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The vital 10-15% when designing a SharePoint intranet #intranet #SharePoint

At Step Two Designs we're frequently involved in intranet projects with Microsoft SharePoint. In fact for me personally, every single project I've worked on in the last 12 months has been involving this behemoth platform. In every project, we're presented with both classic intranet scenarios and increasingly common requirements and challenges directly related to SharePoint. I've written about a few of them before. Our role in these projects is increasingly defined, as James describes in a post published today: 

In a SharePoint project, we don’t deploy or write code (there are plenty of people who do). Our role is to work with or alongside the geeks, providing the 10-15% of planning and design activities that ensures project success.

We draw on our unique experience, insight into intranet projects across hundreds of organisations, and a clear understanding of the SharePoint platform. Bringing this together, we provide the techniques, answers, examples and screenshots that maximise the value of SharePoint investments.

We can also provide ongoing support, to keep things on track, and to see the project through to a successful conclusion.

This role has proved immensely valuable to the projects we're involved with. Too often, it's easy to get drawn into the extreme technical nature of SharePoint, and lose sight of the intranet's space and place within, particularly if the project or implentation is being strongly driven by IT.  

Read James' full post for more on this, and other recent SharePoint intranet posts that reflect some of the more recurring discussions we're having on the topic.

• Spending 10-15% of SharePoint intranet projects on planning and design 
• Don't ask staff what features they want on a new SharePoint intranet 
• Planning your SharePoint project intranet 

IBM and Microsoft appear on the iPad and SharePoint will be next

Microsoft released a mobile Xbox app today, bringing the 'Metro' style interface to Windows Phone devices, iPhones and iPads everywhere. It looks pretty smart and further evidence that Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division really is on a tear (my PS3 is ashamed, it's being so left behind).

Also released today were a number of tablet-focused enterprise software apps from IBM:

The new software, available for download today from popular application stores, takes what IDC rates as the industry-leading IBM social networking, real-time collaboration and online meeting capabilities from behind the company firewall and places it into the hands of tablet users.

We can definitely expect more major software to come to the iPad, and that includes SharePoint. In meeting and board rooms across the world, Apple dominates the tablet market. "We're getting sign off for iPads for all of us" is something many executives have said to me in the past few months, the grin on their faces says it all. It's no wonder that at #Share2011 late in November here in Sydney, Microsoft's Jerry Smith was being none too subtle about SharePoint's arrival on 'other tablets" and "other phones". I wonder when we'll see it... and what it will look like.

Are you considering SharePoint, or anything else, 'out of the box'? Don't.

Michal Pisarek from Habenero Consulting:

As someone who has been involved in the implementation of many SharePoint Intranets, including BenNet the winner of the Intranet Innovation Awards in 2010, I will go on record to say that SharePoint is double edged sword for most organizations. Supremely powerful and engaging if done correctly, horribly detrimental to an organization if done incorrectly. 

This is in response to a Linked In question regarding Microsoft SharePoint 2010's out of the box capabilities, and the platform in general compared to other content management systems (CMS).  

As I've said myself in the Linked In thread, for a number of reasons it's bemusing how many people do this comparison, even as a starting point. Particularly, SharePoint 'out of the box' is something of a myth. It is one of the most expensive platforms on a per user basis (up to 9x the licence costs once ready to rock), it is complex, and its out of the box functionality is akin to 'jack of all trades, master of none'. The award winning Bennett Jones intranet Michal mentions had four organisations collaborating to build it.

It's not just Sharepoint, though. I would really like to see the near-elimination of this entire 'out of the box' intranet concept, because it is mostly a delusional term. Realistically, if requirements have been collected in anything approaching a sensible fashion, any CMS will take customisation to properly fit those requirements. SharePoint just happens to be one of the most costly and complex of all. SharePoint 2010 is also better than 'MOSS' 2007, but its still unlikely to remain vanilla once 'unpacked'. 

Even for a 100-person organisation I worked with last year there was significant customisation needed for a much more user-friendly CMS than SharePoint. One of its absolute killer features took several months to develop (but it was worth it!).

Whether it's minor or major development, don't count on any intranet platform to be ready to go 'out of the box' and meet more than the most basic of requirements.

Update: well worth reading the comments below for clarification on the original question, and expansion on the broader issue.

New workshops from Step Two Designs: Governance / SharePoint / Intranet Design

Step Two Designs just launched another brand new workshop: 'Practical intranet governance', sitting alongside "SharePoint for intranet teams' and 'Designing intranets that work'. This is now our full calendar of workshops for 2011:

• Designing intranets that work (Melbourne, Aug 17) -- one place left!
• SharePoint for intranet teams (Sydney, October 19)
• SharePoint for intranet teams (Melbourne, November 15)
• Practical intranet governance (Sydney, December 1)

You can see a full list of events at: http://www.steptwo.com.au/seminars/

These will all be great, practical and insightful workshops for people working in the intranet field. Places are limited due to our aim of keeping the sessions big enough for interaction, but small enough to ensure any questions are surfaced! 

If you're a member of the Intranet Leadership Forum, a healthy discount is also available.

Gamification and intranets - from passing fad to permanent feature?

Steve Bynghall:

In the past eighteen months “Gamification” is one of those circulating business buzz words which seem to have been everywhere. Loosely defined as the application of gaming techniques for uses which aren’t gaming, it has been applied to various scenarios and tools in the workplace, including the intranet.

Although media interest in the term has possibly peaked (and now been subsumed by “social”), the appearance of gaming techniques in the Digital Workplace is no longer the eye-opener it once was. In fact could we even say that gaming mechanics are now an established technique in intranet design? Is it a permanent feature rather than a fad implied by the initial hype?

It is over a year ago now that we saw GreenNurture on IBF24 and a little less since I wrote 'Enhancing the intranet with gaming mechanics'.

Steve also mentions 'Sabre Town' in his article, with its 'Karma Points' system. This remains one of the most subtle and successful intranet examples to date, despite originally surfacing in 2008 (followed by a host of awards).

While conceptually it's been around for a long time, in just one year this topic has indeed absolutely exploded. As Steve says, gamification is now present in a wide variety of web, app and enterprise system designs. Newsgator, for example, is becoming the default social plug-in for SharePoint 2010 and has badges and rewards built in. The potential reach for intranets is astronomical.

It's still easy to be cynical of gamification, but for me there's little doubt it's here to stay. The results when the concepts are applied with thought (e.g Sabre) are generally pretty stunning, whether that's in motivating you to run more and get fit (Runkeeper et al), or posting your first few microblogs on the intranet. That measure, that recognition, that reward... make people behave just a little differently. For good, or bad.

 

SharePoint intranet dos and don'ts

Chris McNulty has written about the dos and don'ts of deploying a SharePoint intranet, including percentages on how these actions (or lack of) can adversely affect your project. Here are two:

'We can't fairly call these "worst" practices, but here are some bad things to avoid.

1. Run it as an IT project without business engagement.

The "business" hates being told what to do. Building a SharePoint site that presumes to guess at the real needs is great way to get an abandoned site.  "We never asked for it, so I don't see why we should use it just becuase IT says so" is usually the end result. Likelihood of project death - 90-100%.

2. Migrate legacy file shares as is, without any re-planning of information architecture and lifecycle

This is one of my favorites.  Usually, some senior person complains they can never find anything on the "H drive".  Since SharePoint offers a searchable web interface, it has to be better, right?  Sure - except if you just dump all that content in without thinking, all you get is a SharePoint site with top level folders called "bobtest". "newtest", "newtest 2", and  “sales1997”. Same problem, in a new shiny package. Likelihood of project death – 50%.'

Chris's list is applicable whether you're using SharePoint or any other system, but given typical size, scale, cost, development requirements etc. there's no doubting they're particularly apt for that system.

I also love the image Chris has used. It's right for so many reasons. 

[Via the excellent Intranet Lounge]

SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration - available now

Michael Sampson's (@collabguy) new book, SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration, has been published and is available for order right now. You can even download the first chapter for free.

This is Michael's second SharePoint-focused book and in a chat last week he explained to that me it's quite a different beast from Seamless Teamwork. Needless to say, it's already getting great feedback:

• Craig from Australia ... "I'm on chapter 6 of SharePoint roadmap and have already been singing its praises around the office. It's refreshing to get some fantastic content on SharePoint from a non technical perspective."
• Paul from Australia ... "Your new book is awesome - better than your first." (@paulculmsee)
• Shanon from New Zealand ... "I am thoroughly enjoying your book .... I am highlighting like mad and the margins are heavy with notes and I hope that I can pass on some of the lessons I am learning."

Register to purchase your copy over at www.sharepointroadmap.com

Governance and support for SharePoint team sites - new report published

The Step Two Designs team are pleased to announce the publication of our newest report:

Governance and support for SharePoint team sites: a best practice case study.

This is the standalone publication of the award-winning Transfield Services case study, which was one of the best-of-the-best entries in the 2008 Intranet Innovation Awards.

Transfield’s key innovation was productising their approach to collaboration spaces with ‘Team Sites in a Box’, and compiling a near-perfect design, support and governance methodology and model, which then saw rapid, but controlled uptake within the organisation.

Covered in this report:

• ‘Team Sites in a Box’ methodology: anticipate, educate, establish, enhance and extract
• case for providing team site support
• practical approaches to collaboration governance
• strategies for managing team spaces
• screenshots of real training and support materials
• organisational benefits gained

This report provides an example of an organisation that has “done it”, vital evidence when building senior management support for establishing appropriate governance and support for collaboration tools.

If you’re working with SharePoint team sites or considering rolling them out, this case study is a must-have. Using these recommendations on collaboration, support, and governance, you can avoid the typical and costly collaboration space mistakes and make your project a success from the start.

You can purchase the new SharePoint report over on the Step Two Designs site for just US$89.

Alternatively, you can purchase the full, 2008 intranet innovation Awards report, which features the Transfield case study and over a dozen other leading intranet innovation case studies, for just US$189.

Lastly, don't forget, the 2009 Intranet Innovation Awards close for entries in just three weeks - Friday 1 May 3009. Get those entries in for what's already shaping up to be a fantastic competition.

Seamless Teamwork with Michael Sampson

Tuesday 3rd February saw author Michael Sampson (pictured, right) in Sydney to present the principles of his new book, Seamless Teamwork: Using Microsoft SharePoint technologies to collaborate, innovate and drive business in new ways.

The Sydney session was an exclusive event for members of the Intranet Leadership Forum (ILF) and followed the same session held for Melbourne ILF members on Monday.

SharePoint is finding its way into many a corporate environment, offering a vast array of features and options that organisations and individuals can put to good use. Michael's book and companion presentation focuses on how to make the most of the software "out of the box", without significant additonal coding.

Using a fictional case study, Michael outlined how a project team can use a suite of collaborative tools to communicate effectively and manage work as a virtual team, with project members scattered across the world. It was a great look at how a team can use news alerts, shared spaces, wikis, shared documents, blogs and RSS as a more sophisticated replacement for more traditional tools such as email.

For several ILF members this was the first opportunity to discuss both the software and the underlying collaborative working methods. It proved a highly interesting session, not just for the group to hear some the best sections of an excellent book, but also throw questions at Michael and discuss ideas and the status of collaborative software in a wide range of organisations present (from financial services to local councils, non-profits and private sector organisations).

James has already written a full review of Seamless Teamwork, and you can find more information over at Michael's site, and a link to Amazon can also
be found so you can buy the book.

Slides from this presentation are also available here - free to ILF members  who attended in either Sydney or Melbourne (contact Catherine at the ILF for the discount code) or $49.00 to non-members.

If you're looking at SharePoint or any other collaborative tools, I recommend you research it thoroughly and read up with top-level information such as this. (Also check out out a range of collaboration articles and tips on the Step Two Designs website.)

_{Disclaimer: Step Two is a vendor-neutral consultancy. We don't align ourselves with any CMS vendors. The software above is mentioned purely in context of the book, Seamless Teamwork, written by Michael Sampson.}

Best-practice approach to SharePoint team spaces

James has posted about one of the standout examples of this year's Intranet Innovations Awards, Transfield, who submitted a great entry based around their Microsoft Sharepoint implementation.

Transfield's innovation was a “Team Sites in a Box” approach to collaboration. With limited resources, they've taken a comprehensive approach to team sites, putting in place the much-needed frameworks before usage explodes. The screenshots they have shared paint a compelling picture of how to “do this right”.

Read the full post here.