"Good SharePoint, Bad SharePoint"

Lessons From 32 SharePoint Projects

 Average 5 Year Payback:  $3,604,000

  Average 5 Year Cost:  $431,508

Average 5 Year Return On Investment:  800%

See Big Mistakes Summary on Last Page

“The Good, the Marginal and the Ugly”:  Coach Bill Belichick destroys MS Surface Tablet during Bills game

  by Tom Ingram, PMP

The following summarizes my experience leading 32 SharePoint projects from 2004 through the present.  These include 13 major and 18 smaller projects using SharePoint Online, SharePoint 2013, 2010, 2007, 2003, Enterprise, Server, Foundation and MOSS.  In some cases I have included lessons from mistakes in other projects I have been close to but did not directly participate in.  I have worked hard to document the measurable paybacks from these and my other projects.   CLICK for Payback Details.

 

Be Aware of the Complexity... All the parts that MUST work together...

(2)  The Very Good Projects:

 

(1.3) "Skinny CRM":  SharePoint Sales Support Systems result in $6.5 Million Sold in 30 Sales over 2 1/2 Years,

Penetrated New Marquee Account:  $5.5 Million Sale to Proctor & Gamble in 60 Days*   Click for Full Case Study

 

(3.23)  Engineered to Order Pump Manufacturer:  Non-Conforming Materials / Quality Problem:  Extremely complex manual processes, mapped As-Is, designed To-Be, workflow and advanced SharePoint application developed within 60 days.  81 Step Process Reduced to 46 Steps.   -Click for Full Case Study

 

(3.30)  Golden Spread Electric COOP  Company Deploys SharePoint for Dozens of HR, Employee Applications, Compliance, Construction Projects, Legal, Admin, Field Operations*  Click for summary

 

(3.16) Mortgage Company Case*: $1,000,000 upgrade of old system avoided, $500,000+ in IT and operations costs saved over five years by providing 70 solutions to business users with No-Code Solutions.  153 Step Process Reduced to 89 Steps in 30 Days.   -CLICK for Case Study* (password required)

 

(3.25)  SharePoint 2013 Up and Ready for 31 Content Databases, Six Terabytes of User Files in 60 Days.   - Click for Full Case Study

 

(3)  The Big Mistakes:

 

A.  User Navigation / Site Hierarchy Confusing, Too Complex.  See article 3.24

 

B.  Focus on IT Cost Savings Rather Than Operating Results, Payback for User Departments.  See article 5.55

 

C.  Migration / Upgrade Mistakes.  See article 5.56

 

D.  Vendors, Consultants Running Amok.  SharePoint all over the place, bad 3rd party add-ons, bad customizations, cosmetics, activity, tech fads over operating results / payback.  See articles 5.60, 5.58, 5.61

 

E.  The Fidelity, Frontier Problem:  Limiting SharePoint to a "glorified file share" (101), File Store and Retrieve Only.  See article 5.55

 

F.  Initial Install / Design by Well Intended Amateur.  See articles 5.57, 5.60, Charter Schools case (pending)

 

G.  Customizing SharePoint for Cosmetic Reasons.  See article 5.58

 

H.  Cosmetics, Appearances, Spending Big Money Prioritized Over Rapid Operating Results Improvement.  See article 5.54, 5.57

 

I.  Common IT Project Failures Persist.  In 1990s only 30% successful.  In 2011 only 34% successful.  See research update, article 5.51

 

J.  Underestimating the cost, complexity, maintenance, labor required

 

K.  Browser and Network configuration problems creating slow response, user frustration

 

L.  Making external sharing difficult, security dominated, impractical

 

M.  Over emphasis on consulting make-work, in-house, look busy, keep my job, CREATES EXTREME COMPLEXITY, CONFUSION, NEGATIVE USER EXPERIENCE, LOW VALUE e.g.  SPF $100,000 project for Polycom – content types, managed metadata.  Frontier nightmare.  Cognizant – Hyundai over selling.  Fidelity:  over focus on low value, hygiene work.

 

N.  Wasting $50,000+ on fuzzy, unclear payback items while clear 10-1 payback go unattended.  E.g. cosmetics, customization, “knowledgebase”, “resource” pages (subjective, not really used, easily duplicated, not defined by people close to the work, abstract directions for search, all knowledge / files / corporate knowledge

 

 

*Contact Us in Dallas, Texas, USA at tom@tomingraminc.com or 972-394-5721.

**Success stories, client quotes, estimated costs and benefits are derived from actual projects but may have been altered for simplicity, teaching purposes or to protect confidential information.