best practices to boost your sharepoint implementation

Best scenarios to boost your SharePoint implementation

Toni FrankolaPerpetuum Mobile d.o.o., Croatiahttp://www.sharepointusecases.comhttp://www.endusersharepoint.comhttp://twitter.com/tonifrankola

Croatia, Europe

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

Quick poll

• My company is:A. Microsoft Partner companyB. Small-Medium business (up to 500 employees)C. Enterprise (more than 500 employees)

Quick poll (2)

• SharePoint – implementation status:A. Not installedB. Implemented, but still »work in progress«C. Completed

Quick poll (3)

• We are using:A. SharePoint Services 3.0B. SharePoint StandardC. SharePoint Enterprise

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

The dark project reality

Succeeded32%

Late/Over budget44%

Cancelled24%

Source: CHAOS Summary 2009, Standish Group

What about my SharePoint project?

The problem

10% - SharePoint technology

90% - SharePoint Content and People

SharePoint planning / requirements

• Find out what are the requirements• Requirements gathering before installation

• Find features that you really need:• Not every enterprise requires MOSS Enterprise• Build vs. Buy (www.sharepointreviews.com)

SharePoint - Lego® approach

• 1... • 2... • 3...

SharePoint - Lego® approach (2)

• Take small steps• Simple collaboration and lists

• Education is not enough• They must use it

• Customize SharePoint for your »child« age

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

SharePoint as you see it

SharePoint as End user sees it

Recommended reading

EndUserSharePoint.com

• http://endusersharepoint.com• http://endusersharepoint.com/STP - Q&A

UX – Navigation

UX – Navigation (2)

Author: Paul Grenier 

Interface improvements (3)

Author: Paul Grenier 

Simple clean interface

Author: James Milne 

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

Eat your own dog food

• SharePoint team should publish a blog• How-to guides• Information about new features• Anything SharePoint relegated

• Document SharePoint installations wiki

Eat your own dog food (2)

Trick – Information push

• End users prefer to be notified via email• Push info via »Alert me«

• Subscribe their AD group• They will not be able unsubscribe

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

Automated Knowledge base

Automated Knowledge Base (2)Apply this rule after the message arrives from Microsoft Support and contains Re: in the subject forward to ms-knowledgebase@intranet.local

Automated Knowledge Base - Benefits

• Everybody can learn from communication• New employees included

• Available even when you are Out of office• Please note: Available with Exchange

• SharePoint Search indexes all the solutions

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

Eat your own dog food (3)

• SharePoint Issue tracking on SharePoint• Start on top of Microsoft Templates

• Expand as needed• Email integration• Workflows• Custom reporting

Source: http://endusersharepoint.com

Issue statusActive Resolved Closed

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

SharePoint as self-service HR portal

• WIN-WIN situation• HR Ideas

(some available as Microsoft Templates)• Annual leaves• Expense • Employee training• Employee activities• Employee benefits• Hiring and firing• Lending libraries

HR application »ingredients«

• OOTB WSS• A workflow tool

• Security, approvals, calculations...• My recommendation: Use Nintex Workflow 2007

• Managers looove lazy approval

• Keep it simple• Try to use simple web forms instead of InfoPath• Make rich UIs with JQuery

Workflow benefits

• Cut approval times shortened• From days to within 1 business hour

• Reports show you bottlenecks

Nintex view

HR Portal

HR Portal (2)

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

Project Management Scenario

• Resource: SharePoint for Project Management book

• Implement SharePoint for your PMO• PMs love to control stuff

How might your site look like?

Web Parts

• Project Info

• Tasks by Workflow

• Calendar aggregation

• Milestones

Web Parts (2)

• Navigation

At PMO Level

•Reports•Documents•Milestones•TasksProject 1

•Reports•Documents•Milestones•TasksProject 2

•Reports•Documents•Milestones•TasksProject 3

•Reports•Documents•Milestones•TasksProject 4

• Reports• Documents• Milestones• Tasks

PMO

At PMO Level

Aggregating information from subsites

• Aggregating data• CQWP (SharePoint only)• Lightning Tools• Bamboo solutions PMO

P3

P2

P1...

...

Advanced Meta-data structure

• Meta data that has:• Many-to-many relationships• Hierachies Customer > Invoice > Invoice Product• Report data

• Best practice:• Use your own database

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

Internal Phonebook Scenario

• Benefits:• OOTB functionality• Simple to use• Access 2007 for printing• Connect to Outlook• Sync to your Mobile device

• Bamboo > snyc with User Profiles

Internal Phonebook Scenario (2)

• Printing with Access 2007 (OOTB)

• Search Contacts as you type (check my blog)

Contents

1. IT Projects

2.SharePoint UX

3.(s) Project

Documentation

4. (s) Automated

KB

5.(s) Help Desk

UX

6.(s) HR Portal

7.(s) PMIS

8.(s) PhoneBook

9.(s) Search

The importance of Search

Number of searches per day

Professional Workers 20

Structured Task Workers 18

Average hours per Week spent Searching 9,5

Annual Cost of an Inability to Find Information $5.3 million*

* Per 1000 employees

Sources: Versus – Windows Live Enterprise Search, Dec 2006;IDC – Content Technologies Search Study, 2004-2005;Forrester – The Forrester Wave, Enterprise Search Platforms, 2006.

Quick wins

• Search as you Type by Jan Tielens

• Customer: Toni, please remove all other searches, we will use this one from now on.

Toni Frankolahttp://www.sharepointusecases.comhttp://twitter.com/tonifrankola

Thank you!