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Claire,
We have successfully implemented SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) at our
location (~200 people); however, I must say that it was largely due to our
SharePoint Administrator. Having never seen the product, he installed it,
played with it (e.g., What does this do?), wiped the server, installed it
again, played some more (e.g., How do I do this?), wiped the server,
re-installed, and came up with a plan to implement the portal in a manner
which best suited our business practices. It took him about 3 weeks to do
this - and this was all before we even started writing up the implementation
plan. I do want to point out that he is also a web developer by trade, so
he understands what is going on when he "clicks here..."
That said; in regards to your questions - here are some lessons learned:
* As stated above, our SharePoint Administrator is also our web
developer (develops his own web parts). He is also our web master and
backup DBA. During planning and implementation, he lived and breathed SPS.
He would come to work telling me about the "drag & drop" dreams he was
having :-) . The IT Shop should be responsible for portal administration.
It is a web-based environment containing vital company information and must
be protected from inadvertent exposure to outside sources.
* The most important responsibilities are gathering user population
requirements, correctly mapping those requirements to organizational
business practices and using those requirements to design the portal areas
and sub-sites. This is important and should be implemented both graphical
(visio or equivalent) and physical (on a test server), reviewed by subject
matter experts, and fully accepted by management prior to implementation. A
poorly defined portal will result in loss of productivity and may result in
errors due to technological capabilities. For example, document libraries
are great, but if they contain several layers of nested folders, the URL
will exceed the length limits. You quite possibly will have some
reorganization to do, but it should be minimal with a solid portal design.
* Although SharePoint is intuitive enough to be functionally
administered by a non-web developer, I would recommend an administrator with
a strong background in web development. It has helped us tremendously.
This individual should also have a good understanding of the organization's
business practices and vision. Again, this person should be a member of the
IT staff and fully trained and qualified on Windows 2003 Server and Web
Technologies (some SQL Server experience helps, but not required).
* Content managers (and alternates) were selected for each department.
These folks received extra training and are responsible for the content and
site structure for their respective departments. This concept has worked
very well. We have learned that if an individual does not want to be a
content manager, the site will not be maintained correctly - use
volunteers. Our SharePoint Administrator currently spends about 35-40% of
his time doing portal admin.
* SharePoint, once implemented, takes a little getting used to. We have
migrated most of the data stored on our network drives and have found that
the concept of storing and accessing their files via a web browser was the
most challenging for the users. This is kind of off topic - so I will end
it there with the caveat that the SharePoint Administrator will be spending
many hours "fixing" issues and policing up data after going live. You can
email me directly if you want me to expand on this.
I know I have rambled, but if you are the "chosen one", you should be aware
of the amount time you will need to dedicate to implement SharePoint - even
for a small operation. We had an aggressive implementation schedule and
were operational in 6 weeks, but we encountered problems after going live
which could have been prevented, had we taken the time to address the issues
properly instead of taking the quickest route. I would highly recommend
taking 3-6 months depending on the amount of data to migrate and the
complexity of the organization - it will save time in the long run.
Hopefully this will help.
-Kurt
All: I am not a technical writer, so please take that into account when you
flame me for improper grammar :)
Claire Conant wrote:
Hi all - I have a question for those of you working with SharePoint as
your intranet, doc management, and project management solution. We are
going to be implementing it here to serve the purposes just listed. My
questions are:
* Do you have a dedicated SharePoint administrator?
* If so, what responsibilities and tasks does that person perform
related to SharePoint?
* What are the qualifications they would need to fully assume the
role?
* Does this person do other work in addition to administering
SharePoint?
* How much of their time is spent administering SharePoint?
We are a small company and currently cannot add headcount to cover this
role, so I need to make sure that, as this is being dumped in my lap
(the administration of it), that I recommend the proper resources. I
have no intention of becoming a database administrator, web developer,
or content manager myself. =)
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