would improve integration and automation.
Since Barend was already detached with Configuration Support he was the ideal person to function as translator between the Senior Consultant and the customer. Furthermore Barend was responsible for optimizing the content, creating views, configuring the different forms and analyzing Search Scopes. Since Barend was detached with Configuration Support at the time, he was performing these tasks together with his “operational tasks” within the Configuration Support Department.
Later, Barend was assigned "full time" to the project for 3 weeks. He's tasks during this period included finishing conditional formatting of the new-, edit- and displayform by using jQuery, further styling of the site + conditionally hiding content by css, creating worklfows for the auto-completion of content, overviewing the move to a production server, managing permissions, communication with the customer and overall maintenance tasks. Show less

As a personal objective it was suggested to Barend to study SharePoint 2013 deployment using PowerShell. The deployment needed to be executed based on a .Docx document accompanied by .Bat and .PS1 files. The SharePoint Farm that needed to be replicated contained amongst others:
- Servers:
• Domain Controller
• SQL Server
• Application Server
• Web Front End
• Search Server
• WebApp Server
• Workflow Server

- Services
• User Profile Synchronization… Show more

As a personal objective it was suggested to Barend to study SharePoint 2013 deployment using PowerShell. The deployment needed to be executed based on a .Docx document accompanied by .Bat and .PS1 files. The SharePoint Farm that needed to be replicated contained amongst others:
- Servers:
• Domain Controller
• SQL Server
• Application Server
• Web Front End
• Search Server
• WebApp Server
• Workflow Server

- Services
• User Profile Synchronization Service
• MySites
• Search
• Managed Metadata Service
• Webapps
• Worklfow Service
• SharePoint Hosted Apps

During this assignment Barend learned a lot about using PowerShell which allows a more refined installation of SharePoint than the GUI (Graphical User Interface) does. Another benefit of using PowerShell is that an environment can easily be replicated for development, acceptance and production purposes. Barend’s PowerShell skills have been sharpened en his knowledge of the installation procedure has grown. Furthermore he has learned a lot about the different aspects of the SharePoint Architecture and he is now able of installing SharePoint compliant with the industry's best practices. The fact that Barend did this outside working hours further stipulates his motivation to become a skilled consultant. Show less

D’Ieteren wanted to optimize their Recall process using M365. Inetum-Realdolmen was tasked to build a Model Driven app with 3rd party provider integration.
Barend was responsible for building the integration between the Model Driven App and 3rd party providers / other M365 components using Power Automate, Azure Functions and SFTP. To integrate the Model Driven App, Barend used the Dataverse / Dynamics Web API.

As a part of a migration to Microsoft 365 a Fileshare analysis was required at Nationale Loterij. Barend executed the analysis using Sharegate reports and custom scripts. The results were rendered in a Power Bi report.

Picanol had several Lotus Notes databases that needed to be decommissioned. Barend collaborated with Picanol to create a design that would suit their needs and migrated the databases using custom PowerShell scripts.