The title of this blog sounds like a B-rated movie. Did you immediately think, well Microsoft owns SharePoint? That is not the ownership I was thinking about. I had a conversation with an information professional today where she and her counterpart in their company were passing the responsibility of maintenance for SharePoint in their company over the fence to one another.
We know that Microsoft owns the software, but when SharePoint is installed within a company who owns the responsibility of installing the software? Who owns the data that is put on the SharePoint site? Who is responsible for maintenance of the site and for making sure the retention rules are enforced on the data that is put on the site? Who updates the folders and determines access rights? I can see it now, every one has a finger pointed at someone else in the company. Just like my conversation earlier today, it can be considered someone else's job to do all these things.
SharePoint is a collaborative tool. Collaboration is fun and easy! Managing all the information that is needed for this collaboration is not so fun and easy. Deciding to use SharePoint should not be the beginning of collaboration for the employees in your company. Actually if folks are not used to working together now, installing SharePoint can be a HUGE culture shift. The point is the Company owns the installation.
The Company owns the data, owns the rules, owns the responsibility to comply with laws and regulations, it may and probably will require, a team of people who are engaged in making sure all of these tasks are completed. It will take the employees of the Company collaboratively working together to install and manage the SharePoint site for all the business groups who want and need to use it.
Start the idea of collaboration early, before SharePoint is install. Have the IT, RIM, Compliance teams working together to provide the right controls and services that will be need to take advantage of this tool. Be successful collaborating as a service for the organization.
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