Three Keys to a Successful SharePoint Deployment

There are 3 keys to deploying SharePoint successfully for a large enterprise: Platform, Governance, and Marketing. The first part involves a stable, available, easily accessible, secure, well performing global technology platform. If users can't access the environment, they won't trust it or won't use it. Next is governance – all things related to the overall project as well as the operational and support involved. Finally there is marketing — you need to market the application to end users, provide quick introductions to get them started, best practices, conduct demos that demonstrate business value, create proof of concepts, and show people what’s possible. You shouldn't have to provide formal training if you market the application right. Each of these 3 are not mutually exclusive -- you can't have marketing without the platform and good governance.

Rich Blank is President of Jade Technology Consulting and provides strategy and technology consulting focused on portal, collaboration, ECM content/records management, email archiving, e-Discovery solutions.  He has advised Fortune 500 organizations on technologies including MS SharePoint, eRoom/Documentum, and IBM Lotus Quickr/Connections.   Rich is a certified Project Management Professional and a Six Sigma Green Belt.  Rich obtained his MBA from the Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College and has a BBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.   He was also guest speaker at the 2008 IT & Business Alignment Conference.

Jade Technology simplifies the complexities of unstructured information and content.  Applications like SharePoint are very powerful.  However, if they’re not deployed or managed with the right governance, you’re likely not going to gain the true return on investment these applications promise.  Social computing, portals, collaboration and content Management technology should be about the following: 

• Reducing costs and complexities by implementing business & technological changes resulting in efficiency, transparency, visibility, measurability, and accountability to people, projects, & process.
• Driving more revenue by improving time to market, increasing selling velocity, creating an environment to enable innovation, attracting the best talent, and capturing their knowledge.
• Enabling compliance and ensuring business continuity.