SharePoint Walk of Fame

Regular readers might be surprised at my extra posting this week, but I am very excited about the brand new SharePoint Walk of Fame that is being unveiled at SharePoint Village as part of their 1st Birthday celebrations on 1st September. They are following our lovely Queen and having a Birthday Honours List with the four honoured SharePointers been inducted onto the SharePoint Walk of Fame. Also I want to tell you how to get free SharePoint help.

SharePoint is a remarkable in the way that so many people are so ready to help other SharePoint Users. When I was involved in creating SharePoint Village I was keen for it to be a showcase not only for the best products in SharePoint but also the SharePoint Community. This is why you will find many of the woldwide SharePoint User Groups listed there as well as links to great SharePoint resources like 'SharePoint Magazine' (now available as a glossy magazine to order) and  'Nothing But SharePoint' (home of the famous 'Stump the Panel').

The SharePoint Community is massive so if you are involved in SharePoint never feel you are on your own. If you have a problem don't quickly get your credit card and buy a support call from Microsoft try the SharePoint Community first. There are two great ways of getting instant free help with SharePoint and one of these I only came across yesterday. Like many of you I twitter and have started using the hashtags even though I didn't really understand them. But it seems that if I type #avfc lots of Villa fans even ones who don't follow me will see my twitters. Also #sharepoint means I can annoy the SharePoint community, but the best new one if you seriously are asking a SharePoint question and need help is simply #sphelp. I tried it and within seconds had found the answer to a problem that I had spent hours scratching my head over. So to all you tweeters don't forget the #sphelp tag.

 
The second way to get quick and very helpful SharePoint help is to join the yahoo group 'SharePoint Discussions'. Then when you have a question or problem (ideally SharePoint related) you just email sharepointdiscussions@yahoogroups.com and within seconds the group will try and help you with your problem.

So let's take time to say thank you to some of the real SharePoint Super Stars who go the extra mile to help us all. People whose passion for SharePoint shines through and who can communicate it so well. If you know a SharePoint Super Star then don't keep it to yourself nominate them for the SharePoint Village Birthday Honours list and then perhaps they might end up being one of the first four people on the SharePoint Walk of Fame. Visit http://sharepointvillage.com/?page_id=7008 to nominate them now before the closing date of midnight 31st August 2011 (same time as the transfer deadline for the Premier League).

So who will be on the Birthday Honours List?

Good luck to Villa as they take on local rivals Wolves on Saturday and try to return back to the top of the premier league. To link the mighty Villa with the SharePoint Walk of Fame it was great to see this week that entire 1982 European Cup winning team is set to be inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame, in October. The Villa side who beat Bayern Munich in an unforgettable night in Rotterdam were managed by the late Tony Barton who took over from the great Ron Saunders two months before the final. 

SharePoint Success - Howzat?

So what does it take to make your SharePoint Project a success? I am typing this whilst watching the last day of the final cricket Test Match in the series between England and India.It has been a series which will end with England being the number one test nation in the world. As with SharePoint projects I have been involved with, as part of Office Talk, it is interesting to try to work out why England have become so successful. After the Botham, Willis and co. years English cricket suffered twenty years in the doldrums. Years were the Aussies often whipped our bottoms and an England Test match victory was as rare as a Gordon Ramsay swear-free sentence. So why are we suddenly so good?

I believe there are 5 reasons why England cricketers have become so good and these are as follows;

1. They have good coaches and mentors. Players who have been there like Graham Gooch.
2. They spend longer training.
3. They have good players in all areas. Best batters, bowlers and fielders.
4. Teamwork.
5. They have a winning mentality.

So back to SharePoint then and the best way of steering a successful SharePoint Project. The best starting point is the five points we included for the successful England cricket team.    

Firstly, good coaches or mentors. It really helps to have somebody involved who has been there before and knows about the pitfalls and the hidden gems of SharePoint. I strongly recommend you use a SharePoint consultant at least for the early weeks of your project. Somebody who can transfer their knowledge to your SharePoint Project team. I will, of course recommend Office Talk if you are UK based but there are lots of other SharePoint Consultants you could use. Look for ones who are only involved in SharePoint and have experience of working with similar companies to you. If you want a quote from Office Talk please email marketing@office-talk.com.

Secondly, make sure that you Project Team (and Super Users) all have the necessary training. These are the people who will be working the most with SharePoint and sharing their knowledge with others so it is vital they have the correct teaching. Also provide all your End Users with at least a one hour training course and then once a year offer some more training. The more training users have the more likely they are to use the system and use the extra features. You wouldn't just give somebody a bat and expert them to be able to bat against a world class fast bowler.

 
Thirdly, have the best people on the Project Team from all areas of the business. Having all IT personnel won't mean success in the same way as having just a team of bowlers won't. You need people in project team who know how the business really works and can help provide a SharePoint environment that enhances procedures that are already in place and develop new ways of working that can improve the business.

Fourthly, the Project Team needs to be a team and whenever possible work together. Consistency throughout sites and document libraries will help the overall use of the SharePoint. Different Project Team members will have different qualities that they can bring to the team. Shared experiences can help to find and resolve issues even before piloting.

The fifth cricket one was 'a winning mentality'. I don't know if this one is really relevant to SharePoint, but I do feel that it is vital that both the business and all the Project Team members fully believe in SharePoint and what it can bring to the organisation. Any negativity from the Project Team will be passed to the End Users and can prevent success. The England cricketers have a belief that they can now win any Test Match and this is why they never seem to give in. What a great way to celebrate 30 years since Botham's Ashes.

The cricket season might just be coming to an end but the Premier League is very much back with us in England and on Saturday night my beloved Aston Villa FC were top of the league. I celebrated by pressing the pause button when the league table came up at the end of match of the day and filling in my SharePoint Premier League Performance site. You can follow the Villa's performance on SharePoint by visiting http://office-talk-dev.co.uk/villa/SitePages/Home.aspx . There is also the chance to claim your own free 'My Premier League Performance' SharePoint Template by clicking here.   

Come on Villa lets starts challenging for trophies again as we were in the early 80's.