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?