Rich's article is evidence of several trends in the world of SharePoint where all the hype isn't quite working in many organizations and all too often after someone sells SharePoint to an organization [this can be internal or external, and doesn't necessarily mean "sold" as much as gaining "buy in"], several expectations are not met as your implementation nears completion or in many cases spins the IT wheels and people start asking questions such as "I thought I was going to get this......" or "this isn't going to be as easy or cheap as we thought it would be."
In the end, all the hype ends up doing is make an organization question if SharePoint is really for them, or if they fall into the money pit [hardware, software, resources, support] trying to meet expectations they find some things like Rich writes about that are nothing more than "myths" born of the "hype" from individuals who were either selling the product [consultants or someone pushing a SharePoint Enterprise license], or went to a seminar or read an article and were "wowed" about what SharePoint can do.
To avoid the money pit that SharePoint can become it's very important to follow a couple simple guidelines;
- Plan, plan and plan more! - It can't be said enough that SharePoint is not like other software implementations. It is something that needs a lot of proper planning by individuals who have experience with SharePoint and know the roadblocks and pitfalls. Without a good roadmap, your SharePoint implementation will at best fail to meet many expectations and at worst, fail completely.
- Use a SharePoint Professional! - Don't expect to meet your SharePoint implementation goals if you're not working with someone who has several years experience with SharePoint. I don't mean developers who view SharePoint as just another "project". SharePoint has the potential to touch every area of your business and streamline many business processes. The goal is to make everyone's jobs easier, not create another software platform IT has to support. Don't scrimp on SharePoint experience thinking sending someone to get a SharePoint certification will do the trick. Trust me, if you haven't been using SharePoint for several years, you haven't seen the best and the worst of it. There are things you can't be taught in class. Nothing beats EXPERIENCE.
- Governance. This should be part of your planning. Set-up some very good rules for your SharePoint deployment. Map out appearance and content requirements, define user groups [and don't for Pete's sake make everyone an Administrator!!], even write a policy if need be. And don't think you can deploy SharePoint and not have a SharePoint Administrator. You need to set rules for content and permissions AND have someone to guard the gate and support the thing.
- Don't believe all the hype. I don't care if Bill Gates told you SharePoint can do this or that. Don't jump headfirst into a SharePoint project wanting it to be another development platform you connect databases to and end up having half your IT team supporting it because performance sucks. Yes, SharePoint can do many things BUT you need to start simple, get people to use it, and have a plan [I said that word again didn't I?] mapped out for what the expectations are and what it will take to get there. SharePoint was developed to be flexible for use in many business environments. It can be used in retail business, for intranets and more. But at each step you need to ask the "5 W's"
- Why do we need this?
- What will it take to get it done [please be realistic]?
- When can it be done?
- Where will it reside?
- Who is going to do it and more importantly, "who" will support it?
For a look at Rich's excellent article on the "5 Myths about SharePoint as an Enterprise Social Platform", here's a direct link:
http://www.digitallandfill.org/2011/11/5-myths-about-sharepoint-as-an-enterprise-social-platform.html
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