The Value of SharePoint Help in Context

SharePoint is everywhere• Broad range of

application• End user

autonomy – users create value for themselves

• Intriguing social functionality

• Increasingly cloud-based

Adoption: Harder than it looksSharePoint may be widely deployed but narrowly adopted

• Effective business users may be unenthusiastic tech adopters

• Organizations fail to meet training needs of users

• No going back: Once SharePoint is deployed, IT adopts a “burn the boats” strategy

Adopter frustrationsMisconceptions about what business users can do on their own

• End users often have performance metrics that motivate them NOT to spend time adopting new tools like SharePoint

Adopter frustrations

SharePoint is a blank slate

• The platform is very powerful, but creating useful apps requires imagination

• Unclear to end users “what’s in it” for them to do the work of adoption

Adopter frustrations

Users “don’t like the SharePoint look and feel”

• Not really a criticism of SharePoint; users recognize internally-developed tool • Seems to provide less value

than a commercial app• Less polished, harder to use• Often poorly documented

Adopter frustrationsBuilding tools in SharePoint is complex for end users• Users frequently confused by:

• Search• Page Layout• Web Parts• Views/Filtering

• Permissions Model mystifies end users

• Workflow, master page design, conditional formatting are beyond comprehension for business users

Adopter frustrationsOrganizations commonly weak in end user training

• “Self-Service Model” – User can order creation of a site collection automatically• SharePoint end users on their own• No admin resources provided• Line of business teams must find their

own training resources

• Conventional training is expensive; managers often disappointed with results as users quickly forget what they have learned

SharePoint native Help is weak

• Basic help is MS-Office-general; little SharePoint-specific content

• Custom Site Collection Help (new in 2013) is limited to a single site collection; lacks context sensitivity

Impact of weak adoption support

• Temporary loss of productivity (“real work” gets behind schedule)

• Greater burden on SharePoint Support:

80-85% of calls to a help desk are “how-to” calls (vs. break-fix) – John Custy, IT Service Management Thought Leader

How do people really get help?• More than 60% say they get

technical help primarily from Google1

• Knowledge workers spend 25% of their time searching for information – and that’s only for successful searches; another 9% of their time on unsuccessful searches2

• Two hours of every 8-hour workday searching, plus 43 minutes of utterly wasted time

1. (2014 survey, Peter Dorfman Creative Services)

2. (2008 survey, Google)

“If you have a technical question or problem with a product you use (anything from an electric toothbrush to long term care insurance), what medium do you choose most often (if you have a choice) for getting help?”

Consequences• Disorganized content,

hard to find for those who need it

• Permissions errors, denying access to people who legitimately need it, or mistakenly giving access to confidential content to unauthorized users; and ultimately

• Failure to realize ROI

The Solution: On board help in context

Help users need, when they need it• Context-sensitive (one of

SharePoint’s biggest frustrations)• Comprehensive• Reliable• Up to Date• Multimedia• Extensible

VisualSP Help System

• Software solution from VisualSP• Installed at the farm/web front end

level• Provides uniform, context-sensitive

user experience across multiple site collections

• Unlike native SharePoint, provides help content from a Help tab that blends into the user interface and presents a menu of topics specific to the functional context

Simple to implementAny user with admin rights at the farm level can install VisualSP• Any site collection deployed on that

farm will have active VisualSP site collection feature• Admin can turn off the Help tab for any site

collection simply by deactivating that feature

• Stock content includes brief, narrated videos designed for easy consumption, resolving common SharePoint questions.

• Hundreds of additional video files, also available; VisualSP easily absorbs internally developed content

Help in context

• A custom Help Tab

• Menu of help items for this specific page and context

List of in-context Help ItemsHelp Tab

Multiple “scopes”Context-sensitivity managed through Manage VisualSP Help Items settings • Content grouped in

collections according to apps for which each content item is relevant

• Admin chooses relevant content by checking boxes for appropriate scopes

Benefits of VisualSP• Greater odds of successful

adoption• Fewer errors• Faster ROI on the SharePoint

investment• Reduced burden on the

SharePoint Support team

Over 250,000 end users

Users say: “Invaluable resource”

“VisualSP has proven an invaluable resource. Instead of having to wait for their questions to be answered, or for training to be offered at their location, our end users can access the information they need on the spot when they need. The ability to add our own content to the help system has made acclimating new users to our internal forms much easier. A picture truly is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth even more! VisualSP is the best add-on for SharePoint I’ve seen in the 7+ years I’ve been working with SharePoint.”

Robin L. WitcherSharePoint Administrator and End-User Trainer West Georgia Technical College

Users say: “Baseline knowledge”

“Modine is happy to partner with SharePoint-Videos.com. We have been able to set SharePoint baseline knowledge in our organization for both business users and IT.”

David WebsterManager – Web ApplicationsModine Manufacturing

How to get started with VisualSP

• Identify first users in advance as suitable early adopters

• Identify resource(s) with administrator access to the farm(s) where early adopter content will be

• Get and install an evaluation copy• Obtain permanent product licenses

for the farms serving the end users who need VisualSP

To learn more, visit http://sharepoint-videos.com/products/visualsp/