This is a discussion about Microsoft SharePoint. I didn't pick the software, and it's already purchased, installed, and configured. Please don't waste your time discussing the virtues of other enterprise collaboration tools.
One of the company's two sites is project oriented, all salaried employees, most of whom have engineering or tech backgrounds, and also hosts corporate HQ. My site is manufacturing oriented, with few 'super users, 'tech heads', or 'geeks'. While the other site seems to be having success with SP, I have no idea how to get it off the ground here. I'm beginning to suspect it's a solution with no problem, at least as far as this site goes. Or maybe I'm just not familiar enough with it to know where to apply it.
I have no 'social networking' experience, and neither I nor any of my on-site co-workers have worked with any collaboration tools before. My few attempts at social tools (blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter) haven't resulted in anything I consider useful. I've send a couple of e-mails describing SP capabilities to my 150 users but received absolutely no reply. I suspect most of them wouldn't know a blog or wiki if they stepped in it, and I don't know how to get value from them anyway. I've run my concerns past my departmental superiors (all at the other site, some with extensive SP experience) but I've received no response. Maybe they can't believe I'm serious / that stupid.
How can I tell if there's a need for a collaboration tool? How can better solicit / involve my users?
Discussion on:
'Selling' SharePoint / collaboration to my users
Tags: software, career, project management, sharepoint, collaboration
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is to have a place where you can check in and check out documents in a library and track who last changed it, and who has it.
It is a basic document management system.
The rest is gravy, you use it or you don't.
We've tried to use the other features - surveys etc, and it always fails. But it works for sharing docs.
James
It is a basic document management system.
The rest is gravy, you use it or you don't.
We've tried to use the other features - surveys etc, and it always fails. But it works for sharing docs.
James
IF we can find some way to transfer the fifteen years of files stored in our existing (but grossly outdated) DocsOpen system. But for most of my users, check in / out, version control, tracking changes, etc. seem to be unneeded features. Maybe there's nothing useful that our existing shared network directories aren't already doing.
Sharepoint indexes all the files on a "site" so you can search them, but frustratingly if you have multiple sites on a server, like most of us, you have to search each one - maybe there is an improvement in 2007.
James
James
No one's approached me and asked, "I'm looking for all the files with the name of our bigshot customer in them." Maybe it's a question that's never occurred to them to ask and they just do the mining the manual way, making guesses about what files to open. Maybe it's a capability we don't need.
We're only running one site at this stage, so searching multiple ones isn't currently a problem.
Thanks.
We're only running one site at this stage, so searching multiple ones isn't currently a problem.
Thanks.
but our corporate uses it more as the employee front door than anything else. Links to important sites (email, timesheet, expense reporting...) and information (job listings, scheduled outages, birthdays...) pretty much make up what we do with it.
That's how I see it from where I am. I strongly suspect that those at the corporate office use it for more than that.
We do have a suggestion system running on it.
We do have a suggestion system running on it.
Typically, you'll either get a top-->bottom mandate (bosses want to standardize knowledge management) or bottom-->up (workers want easy navigation to information internally or process refinements in some way) grassroots effort towards getting a KMS/Collaborative tool going.
Neither really seems to be the case in this instance.
My best advice would be to go to management, and ask what the expectations are for your site; given that the user demographic is much different than the other office.
When I first implemented SharePoint at a former employer, I got people interested in it by appealing to their ego. I went around, and took pictures of each of them. When they asked what they were for, I told them about the new intranet site. I used individual pics to associate with the accounts, and group pictures to attract people to various team-themed sites.
Once people were done looking at themselves (and yes, I got many requests to change the pictures), they stumbled into other features that were of interest.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
Neither really seems to be the case in this instance.
My best advice would be to go to management, and ask what the expectations are for your site; given that the user demographic is much different than the other office.
When I first implemented SharePoint at a former employer, I got people interested in it by appealing to their ego. I went around, and took pictures of each of them. When they asked what they were for, I told them about the new intranet site. I used individual pics to associate with the accounts, and group pictures to attract people to various team-themed sites.
Once people were done looking at themselves (and yes, I got many requests to change the pictures), they stumbled into other features that were of interest.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
If it's top-down, I'm not aware of any pressure. If it's bottom-up, my users seem content with directories on shared network drives.
I attended a three-day SP meeting / training session at our HQ site in August. During the first week of Sept. I e-mailed the users at my site describing the features of our "new Intranet". (I avoided using the word SharePoint as possibly confusing.) Since then I've twice e-mailed management expressing my concerns over the lack of user response. The second time I requested the person responsible for SP deployment contact me; so far, nothing.
Someone up high (our CIO?) decided we'd use the pictures from our security badges. I don't think taking new ones would have made any difference. The general reaction ranged from disgust to horror; one wag started copying photos and loading them on factory floor systems as wallpaper.
Regardless, there's nothing there for them to stumble into. I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out: how to show it off as a useful tool (assuming it is). One thing my management is clear on: the IT department is NOT going to be a content-generator.
Maybe there isn't any value to be gained for this location, and I'm worrying about nothing. I hate to have wasted time and money acquiring skills with no application. Maybe it's just too soon to tell.
I attended a three-day SP meeting / training session at our HQ site in August. During the first week of Sept. I e-mailed the users at my site describing the features of our "new Intranet". (I avoided using the word SharePoint as possibly confusing.) Since then I've twice e-mailed management expressing my concerns over the lack of user response. The second time I requested the person responsible for SP deployment contact me; so far, nothing.
Someone up high (our CIO?) decided we'd use the pictures from our security badges. I don't think taking new ones would have made any difference. The general reaction ranged from disgust to horror; one wag started copying photos and loading them on factory floor systems as wallpaper.
Regardless, there's nothing there for them to stumble into. I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out: how to show it off as a useful tool (assuming it is). One thing my management is clear on: the IT department is NOT going to be a content-generator.
Maybe there isn't any value to be gained for this location, and I'm worrying about nothing. I hate to have wasted time and money acquiring skills with no application. Maybe it's just too soon to tell.
One of the uses we found valuable was as a replacement for Outlook Custom Forms. We used a variety of these forms to maintain our Meeting Room Reservation system, Organizational Calendar, Various custom user forms.
We found that by introducing Sharepoint, we could replace those forms in a centralized location for our users and get the added bonus of the workflow features.
Also we completley redesigned our Performance Management system to use a combination of Infopath forms and Sharepoint this year.
We found that by introducing Sharepoint, we could replace those forms in a centralized location for our users and get the added bonus of the workflow features.
Also we completley redesigned our Performance Management system to use a combination of Infopath forms and Sharepoint this year.
We use Public Folders for meeting rooms, dept. calendars, etc. I recall Public Folders were supposed to go away with Exchange Server 2007, but they're still here. Apparently MS couldn't push enough people to SP to make it happen. I could move the calendars into SP, but I don't know what the benefits would be. If we don't gain anything, why change?
Our performance reviews are already web based; I don't know of any plans to change or update them.
Our performance reviews are already web based; I don't know of any plans to change or update them.
We have all of our policies on the site, which due to regulatory compliance is an outrageous number, we launch apps from the home page, each of our systems has a web that starts out as a project management web for the project, then after implementation morphs to a support web.
Our phone lists are there, shared calendars, forms, etc.. users can submit a tech support request, maintenance request, etc...
If I want to find everything on a specific subject, I just go to the home page and do a search. We have a selection where you can limit the search to policies only, or documents, which makes it easier.
I know that we had to send the person that manages Sharepoint to class. He also has to go everytime there's a significant upgrade so that he's an expert on the system.
If you're going to go in depth at all, then I'd recommend going to a class, and not trying to figure it out on your own.
Our phone lists are there, shared calendars, forms, etc.. users can submit a tech support request, maintenance request, etc...
If I want to find everything on a specific subject, I just go to the home page and do a search. We have a selection where you can limit the search to policies only, or documents, which makes it easier.
I know that we had to send the person that manages Sharepoint to class. He also has to go everytime there's a significant upgrade so that he's an expert on the system.
If you're going to go in depth at all, then I'd recommend going to a class, and not trying to figure it out on your own.
We have a couple of IT people with SP experience they acquired before they joined our company. I'm confident I can get additional training as needed, but so far I haven't used the two-day 'Intro to SharePoint Services' I've already taken.
I don't think its a question of not finding ways to migrate some of our existing processes. It's more the questions of how hard I should push / force my users into switching to a tool that I can't see provides them any benefits over their existing tools (network shared directories, Exchange Public Folders, web-based access to existing non-SP document storage).
I don't think its a question of not finding ways to migrate some of our existing processes. It's more the questions of how hard I should push / force my users into switching to a tool that I can't see provides them any benefits over their existing tools (network shared directories, Exchange Public Folders, web-based access to existing non-SP document storage).
From my experience, it's tough going unless the end-users voluntarily pick up on it. One way to help that along is to try doing a pilot with no long-term commitment to the product. If a team ever forms (of any size and for any purpose) see if they would agree to pilot SharePoint as a collaborative site. They might like the fact that only their group has the sharing permissions and calendar and other features. If they end up liking it, chances are good it will catch on with others eventually as people talk with associates.
We use SP for many (totally optional) biomedical research teams, and its popularity is rising fast. I think it could appeal to the engineering mindset, too, because of the inherent structure of orderliness and control. Many orgs, including mine, are now dealing with the opposite problem... how do we stay ahead of the rampant demand and growth of SP sites?
I've worked a 30 yr career with ITers, engineers of all sorts, and medical researchers - many of them truly world-class minds (and some of them absolute bozos, of course) - and most of them seem to share a strong tendency toward independence. So, basically it seems way better if they can sort of discover SP themselves without too much pushing. Tech minded people seem to be very independent and like to think they do their own thinking. Managers can also have collaborative sites, but that probably won't cause it to spread even if they like it.
One strong "selling point" here is the ease of working on projects with others spread around the country and the world. You may not have a lot of that, but anyone who wants to share things in a very controlled environment could make use of SP. We have hundreds of research projects going on all the time, and we find it to be (so far) a great way to structure and organize and control all aspects. It?s not the answer to everything, but once a group likes it, popularity seems to spread fast.
We use SP for many (totally optional) biomedical research teams, and its popularity is rising fast. I think it could appeal to the engineering mindset, too, because of the inherent structure of orderliness and control. Many orgs, including mine, are now dealing with the opposite problem... how do we stay ahead of the rampant demand and growth of SP sites?
I've worked a 30 yr career with ITers, engineers of all sorts, and medical researchers - many of them truly world-class minds (and some of them absolute bozos, of course) - and most of them seem to share a strong tendency toward independence. So, basically it seems way better if they can sort of discover SP themselves without too much pushing. Tech minded people seem to be very independent and like to think they do their own thinking. Managers can also have collaborative sites, but that probably won't cause it to spread even if they like it.
One strong "selling point" here is the ease of working on projects with others spread around the country and the world. You may not have a lot of that, but anyone who wants to share things in a very controlled environment could make use of SP. We have hundreds of research projects going on all the time, and we find it to be (so far) a great way to structure and organize and control all aspects. It?s not the answer to everything, but once a group likes it, popularity seems to spread fast.
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