SharePoint State of the Union

By Eric Riz

August 21, 2012 —  (Page 3 of 3)
Hopefully the discussion generated some conversation between teams about how SharePoint is being used, and has provided a strong common understanding for the needs of each department. Ensure that you have someone taking notes through the meeting to capture the pertinent information. With your usage now defined, adjourn the meeting by reviewing your goals and some of the outcomes. Highlight the most innovative and creative solutions, and stress that there is no right or wrong way to use SharePoint; you are just doing an evaluation to get a sense for how to move forward.

Next, gather your technical team to discuss the usage of the technology from both a client and server perspective. This will include questions about the current versions of standard programs and servers internally, such as Office, SQL, Windows, Internet Explorer and Active Directory. You may uncover another project underway to upgrade one of these products. If so, you will have to navigate through their priorities and ensure that competing projects do not overwhelm your resources. At a minimum, the outcomes of this meeting will provide a good picture of where your organization is from a technical perspective.

With these two pieces in place, you can begin to formulate your direction for SharePoint. In my next article, I’ll discuss how to take these elements forward and measure your corporate goals and objectives against the SharePoint product road map.

Eric is the EVP of Systems Integration for Concatenate, a software firm focused on maximizing SharePoint through product innovation and systems integration based in Toronto. You can reach Eric by e-mail at ericr@concatenateinc.com or on Twitter at @rizinsights. Read his other SharePoint thoughts on his blog at www.ericriz.com.



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