SharePoint, My Nemesis

In looking at implementing a Web 2.0 solution here at AAA Northern California, Nevada, & Utah one of the things we had to seriously consider was SharePoint 2007. We already have SharePoint 2007 (SP07) implemented throughout the enterprise. In fact, we also have SharePoint 2003 (SP03) as well. Being as disorganized and technologically backward as we are here at AAA NCNU, we have got things scattered all over the place between the two SP servers. We were supposed to have migrated everything from SP03 to SP07 six months ago so that they could take down SP03. Hasn't happened yet. Some teams have migrated, some haven't. Some, like the Claims College (my team), have material on both servers. It's a mess.

To make matters worse, nobody knows how to find things. Aside from IT, who actually use SharePoint for some internal collaboration, everybody else within the company seems to use it solely for document storage. As a result, there is very little actual useful content on our SharePoint server, and anything that might be useful is probably buried in a Word or Excel file somewhere. And, of course, there is a good chance you won't have access to the specific SharePoint site that has the file in question.

Let me get to the point. I'm trying to implement a new Web 2.0 solution that my company can use to improve collaboration, knowledge management, and training. We already have SharePoint, which is a Web 2.0 application, and so every time I approach someone new about my plan, the first thing they say is, "We already have SharePoint. Why do we need this?" It's a natural question to ask. Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against SharePoint - I think it's a terrific tool. However, SharePoint is not the easiest tool to use. Creating content in SharePoint can actually be quite difficult, and if you don't know HTML or CSS you can pretty much forget about it. The Web 2.0 features it contains also are not very tightly integrated with one another. These two flaws by themselves are the primary reason why our company's SharePoint servers contain so little useful content. Our employees quite simply lack the time and know-how to create and maintain useful SharePoint sites.

And thus the aaaU Web 2.0 initiative. I'm hoping to implement a tool that is not only easier to use, but also has tighter integration of features so that the technologically inept employees of this company will have a Web 2.0 tool that they can actually use. The other benefit of this project is that because we have an official aaaU project going with assigned resources and a budget, that means we as a training organization will be able to build out the site in a way that invites people to use it and to participate in the online community. We will also have the opportunity to provide training on how to create content within the tool, thus empowering everyone.

But in the meantime, I will continue to answer the question, "Why are we doing this when we already have SharePoint?"