Previous Chapter: Part 1 - Introdcution
The manager’s issues
The most important aspect that has to be looked at before we start thinking about SharePoint or whatever tool we want, is the “why?”. Because, if everything runs smoothly in your department and there are no problems (just kidding), then you don’t need any new tools. Believe it or not, you need a problem before you start applying a solution. In the spirit of Jeopardy we know the answer in this document is going to be SharePoint, now what is the question? Which problems can it solve, which areas of your department can it help managers with?
Without thinking, we could summarize and say “communication and collaboration”. And although it covers a lot of the load, there are many things, details if you will, that would be left out with a simple answer as that. And as we all know, the beauty is in the detail. We have to look at all the aspects of managing an IT department. If SharePoint is used as just another tool to solve the communication or collaboration problem, it will never live up to its potential. There are a lot of tools better suited to solve those problems specifically. SharePoint does become interesting if you take into account all the other aspects and position it as a central solution.
So what are the main issues facing managers and how can we position SharePoint as solution to these issues? Here are a few things that are very important:
1) Managers want to know what their people are doing, what they are working on and when they become available (resource planning).
2) Managers want to know about ongoing projects (status, budget, …).
3) They want reporting on progress and KPI’s of projects.
4) They want structure. It’s very difficult to manage a lot of people if everybody is doing this their own way.
5) They want knowledge to be as easily accessible as possible without having to relocate resources.
6) They will have to use documents (memo’s, contracts, reports, …).
Of course this list is not exhaustive and priorities can vary, but a lot of the time these are major points of interests of managers. Especially because a lot of the time, these are the problem areas.
The therapy not the medicine
A warning is in order here. Contrary to what you might have been told in sales talks, SharePoint is no silver bullet. It will not do everything for you and it will not be the solution to all of your problems. Look at SharePoint as an aid. Look at SharePoint as the therapy, not the medicine. Like therapy, the combination of SharePoint with yours and your team’s effort can make for a long-lasting solution for your department. And believe me if I tell you that this distinction is important. SharePoint is often used as the medicine “we’ll take one and everything will be better”. With that philosophy, SharePoint will be a guaranteed disappointment. As we will see further along in this story, there is some effort required to make it all work for you and your team. But then, the results will meet all of your expectations.
What follows in this story is a closer look at the major issues, listed above, that managers face when running a department and how SharePoint can be an aid in those areas.
The competition
As with everything else, calling SharePoint the only solution would be naïve and a lie actually. There are alternatives and you can’t be talking about the competition for SharePoint without mentioning Lotus Notes. As a centrally positioned solution for communication, collaboration, etc. it will always be the number one competitor of SharePoint. But the two are almost nothing alike. The solution they provide to pretty much the same problem is completely different in philosophy and implementation. Throughout the story we will point out were SharePoint differs from Lotus Notes. It’s up to you to decide which of the two you prefer; our preference is obvious I hope.
Conclusion
The conclusion of this chapter would have to be that it is very important to look at the problems you are facing in your department. Only ones you have determined what is wrong and how you are willing to change those things, you can start to look for a solution. SharePoint will always be one of the possibilities, but as with everything in this world, there are alternatives. Find a solution that fits you and your team. Whatever commercial benefit you get for one tool or the other, it will not be worth it if you select the wrong tools. If you are considering SharePoint than please read on and see how it can help you and where it differs from its competitors.
By Ronny Gabriels, Functional Analyst and ex-.net Solution Architect
Next Chapter: Part 3 - The Projects