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"Optimus BT, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a privately held firm with locations in Atlanta, GA, US (HQ) and Bangalore, India, is a global leader in providing solutions that
are primarily SharePoint based and utilize existing client infrastructure. "
Source : Optimus BT
10 Ways to Start a Sharepoint Project the Right Way
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Table of contents
- Summary
- Sharepoint and our Vision for Sharepoint
- Ten ways to start a Sharepoint project the right way
- Conclusion
Summary
Microsoft SharePoint is more than just a Portal or a Business Solution.
SharePoint is an extensible platform for integration, collaboration and
communication that can meet the needs of small teams and large enterprises
alike. It directly competes with the likes of Lotus Notes as a collaboration
platform to allow end users to quickly create workspaces and has the intuitive
business user UIs that are the trademark of all Microsoft technologies. Share
Point's integrated tools empower business users to collectively achieve focused
goals and subsequently to communicate those achievements and goals effectively
to targeted audiences. SharePoint Server provides an enterprise business
framework that allows for a single sign-on, integration of enterprise
application information from various systems. With the upcoming release of
SharePoint 2007 and its features of workflow, forms automation, business
intelligence and document management, SharePoint will be a dynamic platform for
"filling the application whitespace between ERP systems and desktop
productivity tools". It will be a launching point for access to key data and
information within organizations and will provide the organization's "single
source version of the truth" for business users and key stakeholders. SharePoint
will allow organizations to create applications for focused audiences that are
either not available within existing ERP systems or are too clumsy to organize.
These applications will be put together in portable, manageable components
called "web parts" which can be commercial purchased or custom built. SharePoint
is the one platform where convergence of custom applications can happen and
centralization of management of these apps can be a reality.
SharePoint and our Vision for SharePoint
Share point aims at filling the collaboration white space
between systems, people and Business Users across organizational boundaries
through Integration, Collaboration and Personalization
- SharePoint will allow organizations to create collaboration applications
for focused audiences and for specific purposes.
- Customer, Employee, Partner, Supplier focused
- Product, Project, Topic, and Issue related with the help of focused
sites or better content management/tagging
- Applications include Customer Services, Discussion Boards, Knowledge
Management, Search, Document Repositories
- Further more, SharePoint will also allow creation of applications that
will be put together in portable, manageable components called "web parts" that can be targeted to customers, employees, partners
- It can be the single source, web portal that employees will need to know
to access the various information and services from all areas of the
organization
- Will help resolve the Strategic Needs for Collaboration [as expressed by
our CEOs]
- Provides the features to collaborate across company, geographical
and language boundaries
- Support for Extranets, Support for Multiple Languages, Support
for Internet based technology standards
- Supports high availability and reliability standards to be a mission
critical infrastructure supporting Collaboration across organizations
boundaries that enable innovation and seamless integration.
- Addresses Issues in Implementing a robust Collaboration environment [as
we found out from the Aberdeen Group Report]
- Integrates "out of the box" with many Operational Support Systems
like Email, Calendaring, Directory Services, Desktop Applications
- Provides infrastructure for integration with ERP, CRM, Supply Chain
Systems through XML and Web Services
- Skills and personnel needed to develop and support are easily
available or can be trained reducing the investments needed for a
comprehensive environment.
Sharepoint aims to improve organization s by providing business insights to
all employees, partners, customers leading to better, faster, more relevant
decisions.
Ten ways to start a SharePoint project the right way
- Establish a vision for SharePoint — What will SharePoint mean to your
organization? What is the best way to implement it so it provides the maximum
value to the organization Should it be an intranet, extranet or a
collaboration platform? Should users create their own communities or should they
be restricted? Will the document management features be useful for automation
workflow and document handling? Can Dashboards be of any use to your user
community?
- Establish a Business Case before you plan the infrastructure spend We have
seen many a times that IT organizations invest a lot on building servers,
hardware, network storage etc. without considering the overall business case for
the SharePoint platform. What applications will be necessary, who are the users,
groups or business units, what types of scenarios will need to be supported by
the environment. All of this in totality [with or without the large
infrastructure spend] will make the SharePoint project focused and successful
- Find an initial sponsor organization Sell the SharePoint Portal idea to as
many organizations as possible and find the ideal sponsor organization that
could be the first to use SharePoint. Ideally this organization is a visible
business unit, and is inclined towards being early adopters of technology and
have needs that fit the SharePoint feature set well. This will be the marquee
showcase organization for SharePoint
- Start a grass roots organization for supporting the Portal there need to be
content contributors, editors, and administrators from as many of the business
units, geographies as possible. Have champions for the various sites based on
the interest level, and the ability to spend time with the development of the
Portal
- Develop a set of Profile of the Users Based on research and discussions,
develop a list of user types within the organization and develop a profile of
their needs, wants and must haves. This allows the Portal effort to create
relevant content and Portal for the majority.
- Catalog existing content sources and content types this provides for a rich
source of existing content and content types that will help drive the structure
of the Portal for the overall organization.
- Create Processes for Content development, publishing and administration of SharePoint - Content is king in Portals
establish content development, review
and publishing procedures for all types of content and make sure relevant and
interesting content gets to the site. Do not make the process too elaborate or
you will lose all the volunteers for content development or publishing.
- Build the Portal Infrastructure so it is open and secure Design the Portal
so it will allow employees to interact between themselves and with external
partners, customers etc. from the same infrastructure and it is seamless to the
business community.
- Implement key business processes in the Portal Make the Portal more than
content make it an integral part of the business processes within the company.
Some examples would be for Project Management, Sales Collaboration, Partner
Collaboration, and Self Service Applications for Procurement, User Management, etc.
- Fresh Content and Continuous improvement plans A Portal is not a static web
page - it is like a daily newspaper people get fresh content with new feature
updates on a regular basis.
SharePoint is not a mere investment into any other IT infrastructure but it
is a unique Business tool whose prime focus is the Business users of any
organization. Implementations of Sharepoint will offer you assured savings
within a reasonable timeframe.
Conclusion
SharePoint is a platform for business which is web based and can be used to
create powerful business solutions. Up until now SharePoint was positioned and
implemented with a narrow focus of being a just platform for Intranets that are
front-end heavy and a simple system for limited document sharing and forms
automation solutions. SharePoint Server is and will be a bigger platform
encompassing solutions for Web enabled Applications, Extranets, Intranets,
Document Management, Business Intelligence and Complex Workflow. Therefore
SharePoint needs to be leveraged and internally marketed in as such a way that
represents the true capabilities it presents the next generation web enabled
organization.
A well-planned solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 will
promote better collaboration, content management, knowledge discovery, and
business processes across your organization while being secure, cost-effective,
and manageable for your IT department. To satisfy this broad set of goals, it is
important to identify key stakeholders across all relevant disciplines and
include them in your planning team. They include:
- Managers and other organizational leaders who understand the
requirements of the business processes that Office SharePoint Server will be
used to implement.
- IT professionals and business unit IT specialists who will be tasked
with proposing a solution that implements the desired business processes,
and with deploying and maintaining the solution across one or more server
farms.
- Site designers to plan the user experience and visual design of the
sites and the templates that will comprise the solution.
- Developers to determine the scope and design of required custom
features, such as workflows, forms, and Web Parts.
- Testers who will ensure that the site's features are correct and that
site deployment and administration function as specified.
About Optimus BT
Optimus BT is an Atlanta, GA based firm specializing in areas of Business
Intelligence, SharePoint Portal, Process, and Systems Integration. Optimus BT
assists customers implement technology that improves visibility of the business
environment for our customers through integration of databases and processes and
implementation of Dashboards.
We help customers and partners implement and integrate SharePoint within the
enterprise by providing unique SharePoint and Office based products, solutions
and custom development services.
We deliver value to customers worldwide through a complete set of end-to-end
solutions based on SharePoint platforms, delivered on time and within cost by
leveraging on our global talent and infrastructure capability.
Our products for SharePoint like Shopping cart, Credit card processing,
Integrators for salesforce.com, Lotusnotes and MS CRM along with Active
directory management and bridge critical gaps in Sharepoint and add
functionality to the sharepoint environment allowing customers to further
enhance their SharePoint investments.
In addition to our offices in Atlanta, we have a development center in
Bangalore, India from where we deliver cutting edge R&D with access to leading
IT talent in the world.
Our domain expertise extends across document management, migrations, Business
Intelligence, Intranets/Extranets and Reporting Applications. We also have
strong capabilities in XML, Web Services and Integration technologies to help
our customers in integrating the Microsoft Office and SharePoint platforms with
Line of Business and ERP systems.
Contact:
Optimus BT
4555 Mansell Road, Suite 300
Alpharetta, GA
30022
Ph-(770)521-4249
Email-info@optimusbt.com
www.optimusbt.com