Full RSS Feed
Receive
the Free CMSWire NewsletterSharePoint 2010 is a popular tool for creating Intranets, customer portals and almost any web-based solution. It’s a powerful product that can address an impressive number of business solutions. With all of the power SharePoint has to offer, and the money you’ll likely spend on deployment, it’s important to get certain things right. In this article, I’ll cover the top seven things that executives must consider when deploying SharePoint 2010. So if you’re thinking about SharePoint, or are revisiting a stalled deployment to give it a kickstart, read on.
Consideration #1: Go All-In or Don’t Bother
A large number of customers implement SharePoint by dropping it into a team environment with little to no configuration or end-user guidance and wish the users best of luck. Those customers use it mostly for file sharing. The problem is that by using SharePoint in this way, it often ends up as a slower, more expensive version of your company file server. If you’re going to invest the time and effort to deploy SharePoint, along with the cost of servers and storage, then you owe it to yourself and your organization to invest in governance, a good information architecture and training. One more thing: Don’t just deploy team sites. If you’re going to invest, deploy all six workloads (sites, content management, search, BI, social, composite applications). Customers who use SharePoint to its potential are much happier customers.
Consideration #2: Invest in Governance
Governance is a hot topic but largely misunderstood. The best way to think about it is via an analogy. Let’s say you’re in charge of constructing a highway system so that the public can get from point A to point B. You invest heavily in roads and cars; the highways are sturdy and can handle lots of traffic. Then you hand the keys over to the drivers. The problem? Nobody knows which side of the road to drive on or what to do at intersections. Car crashes will be the norm and the highway system will fail.
Sound silly? It’s not. This is exactly how many organizations deploy SharePoint. They invest in servers and software licenses, but neglect to invest in the “rules of the road”: SharePoint governance. Users want (and need) to be told how to best use the system: Tagging documents, designing new sites and, in general, what they are allowed to do. Notice that we’re not telling them where to drive. That’s the balance between empowerment and control: Provide guidelines, recommendations and some rules — but let the business run the show from there.
Consideration #3: It’s About the Content
SharePoint itself isn’t going to do anything for you without good content. In fact, it’s all about the content. If you’re deploying an Intranet, make sure you designate content owners,defining the individual users who will be responsible for updating and managing various pages and sections of the site. These people may not be the generators of this content, but will be responsible for ensuring it gets updated and follows governance policies on the respective frequency. Here’s an example:
| Content Site or Page | Content Manager | Update/Review Frequency |
| Intranet Home Page (web parts, lists) | Doug S. | Daily |
| News Home Page | Phil T. | Weekly |
| —Press Releases | Scott G. | When new releases are generated |
| —Announcements | Scott G. | When new announcements are made |
| —Industry News | (none) | Self-authored through RSS feeds |
| Community Home Page | Mary P. | Weekly |
| —Events | Dave F. | When events are added/removed as needed |
| —Media | Susanne V. | When company event or other event takes place with media documentation |
| —Executive Blog | Homer S. | Weekly, one per executive member |
| Teams | (none) | Search and creation functionality — no content |
| —Team Sites | Mark B. | Semi-annually |
| Search (specifically keywords, acronyms and best bets) | John S. | Semi-annually reviewed, and as new keywords, acronyms are added |
| Audiences | Mark B. | As user roles change or new users are created/old users removed |
Consideration #4: Invest in Search
The Internet is changing the way users expect to find information. Users expect to be able to go to a search box and enter a keyword or two and be taken to the information they need. As such, they have high expectations for Enterprise Search capabilities. SharePoint has a great platform for search, including features such as click-through relevancy and metadata-driven refinement, but you’ll still need to invest in the mechanics of ensuring that common search queries in your organization map to the sites and content that users want. Make sure you survey users to get their opinion on what they expect to see when they enter a search keyword — don’t just assume that whatever gets served up in search results is “correct." Search relevancy optimization is an ongoing process.
Continue reading this article:
Email It
