improving departmental information search processes (concurrency corporation) (marketing department)

Improving Departmental Information Search Processes

(Concurrency Corporation)(Marketing Department)

ContentsExecutive SummaryCurrent State AnalysisFuture State AnalysisAdoption & Implementation PlanningNext Steps

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BackgroundYour Marketing Department has identified its corporate content search system as a leading impediment to departmental performance:

Time spent searching for content increases project cycle times, as teams search across large number of files, different file types, and disparate file locations for required informationInability to incorporate “unstructured” content into search results, particularly new social content like team wikis, blogs, and discussion threadsInability to find pertinent content leads to repetition of costly workFinding outdated content versions leads to project errorsMarketing staff required to contact IT for access to protected content

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Engagement ParticipantsParticipant Name Department Role

(name) (department) (title)






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Executive SummaryConcurrency proposes expanding upon your current Office System deployment to enable an improved Enterprise Search Solution

An Enterprise Search Solution based on SharePoint Server 2010 will improve the operational efficiency of your marketing department and increase customer satisfaction with your externally facing websites

Implementing the proposed Enterprise Search Solution will provide you with:

50% decrease in time to search corporate intranet for relevant files80% increase in client/partner facing website search relevance

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Executive Summary

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Process Phase Description

• Creation of intellectual capital (content) in the form of structured, unstructured, and “unmanaged” content

• Structured content passed to management for review and privileging

• MD management reviews information, emails content and access rights to IT

• Management assigns content owner

• IT managers place content into its local file server

• IT managers set access privileges

• IT staff creates manual links to content internally, externally, or both

• Users log on to search engine

• Users select search location

• Users initiate search and review search results

Key Stakeholders

• Content creators • Content creators• Content owners• MD Management

• Content creators• Content owners• Management• IT department

• Internal Users (Marketing Staff)• External Users

(Customers/Partners)

High-Level Problems Identified

• Content remains on content creators computer, posted to a share drive, or manually distributed via email

• “Unmanaged” content, like blogs and wikis, not controlled or searchable

•New users must request and wait for access rights

•Content owner must manage future changes in access rights

• IT does not always have appropriate subject matter expertise to tag content

• IT is often required to write custom code to disseminate information

• Users require knowledge of data storage system for effective searching

• Protected content not displayed, though user may require access

• Inability to refine searches or sort in a meaningful way

• No way to tailor search experience based on user type

Impact

• Content creators are removed from permanent storage process – have no purview of content storage location

• Increased time and resources required to archive and disseminate data

• Promotes mismanagement of data once it leaves content owners

• Risk of content loss, or improper use

• Increased labor costs to search and find relevant content

• Feeling that users are “reinventing the wheel”

Content Creation Content Review and Privileging Content Storage Content Search

Content Creation and Dissemination Process Phases – Analysis Summary

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Current State Process Analysis

Current State Process Analysis


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New Process Phase Description

•Creation of intellectual capital (content) in the form of structured or unstructured information

•Content creators tag content with metadata, facilitating indexing and searching

• MD management reviews information

• Management assigns content owner and access privileges

Content owners publish content to SharePoint sites directly from Office applications

•User search experience significantly improved – including refinement panels, multi-level sorting, related searches, expertise identification, and context driven search

•IT staff automatically creates links to content on intranet, extranet, and internet

Key Stakeholders

• Content creators • Content creators• Content owners• MD Management

• Content owners • IT department

High-Level Improvements

• All content, not just structured content, incorporated into search

• Social networking and social intelligence integrated into search

• Using SharePoint sites allows one-click archiving and indexing of content

•MD management directly assigns access rights stratification

•Content owner can easily modify access rights

• SMEs decide where to place files so that they can have the greatest impact

• No custom code to publish files

• Critical information now more findable, knowledge more discoverable, navigable, manageable, re-usable, and workflows "smarter"

• Users can leverage easy/ powerful metadata tools to uncover established info.

• No custom code to disseminate content

• Access privileges are handled automatically

Impact / Benefit

• Comprehensive approach to content search

• Reduced file server complexity• Faster searching of content

repositories

• Less emphasis on IT to manage files

• Decentralized control reduces labor costs

• Allows teams and future content users to more easily find important content

• Reduces risk of data loss, since owners publish directly

• Users can find the right information, faster

• Reduced labor costs to disseminate content

• Quicker indexing and searching

Future State Process AnalysisContent Creation and Dissemination Process Phases – Analysis Summary

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Content Creation Content Review and Privileging Content Storage Content Search

Level of

Com

ple

xit

y

Low

High

High

Low

5

3

3 5

1

Value to Business

Prioritized Process Solutions

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1

Building eForms for Automated Access

Privileging(SharePoint Server 2010)

Centralizing Content: Migrating and Indexing Departmental Data to

SharePoint(SharePoint Server 2010)

Establishing SharePoint Sites for Marketing

Department(SharePoint Server 2010)

Incorporating Social Networking Content (Blogs,

Wikis) into Search(SharePoint Server 2010)

Improve Search Functionality to Include Refinement Panels, Multi-level Sorting,

Related Searches, Expertise Identification, and Context Driven

Search(SharePoint Server 2010)

Future State Process Analysis

Anticipated Benefits - Process

Process Phase

Improvement Description

Benefits Technology Leveraged

KPI Impact(s) Affected Stakeholders

Content Creation

• One-click content publishing and metadata tagging

•Labor reduction• Process simplification• Improved downstream content search results

• SharePoint Server 2010

• 5% in process related MD labor costs

• Content Creators

• Departmental IT Staff

Content Review and Privileging

• Create workgroup SharePoint sites to host all content

• Create eForms for content access privileging

•Reduction in labor costs associated with maintaining content access rights


• Exchange Server 2010

• 30% decrease in process related IT labor costs

• Department content owners

• Departmental IT Staff

Content Storage

• Automate content archiving through SharePoint Server

• Automate process to create links from intranet/extranet/ internet to workgroup SharePoint sites

•Reduces time associated with content searches

•Yields department wide labor cost reductions


• 45% decrease in labor to publish content

• 90% increase in search result relevance


• Corporate IT staff

Content Search

• Improve Search Functionality to Include Refinement Panels, Multi-level Sorting, Related Searches, Expertise Identification, and Context Driven Search

• Incorporating Social Networking Content (Blogs, Wikis) into Search

•Critical information now more findable, knowledge more discoverable, navigable, manageable, re-usable, and workflows "smarter“

•Users can leverage easy/ powerful metadata tools to uncover established info.

•Reduced labor costs•Reduced content rework / recreation


• 50% decrease in elapsed search time

• 90% increase in search result relevance


• Corporate IT Staff

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Adoption & Implementation Planning Summary

Project Phase

Improvement Description

Resources RequiredImplementation

OwnerAdditional

Stakeholders

1Create MD Workgroup SharePoint sites

• MD IT Staff• MD Management

• MD Manager • MD IT Manager

2Migrate Existing Data to SharePoint Servers

• MD IT Staff• MD Management• MD Staff


3Create eForms for Content Privileging



4Create eForms for New Content Publishing



5Disseminate eForms to MD staff

• MD IT Staff• MD IT

Manager• MD Staff

6Train Marketing Management and Staff

• MD IT Staff• MD Management• MD Staff• Corporate HR

• MD Manager• MD IT

Manager• Corporate HR

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Potential Adoption Roadblocks

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Stakeholder Group

Anticipated Resistance to Change Degree to which Resistance will Limit Initiative Success

Mitigation actions

TechnicalContent Creators

Some reluctance to use new tools Low•Develop brief training document and FAQ

MD Management

Some reluctance to use new tools Low•Develop brief training document and FAQ

IT Department Some reluctance to use new tools Low•Develop brief training document and FAQ

Cultural

Content Creators

• Reluctance to add new steps to content creation

• Reluctance to participate in additional training with SharePoint

Mid•Reward involvement in deployment and participation

MD Management

• Strong ownership of multiple process phases• Views current process as “good enough”

High

•Highlight time saving benefits of solution

• Highlight value of improved search results

IT Department

• Reluctance to participate in additional training with SharePoint

• Perception that initiative will require additional time and effort

• Reliance on Departmental IT Personnel for implementation

Mid•Highlight short-term and long-term process, content, and infrastructure benefits

Adoption Roadblock Mitigation Actions by Stakeholder

Adoption Category MD Manager MD IT Manager Corporate IT Manager MD Personnel

Awareness

Awareness generating communications via email, newsletters, manager meetings, etc., targeted to stakeholder group and concerns



Awareness generating communications via email, newsletters, etc., targeted to stakeholder group and concerns

Value Demonstration

Emphasize process and productivity improvements to Division specifically and company as a whole; including estimated financial impact.

Emphasize value to company as well as importance of pilot-testing; provide case studies and whitepapers related to virtual training to demonstrate how other companies have successfully implemented solution

Demonstrate both improvement in productivity through quick hits and quick wins; also show overall process improvements and estimated financial impact for company. Provide useful tactical training to support roll-out.

Demonstrate both improvement in productivity through quick hits and quick wins; also show overall process improvements and estimated financial impact for company. Provide useful tactical training to support roll-out.

Integration & Alignment

Ensure proposed solutions/ initiatives are aligned with both with business and IT strategy and direction




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Next StepsReview presentation and proposal with decision maker(s) and stakeholders for approvalConsider a SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS) follow-up engagementExecute work order for projectSchedule kick off meeting for week of _____ and weekly status meetingsPropose schedule:

A) Deadlines for initial milestones, orB) Date to finalize initial milestones

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improving departmental information search processes (concurrency corporation) (marketing department)

Documents

unstructured content

emails content

pertinent content

emailunmanaged content

search experience

search locationusers

content creators computer

new social content