Failure Without A SharePoint Project Team

Everyone is banging the SharePoint drum and preparing to jump on the great SharePoint bandwagon. SharePoint 2007 is hailed as one of the best server products Microsoft have ever produced and it can really change the way businesses manages their information and systems. So why are so many companies failing to see the real benefits of their new SharePoint system? The number one reason is because the IT Manager has led the implementation themselves without the involvement of the whole business. Time and time again we, at officetalk, hear stories of the IT Manager excitedly showing the new SharePoint Intranet to the other department managers and being disappointed by their response. All good SharePoint installations need to be led by the business not by IT. SharePoint is a complete business system and needs a lot of time and effort spent on it to maximise its returns. SharePoint can be a major business tool and it can make substantial savings for all companies, but it needs to be PLANNED. It is vital that a SharePoint Project Team is put together at the start with key users from all departments involved. These key users will be champions for the project and it will be these users who will be selling this system to their department. Yes, the IT Department can be the Technical Lead but the other members of the SharePoint Project Team will have the knowledge of how the business currently operates and how SharePoint can move it forward. Without of SharePoint Project Team SharePoint will never become the business tool that it is intended to be and information will continue to be stored in the same old difficult to access locations. Yes, go for SharePoint 2007 in your business but make it a major business Project for 2008 not just a task for the IT Department. Andy Dale MCSE SharePoint Consultant officetalk Email : andy.dale@office-talk.com Website : http://www.office-talk.com/

Is It Goodbye for the LAN?

Since the early 90's most companies and organisations have needed a LAN (Local Area Network). This has often meant a Server Room or a cool cupboard where the loud server hums away and cables stretch around the walls. These servers have housed all the vital company documents and often the email system. An IT person is employed to manage this server and to keep it working. They have to regularly back it up on expensive tape and make sure that it is free from viruses. Any change to the server or update of software risks bringing the whole company offline. The job of the IT person is not the most pleasant especially at times when the server does go down. Everyone in the company is shouting 'when will it be up' and Customer service staff are blaming the lack of computers for every problem. There's no help or even encouragement just the question or why this work wasn't done out-of-hours and the belief that IT people don't need a life outside work. But now in 2007 perhaps everything is finally beginning to change and for the Small and Medium sized companies many of the IT headaches can now be removed. The reason basically is the power of the Internet. We now all have access to the almighty Internet in many of the places we go. At work, in McDonalds, at the airport, at home and in hotels so why do we need to rely on that small Server Room or cupboard and those long and frustrating backups? The answer is that finally hosted secure solutions are now available with speeds that can match many LANs. These hosted providers can do all the donkey work and be available 24/7 to make sure servers are always running. They can be in charge of backups, anti-virus and Microsoft's annoying updates. They have the volume of servers to be able to offer solutions that really are available 99.95% of the time or they pay compensation. With the advent of SharePoint Services Intranets can now have the power to quickly perform all those time consuming activities that all companies have to do; Holiday Requests, Expenses, Contact Information, Customer Data, Equipment Inventory etc. This means that products like officetalk Relay (http://www.office-talk.com) can now offer a hosted secure solution that does most of the companies IT leaving the company to spend their time working on their products and customer relationships. Is this all a dream or are we really seeing the end of the LAN? Can we fully trust these hosted providers? It will be interesting to see how many LANs remain in 2010 for even the bigger companies.