That's not a typo on the title. Yes, this post is about Santa Claus using SharePoint.
It all started this morning when I came across Corasworks'
press release about how Santa is improving his business operations with SharePoint and Corasworks products.
Owen Allen, Microsoft SharePoint ISV Partner Manager, sent a
tweet about it which
I responded and asked: "What does Santa's sharepoint governance + adoption plan look like?"
Which brings us to this blog post
We all know that SharePoint governance by definition is a set of policies, roles, responsibilities, and processes to guide, direct, and control how SharePoint is used to
accomplish business goals. The problem with a lot of organizations today is that they forget the last three words of the definition. In a lot of SharePoint implementations, SharePoint governance is a Word document template that people
download from MSDN (no offense
Joel), they pass it around to be filled-in via email and then stamp it as their 'official' SharePoint Governance Plan. We all know what happens next.
Fortunately, Santa knows better. In fact, he is a strategic executive decision maker because prior to implementing SharePoint,
he made sure that he understood what the platform meant to his organization and not make the mistake of deploying it haphazardly. Realizing that his enterprise will rely on SharePoint for the long haul, he engaged experts to help him
identify key business pain points and prioritize which business needs to be addressed first. This is evident in the
list of applications identified in the Corasworks press release.
Part of his governance challenge is the amount of organizational information that he has. Imagine being in business for a long period of time? During governance planning, key questions that came up:
- How much of your information is referential vs collaborative?
- Any legal compliance considerations?
- Who will be accessing the information?
Shaping the Governance Strategy
For example, how SharePoint will be utilized for document management and collaboration at Santa's organization is defined by the following:
Tightly Controlled
Information in SharePoint that are tightly controlled includes formal documents like HR policy manual, archived naughty and nice lists, and letters from children around the world. The elves and raindeers might be able to see it, however, only Santa and his management team can create, change or update these formal corporate information.
Limited Control
Year round Santa has a lot of projects going on that all leads to being able to better deliver his presents during Christmas eve. He has a lot of project managers helping him in these initiatives. So for project related information, his PMs are empowered to leverage SharePoint by creating their own project specific sites with predefined project artifacts and templates. By allowing them to create sites and not having IT do this is a win-win for both the business and IT. So for these type of initiatives, controlling SharePoint is limited and users are empowered.
User Controlled
To encourage collaboration in his organization, users (mostly elves) can leverage tools like meeting workspaces to effectively engage and share business relevant information regardless if it's a formal initiative or ad-hoc. In fact, IT or higher level management does not have to be involved in providing these tools.
Let's Not Forget the Technology
After the strategy is defined, then it's appropriate to define technical governance around SharePoint. Site taxonomies, who can access what, record management policies, disaster recovery, etc.
Once it's all said and done, Santa realized that SharePoint Governance is not one end of the pendulum (Draconian IT Control) or the other (Wild Wild West Chaos). He knew that it's all about accomplishing business goals which requires key decision makers getting together and collaboratively defining how SharePoint is leveraged that will empower business users and most importantly, best serve all the kids anticipating their Christmas presents come December 24.
Did I answer your question, Owen?
Have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!