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Creating Great Client Experiences with SharePoint 2010 for Web Content Management. Fostering Cross-Team Knowledge Sharing. Rebecca Dornin Web Technologist, HBS ITG Mary Fowkes Senior Project Manager, HBS ITG Anne E. Holden HBS EE Web Marketing Manager June 23, 2011. Agenda.
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Creating Great Client Experienceswith SharePoint 2010for Web Content Management Fostering Cross-Team Knowledge Sharing Rebecca Dornin Web Technologist, HBS ITG Mary Fowkes Senior Project Manager, HBS ITG Anne E. Holden HBS EE Web Marketing Manager June 23, 2011
Agenda • What is SharePoint? • Deep dive on the project with Executive Education • Program Management • Training and Outreach • Collaboration • From the Customer’s Perspective • Lessons Learned • Q & A
What is Microsoft SharePoint? • An out of the box web publishing and collaboration platform • Common uses include intranet sites, extranet sites, document management, and internet sites such as HBS Executive Education (EE) • Industry leading collaboration portal in the enterprise space • Offers page-editing, file-storing and custom design ('branding') capabilities • A SharePoint site is a collection of pages, lists, and libraries configured for the purpose of achieving an express goal
Decision to Implement a Web Content Management (WCM) System Key goals and benefits of WCM • Great user experience • Establish and promote web standards – common header, footer, navigation, global CSS • Establish reusable templates that support HBS look and feel • Content reuse within and across sites (news, feeds, faculty interests) • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) • Establish shared content types and metadata taxonomies • Site personalization • Platform flexibility and scalability • Content versioning and workflows
Why SharePoint? A Focus on Web Content Management • Access to a large community user base • SharePoint dynamic pages with content that is editable by MS Office like ribbon controls • Lists and Libraries of many types • Announcement Lists, Blogs, Contacts, Discussion Boards, Document Libraries, Pages, Surveys Tasks • Ability to copy, create, delete, or rename lists and libraries, pages, and sites • Manage user permissions and view document/page version histories • Evolve with industry. Take advantage of technical innovations (mobile, foreign language support, targeted content) • Utilize consistent visual design framework across sites
About the Exec Ed SharePoint 2010 Project Upgrading and Redesigning a Site on SharePoint
What is the HBS Exec Ed Web Site? • www.exed.hbs.edu • Marketing web site with thousands of pages of unique content • Over a thousand video and article assets that must be shared dynamically across sub sites • More than 80 programs, with dates, fees, and application info • Forward facing public site targeted at the world’s top executives • Fortune 200 companies looking at this site
Key Considerations of the Project • Technical • Software upgrade needed to support new functionality • New hardware needed to support software upgrade • Finding ways to improve EE’s workflow • Working with the system out of the box capabilities • Customer Engagement • Ease the learning curve for the customer with new technology • Understanding how to map the requirements of the customer to the feature set of SP2010 • Content integrity • Open communication channels
Project Management Identified success factors for HBS, ITG, and Executive Education • Early decision was made to use a two pronged approach to achieve long term success • Project 1–SharePoint 2010 with EE Site Upgrade • Upgraded SharePoint WCM from 2007 to 2010 • Built robust infrastructure, all new hardware(intDEV, STAGE, PROD, DR) • Upgraded EXISTING Executive Education site • Seized opportunity for training ITG and EE on SP2010
Project Management • Project 2-Executive Education Site Redesign • Focus was exclusively on Executive Education’s goals • Training and knowledge transfer were deliverables on project plan • Agile project methodology • Milestones were agreed to collaboratively • Approach for solutions were signed off on prior to coding • Executive Education tested and approved deliverables throughout project lifecycle
Customer Engagement • Conducted three 8 hour on site training sessions for EE marketing • Met bi-weekly in person to determine training needs and ways to improve workflow • Based training off information gathered in meetings, tailored trainings to the customer’s workflow • Worked with SharePoint out of the box enabled rapid prototyping of workflow changes • Created Transparency: Kept customer knowledgeable and heavily involved in the requirements gathering process • Used Agile approach by listening and adapting to the customer as the project progressed, ability to adjust as needed
CustomerPerspective • Ownership between both ITG and EE • Inclusive Team Dynamic • Willingness to let down defenses to build good chemistry • Daily stand-ups and weekly meetings supported real-time communication facilitated the smooth project flow • Coding Best Practice Documentation • Established standard of excellence for all developers on the team • Provided the customer with a high-level of confidence for the deliverables • Transparency • Challenges elevated to the team-level, not left for discussion within only the impacted group • Alternative ideas for processes and resolutions solicited and discussed with merit
Customer Perspective The EE Marketing Approach • Project Schedule • Persistent close monitoring with a keen eye on dependencies • Limited deliverables slippage and avoided surprises • Shared Learning • Reciprocal learning between departments: EE process and ITG application knowledge • Collaboration to identify training scenarios provided solid foundation to write training documentation • Local desk-top training sessions allowed comfort level to EE and process insight for ITG
Lessons Learned • Regular communication both internally and externally created opportunities for agile decision making • Upgrading to SP2010 prior to the site redesign gave customer a chance to ease into the new user interface enhancements • A deep understanding of the customer’s needs allowed the team to use the SharePoint out of the box functionality to meet goals without the use of custom code • Face to face meetings proved to be extremely effective, particularly when arriving at solutions • Recognizing that when content and code are involved quality is always a key driver for success