I thought yesterday’s on-line chat was excellent. JOEL OLESON touched on User Adoption and I love that the SharePoint Community is starting to recognize this crucial issue.
Behind closed doors I’ve had countless CIO’s and other leaders complain “not everyone is using SharePoint”, “our users hate SharePoint “, “they can’t find anything or the worst – SharePoint just sits there collecting dust”. Some users even use derogatory names like $h^tPoint.
This is a disturbing trend I’ve seen in the last few months. We’re visiting too many SharePoint customers where both IT and users recognize SharePoint’s value but it is either not being used at all or, being used poorly. For example, well intended workflows still have manual work arounds; or we encounter frustration among users frustrated with the amount of time it takes them to find documents.
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I’ve seen this as well. And the reason is partially Microsoft’s fault. They sell the idea that SharePoint is an out of box solution to all ills. We have seen SharePoint successfull when time is taken to: 1) Setup the proper governance and business enabling support structure; 2) Do not depend on “throwing templates over the wall” and 3) Enable business teams – build in the model, processes and support structure to listen to business teams, understand their problems, and configure SharePoint to suit their specific needs – with careful attention to communication, change management, and release support. This is not cheap, but success begets success — its gets easier and cheaper each time it is replicated. User adoption soars. User satisfaction soard.
Unfortunately, companies are not planning nor budgeting for these activities. IT has budget to “keep the lights on”. Business teams will pay for this kind of help, but they are not being offered this kind of help.
To me, this is the real gap/problem.
