Overlooked SharePoint success factors

SharePoint is a very successful product in many organisations, but has certainly also been the product behind a number of failed projects. SharePoint system integrators are often brilliant technical minds, but rarely any good at advising you on the weaknesses of the product and typical project pitfalls.

As with any complex product, there are many factors that impact on your implementation. Unfortunately discussions around SharePoint often turn technical, when in fact many of the critical success factors have little to do with the underlying technology.

From the perspective of the buyer, here are some of the usually overlooked SharePoint success factors:

• Get management buy-in. SharePoint can easily turn into a very expensive ride, particularly consulting fees add up. So get management on your side from the beginning and make sure they stay there.
• Find the right system integrator. The relationship to your agency, consultancy, system integrator or whatever they might call themselves can make or break your SharePoint project. Some system integrators are too busy and lousy at account management, while others are on top of things and thus more successful. Some are mainly technical, while others focus more on project management. Some can make everything shine in PowerPoint, but will have a difficult time actually getting things to work. Also, you need to devote time to continuously talking to your system integrator. There are big differences between the various types of system integrators that you might involve, so be sure to choose wisely, by using some meaningful evaluation criteria to support your decision.
• Reduce risk by starting with your basic requirements. If you initially implement according to the product strengths you will be much more likely to deliver on-time and on-budget.
• Plan for future versions of SharePoint and see if you can be flexible and postpone the implementation of some of your most complex requirements. For the first many months after the release of SharePoint 2010, you need to a avoid first-mover disadvantage.
• Upgrade when you want to, not when Microsoft has a new version. This is not a contradiction of the previous piece of advice, but Microsoft has been known to pressure customers into upgrading. Many enterprises and their IT departments have been struggling to keep up with service packs and some are still using Microsoft CMS 2002 and SharePoint 2003. Any SharePoint upgrade will still be a major exercise and you should plan carefully.
• High-calibre .NET developers will be required. SharePoint has always been a developers toolbox more than an out-of-the-box product, so you’ll need to do some customisation, development and configuration to get it up and running in your organisation.

The above should help you achive successful SharePoint implementations going forward. Do you have other critical SharePoint success factors that should be on the list?

Join SharePoint at Work 2011 in Copenhagen on 22 March and learn how to handle crucial SharePoint challenges – within the contexts of both web and intranet