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Advice Needed

By Bob Larrivee posted 04-25-2014 14:02

  

Interesting comment, advice needed. This is a statement many more organizations should use, more often. There are many organizations implementing technology and coming up short of their expectations, due to a lack of planning, lack of requirements gathering, and lack of expertise to make it happen smoothly.

The AIIM Study on SharePoint 2013 revealed that 61% of those polled cite their expectations have not been met or the project has stalled. In most cases, this is due to selecting and implementing technology without having a clear understanding of the problem at hand. It also reflects poor requirements and planning to understand and align to the business needs. Many organizations I have spoken with tell me they are unfamiliar with requirements gathering, process mapping, other such activities that would provide great benefit and drive to a successful implementation.

In my view, one of the first things to be done is an assessment of skills and expertise within the organization. I say this in the same way as I would about conducting an inventory of solutions and functionality to determine what is in place and what is actually needed to complete the technology picture.  Once you have made an assessment to identify your strengths and weaknesses, look to the outside for the expertise you are lacking. Professional services are available, and yes there is a cost, but is often surprising how much you save in the end by doing things right upfront.

What say you? Do you have a story to tell? What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have a topic of interest you would like discussed in this forum? Let me know. If you are looking for some great research information from our industry, feel free to visit our research site and download some of our Industry Watch Reports today at www.aiim.org/research


Bob Larrivee, Director of Custom Research – AIIM
Email me: blarrivee@aiim.org

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•   Fusion 2014, May 5-8, 2014 in Dallas, TX

•   Share 2014, June 18-20, 2014 in Johannesburg, SA

•   AIIM Forum UK, June 25, 2014 in London UK

•   NIRMA 2014, August 10-13, 2014 in Las Vegas, NV

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05-06-2014 11:46

Hi Bill, you are absolutely right that there are projects where poor planning and understanding of process needs that cause SharePoint projects to fail. I also think it stems from a misunderstanding of what SharePoint is and what can be achieved within SharePoint. When the platform is not completely understood, the project is unclear from the start. SharePoint education, project planning, and a focus on Core Competencies are key for SharePoint success. We are a provider of SharePoint solutions (www.convergepoint.com)and often it comes down to core competency. There is a plethora of 3rd party applications willing to help these organizations but there is an underlying stigma that organizations must build out their processes on their own to achieve their desired needs - often this backfires into a project with high sunk costs and unclear process requirements. The end result is short of expectations, just as you mentioned here.