How to Plan the Ultimate SharePoint 2013 Rollout

    COLUMBUS, OH, July 29, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Since the release of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, SharePoint has become an indispensable corporate collaboration tool for users around the globe, deployed by millions of enterprises worldwide. But its popularity with corporate users looking for an easy and intuitive way to collaborate and grow their businesses also presents management and governance challenges. To guide IT professionals interested in improving adoption, meeting business goals and attaining faster ROI through their SharePoint rollouts, ICC, a nationally recognized enterprise technology leader that provides business-critical application development, digital and big data analytic solutions to its Fortune 1000 national and global clients, has developed a white paper on the Seven Steps for SharePoint Success.

Want to Learn More?
ICC's Michael McNett, National Business Strategist for SharePoint Services, offers strategies in a new white paper that explores the ways companies can extend their SharePoint roadmap beyond the planning phase to include implementation and operational phases. Download a complimentary copy of "ICC Roadmap Framework for Business and IT Alignment" at http://bit.ly/1bWzMGe.

SharePoint Deployment Spectrum
SharePoint is often deployed one of two ways, according to Joe Hartsel, Business Strategy Manager for SharePoint Services at ICC. At one end of the spectrum, SharePoint is implemented as a tightly-controlled technology project run by IT without the input of the key stakeholders who will be expected to use the platform. This can lead to a locked-down solution that provides little benefit to the organization.

At the other end of the spectrum, SharePoint is rolled out as a wide-open platform with little governance and few policies in place to control how it is deployed and used, leading to SharePoint "sprawl" with documents, websites and wiki's created on the fly. This can make the solution just one more data store for IT to manage and the CFO to audit, not to mention another weak-point for security.

"We often see SharePoint deployed in these two extremes," says Hartsel. "One is left so open that it becomes the Wild West. The other is locked down so tight that users can't really do much of anything to make them more productive or effective so they just don't use it. Neither is an optimum case."

To solve these issues, ICC has developed Seven Steps for SharePoint Success to help organizations obtain the most from their SharePoint deployments and upgrades quickly and hitting as few potholes along the way as possible.

Seven Steps for SharePoint Success:
1. Establish and gather business requirements, priorities, and success criteria
2. Map requirements to technology
3. Develop a governance plan adhering to business needs
4. Define technical architecture and implementation plan
5. Execute plan and adapt when necessary
6. Measure benefits and successes
7. Drive user adoption through key stakeholders, outreach, and training

"If you don't understand where your business is going and how your business can leverage SharePoint you can completely miss the mark," says Hartsel. "You want to drive business value. A lot of organizations are concerned that SharePoint will become just another Lotus Notes. Our roadmap makes sure that does not happen."

"For some other enterprises, SharePoint has not been deployed widely, and there are often comments about owning SharePoint shelfware. In some cases, the problems are not due to SharePoint shortcomings, but rather the fault of the organization itself - poorly planned deployments, weak efforts at engaging the business and inability to do the organizational change management needed to achieve success," according to Gartner Analysts Mark R. Gilbert and Jeffrey Mann in their research paper SharePoint 2013: Good Progress but Missed Opportunities. "While these are organizational shortcomings, SharePoint doesn't do much to alleviate these issues. Clients often report that broad business adoption has not been easy to achieve, and they struggle with training, governance, cost management and migration."

The list of why companies want SharePoint is as diverse as the companies themselves but often include:
- Connecting across regions, LOBs, interests securely;
- Capturing and sharing corporate knowledge;
- Accelerating decision making;
- Identifying subject matter experts;
- Keep content fresh and relevant; and
- Instituting a predictable information structure.

ICC's SharePoint Enterprise Roadmap delivers on all of these diverse needs by bridging the gap between business leaders and IT, conveying the value of technology in terms of business needs, prioritizing business goals, and serving as a planning tool for current and future needs.

"First we look to understand what you want to accomplish as a business, what your priorities are and what your pain points are and then we align SharePoint to those," says Hartsel. "That's why you want this Roadmap -- because that strategy helps you achieve your business goals and ROI faster."

About ICC
ICC (Information Control Company), based in Columbus, Ohio, is a leading provider of enterprise technology solutions. With a staff over 500 highly trained consultants, we are experts in Strategy, User Experience, Visual Design, Engineering, Project Management, Business Analytics and Quality Assurance. Using these skills, we develop and deploy innovative, business-critical solutions that enable Fortune 500 and mid-market organizations to improve operational efficiencies. Our Business, Digital and Technology solutions give our clients a competitive advantage that helps them drive revenues and increase margin.

Clutch is a world-class digital ad agency inside the walls of ICC. Together, they're a collection of seasoned strategists, user experience specialists, writers, art directors and developers who specialize in the art and science of Interactive Conversations.

ICC is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and an IBM Premier Business Partner. Clients include Nationwide, Cardinal Health, McGraw Hill, the State of Ohio, and Honda.

ICC is committed to serving its clients, community and country by developing U.S.-based leaders who work hard to strengthen the American economy. More information is available at http://www.icctechnology.com.

Media Contacts:
Theresa Hodgson
ICC
[email protected]
614-523-3070 x106
http://www.icctechnology.com/

Rich Mullikin
Communication Strategy Group for ICC
[email protected]
866-997-2424
www.communicationstrategygroup.com

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