We were recently engaged by a large construction and engineering firm to help with ‘SharePoint Training’. I put that into quotes because the organization had a general idea of what they thought they wanted us to do. Their approach: come in and ‘train us on SharePoint’.
The problem: they had no idea what they really wanted to accomplish.
We could have very easily just sold the engagement and done ‘training’ but it would have set the organization up to fail. We follow a very specific implementation methodology when it comes to SharePoint:
Step 1: Meet with the Core Team and go through the functionality in SharePoint.
Step 2: Identify the areas of functionality where the quickest wins can be recognized (Document Libraries are always a good start). Map those areas of functionality to the functional silos (lines of business) of the business (sales/marketing, HR, legal, finance, executive team).
Step 3: Meet individually with the subject matter experts for the previously defined lines of business. Design the SharePoint platform to meet those requirements.
Step 4: Customize the SharePoint environment to match the functional requirements of each line of business. These include custom lists, SharePoint workflow implementations, integration with 3rd party applications, KPI creation.
Step 5: Meet with each line of business owner and review our customizations. Make modifications as needed.
Step 6: Finalize the SharePoint training documentation. Present to the executive team. Finalize SharePoint roll out and complete end user training – including ‘cheat sheets’ for functional areas.
If we can help you with your Office 365 or SharePoint roll out – contact us today!
