Texas: Southwest Chapter

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  • 1.  Chapter Event Toolkit -- SharePoint

    Posted 03-12-2015 19:06
    This message has been cross posted to the following Discussions: AIIM Open Forum and Southwest Chapter .
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    As many in the chapter network know, we are beta-testing a new approach to: a) make it easier to host chapter meetings; b) make the meetings themselves more effective; and c) link those meetings with AIIM content.

    The approach centers on using the AIIM Industry Watch release schedule as the basis for creating a marketing and content toolkit for local chapter leaders.  A key element in the approach is the realization that "talking head" chapter meetings just don't work that well anymore - the web provides simply too many ways to get this kind of "presentation" content. 

    Where chapters can add a lot of value is the personal networking, discussion, and creative collaboration that can occur around content, and then recirculating the ideas that come out of this discussion to the broader network to create even more content.  And this is the heart of the Industry Watch "Toolkit" concept.  This first round of toolkits was built on our Industry Watch on SharePoint Trends.

    The "discussion around the data" in the Southwest Chapter highlighted a number of insights (kudos to Ritch Tolbert for doing a great job at orchestrating and facilitating this meeting).

    Most organizations are still rooted in SharePoint 2010, and trying to make the migration to 2013.

    • There still is a lot of concern about the new SharePoint online version (i.e., SharePoint in the cloud as part of Office365) - in terms of whether it is more appropriate than the on-premise version, but also in terms of whether Microsoft's roadmap is paying enough attention to continuing support of the on-premise version.
    • The usual enterprise platform challenges - lack of executive support, lack of business ownership, change management, training - are all in play.
    • It is clear that many implementations are suffering because the initial rationale for SharePoint deployment - a document sharing solution for project teams - was a much simpler use-case than a business platform that needs to operate at scale.

    After a lot of initial discussion around the data, break-out groups formed to brainstorm 3-5 recommendations on governance, migration, benefits, and user adoption.  Here are my notes - any errors in transcription are mine, and I'm sure the participants will fill in any gaps!

    Governance

    1. Make sure to plan appropriately and train in a timely fashion against that plan.
    2. The governance plan needs to be a living document that adapts over time, and include an ongoing monitoring mechanism.
    3. Form a governance group of all of the key stakeholders.
    4. Focus on governance standards rather micro-management, and focus on a limited number of big bucket taxonomy elements, document types, and corresponding retention/disposition schedules 

    Migration

    1. Identify specifically what you are going to migrate - don't leave it as a general intention.
    2. If data cleanup is required, separate this effort from the migration effort.
    3. Make sure to specifically deal with the change management elements.
    4. Don't start migration too early -- make sure the platform to which you are moving is ready.
    5. Make sure you have a contingency plan.

    SharePoint benefits

    1. By being consistent in provisioning, you will better facilitate content re-use later.
    2. Add-in products (vs. customization) can reduce the time to productivity.
    3. Using SharePoint capabilities to automatically populate metadata will greatly improve downstream findability.
    4. Use forms to help improve speed of information capture.

    User adoption

    1. Make sure the training you provide includes change management and is 1) timely and 2) generationally aware.
    2. Think about familiar usability concepts from the consumer realm to improve adoption.
    3. Initially limit the number of choices in any interface; people can only master a limited number of options.
    4. Make sure you find executive level sponsors/poster children to model behavior.
    5. Users are busy; make choosing the "right" path as easy as possible.

    With what SharePoint problems are you wrestling?  How can AIIM help, and how can your local chapter provide contacts, connections, and conversations to make your job easier?


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    John Mancini
    President
    AIIM
    Silver Spring MD
    (301)587-8203
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  • 2.  RE: Chapter Event Toolkit -- SharePoint

    Posted 03-15-2015 21:59

    John, it was a good meeting, and the toolkit helped contribute to that as did you.  Thanks again for joining us. Our Chapter has enjoyed more interactive events such as this one the last two years.  Our meeting's slide deck and notes can be found at the link below.

    http://community.aiim.org/southwestchapter/chapterresources/ourlibrary

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    Ritch Tolbert
    President, AIIM Southwest Chapter

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  • 3.  RE: Chapter Event Toolkit -- SharePoint

    Posted 03-15-2015 22:30

    Also, the recently-released industry watch report can be found here -http://www.aiim.org/Research-and-Publications/Research/Industry-Watch/SharePoint-2015

    We also conducted our own Southwest survey during the meeting and John helped us compare our results to the Industry Watch Report.  We had 40 at the meeting and more than half responded to the survey.  The survey can be found here - http://community.aiim.org/southwestchapter/chapterresources/ourlibrary

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    Ritch Tolbert

    President, AIIM Southwest Chapter
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