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Effectively Use SharePoint as Your ECM Solution

Structure your content for a successful user experience.

  • Organizations have and generate overwhelming amounts of information, proliferating in a number of disparate systems.
  • The new generation of content management systems is designed to personalize the user experience with great selections of features and add-ons. But choices mean understanding business goals and information requirements and carefully planning how this new powerful system will look and feel.
  • Many content management teams assume they should just transfer folder structures and existing content into SharePoint, but getting maximum power out of SharePoint means moving away from folders and org chart-based silos and toward a meaningful user experience powered by good structures.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Information governance and information architecture are complex ideas to grasp and implement. They need time and special expertise at the table. A successful rollout of SharePoint depends on good, thought-out structures.
  • SharePoint is primarily a business platform. It’s meant to be configured and maintained by business leaders who know their operations best, needing less dependency on IT. This transfer of responsibility and culture shift requires an effective training plan and the active presence of executive sponsors to help the business bridge that chasm.
  • Include Teams in the plan. Microsoft's vision for its set of services means defining how SharePoint fits into the information landscape along with OneDrive and Teams. Look at the package deal to ensure all the services align.

Impact and Result

  • The business leads decisions about structuring content.
  • There is a standardized set of structures, rules, and practices for managing and growing content services in SharePoint.
  • A management team of business information owners leads the structure and ongoing development of the content management system, supported by IT and SMEs.
  • Users are informed and engaged, with clear instructions for interacting with SharePoint documents and guidelines for creating team sites.
  • The organization understands its information communities and requirements.
  • Project and governance leads understand concepts such as unstructured data and records.

Effectively Use SharePoint as Your ECM Solution Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should plan and structure your SharePoint content, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.

2. SharePoint Information Architecture

Structure the content in SharePoint for findability and business support, based on understanding of use cases.


Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.3/10


Overall Impact

$16,338


Average $ Saved

9


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Wiginton Corporation

Guided Implementation

10/10

$1,949

10

Caribbean Public Health Agency

Guided Implementation

10/10

$51,999

20

His in-depth expertise and knowledge of SharePoint allowed us to make informed decisions, optimizing our SharePoint environment for our specific ne... Read More

Technical Safety BC

Guided Implementation

10/10

$50,000

20

Michigan Court of Appeals

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

N/A

The call with Andrea Malick was beneficial and gave us a lot of information to consider. Her suggestions have given us a good starting point of wh... Read More

Caribbean Public Health Agency

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

1

Best: Very knowledgeable agent. Excellent support staff

Technessity, LLC

Guided Implementation

10/10

$7,559

4

Technessity, LLC

Guided Implementation

10/10

$14,489

10

Ibrahim was able to validate my assumptions and propose extended solutions. He saved me time and money in supporting my client.

Canadian Commercial Corporation

Guided Implementation

8/10

$1,600

10

Caribbean Public Health Agency

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,479

2

British Columbia Industry Training Authority

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

5

Andrea is very knowledgeable on the topic. The call provided many information and reference to review to build the plan. It is a complex project an... Read More


Workshop: Effectively Use SharePoint as Your ECM Solution

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: SharePoint Foundations

The Purpose

  • Introduce key SharePoint and ECM concepts.
  • Build a management team/governance committee of decision makers from the lines of business.
  • Define how to communicate major change to users.
  • Create vision for SharePoint content services.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Accountabilities assigned for during the project and ongoing
  • Understanding of the size of the work involved in building the SharePoint solution
  • Rules and guidelines for the setup and use of SharePoint

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Review SharePoint and ECM concepts.

  • High-level information landscape
1.2

Identify governance committee members and SMEs.

  • ECM governance charter
1.3

Develop the vision for the SharePoint program.

  • SharePoint vision and mission statement
1.4

Determine approach to engaging and educating users.

  • Communication plan
1.5

Develop policies.

  • SharePoint policy (or information management policies)

Module 2: SharePoint Information Architecture

The Purpose

  • Understand current information communities and workflows.
  • Outline information architecture work items.
  • Understand concepts like metadata, records management retention, standard terminology.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Best-practice approach to building information architecture (IA)
  • Plan for building content structures
  • Understanding of expertise and time required to build IA foundation
  • Management team has the knowledge to negotiate with technology and service providers

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Gather key use cases.

  • List of each stakeholder’s top three priority use cases
2.2

Decide scope from among use cases.

  • Pilot scope workflows
  • Pilot scope documents
2.3

Audit key content.

2.4

Review IA best practices.

Module 3: SharePoint Inventory and Migration

The Purpose

  • Identify which documents are to be migrated and build a structure for organizing them in the new environment.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • List of documents to be migrated
  • Framework for building a content structure in the new SharePoint system
  • Support decisions about approach to migration (e.g. third-party service, Microsoft API)

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Inventory documents to be migrated.

  • Content audit
3.2

Develop migration plan.

  • Migration plan

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

9.3/10
Overall Impact

$16,338
Average $ Saved

9
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 9 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: SharePoint Governance
  • Call 1: Scope SharePoint program and identify priorities and vision.
  • Call 2: Identify stakeholders.
  • Call 3: Review governance committee roles and makeup.

Guided Implementation 2: SharePoint Information Architecture
  • Call 1: Understand information mapping and inventory activities.
  • Call 2: Review use cases and information flows.
  • Call 3: Review sample information architecture structures (e.g. metadata best practices, site structure, teams).

Guided Implementation 3: SharePoint Migration
  • Call 1: Understand changes (e.g. features) and requirements.
  • Call 2: Review content and site inventory.
  • Call 3: Review migration plan.

Authors

Andrea Malick

Ibrahim Abdel-Kader

Contributors

  • Jessica Bontjes, Account Executive , Microsoft
  • Ash Chaudhury, Collaboration and Voice Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft
  • Sarah Cook, Lead Developer, 360 Insights
  • Alex Garin, Enterprise Architect, BMO
  • Rob Hoogkamp, Consultant, Capgemini
  • Jon Horner, Partner, Technical Consultant – O365 with CSS Partner Enablement, Microsoft
  • Anna Khloudeneva, SharePoint expert, Texodi
  • Moustafa Refaat, Solution Architect, Loblaw Companies
  • Jon Studsrud, Delivery Excellence Director, Microsoft
  • Greg Zelfond, SharePoint expert, speaker, SharePoint Maven
  • 6 anonymous contributors

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