Why SharePoint?
Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is a powerful web-based information
sharing platform and toolkit with many features that organized groups need in
order to work efficiently together via the internet.
Associations can benefit from SharePoint's functionality
wherever they have defined groups, such as committees, councils, volunteers,
advocacy organizers, project teams, chapters, boards and special interest
groups, whose work involves multiple sources of input and a need for ongoing
access to shared materials.
The Problem: Association groups need to work together more
effectively
Associations derive a great deal of value from the activities of
their many types of workgroups, but have a difficult time providing
technological assistance to help them be more productive. This becomes
especially problematic when the team members are not internal staff, but
geographically dispersed volunteers.
These groups share information by a variety of means, including
e-mail messages, distribution of documents to the group as e-mail attachments,
phone calls, periodic face-to-face meetings, mail, and internal filing systems.
But the disjointed, decentralized and uncoordinated nature of these
communications often reduces their effectiveness in the following ways:
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Un-searchable resources – Without shared libraries,
there is no one place where team members can go to find the definitive
version of relevant materials. Each team member may be storing their
resources in their own filing system, offline or on internal networks, and
in inconsistent ways – all of which prevents the team from searching for
content as needed.
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Confusion from multiple sources of edits - It
generally takes considerable manual effort to consolidate edits from
multiple team members into a version that all can review, especially when
new edits are made to obsolete versions of the document and team members are
unaware of contributions by the others.
-
Scattered communications – Because e-mail is
distributed outward to team members, it ceases to be manageable as part of a
centralized system – not attached to a particular event or topic or context.
Even setting up an online discussion board does not in itself provide the
context, priorities and relationships needed for goal-oriented
communications.
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Information overload – Too much communication about
the wrong things is just as problematic as too little communication about
important things. When communications are not organized and filtered for
relevance, members expend wasted effort wading through, and trying to tune
out, the static.
While it is up to the group members themselves to coordinate
their activities and produce results, the association can add value by acting as
a facilitator, providing a more nurturing environment for the suggestions,
decisions, submissions, feedback and conversations that have to happen for the
group to be successful. It is here that SharePoint 2007 can make a tremendous
difference.
The Solution: SharePoint 2007
Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is designed to address all issues, by
offering tools that groups can use to support each of their different types of
communication. The SharePoint 2007 toolset includes searchable document
libraries and many of the most popular Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs and wikis,
which are designed to encourage members to contribute content online.
But the critical value that SharePoint provides is its site
management functionality, because of the administrative ease with which it
allows associations to set up navigable, organized, multi-faceted, and private
websites each dedicated to the communication needs of a particular workgroup.
These private websites are highly effective in organizing, enabling and
targeting communications, so that group members can find and post timely and
relevant information that relates to the group's activities.
SharePoint 2007 features
Learn more:
ISG's SharePoint Offerings
The On Demand option
Register for an ISG SharePoint webinar
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