| 1. Establish a vision for SharePoint | | | | security, data exposure and other aspects. Including |
| Some of the questions that need to be answered | | | | administrative strategies for backup and recovery, |
| when establishing the vision would be: | | | | intranet maintenance etc. upfront during the design |
| - What will SharePoint mean to your organization? | | | | process would save a lot of time later on. |
| - What is the best way to implement it so it provides | | | | 6. Involve the users to make the intranet more |
| the maximum value to the organization? | | | | usable and also useful |
| - Should it be an intranet, extranet or a collaboration | | | | It is not enough if the intranet has been implemented |
| platform? | | | | in your organization. It is very important that the |
| - Should users create their own communities or | | | | users find it useful and usable and spend enough time |
| should they be restricted? | | | | on the intranet on a day to day basis to carry out |
| - Will the document management features be useful | | | | their daily tasks. The intranet implementation must be |
| for automation workflow and document handling? | | | | aligned to provide the users what they ask for and |
| - Can Dashboards be of any use to your user | | | | meet up with their expectations in one way or the |
| community? Etc. | | | | other. The intranet will be an utter failure if it does |
| 2. Establish a Business Case before you plan the | | | | not provide the necessary features, functionality and |
| infrastructure spend | | | | most importantly tools that would help them carry |
| We have seen many a times that IT organizations | | | | out their day to day activities at a faster pace. One |
| invest a lot on building servers, hardware, network | | | | of the ways in which user involvement can be |
| storage etc. without considering the overall business | | | | achieved includes creating surveys, and gathering |
| case for the SharePoint platform. Some of the | | | | information on the tools, functions and features that |
| questions that are necessary to be answered include: | | | | the users would like to have on the intranet. The |
| - Who are the users of the intranets, and what are | | | | bottom line is - for whatever it takes; keep the |
| their profiles? | | | | users happy for it is they who decide the success or |
| - What business units need the support of the | | | | failure of the intranet implementation. |
| intranet? | | | | 7. Plan on implementing powerful search capabilities |
| - What are the different types of scenarios that | | | | Most of the users come to the intranet to find |
| need to be supported by the intranet? | | | | information that they will not find elsewhere. If the |
| - Should the intranet support cross departmental | | | | information exists and is not findable, then it would |
| processes? | | | | serve no purpose than to disappoint the user. A |
| - Can the intranet be paving way to create paperless | | | | Powerful and flexible search is a must in your intranet |
| processes? | | | | implementation which would allow the users with the |
| - How can you reduce time and cost spent in | | | | capabilities to target information using different |
| managing the processes? Etc. | | | | parameters and queries and find the right kind of |
| All of this in totality [with or without the large | | | | information in a short span of time. Microsoft |
| infrastructure spend] will make the SharePoint project | | | | SharePoint search provides flexible APIs that can be |
| focused and successful. | | | | used to improve and customize the search to meet |
| 3. Sell the SharePoint idea to as much business units | | | | your information requirements. |
| departments etc | | | | 8. Democratize the intranet |
| Sell the SharePoint Portal idea to as many people as | | | | Apart from allowing the users of the intranet to |
| possible to create awareness among them. This is | | | | interact between themselves and with external users |
| very important for users to accept the new | | | | of the organization, it must also provide for an |
| environment, and seamlessly fit into to the overall | | | | "Architecture of Participation". I.e. the users must be |
| intranet environment. Some of the ways in which | | | | equally capable of contributing to the content of the |
| you can promote the idea would be: | | | | intranet without the dependency on any other user |
| - Create awareness workshops to focused groups of | | | | roles in the organization by encouraging user |
| audiences in your organization. | | | | communities. SharePoint by default is a self service |
| - Create Proof of Concepts of different functional | | | | capable platform which allows the users to carry out |
| sections of the intranet, and use it as a mechanism | | | | most of the tasks with minimal development and |
| to sell the idea. | | | | administrative interference. |
| - Provide the users with some hands on experience | | | | 9. Mirror the outside world |
| by creating Pilot projects for the SharePoint | | | | Almost all the users are well aware of the tools and |
| intranets, and exposing the users to the applications. | | | | utilities like Instant messaging, Blogging, wikis, link |
| - Project the benefits in terms of increase in | | | | sharing, social community applications like Orkut etc. |
| productivity, reduction in costs, ease of use etc. to | | | | that the World Wide Web provides. They know the |
| different kinds of audiences within your organization. | | | | benefits and the usage of the tools and use them |
| 4. Start a grass roots organization for supporting the | | | | almost on a daily basis. When these tools are |
| Portal | | | | implemented in the organization's intranet in the |
| Identify the important user profiles - which would | | | | context of the collaboration and communication of |
| include Contributors, content editors, content authors, | | | | users within the organization, it would add more value |
| administrators, end users, approvers etc. from as | | | | to the users, as well as the organization as a whole. |
| many of the business units and geographies as | | | | 10. Keep the Content fresh and up to date. A Portal |
| possible. Have champions for the various sites based | | | | is not a static web page. It is like a daily newspaper. |
| on the interest level, and the ability to spend time | | | | People get fresh content with new feature updates |
| and contribute effectively towards the development | | | | on a regular basis. |
| of the Intranet. | | | | SharePoint is a platform for business which is web |
| 5. Create Processes for Content development, | | | | based and can be used to create powerful business |
| publishing and administration of SharePoint Intranet | | | | Solutions. Up until now SharePoint was positioned and |
| Content is king in Portals. Establish content | | | | implemented with a narrow focus of being a just |
| development, review and publishing procedures for all | | | | Platform for Intranets that are front-end heavy and |
| types of content and make sure relevant and | | | | a simple system for limited document sharing and |
| interesting content gets to the site. Do not make the | | | | forms automation solutions. SharePoint Server is and |
| process too elaborate or you will lose all the | | | | will be a bigger platform encompassing solutions for |
| volunteers for content development or publishing. | | | | Web enabled Applications, Extranets, Intranets, |
| The processes must be developed by giving | | | | Document Management, Business Intelligence and |
| importance to the different governance | | | | Complex Workflow. |
| considerations, policies and procedures around | | | | |