We Bought SharePoint--Now What?

"We bought SharePoint. Now what?" Have you ever said that? Maybe you've heard colleagues say it? SharePoint gets a lot of hype, but after you've actually deployed it, then what?

I've seen in my own organization how SharePoint functions in a passable way as an intranet, but its collaboration features go unused by my coworkers (and--full disclosure--yes, even me), even when championed by our Active Directory expert and MVP Sean Deuby. What does it take to get SharePoint to be adopted?

While cruising the AIIM site today, I saw a recent blog entry by Errin O'Connor that seemed pertinent. He writes "I was in a meeting the other day with a client (and this is something that I hear quite often) who said, 'We really promoted SharePoint when it first was released but since then have really not put much effort into that area, really more into supporting SharePoint.'

This is very common and I think organizations really need to consider that a long-term successful SharePoint initiative has a lot of 'Public Relations' strategy and keeping SharePoint's name and real purpose in the faces of end users."

I think part of the problem is that none of us were shown exactly how to use SharePoint in our own particular work situation to help make things easier. But, I've actually played around with SharePoint 2013 at home and am especially liking its web content management features.

I manage the web content of the SharePoint Pro site, which currently uses Dot Net Nuke. Don't even get me started on DNN--I'll say something unprintable. Anyway, having seen how SharePoint 2013 makes posting content, both text and image, very easy, I'm ready to champion SharePoint as a content management solution in my organization.

And I think that's what is key—helping people to become champions of SharePoint, by letting them play around with it and actually thoroughly training them in how to use it in their daily lives. What a concept, eh?

Robert Bogue has several interesting blog posts about SharePoint user adoption and works to help organizations take SharePoint to that logical place where people actually use it. Take a look at "The Cost of Changing to SharePoint" in particular, but also his other blog posts.

Check out our Facebook page, SharePoint Pro Connections, and let me know how you're doing at getting end users to adopt—and champion—SharePoint!

Caroline Marwitz edits and manages web content for SharePoint Pro and writes on SharePoint, Active Directory, security, and virtualization. Follow SharePoint Pro on Twitter at SharePoint_Pro and Caroline at carawitz.