implement collaboration platform

Info-Tech Research Group 1

Implement a Collaboration PlatformImplementation doesn’t end with platform deployment: build ongoing collaboration solutions.


Successfully implementing a collaboration platform involves two steps: the initial platform deployment and the ongoing solution design. Stopping after platform deployment will lead to a failure of collaboration strategies. This set will help you create an action plan that addresses both steps of the implementation.

Introduction

This Research Is Designed For:

IT project managers responsible for implementing a collaboration platform.

IT staff who are responsible for carrying out the initial deployment of a collaboration platform (for example, gathering integration requirements and building the necessary infrastructure).

IT Architects and Business Analysts who build ongoing collaboration solutions upon existing platforms.

Business managers who are interested in the impact of a collaboration platform on team productivity and business process efficiency.

This Research Will Help You:

Separate the implementation project into initial platform deployment and ongoing solution design.

Establish a persistent platform of collaboration technology services and permanently integrate with other enterprise systems.

Establish a catalog of common enterprise collaboration patterns and design solutions by mapping collaboration technologies to these patterns.

Prioritize different combinations of collaboration solutions based on their value to the enterprise.


Executive Summary

• Implementing a collaboration platform is a challenging project that requires a two-step approach: organizations must plan for the initial platform deployment and ongoing collaboration solution design. Budgeting only for the initial deployment is a sure-fire way to experience long-term cost overruns.

• Before implementation can commence, outline an overarching collaboration strategy, then select a collaboration platform vendor.

• The initial deployment should begin with outlining solutions for permanent teams (i.e. departments or business units), then moving into designing the front-end, back-end, and maintenance models. A pilot project with a tight feedback loop from end users is essential to getting it right when it comes to rolling out the platform to the entire enterprise.

• Ongoing solution design focuses on creating specific collaboration solutions for permanent and ad-hoc teams. Solution design rests heavily on collaboration pattern matching: pairing the right collaboration tools with the appropriate collaboration patterns. The tools that are matched to each pattern should be the ones that meet business requirements in the most effective and efficient way possible.

• A collaboration business analyst can be invaluable in assisting the business with ongoing solution design.

• Optimization of the collaboration environment should be undertaken to squeeze the most business value out of the platform. End-user adoption is a necessity – train users so that they are comfortable with the platform, and assign collaboration evangelists who can help champion the solution among their peers. Bring senior management on board to increase the visibility and profile of the solution with users.

• Conduct an annual audit of the collaboration platform to identify and correct deficiencies.


The Info-Tech Collaboration Roadmap

Collaboration Strategy

Collaboration Selection

Collaboration Implementation

A comprehensive strategy for enterprise collaboration is a necessity for driving superior team performance and increasing knowledge sharing.

A sound strategy begins with evaluating the business costs and benefits. Managers must develop an understanding of how traditional collaboration tools can be paired with social (i.e. peer-to-peer) tools to create collaboration solutions.

Pair the right tools with specific collaboration business patterns.

Refer to Info-Tech’s solution set, Build an Enterprise Social Collaboration Strategy

After a formal collaboration strategy has been drafted, the next step is to select the specific vendors and software platforms that will be used to enable collaboration.

There are a number of prominent offerings on the market: Microsoft’s SharePoint is the incumbent collaboration heavyweight, but other vendors such as Open Text and ECM provide robust solutions as well.

Select a platform based on your key criteria, such as business requirements and TCO.

Refer to Info-Tech’s solution set, Select the Right Collaboration Platform

The final step is to implement the enterprise collaboration solution. Implementation consists of two steps: the initial platform deployment and ongoing solution design.

Platform deployment is similar to other IT-centric rollouts (e.g. CRM or ERP), but ongoing solution design should involve a designated individual who can translate business collaboration requirements into specific solutions built on the platform.

This solution set addresses collaboration implementation.

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/build-a-formal-collaboration-strategy-today

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/select-the-right-collaboration-platform


Collaboration & Unified Communications go hand-in-hand: build a strategy that addresses both!

Enterprise Collaboration and Unified Communications strategies are complementary, not mutually exclusive. Implementation strategies for one impacts the other. For more about Unified Communications implementation and optimization, see Info-Tech’s solution set, Develop a UC Strategy.

Focus on enabling knowledge sharing and team-based productivity.

Allows employees to efficiently share ideas.

Business value derived from creation of high-performing knowledge workers and project teams.

Collaboration

Focus on optimizing employee-to-employee and team-based collaboration through enhanced use of real-time communication tools and presence.

Communication-Enabled Collaboration

Focus on enabling individual productivity.

Allows employees to efficiently communicate whenever/wherever/ however makes the most sense.

Business value derived from reduced impediments to communication.

Unified Communications

Collaboration Unified Communications

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/develop-a-unified-communications-strategy


Do NOT just plan your implementation around initial deployment – also plan for ongoing solution design

• Collaboration platforms do not automate existing business processes with transactional services that support interactions between people and systems. This process automation is typical of CRM and ERP packages… but not collaboration platforms.

• Collaboration platforms do enable technology services and tools that can integrate with business process execution to support interactions between people and teams.

• It’s a common misconception among IT that implementing a collaboration platform should be restricted to the initial platform deployment, just like a typical transactional system. While this is an important step, it is not sufficient for collaboration success.

• After the platform is deployed, IT must permanently partner with the business to help design ongoing collaboration solutions for ad-hoc teams, departments and business units..

A successful project plan for implementing a collaboration platform includes traditional platform deployment, but also establishes a persistent framework for designing collaborative business solutions around the platform’s technology services and business collaboration patterns.

Don’t start celebrating the deployment of your collaboration platform when the business units are

lined up with specific solution requests in-hand!

ITBusiness Units


The costs of an implementation misfire are substantial: create a complete roadmap for the implementation, or risk failure

A failed implementation wastes time and money, and will not create business value.

A mid-sized professional services firm needed to boost the knowledge sharing and productivity of its employees. The organization settled on SharePoint 2010 Enterprise as its solution. IT was tasked with executing the actual implementation of the platform.

The Situation

IT focused solely on getting the platform deployed as soon as possible, with no attention paid to initial or ongoing solution design. Virtually no points-of-integration were established with other applications, and the platform went live to the whole enterprise with no testing or piloting phase. After deployment, IT did not provide training or assist the business with ongoing solution design.

The Mistakes

The platform failed spectacularly. End user uptake was almost non-existent due to insufficient familiarity with the platform. Teams that requested specific solutions were unable to receive help from IT with ongoing solution design. The platform did not enhance knowledge sharing or productivity. Management estimates the failure wasted over $80,000.

The Disaster

The implementation of a new collaboration platform is not a trivial exercise. Insufficient planning for both initial platform deployment and ongoing solution design engenders considerable risk to both IT and the business. Cost overruns and value proposition failure are common for botched implementations… and IT managers who fail to deliver will lose credibility with the business on future projects. Don’t fall into the same pitfalls that others have encountered… learn from their mistakes.


Section 1: Build a Strategy for Collaboration Implementation

Build a Strategy for Collaboration Implementation

Deploy a Collaboration Platform

Create Ongoing Collaboration Solutions

Optimize the Collaboration Environment

Sections:

• Defining an overall collaboration strategy and selecting the right platform are critical steps for enabling employee-to-employee collaboration. See our related solution steps for in-depth advice on collaboration strategy and selection

• Separate the implementation project into two phases: the initial platform deployment and ongoing solution design.

• Initial platform deployment involves robust implementation requirements analysis and a well-designed pilot project.

• Ongoing solution design involves matching the right tools to the right collaboration business pattern

What’s in this Section:


For more information on this stage, refer to Build an Enterprise Social Collaboration Strategy

Understand the steps that must precede implementation: building an enterprise collaboration strategy comes first

• The value proposition of employee-to-employee (E2E) collaboration revolves around enhancing knowledge sharing and team productivity. Superior E2E collaboration also cuts down on hard costs like travel and telecommunications.

• Enabling employees and teams to form direct (peer-to-peer) connections to other employees and teams, based upon knowledge and expertise, shortens cycle times, improves knowledge reuse and builds long-lasting relationships between employees across organizational boundaries.

• Organizational hierarchies are valuable for resource management but are not sufficient as a framework for E2E interaction. Leverage knowledge networks instead.

• Social collaboration tools enable employees to share their expertise and follow the activities of other employees whose work is complimentary to their own.

Why build a strategy for enterprise collaboration?

Design collaboration strategies around common and repeatable employee collaboration patterns, not tools, to produce collaboration solutions that effectively blend social and traditional (i.e. content management) collaboration.

Review the current collaboration product market to make sound upgrade and/or procurement decisions from among the options of collaboration platform vendors, especially MS SharePoint 2010; pure-play social collaboration vendors; and enterprise application vendors (CRM, ERP, etc.).

Consider the following best practices when creating an enterprise collaboration strategy:



For more information on this stage, refer to Select the Right Collaboration Platform.

Once the strategy is developed, select the right vendor

• Put strategic intent behind the tool by defining specific use cases. Failure to do so will result in a tool that is not adopted by end users.

• Don’t eliminate the niche vendors out of the gate – many of them built their platforms with specific collaboration goals in mind and may provide an improved experience over the more established vendors (like SharePoint).

• Start with your requirements to weed out any unnecessary functionalities.

• Weigh integration with existing tools as high in order to boost usage. The more points-of-integration the platform natively supports, the better.

• Usage of collaboration tools is lacking in many of the organizations that have deployed them; do not expect the infrastructure to grow organically.

When selecting a platform, keep the following in mind:

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/select-the-right-collaboration-platform

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.jivesoftware.com/

http://drupal.org/

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/quickr/

http://www.socialtext.com/

http://www.opentext.com/2/global/products/products-opentext-social-workplace.htm

http://www.newsgator.com/

http://www.salesforce.com/chatter/whatischatter/

http://elgg.org/

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10701/index.html

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/connections/


Build the collaboration implementation project around two phases: initial platform deployment & ongoing solution design

A common failure point is handing off the platform to the business immediately following rollout. Incorporate ongoing solution design into your implementation project in order to maximize success.

The most common source of failure with collaboration projects is IT deploying a platform, but failing to assist with ongoing solution design. This is a critical misstep that IT managers must mitigate.

• Initial platform deployment consists of many of the same steps that IT managers encounter when deploying other enterprise applications: for example, requirements analysis, infrastructure design, policy development and pilot projects.

• A successful platform deployment is necessary but not sufficient to ensure success. IT needs to break out of the mindset that once the platform deployment is complete, their job is over.

Initial Platform Deployment

1.

• Ongoing solution design involves creating specific solutions by matching business collaboration patterns with the specific tools that are best for the job. IT must work with the business to prepare tools to meet the needs of teams and business units.

• Ongoing solution design requires a high degree of cooperation between different stakeholders. Having a collaboration business analyst is highly recommended.

Ongoing Collaboration

Solution Design

2.


The first step in collaboration implementation is to deploy the platform itself – a familiar process for many IT managers

• The first step in initial platform deployment is to outline collaboration solutions for persistent teams (i.e. departments or business units).

• The next steps are to design the front end, the support model and the back-end of the collaboration platform.

• Following design steps, the appropriate policies must be put in place.

• The final step in the initial deployment is to launch a pilot project to a select group and gather feedback, then deploy the platform to the entire organization

The Collaboration Platform Deployment Road Map

The initial deployment is vital to the platform’s long-term success. Assemble a team of IT managers, architects and developers with a proven track record in platform deployment to assist with the initial rollout.

Deploying a collaboration platform is similar to many other deployment projects that IT

managers have faced, although it does entail unique challenges and opportunities


Collaboration

Pattern

Collaboration

Tool

Collaboration

Solution

Ongoing solution design matches collaboration patterns to specific technology services to enable collaboration solutions

The Fundamental Collaboration Equation:

Effective collaboration solutions are created by matching the right tool with the appropriate pattern.

Collaboration tools are the technological means that enable employee-to-employee collaboration, both directly and around business artifacts like documents.

• There are a variety of tools available, both traditional (i.e. content management) and social (i.e. peer-to-peer, activity feeds).

• Think of traditional versus social merely as a way to differentiate between some tool attributes, but not as a design point.

Collaboration patterns are recurring events and interactions that dictate the manner in which collaboration takes place.

• There are many patterns, but some are more common than others.

• Three of the most common high-level E2E collaboration patterns are meetings, content creation, and content consumption.

• Patterns can be synchronous or asynchronous.

Pattern matching is the process of orchestrating collaboration patterns with collaboration tools to produce a specific collaboration solution. Pattern matching forms the foundation of ongoing solution design. More on this later in Section 3.


Don’t just budget for initial platform deployment, or the costs of ongoing solution design will create overruns

• Organizations need to have an understanding of the costs involved with both initial platform deployment and ongoing solution design. Failure to appreciate both sides of the equation will result in inadequate resources for ongoing solution design.

• Investments made during the initial deployment will include hardware (for on-premise platforms), software (the platform itself), and other indirect costs such as the allocated time of the IT deployment team. A typical deployment of a popular on-premise collaboration platform like SharePoint typically involves purchasing the server software as well as licenses for end-user clients. For SMEs, software costs can range between $5000 and $100 000 for the complete solution.

• Costs involved in ongoing solution design involve the salary of a full-time collaboration BA (or the FTE equivalent when the role is assigned on a part-time basis to someone else in the organization). Bandwidth costs will also be incurred for certain collaboration tools like web and video conferencing. There will also be costs associated with optimizing people and processes (i.e. end user training).

Use Info-Tech’s Collaboration Implementation Budgeting Tool

to help build a 6-year TCO for initial deployment and ongoing solution design:

An example of a collaboration implementation is presented in the Info-Tech Collaboration Budgeting Tool. Leverage this tool to create your own budget for collaboration implementation.

http://www.infotech.com/research/it-collaboration-implementation-budgeting-tool





IT managers speak out on collaboration implementation:

Ensure that the implementation is not something which is unclear, and impractical. Ask yourself “What are we really trying to achieve

here?” The expected value needs to be very precise as to its function or else things can get confusing.

- Richard Hastings, Head of ICT, Macmillan Cancer Support

You don’t want to start too big, or too quickly. Not everybody has to be on-board right off the bat.

- Doug Lennox, VP of IT, Inscape Corporation

I would recommend heavy reference calls to other companies that are doing, or have done, the exact solution you want to do.

It ‘s also important to find ways to validate with real users as you build so you don’t learn during production implementation that the solution only addresses a portion of the critical functionality the business requested. - Brent Maher, VP – Core Infrastructure & Collaboration, Johnson Financial

Group

For organizations that are either looking at evaluating or upgrading, I think virtualization has created a huge benefit for us in terms of doing it ourselves.

When we were migrating from 2007 to 2010, my admin was able to go through the upgrade somewhere between seven and ten times before they did it in the

real world production. That helped us work out a lot of kinks and build confidence before we exposed that change to our end users.

- Brent Maher, VP – Core Infrastructure & Collaboration, Johnson Financial Group


Section 2: Deploy a Collaboration Platform

What’s in this Section: Sections:

• Initial platform deployment is the critical first step for implementing a collaboration solution.

• Deploying a collaboration platform involves gathering business, infrastructure and development requirements, then translating those requirements into specific design points.

• Establish a persistent platform of collaboration technology services and permanently integrate with other enterprise systems.






Initial platform deployment must be an IT-centric activity

The first phase of collaboration implementation is the initial platform deployment. IT must lead the charge during this phase of the implementation. The implementation can be broken down into several discrete steps: outlining solutions for persistent teams, designing the front end, the support model and the back end,

developing standards, carrying out pilot projects, and finally widespread enterprise deployment.

Information Architecture

Access & Ownership

CustomDevelopment

Maintenance

Storage Planning

Develop Policies & Standards

Outline Collaboration Solutions for Persistent Teams

Design the Front End

Design the Back End

Design the Support Model

12345

Security Considerations

Points-of-Integration

Implement Pilot Projects & Leverage “Collaboration Evangelists”6Enterprise-Wide Platform Launch


Use Info-Tech’s Platform Deployment Checklist to help guide the steps that should be taken for initial deployment of the collaboration platform.

Project Template: Platform Deployment Checklist

• The Collaboration Platform Deployment Checklist tool provides IT leaders with a framework for organizing the initial deployment of their collaboration platform.

• This tool contains the necessary steps that should be taken by IT leaders when moving forward with the initial platform deployment. The tool also provides a structure for project management by specifying start dates, end dates, task ownership and completion status.

• Project steps can be added or deleted based on the organization’s specific needs and collaboration requirements.

http://www.infotech.com/research/it-collaboration-platform-deployment-checklist




Begin with the end in mind: define solutions for persistent teams and structure the implementation accordingly

Creating examples of collaboration solutions that will be required post-deployment is an excellent way to get the implementation team thinking about business requirements. Creating solutions for persistent teams is a great way to kick-start the platform following deployment, and sets the stage for ongoing solution design.

• Before moving into design considerations, IT must identify business requirements for persistent teams (i.e. permanent business units, departments or groups) and create a set of collaboration solutions that will meet their needs. These solutions should be the first ones that go live following platform deployment.

• A collaboration solution is created by matching the right collaboration tools with the appropriate collaboration patterns. For example, a collaboration solution for team meetings might involve pairing a synchronous tool like video conferencing with a pattern like a daily scrum meeting where most of the team members are working off-site.

• Create a cross-functional team consisting of IT and the business to build a solution library for persistent teams. Use these solution outlines to guide deployment decisions (for example, around design points like information architecture and security). Use some of these solution designs for pilot projects, and roll the rest out immediately following deployment.

Business Units

Departments

Initial

Dep

loym

ent

Ad-Hoc Teams

Project Teams

Org. Communities

On

go

ing

S

olu

tion

Desig

n

Design collaboration solutions for persistent teams (business units and departments) during

initial deployment, then handle requests from ad-hoc teams during ongoing solution design.


Create a roadmap for the information architecture of your collaboration platform

• The first step in fleshing out the front end of the collaboration platform is to create a strategy for Information Architecture (IA). IA refers to how information is structured in the system. This step is particularly important for platforms that are content-management centric (i.e. SharePoint).

• Structuring information in a clean, logical manner is important for encouraging user uptake and knowledge transfer. Design your information architecture around the end user – folders and team sites should be laid out in an orderly fashion that makes pinpointing relevant information as easy as possible.

• Architecture setup means answering these questions: How will metadata be used? How will content be organized? Content availability – what content will be available at each

“level” of the platform? Content creation templates – will users have easy-to-use

templates that relate to common team processes?

Mapping out information architecture is necessary for ensuring that information exists in a structured, logically consistent manner. Do not dive in to the implementation with no regard for how data will be structured… doing so will lead to significant rework and governance headaches in the future.

Design collaboration IA from the top down.

Central Portal

Bus. Unit or Dept. Portals

Community Portals or Group/Team

Portals

Individual Project and Team Workspaces

My Sites

Start by creating an enterprise portal. From here, create portals for business units, departments,

teams and projects. Each level should only contain information that’s relevant to the entire subsection.


Establish access privileges that safeguard confidential information while allowing knowledge sharing

• IT needs to set up user access privileges and assign ownership for department and team-specific portals. The deployment team must work with relevant business stakeholders to determine who should have access to what material.

• There is an inherent trade-off in assigning user access privileges between the need to safeguard sensitive information and the need to make the collaboration platform as porous as possible to permit cross-functional knowledge sharing.

• Avoid creating “walled gardens” unless there is a specific justification for doing so. Closing off large portions of the platform restricts the availability of knowledge for future reuse.

• Material that is ‘in production’ (incomplete) should be available only to pertinent team members, but published material should be available to the entire organization unless it is of a sensitive nature. Administrative controls should also be restricted… don’t give users the ability to alter the underlying information architecture of the platform unless they know what they’re doing.

You never know how information might be useful across different business units and project teams, so make it available to as many people as possible (unless it falls under one of the three exclusion categories).

In-Production Content

Sensitive Materials

Completed, Team-Generated Content

The majority of content in the platform should be viewable (and searchable) by most users.

Administrative Controls


Keep the platform running smoothly by creating a support model that delineates responsibility for platform maintenance• During implementation, IT and the business must develop a

support model that addresses ongoing platform maintenance.

• IT will need to be involved in aspects of infrastructure and technical maintenance of the platform – for example, diagnosing and correcting malfunctions. If the organization has a Help Desk, these staff should be trained on how to troubleshoot problems with the collaboration platform.

• Responsibility for maintaining content should rest with designated individuals in business teams – it’s up to teams to decide which content should be kept and which content should be pruned.

• Teams should be encouraged not to delete content solely for the sake of deleting content. It’s inadvisable to turn on “auto-pruning” features (if the platform has them). Of course, retaining large volumes of content will also impact storage requirements – take this into account when planning the storage model.

Maintenance of the platform is distinct from ongoing solution design. The former refers to basic upkeep of the underlying platform, while the latter is the creation of specific solutions that meet the needs of different departments, teams and projects. Periodic maintenance is required to keep the platform “on the tracks”.

Physical Maintenance

(infrastructure and storage upkeep)

Responsibility: IT

Technical Maintenance

(troubleshooting of platform glitches)

Responsibility: IT

End-User Skill Development

(keeping users up-to-speed)

Responsibility: IT/Business

Ongoing Solution Maintenance

(upkeep of portals, content pruning)

Responsibility: Business

Collaboration Maintenance Framework:


Access Restrictions

Patches and Hot Fixes

Security Environment (i.e.

firewalls)

Plan for a secure environment: establish access rights, keep a list of authorized users, and guard against external breaches• The first and foremost security concern is access. While open

access is important to the business value of collaboration, there will be sensitive material that should be locked off. Restrict access to information about: Compensation practices Corporate strategy (where applicable) Proprietary product development information Industry-specific compliance restrictions (i.e. patient records

in the healthcare industry)

• Keep a roster of active, authorized users: when an employee leaves the company, promptly remove their credentials from the system. Integration with directory services can speed this up.

• On-premise collaboration environments should also be secured from external threats. Ensure that the software is up-to-date with the most current patches and hotfixes at all times. For more information on security strategy, see Info-Tech’s research storyboard, Build a Security Architecture & Roadmap.

Collaboration platforms often contain confidential and proprietary information. Be cognizant of information in the platform that should not be available to all users, and implement the necessary access restrictions. On-premise collaboration platforms should be secured behind the firewall in order to reduce the platform’s vulnerability to external threats. Cloud-based solutions must meet necessary compliance requirements.

Collaboration Security

http://www.infotech.com/research/storyboard-security-architecture-planning


Both on-premise and cloud solutions have storage limitations: forecast the platform’s storage requirements appropriately!• On-premise collaboration solutions require the appropriate

storage capacity to be in place prior to deployment. SaaS solutions are much easier to scale in terms of storage, but be aware of the storage limitations of SaaS-based accounts – most vendors have caps at each price point.

• Infrastructure considerations include servers and Storage Area Network design. Physical infrastructure is much less of a consideration when using SaaS.

• Storage planning for collaboration solutions is particularly important in organizations that have compliance requirements mandating information archival. Even in organizations that lack these requirements, storage needs are still important – a big part of collaboration is capturing and retaining knowledge. Platforms should not be pruned too often – if they are, potentially valuable and reusable information may be lost.

• See Info-Tech’s research, Select a Consolidated Storage Platform for storage requirements forecasting and SAN design.

On-premise solutions are typically more expensive in their need for storage capacity (as they often require a share of existing storage space or new investments in infrastructure). Forecast storage requirements by multiplying the expected size of each user’s “content portfolio” by the number of end users.

• Is scalability desired?• If yes, estimate future demand and

use storage hardware to support it.• Will there be quotas?

• If not, predict growth of each site carefully.

• Will there be upload size restrictions?• Use restrictions to prevent

unnecessarily large documents from occupying space.

• Will rich media be uploaded?• Rich media (e.g. videos) requires

substantially more storage, so only enable them when necessary.

• How long will documents be kept?• Shorter refresh cycles free up space

by clearing old content, but may limit knowledge re-use.

• Is version control a necessity?• If not, turn off to save space.

Storage Considerations

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/select-a-solid-foundation-for-the-consolidated-infrastructure


Make use of in-platform customization whenever possible: move to extension and custom development only if necessary• There are three pillars of collaboration platform development:

customization, extension and custom development.

• Customization refers to carrying out in-platform tweaks in order to meet business requirements. This usually involves making changes to platform control panels. Most platforms give administrators the ability to make a large number of customizations natively: take advantage of easy-to-use customization by training team leads to make their own tweaks.

• Extension uses 3rd party software to augment the capabilities of the collaboration platform: for example, SharePoint plug-ins.

• Custom development involves writing specialized code to enable required platform functionality. Custom development can be used to permit special integration between the platform and applications that do not have a native (or 3rd party) integration bridge. Custom development is expensive and labor-intensive: use it only as a last resort when required functionality can’t be achieved via customization or extension.

Avoid custom development whenever possible. If the required functionality can be achieved in-platform, custom development is a waste of time and money. For more information on SharePoint-specific deployments, see Info-Tech’s solution set, Manage a SharePoint Customization & Development Team.

Customization• What it is: modifiable, in-platform

functionality.• Use case: customize team sites

and portals – administrator access.

Extension• What it is: 3rd party software that

augments platform capabilities.• Use case: easy method to plug

“requirement gaps”.

Custom DevelopmentWhat it is: platform-specific solutions involve new coding.

Use case: special integrations, highly specific niche functionality.

Overview of development options:

http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/it-manage-a-sharepoint-customization-development-team


Defining points of integration between the collaboration platform and other applications drives adoption and success• Collaboration platforms offer powerful tools, but organizations

that integrate them with other technology services and applications are likely to realize better end user adoption, more efficient workflows, and superior realization of business value.

• Points-of-integration are the junctions between the collaboration platform and other enterprise applications or platforms. Many popular collaboration platforms offer native points-of-integration with popular enterprise software, while other points-of-integration may need to be enabled through 3 rd party add-ons or custom development.

• There are three categories that should be considered for integration with the collaboration platform:

1. Client integration

2. Mobile integration

3. Directory services integration

Establishing and enabling points-of-integration will drive business value by enhancing both the effectiveness and the efficiency of the collaboration platform. Organizations must prioritize points-of-integration by targeting applications/platforms that are most commonly used in project workflows.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Number of Points of Integration

High (80%)

Low (40%)

Co

lla

bo

rati

on

Us

ag

e

Usage improves by 3% for each point of integration

Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N = 79


Collaboration Platform

The collaboration platform should be integrated with e-mail, browsers, and common enterprise productivity applications• Collaboration platforms must be integrated with common

enterprise applications – particularly those that are used “in the flow” (as part of capturing knowledge during project workflows). Client integration encompasses applications like browsers, e-mail, instant messaging and office productivity suites.

• End users should have one-click functionality for sending content in an application into the collaboration platform. Some platforms permit e-mail integration by providing an address that all project-related material can be CC’d on.

• Most collaboration vendors also permit in-platform integration with productivity suites like Microsoft Office. Common in-platform integration permits library version control within productivity applications. Enable this integration to save team members time and effort.

Client integration enables contextual collaboration for ad-hoc purposes. Knowledge workers should be able to easily synchronize content created in productivity applications with the information contained in collaboration platforms, as well as quickly send content from e-mail and the web into the platform.

Instant Messaging

Web Browser E-Mail

Point-of-integration




Productivity Software

SharePoint 2010 offers native integration with Microsoft Outlook. Information such as contact lists, calendars and tasks can be

synchronized between the two: See this SP resource.

Example of Client Integration:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/5/8/35802290-a7f6-4976-8855-74c8b3b7f035/MicrosoftOfficeandSharePointIntegrationWhitePaper.doc


Directory services integration is where users meet withaccess control restrictions

• Directory services integration is a key requirement in the selection of a collaboration platform. Without it, you have no way to apply access controls to sites or content.

• Directory services groups must be defined to correspond to collaboration user groups used in solution design. Permanent groups like departments or teams are a given. But other directory groups may be needed for project teams.

• Advanced integration directory services can support the use of digital signatures and/or user-level encryption of content in collaboration solutions.

Directory services integration with collaboration platforms is not just an IT implementation task. Business analysts must consider directory services implications during collaboration solution design and initiate change requests as needed to support collaboration solutions.


Mobile is huge: integrate your collaboration platform with mobile devices to meet the needs of the “on-the-go” worker• Integrating your collaboration platform with mobile devices is a

necessity in today’s wireless world. Many knowledge workers expect to receive on-demand mobile access to collaboration resources. During vendor selection, priority should be given to those platforms that offer native mobile access (i.e. via a dedicated app).

• Integration with mobile devices will vary depending on the mobile platform involved. Integration is typically easier for organizations that have standardized on a single mobile operating system (i.e. Blackberry or iOS).

• If the collaboration platform does not offer a native application for your mobile OS of choice, it may still be possible to access collaboration resources through a mobile browser like Safari.

◦ Cloud-based platforms can usually be accessed directly via the mobile browser.

◦ For on-premise platforms that are behind the corporate firewall, employees’ smartphones may need to be configured to use a VPN to access collaboration portals and team sites.

Mobile integration isn’t just about initial deployment of collaboration systems to mobile devices for content consumption. Smartphones and tablets with photo/video capabilities will enable mobile devices to contribute content to collaboration systems. Keep this in mind when designing collaboration solutions.

Paths to mobile integration:

Collaboration Platform:

VPN

Mobile Browser

Cloud-Based

On-Premise

Mobile Application

End Users


Design policies & procedures, and communicate them to end users – remember to put policies on the platform itself!• After the front and back ends of the platform have been

designed, IT needs to work in tandem with the business to create policies and procedures regarding the platform’s usage.

• Policies and procedures should be divided into content policies and administrative policies. The former specifies details on how users should handle different kinds of content, while the latter defines issues pertaining to ongoing maintenance.

• These policies should be driven by the decisions that were made in the Information Architecture and Maintenance stages. See the sidebar for examples of what topic areas policies should cover.

• After policies and procedures have been drafted, be sure that end users are aware of them. Incorporate a policies and procedures module into user training so that staff are familiarized with acceptable standards.

• Always make policies and procedures available in-band on the platform itself. Post policies on a top-level portal accessible to all users. This will help drive viral readership of the material.

• Acceptable Use Policy for content (defining appropriate and inappropriate material)

• Information structure: for example, how should metadata be used?

• Social tools: How should they be used? What information should appear on employee profile pages?

• Records retention: Define records and required policies around retention.

• Content audit: Determine frequency and type.

Content Policies

• Creating new sub-sites: Determine site ownership, security, database administration, and navigation.

• Security: Plan in design phase, communicate with users to determine appropriate access

• Branding: Use standards, consider co-branding and differences from external branding

• Document libraries: Promote protected formats, native formats are best.

Administrative Policies


Test run the collaboration platform with a carefully designed & measured pilot project – gather (& use) end user feedback• The penultimate phase in the initial platform deployment is to

move forward with one or more pilot projects. These pilot projects must bring the platform online and demonstrate business value to end users and executive stakeholders.

• Keep the scope of the pilot project tightly focused: viable candidates for pilot projects should be selected from the collaboration solutions that were drafted for persistent teams. In order to obtain useful insights from the pilot projects, limit the number of concurrent pilots to two or three.

• Roll out the collaboration platform to a prominent persistent team (i.e. a regional business unit or department) and collect data on usage, technical performance and end user evaluations.

• Collecting end user feedback is essential. Weaknesses in solution design, information architecture and collaboration policies can be highlighted and improved by carrying out ongoing surveys and targeted interviews with staff from persistent teams.

Pilot projects are an invaluable means of fine-tuning the platform before it is rolled out to the entire organization. Successful pilot projects are handpicked from collaboration solutions for persistent teams, and rely heavily on a feedback loop between end users and the IT deployment team.

Pilot Project

Planning

Pilot Project User Training Pilot

Project Execution

Collect and Apply User Feedback

Enterprise-Platform Rollout

Example of pilot project timeline:


Identify business unit power users & bring them on-board to serve as collaboration evangelists in order to drive adoption• End user adoption of the collaboration platform is critical

for realizing business value. During the pilot project(s) and initial rollout, identify and train power users who can serve as collaboration evangelists. These users should be knowledge workers who are comfortable with collaboration technologies and demonstrate fluency with newer, social tools.

• The ideal collaboration evangelists are influential team leads who can get their persistent teams excited about the collaboration platform. Users with a track record of exerting peer-influence also make good candidates.

• End users who assisted with the solution design process for persistent teams should be “called back” to gauge their interest in being collaboration evangelists. These individuals should be rewarded in some fashion (i.e. small bonus) for being on-board.

• Collaboration evangelists must drive user adoption by proving business value of collaboration solutions and by providing peer-to-peer training.

Gathering a group of evangelists, ideally one in each department, will help significantly with all stages of collaboration implementation - from initial training, to ad hoc problem solving, to promoting usage. However, do not force anyone to help in this capacity, ensure it is voluntary, or you’ll send the wrong message.

It is very important to find champions in each department. [IT] can really turn a lot of people off because we’re always the people trying to push new things, and

they think of it like extra work. If you can get someone else to actually use [the

collaboration solution], get them to be the champion, and you just support them, it’s

a much easier integration.

- Paula Habas, Manager, IS, Professional Engineers Ontario


Finally, roll out the platform to knowledge workers across the enterprise & begin the process of ongoing solution design• After pilot projects have been wrapped up and iterative changes made to the platform, the final step in the initial

deployment is to officially roll the platform out across the enterprise.

• Two elements should comprise the enterprise rollout: deployment of “my sites” (employee profile pages and activity feed aggregators, as well as other social tools like employee microblogs) and the solutions for persistent teams (some of these solutions were probably piloted… now is the time to roll out the rest).

• Don’t be shy… the enterprise platform rollout should be accompanied by a great deal of fanfare. Hold staggered department meetings to introduce end users to the platform – this should include a statement of purpose, preliminary training on basic functionality and highlighting some of the ways the platform will make users’ lives easier.

• With the enterprise-wide rollout, initial deployment is complete – but IT’s job does not end here – prepare to assist the business with ongoing solution design.

Proceed to Ongoing Solution Design


Section 3: Create Ongoing Collaboration Solutions

• After the platform has been deployed, organizations need to create ongoing collaboration solutions that meet the needs of persistent and ad-hoc teams.

• Collaboration solutions are created by pattern matching: aligning the right tools with specific collaboration patterns.

• Organizations should have a full-time role assigned to ongoing solution design, for example, a collaboration business analyst.

• Build a library of patterns for common and repeatable collaboration solutions.






The collaboration platform cannot just be handed off to the business: IT must be involved with ongoing solution design

The mindset that the collaboration platform is “the business’ problem” after it has been deployed is a dangerous one.

Although some solutions will have been rolled out along with the platform (i.e. for persistent teams), ongoing solution design is a

necessity to meet the needs of ad-hoc teams (e.g. cross-functional project teams). The business cannot handle

ongoing solution design on its own: IT must take an active role in helping with collaboration pattern matching.

If IT becomes the champion, you run the risk of people saying, “it’s just another IT project”. They wonder what

the new technology will do for them. I now have five or six people who have been willing to champion areas within different departments... They are doing Webinars and

seminars and people are more open to it because IT isn’t promoting it. Now, others are seeing their colleagues becoming efficient in certain areas, and they’re asking about when they can get this technology and training.

- Paula Habas, Manager, IS, Professional Engineers Ontario

The business must identify their specific collaboration patterns.

Then, the business needs to go to the IT department to help them match

the collaboration pattern with the appropriate tools available in the

platform

The IT department carries out the implementation.

There is a certain “give and take” between IT and the business when it comes to ongoing solution design:

In order for both groups (the business and IT) to succeed with solution design, everyone needs to be kept in in the loop throughout all steps of the implementation. The business and IT must work in lock-step in a tightly coupled development model. IT can’t simply take the requirements and disappear for a week – communication is critical to ensure solutions meet team needs.

Info-Tech Insight


When possible, provide a dedicated resource for solution design – consider hiring a Collaboration Business Analyst

The Collaboration Business Analyst (CBA) will:

• Design technology solutions to enable business collaboration requirements and processes.

• Engage with project managers and project sponsors to develop project scope and vision for all collaboration-related projects.

• Assist in conducting research on collaboration software and hardware products to meet agreed upon requirements and to support purchasing efforts.

• Identify and establish scope and parameters of requirements analysis on a project-by-project basis to define project impact, outcome criteria, and metrics.

As a business analyst, it’s really best to be cross-trained. You have to be cognizant not only of what’s going on with the IT solution, but also what’s going on across the business and the

different pressures they’re being put under. So, it’s really about keeping up with the underbelly of the company, being that ‘elevator staff’ member who is able to go up and down as you need to,

at the right level. That’s what a business analyst has to be able to do.

- Steven Spencer, Manager, Ardenwood Consultants

Bridge the gap between the business and IT

See slide 38 for a link to the full Collaboration Business Analyst Job Description

0 1 2 3 4 5 6+404550556065707580

Usa

ge

%

Dedicated FTE’s

Adding 1 FTE improves usage by about 4%.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N = 70


The CBA will be most successful if they have a strong business background, coupled with IT knowledge

How much will it cost to hire a full time CBA?Business Analyst salaries range quite drastically

depending on skill level and qualifications, however expect to pay anywhere from $50,000 – $70,000 to

fulfill the job description on the next slide.

Survey respondents were asked to rate the importance of certain CBA skills on a scale of

1 (not important) to 6 (very important). It is clear that while the role resides in IT, there is a heavy weight on business knowledge and understanding of

pattern matching; ensure you hire a CBA with these skills.

Recognizing that hiring a new FTE may not be feasible for small organizations (or those with a hiring freeze), there are alternative options:

1. Add some CBA responsibilities to anyone serving in a generic IT business analyst role.

2. Hire a contractor to get the solution deployed, and have them train an existing resource on ongoing solution design.

3. Add some CBA responsibilities to individuals in other departments, i.e. Communications, or HR.

$51,217$59,975

$69,615

Low Typical High

Business Analyst, ITMedian Salary RangeC$51,217 – C$69,615

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

6 5 4

3 2 1

87% of respondents

said understanding

business requirements

was 5 or 6.

Only 31% of respondents said applications development skills are 5 or 6 on a scale of

not important to very important.

Collaboration Tool

Knowledge

Mapping appropriate

tech services to business

patterns

Application Development

skills

Understanding Business

Requirements N = 69

Source: Payscale.com

1 = not important

6 = very important


Use Info-Tech’s Collaboration Business Analyst Job Description to find the right candidate

Click here to access the full Collaboration Business Analyst

Job Description.

Info-Tech has 155 ready-to-use Job Descriptions located on our Website. They can be downloaded and

altered to fit your organization.

We didn’t have a Business Analyst available for the intranet project; however, we have an Internal

Communications Manager, who is the advocate for internal collaboration. This person sits outside the

Information Technology department and is specifically spearheading our intranet project. She

is driving it, and we’re essentially responding to what the end user interests are. Though she

doesn’t sit in IT, there’s definitely more benefit than challenges. I think that the only challenge is that

we really don’t know where she stops and we start. However, I think that will become clear as we

continue to develop our intranet.- Brent Maher, VP – Core Infrastructure & Collaboration, Johnson Financial Group

Different organizations function in different ways; sometimes the Collaboration Specialist sits in a different department. Portions of this job descriptions can be used for roles in other

departments as well.

http://www.infotech.com/research/it-collaboration-business-analyst

http://www.infotech.com/research/tools-and-resources/job-description


After designating responsibility for ongoing solution design, the next step is to build solutions via pattern matching

• Collaboration tools: tools are the technology services that enable employee-to-employee collaboration, both directly and around business artifacts like documents. Most collaboration platforms offer a variety of tools, both traditional (i.e. content management) and social (i.e. peer-to-peer).

• Collaboration patterns: patterns are recurring interactions that dictate how E2E collaboration takes place. There are many patterns, but some are more common than others. Three of the most common high-level employee collaboration patterns are meetings, content creation, and content consumption. Patterns can be synchronous or asynchronous.

• Pattern matching involves identifying a natural fit between patterns and tools, and then enabling team collaboration by using the applicable tools and technology services.

Collaboration solutions are created by matching the right tool with the appropriate pattern.

The Fundamental Collaboration Equation:

The solution to enabling team collaboration is combining the right collaboration tool with the

applicable collaboration pattern.

Three Overarching Collaboration Patterns:

Employee-to-Employee collaboration typically takes place in three contexts: meetings, content

creation, and content consumption. We’ll examine each in turn.

Meetings Content Creation

Content Consumption

Ongoing solution design makes use of pattern matching in order to address the requirements of ad-hoc teams and provide a means for contextual collaboration. There are three steps to pattern matching: identifying and understanding tools, identifying and understanding patterns, and execution of the matching.


First, understand the tools: modern collaboration platforms offer a variety of robust tools, both traditional and social

• The first step to collaboration pattern matching is understanding the tools.

• Collaboration platforms offer a diverse subset of individual tools. These tools can be broadly classified as traditional or social collaboration tools.

• Traditional tools focus on features that permit real-time communication or content management (library services) .

• Social tools borrow functionality from consumer social media and apply it to the enterprise – for example, employee activity feeds and microblogs.

• Match tools with patterns by identifying complimentary aspects between the technology and the collaboration patterns.

• See our research, Build an Enterprise Social Collaboration Strategy for a detailed description of the individual tools.

The collaboration platform is comprised of a multitude of robust tools.




Next, identify the collaboration patterns used by ad-hoc teams: patterns can be conceptualized by location & time

The best model to use when defining collaboration patterns is to compare the domains of time and location first. Does everyone have to be in the same place? Do activities have to take place at the same time? Choose one of four combinations as a starting point and then refine the pattern further according to specific needs, like meetings, content creation, or content consumption.

The most basic form of collaboration: face-to-face interaction. Includes document sharing, note-taking, decision making, voting, etc.

Same Place, Same Time

Real-time communication between different locations: telephone, IM, web conferencing (video, audio, app sharing), decision making, note-taking, voting, etc.

Different Place, Same Time

Delayed interaction that can be serial or parallel, often occurring between F2F meetings. Includes e-mail, discussion groups, content management like team spaces, wiki, blogs.

Same Place, Different Time

Same pattern as above but no real-time. All decision-making continues in an asynchronous manner. Voting works well here too, since no real-time meetings.

Different Place, Different Time


The Meeting Pattern: Bringing people together is critical for smooth-functioning teams

• Meetings are scheduled interactions among people to achieve specific goals. They can consist of person-to-person collaboration or also involve collaborating around one or more business artifacts, such as documents, drawings, presentations, etc. Participants can be in the same location or in a different location.

• Many different meeting types can exist within an organization:– Team Meetings– Department Meetings– Training Sessions– 1-on-1 Meetings – Client Meetings

• The key requirements of meeting patterns are:– Note taking (whiteboard, personal)– Decision making/voting– Document/application sharing– Action (follow-up) item tracking– Shared document library– Audio (unless collocated)– Video (unless collocated)– Vertical industry or compliance requirements Web Conferencing Screenshot. Source: Adobe Systems,

Inc.

Physical Meeting(i.e. face-to-face)

Virtual Meeting(mediated by technology)

Two types of meetings:


The Publishing Pattern: Employee-generated content is king

• One of the hallmarks of Web 2.0 is the lowering and removal of barriers to internal content creation. This enables efficient content creation by employees instead of relying on older, centralized content publishing paradigms only. Modern social collaboration tools enable employees and teams to create their own syndication feeds from what they create.

• Social collaboration tools like blogs, micro-blogs, and wikis make it easy for employees to become internal publishers, ensuring information is fresher and more up to date.

• Employee generated video is one of the fastest growing forms of employee-generated internal content, enabled by high quality laptop cameras and microphones becoming a commodity hardware feature.

• Process-driven publishing is not dead, but process is no longer a barrier.

Web 2.0 technologies have socialized content by enabling employee-generated content production and publishing. This doesn’t replace process-oriented publishing, but rather enables employees to publish less formal and fresher content updates in shorter time frames. As a result, the time-value of information is greatly increased.

Socialtext Signals is a popular microblogging application that employees can use to quickly

generate content:


The Consumption Pattern: Finding knowledge and expertise is a required activity for every project team

• Finding information and expertise within the enterprise that

may be useful to other employees and teams used to be

painful and less than productive. This inefficient method relied

on:

◦ Project managers remaining apprised of what each

other’s projects were, with or without a formal PMO.

◦ Managers remaining apprised of every other activity

going on in the department, trying to connect

complementary efforts.

◦ Gurus and subject matter experts (SMEs) being exposed

to the rest of the enterprise as experts in their areas via

arcane HR employee profiles which were chronically in

need of updating.

◦ Intranet search engines that got turned on and never

touched afterwards, configured to be everything to

everyone and ending up being useless to everyone.

• Now that common employee and team activities are exposed

socially as “feeds,” the same social collaboration tools enable

employees to create their own list of which feeds to regularly

monitor and enable searching of feeds, and employee profiles

(expertise).

Salesforce.com’s Chatter enables subscriptions to employee, document, and CRM activity with content

and employee profile search capability.

Source: Salesforce.com


After understanding the platform’s tools & identifying the collaboration pattern, match using specific requirements• The final stage after identifying tools and patterns is to actually

create a match between the two.

• Collaboration patterns help drive specific requirements – for example, a synchronous, distributed team meeting around content creation may require the ability for all team members to share content from their computers.

• Based on this requirement, there are several possible tools that could be selected – the tool that should be selected is the one that meets the business requirement in the most efficient manner possible.

• In the above example, e-mail could be an option – but e-mail is an asynchronous tool (i.e. it is not in real time). Although e-mail might get the job done, there is clearly a mismatch between the asynchronous tool and the synchronous collaboration pattern (i.e. a live team meeting).

• In this instance, it’s obvious that a synchronous tool such as web conferencing provides a more effective and efficient means for satisfying the business requirements present in the collaboration pattern.

Collaboration

Pattern

Business

Requirements

Collaboration

Tool Selection

Collaboration patterns drive specific business requirements, which in turn drive tool selection.


Example: Collaboration Pattern Matching for a meeting at a mid-sized biotech organization

• Generic collaboration pattern: meeting.

• Specific collaboration pattern: department meeting at a mid-sized biotechnology company.

• Explanation: the research and development department at a biotech company is having its monthly meeting. Although most employees are geographically co-located, there are two branch offices and several remote employees who also need to be kept in the loop.

• After defining the pattern, it’s important to enumerate the requirements for this meeting. Managers created the list on the right as the minimum requirements needed for the meeting.

• Employees will be located in different places.

• Content will be shared among attendees.

• Notes, past and present, must be accessible to employees at all times.

• Department highlights are shared with other departments.

• Voice communication is required, video is not.

Requirements for this meeting:

After requirements have been drafted, match the collaboration technologies to each individual

requirementWikis

Internal Blogging

Internal Microblogging

Employee Profiles

Employee Activity Feeds

Social Tagging

Employee-Generated

Videos

Telephone

E-Mail

Content Management

Discussion Forums

Instant Messaging

Web Conferencing

Video Conferencing

Rationale: The best technology to connect employees located in different

places is web conferencing. Web conferencing enables application

and screen sharing, white boarding, chat, and IP-based voice and video.

Requirement:Employees will be located in

different places.

Instrument the Pattern with Technology,Requirement by Requirement

Pattern matching (continued)

Wikis

Internal Blogging


Employee Profiles


Social Tagging

Employee-Generated

Videos

Telephone

E-Mail

Content Management

Discussion Forums

Instant Messaging

Web Conferencing

Video Conferencing

Rationale: Web conferencing is the most

effective technology for sharing content live during a meeting. Participants can view shared

workspaces and presentations in real time (without having to worry about being on the right slide, as would happen with an e-mailed

document).

Requirement:Content will be shared

among attendees.


Wikis

Internal Blogging


Employee Profiles


Social Tagging

Employee-Generated

Videos

Telephone

E-Mail

Content Management

Discussion Forums

Instant Messaging

Web Conferencing

Video Conferencing

Rationale: Uploading minutes and documents

from past meetings to a content management platform (i.e.

SharePoint) allows users rapid access to the files they need.

Version control and permissions prevent users from making unauthorized or haphazard

changes.

Requirement:Notes, past and present, must be

accessible to employees at all times.


Wikis

Internal Blogging


Employee Profiles


Social Tagging

Employee-Generated

Videos

Telephone

E-Mail

Content Management

Discussion Forums

Instant Messaging

Web Conferencing

Video Conferencing

Rationale: Internal blogging and uploaded

video of the meeting allows other departments (i.e. marketing or

sales) to learn about developments that occurred during the meeting at their leisure. Video summaries are also popular for inter-department and project updates. Remember, video can be a talking head but it can also be a series of slides or

images with a spoken soundtrack.

Requirement:Department highlights are shared

with other departments.


Wikis

Internal Blogging


Employee Profiles


Social Tagging

Employee-Generated

Videos

Telephone

E-Mail

Content Management

Discussion Forums

Instant Messaging

Web Conferencing

Video Conferencing

Rationale: Telephony and web-based

conferencing both satisfy the requirement for voice

communication, through PSTN and VoIP respectively. Depending on the protocol and client, it’s possible that IM could also be used (some instant

messaging services also support voice and even video).

Requirement:Voice communication is required,

video is not.

Put it all together to create the solution

Department Meeting Pattern

• Employees will be located in different places.

• Content will be shared among attendees.

• Notes, past and present, must be accessible to employees at all times.

• Department highlights are shared with other departments.

• Voice communication is required, video is not.

Wikis

Internal Blogging


Employee Profiles


Social Tagging

Employee-Generated

Videos

Telephone

E-Mail

Content Management

Discussion Forums

Instant Messaging

Web Conferencing

Video Conferencing

Collaboration Solution for Department Meetings


Leverage Info-Tech’s Collaboration Solution Design Matrix to build a library of common solution designs

• Use collaboration pattern matching, on an ongoing basis, to design solutions to satisfy the requests of persistent and ad-hoc teams.

• Pattern matching is an especially useful methodology for IT groups responsible for managing collaboration platforms on a permanent basis, such as MS SharePoint.

• You can’t just turn end users loose on SharePoint. SharePoint sites require solution design just like any other collaborative applications.

• Info-Tech’s Collaboration Solution Design Matrix is an extensible template that should be leveraged to build ongoing solutions off of the existing platform. Over time, common patterns will emerge. Having a solution design library in place allows leverage of previous collaboration solutions.

Info-Tech’s Collaboration Solution Design Matrix helps IT

managers and business analysts create a library of solution designs for team use.

http://www.infotech.com/research/it-collaboration-solution-design-matrix

http://www.infotech.com/research/it-collaboration-solution-design-matrix


Section 4: Optimize the Collaboration Environment

• Train end users on solutions, not platform for maximum adoption.

• Ensure management sends supportive and encouraging messages about enterprise collaboration.

• Review collaboration strategy annually to evaluate solution effectiveness and incorporate end user feedback.






Optimize people & processes to gain the maximum return from your collaboration platform

• Like any enterprise platform, end user adoption is critical for success. Users that are inadequately trained on a platform will be unlikely to use it.

• Carry out formal training sessions and use collaboration evangelists (power users) to drive familiarity and proficiency with the collaboration platform.

• Don’t just train users around the platform: also train them on the collaboration solution (how to effectively pair technologies with specific collaboration patterns). Users must be aware of how exactly the collaboration solution fits into team workflows.

• Optimize processes by carrying out process analysis and identifying points of contextual collaboration where the platform should be utilized.

• Expanding the number of ways that the platform can be used to enable more efficient knowledge-sharing and team productivity

In addition to platform deployment and ongoing solution design, organizations must optimize people and processes in order to get the most business value out of employee-to-employee collaboration.

High Usage23%

Moderate Usage48%

Minimal Usage 27%

No usage 3%

Despite the importance of collaboration, less than a quarter of organizations report high levels of usage.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group, 2011, N = 79

Successful platforms are characterized by high

levels of adoption.


Case Study (Slide 1/3): Johnson Financial Group

1) Test with small group of users• Test collaboration platform with a smaller pool of users for about 3 months• Survey users at the beginning, middle and end. See the appendix for survey questions.• Analyze the feedback to decide if it makes sense to roll it out to everyone

2) Create pitch campaign for Executives• Put together a pitch for executives regarding rolling it out to the rest of the organization• Include all feedback, quotes, supporting information from surveys to give full picture in order to get

executives on board

3) Train ambassadors• Train ambassadors within each department to familiarize them; have pilot group help to train

ambassadors and provide their experiences/advice • Test lab – convert all sites to SP2010 so they could see their own content in it

The Situation: Johnson Financial Group (JFG) recently rolled-out a very carefully planned upgrade from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010. They put a lot of forethought into training, communications and executive buy in. The following three slides highlight the steps they took in planning their implementation.



4) Communicate Rollout• Communicate to organization in advance that it’s coming through teaser emails

to get people interested

5) Rollout to Organization• Rollout on a Monday, allow employees a couple of days to test it out, do the first training session later

that week, on Wednesday or Thursday

An example of a “teaser” e-mail sent out

prior to launch day.

During the first training, we acknowledged that people were “probably looking at this tool and wondering why we spent money on it”; however, we were able to show them data that explained the adoption curve from their coworkers. It wasn’t industry data, or a Webpage article saying what adoption is, this was their

peers that they interact with on a daily basis. I think that helped curb a lot of the pessimism.

- Brent Maher, VP – Core Infrastructure & Collaboration, Johnson Financial Group

amichael

Graph provided by Brent Maher, will be re-done and added to case study



Training should not end after the initial session.• Create online forums where users can ask questions and support each other• Create opportunities for face-to-face information training (e.g. Lunch and learns)• Plan for renewal training which shares group best practices with the enterprise• Perform periodic audits to discover what features aren’t being utilized and which are being utilized

correctly

Results: After 90 days, JFG asked associates to rate the business value of their new instant messaging tool on a scale of 1-5, 1 being little to no value and 5 being exceptional value, 83% of people rated 3 or higher.

Business Value of Collaborative Solution (i.e. IM) After all training was done, we

had very little post upgrade scrambling

in terms of help desk having to respond to mass end user confusion. I was expecting quite a bit more traffic, but it all went very smoothly.

- Brent Maher, VP, JFG

We continue to have monthly live training sessions to allow for a refresh as well as to train new associates. Attendance has been consistent, so we continue to do them. We plan to look

into features that are under-utilized after the platform has been in use for about 6 months and then train on those features.

- Brent Maher, VP, JFG

6%

8%

19%

39%

28%

1 – Little to No Value

2 – Some Value

3 – Good Value

4 – Great Value5 – Exceptional Value

*Data provided by JFG


Train end users to increase familiarity with the platform and to drive uptake & adoption

Formally train IT

staff

Test with small group

users

Pitch to executives

Create advanced manual

Find & train evangelists in

each department

Create minimum manuals

Communicate deployment to organization

Deploy platform & train end

users

Advanced Manual

• A run book; include network configurations, reboot procedures, monthly/daily maintenance, and troubleshooting guidelines.

• Have one copy in IT.

Minimum Manuals

• A step-by-step description of the tasks to be performed by a department; include screen shots and written descriptions.

• Have one per department, tailored to that department.

Evangelists

Sample Timeline for Training

• An employee in each department quick to adopt new technologies.• Someone willing to help train their colleagues and promote new

technology going forward.

= Training Phase = Action Item *Size of circle represents amount of effort required.

Deployment and training is

not the last step, see the next slide for

Ongoing Solution Design

http://www.infotech.com/research/documentation-for-business-users-the-minimum-manual

http://www.infotech.com/research/documentation-for-business-users-the-minimum-manual


Training is important at all times - during initial implementation as well as ongoing solution design

Initial Training

Community Development

Renewal Training & Training on New Features

Training Stage Length of training # Attendees Delivery Method Info-Tech Tip• Depending on complexity

of tool, anywhere from 60 – 90 minutes, however no longer as trainees will lose focus after 90 mins.

• 10–15 per session

• keep #s low to allow for 1-on-1 help

• In-person or via web-conferencing

• Structured format

• Informal, online forum for people to ask colleagues or IT questions, start discussion groups etc.

• Knowledge sharing of best practices, tips and tricks

Unlimited

• 15 – 20 per session

• Users more comfortable & may ask questions at this point

• Online, discussions started by IT or users, and answered by anyone that can help.

Tailor training to group demographic (i.e. younger employees will often get

social tools faster).

Ensure all users have access to minimum

manuals. Helpdesk costs are minimized by self-help

and peer help.

• 15 -30 mins, depending on feature complexity

• If users know the training will be quick, they will be more apt to attend.

• In-person, or via web conferencing

• Should be informal and allow lots of time for questions

Center renewal trainings on underutilized features that would add value if

used properly.

Utilize the platform itself for training by storing training documents and videos on the collaboration site, and starting discussion groups for people to learn best practices and share tips and tricks.


Senior management support is key; encourage them to send the right messages downstream

• Senior management needs to use social technologies themselves and encourage the rest of their senior team to use them as well. They need to let employees know that they understand the difference between enterprise social collaboration and personal social collaboration (e.g. Facebook).

• If teamwork is the engine of your production, then reward it and discourage people from insisting on working alone. Cite the company’s investment in collaboration technology as proof of its commitment to teamwork.

• Let employees know that a certain amount of personal dialog using company social tools is OK. After all, valuable employee connections are just as often made based upon personal activities outside of work as they are based on joint interests in work projects. As long as standards of conduct are met, there should not be a problem.

Senior managers will rarely be evangelists due to their competing priorities, however train them at the same time as evangelists to get them on board early, and allow them to get a head start on organizing team spaces, completing their personal profile page etc.

When senior managers are also users (e.g. with a completed personal profile page) uptake is more successful because end users recognize that the

new technology is there to stay.


Make optimal use of the collaboration platform by altering work habits and replacing e-mail with use of the team space

Content Centrici.e. Document Library

People Orientedi.e. Team Spaces

What is a document library?• Collections of files which can be shared with team

members, organized within folders.• Check in/check out function which ensures that only

one version of the document can be updated at a time.

When to use the document library:• Anytime a team is formed to complete a project,

particularly with a publishing component.

How to optimize use:• Stop emailing around the document, communicate

about who is working on the checked-in version at all times.

• Utilize the “review” function to leave comments for other team members .

• Only keep 1 copy of the document online at all times and delete redundant information to keep the site clean.

What is a team space?• A team space is a portion of the platform organized

per team that allows for discussion groups, wikis, shared calendars, and document libraries.

• An example of a team space is SharePoint Communities.

When to use a team space:• Use to diffuse knowledge amongst people, and store

knowledge for future reference.• Use to keep organized (shared calendars) and reduce

email traffic (discussion groups).

How to optimize use:• Team spaces can be partially open, partially closed,

all open or all closed; groups can be created that nobody else knows is there.

• Project spaces can be ad hoc or formal, new spaces can be created and removed quickly.

• Create multi-organizational teams to collaborate easier with clients outside of the organization.

The two most commonly used templates for team collaboration:


Make optimal use of personal spaces by promoting completion of users’ personal profile pages, such as SharePoint’s MySites

Employee Activity Feed

Employee Profile Page

Microblog status update

Source: Microsoft

It is important to get profile pages populated early. The more people that use it, the more useful it will become, and if users are not seeing this value early, they’ll lose interest.

Use evangelists to promote completion of personal profile pages across the

organization.

Highlights of the profile page:Contact Details: including name, job title, work location, phone number, and local timeAsk me about: informs other users about specific skills and areas of expertiseOrg Chart: shows the organizational structure of the person’s roleIn Common With You: shows common memberships and colleagues with other users

Personal spaces can also be used to:• link to team spaces of projects the

user is affiliated with• keep a micro-blog of recent activities

or announcements


Review your collaboration strategy annually with Info- Tech’s Collaboration Platform Annual Audit Template Info-Tech’s Collaboration Platform Annual Audit Template will help you conduct an annual assessment of the existing collaboration environment.

It will consider a variety of different factors to construct a strategy for the ongoing operation of the collaboration system.

Use the audit to evaluate and establish:

• Strengths, opportunities, and recommendations around each facet of the platform.

• Issues and anticipated challenges with collaboration front-end, support model, back-end functionality, and governance policies.

• Project recommendations and next steps.

Developing a collaboration strategy does not end when it is documented. Modify your strategy annually to make sure you’re getting this most from your collaboration solution.

http://www.infotech.com/research/it-collaboration-platform-annual-audit-template


Summary

• Separate the implementation into two phases: initial platform deployment and ongoing solution design. Plan and budget for both – failure to do so will result in cost overruns and a lack of collaboration business value.

• IT must lead the charge for initial platform deployment. Create solutions for permanent teams, then proceed with designing the front and back ends and establishing a maintenance model.

• Run one or more pilot projects with the platform before going ahead with an enterprise-wide rollout in order to debug potential problems. Establish “collaboration evangelists” to help drive awareness and familiarity with the platform.

• Establish a permanent role for a collaboration business analyst. If hiring restrictions are present, diffuse this role across existing staff. The collaboration business analyst serves as a bridge between IT and the business; the analyst assists permanent and ad-hoc teams with ongoing solution design.

• Pattern matching is the cornerstone of ongoing solution design. Pair the platform’s collaboration tools with the collaboration patterns that are present in the enterprise.

• Optimize the platform by providing ongoing training to end users. Training should be held on not just the platform, but also the solutions themselves.

• Secure the support of prominent senior executives – having a champion for collaboration is extremely valuable.

• Carry out an annual audit on the platform to identify and correct weaknesses, and highlight areas of opportunity.


Appendix


Survey Questions from test with initial users at Johnson Financial Group

1. Please circle your age bracket:

18 – 30 31 – 40 41 – 50 51 – 60+

2. Please rank the following 3 Microsoft Communicator features (1st Place / 2nd Place / 3rd Place):

Instant Messaging ______

Presence ______

Desktop Sharing ______

3. Please estimate on average how many minutes per DAY that our collaboration platform helps you to save: ______

Examples of time savings might include: receiving an immediate response to a question, alerting an associate without leaving your work area, by knowing when an associate is NOT available, you save time walking to their empty desk and desktop sharing reduces travel to other locations.

4. Do you have prior professional experience with instant messaging? Please circle one. Yes No

5. Please rank the business value this communication tool provides on a scale of 1 (no value) to 5 (excellent value): _______

6. Please share business uses examples (optional): __________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. Additional feedback (optional): _________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________