Cape Town, Western Cape, 27 Feb 2012
Most of us who have been involved in technology projects in business can attest to hearing the old adage of "We need to make sure we get the business requirements and meet the business user`s needs", right? Never has this statement been truer than when referring to a project implementation involving Microsoft SharePoint (www.microsoft.com/sharepoint). Why, you might ask? Well let`s highlight a few of the most important reasons:
Firstly, most people hear about SharePoint and all the things it can do and think, "wow, we need that!" even if they`re not exactly sure what they might do with it. Why is this? Well to be fair, even having been involved with SharePoint for many years, it still impresses me in terms of its flexibility and broad range of talents, which I believe is what a lot of people see as a way to address some of their challenges.
They also think, "SharePoint can do so many things that I would have otherwise had to buy multiple systems to achieve", which is partly true, but I`ll shed a bit more light on that below. So lesson number one is make sure you figure out exactly what you want to start doing with SharePoint and focus on just that to start off with. Make sure that whatever it is, it aligns to the current business goals and priorities.
Secondly, once you`ve figured out where to start, make sure you know where you`re going. You need a plan; because business goals and priorities will change and so will the maturity and needs of users. This is, in my opinion, one of the biggest pitfalls when using SharePoint; the reason being that, once implemented, SharePoint can be relatively easily configured to do other things besides what you set out to do. The problem is that people are not aware of the implications the new functionality will have on users, the current functionality and future plans. In turn, an organised chaos starts to develop. So lesson two is create a plan and stick to it to deliver focused business solutions that add value.
Thirdly, it`s important to realise that all businesses are living organisms in a sense, growing and changing as they do so, which means you have to keep your ear to the ground and understand these business changes. This is so that you can plan and possibly adapt your plan in order to keep control of SharePoint and its ability to deliver specific functionality without alienating users and affecting existing solutions negatively. So lesson three is to expect change and make sure you know what the business needs and how to adapt your plans accordingly.
Lastly, SharePoint has become a technology platform that can be very successful at being a business enabler, but ensure that you listen to what the business needs, that you plan to deliver this in a structured, well thought-out manner and that you`re ready for change.
bSOLVe will be discussing topics like this at the Share Conference, an international SharePoint Business User event, hosted in Johannesburg, 27 to 28 February 2012.
bSOLVe is an exhibiting partner at the conference and directors Martin Hattingh and Simon Hepburn will be on hand to discuss SharePoint business topics, and will also showcase some new, innovative bSOLVe business solutions built on SharePoint. They will also be presenting their market-leading bSOLVe SharePoint Enterprise Framework used to plan and manage SharePoint, as well as their Rapid Deployment Solutions used to deliver quick, powerful wins on your SharePoint platform within the SharePoint Enterprise Framework.
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