SharePoint Stands a Good Chance of Being a Hidden Commodity behind Office 365

Having been involved with SharePoint for as long as it was first released, I look at my customers and see the lifecycle that SharePoint naturally delivers provided SharePoint is accepted as requiring ‘Continual Improvement’.

IT departments of course are probably SharePoint’s biggest enemy; IT structures have developed into Project based or Gantt based producers. Whilst this is great for budget management, it does not stimulate ongoing development which might block the business in its growth.

But there are those of us that are convinced that SharePoint is everything a business needs: a collaboration platform, a rapid development application tool, Business Analysis & Intelligence and all round good boy…

Let’s start our SharePoint experience at Birth where a typical SharePoint build is about Structure, where everything has to be clicked to be found. Nobody has worked out that Search has a few configuration options and Navigation grows through the addition of new sites regardless of the content. Nearly every SharePoint installation goes this way and it delivers improvement as much as adding a web page to the Shared Drive can improve access to information. Of course control is passed to the business as security and structure changes do not require a helpdesk ticket any more.

SharePointThis could go on for years until someone works out that the access and networking capabilities of SharePoint could also add value to the business. Someone works out that by managing the content and controlling the office documents and linking SharePoint to the other systems makes that SharePoint moves to the Information Level. The information level moves the organisation into the position of managing their content. They may have understood that Content Types can do so many things like control the growth of storage and present content as information on relevant pages. Sharepoint can roll up content to specific locations and ensure only the most relevant people have access to it. SharePoint at the information level is adding real benefit and value by creating interactive content that has a longer shelf life, information is rarely lost and it is managed in a way the business has not seen before.

Whether or not SharePoint is to make the real change to the profitability and flexibility of the business probably depends upon a senior manager suddenly becoming aware of how important the ‘Informed Information’ is within the business. Maybe he gets concerned that efficiency could be improved and Back-up/Archive costs could be less but yet better managed. If enquiries are made, then the senior team will become aware of SharePoint and how efficiently staff are finding relevant and up-to-date information.

SharePointIf they talk to a good SharePoint consultant, they may become aware of SharePoint, the great knowledge Manager! They might take the step of trying to understand the data flow in the business and the advantages of the right people having access to the correct content …

They then start a project to understand the key data in the business, its lifecycle and which roles in the business need to read or present it. Or even to remove the data when it only confuses as time makes it irrelevant. SharePoint knows how to move it, archive it or simple let it die.

So this knowledge organisation is seeing the real benefits of SharePoint the Knowledge manager. Spending less money on practical things like back-up costs, finding business change is quicker and more cost efficient. Understanding that whilst the company employs people, the knowledge in the organisation is pushed to different Roles across the enterprise.

Structure: Information: Knowledge is how SharePoint travels through the business IF it is allowed to do so. Many organisations use SharePoint at the Information level using content types and retention polices to provide some level of control but the final leap requires something that SharePoint is brilliant at but that most businesses struggle with : ‘Collaboration’. IT and HR along with Finance and any production departments are key to a knowledge organisation with complete trust and openness and no politics. Quite a challenge for so many organisations.

SharePoint is a very powerful and flexible product but one that in a world of OneDrive for Business and Office 365 will take more effort to get noticed and becoming the knowledge tool it is capable of. 2015 and Microsoft effort to combine the technologies through cloud for the enterprise stand a real chance of hiding the only tool that can change the business.

For more informative content on SharePoint & Office 365, check out the ESPC Resource Centre!

About the Author:

SharePoint by Steve Dalby

Steve Dalby

Steve Dalby is an experienced and solutions-driven IT strategist with a track record of results delivery and high-level business improvement within the IT sector, spanning over 30 years. He has lead high performing teams across countries and continents defining processes and strategies to deliver Information Management projects across a range of business sectors.

Steve has extensive international experience with businesses such as Ford Motor Company, Aspentech.com, Heineken, US Army (Europe), 3Com Customer Service, Japanese Tobacco and structured organisations like British Telecom, London Fire Brigade and Financial institutions.

Today Sei-IS Business Consultancy BVBA has delivered SharePoint solutions and created Knowledge networks. As a SharePoint trainer, Steve has advised Corporate Directors, Master brewers and DOD officers about Information Management.

Based in Belgium with the younger members of his family, Steve Dalby enjoys the Formula 1 racing and has a few claims to fame such as working as a sound engineer in the 80’s. He once stood on stage whilst a complete stranger threw axes at him … fortunately they missed but he did learn something from this experience that even today guides his principles and thinking.

Follow Steve on Twitter here!

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