SharePoint intranet
Objective
The aim was to replace an existing SharePoint intranet with a new SharePoint based intranet and knowledge system linked to external systems for client, matter and financial reporting.
The budget for the entire project was less than £200,000 and that was needed to pay for design and build consultancy from two specialist agencies, new software and an upgrade to Interaction. Internal resources were needed to complete many of the build tasks to minimise costs.
Project Challenges
The project involved the collaboration between a small internal project team comprising the Knowledge team, IT development team, a SharePoint design consultancy and a Knowledge Management consultancy.
The project began with stakeholder sessions managed the Knowledge consultancy. These sessions involving fee earners and business service staff identified what an intranet needed to provide to support business operations within the firm.
These requirements were distilled into design concepts which were then given to the design consultancy to produce a range of design options. These options were reviewed with the small internal project team and a final design was selected.
Involving a broader group of stakeholders was discussed but it was agreed that so long as the design met the key requirements, the project team was well placed to decide on the final design.
This approach minimised discussion time and cost.
The second challenge was with functional components. The plan was to produce templates for pages using components that could easily be repurposed for different teams, clients and matters. The design consultancy suggested a number of approaches which were potentially costly but functionally attractive. Given the tight budget the project decided to focus on simplicity of delivery and not necessarily simplicity of use; and to use an internal SharePoint developer to build some of them.
Internal development resource was a further challenge. The SharePoint developer in post at the start of the project was more of an administrator rather than development and thankfully he left during the requirements stage. This then afforded the opportunity to recruit a SharePoint developer who would be able to build the components and integrations that would be needed.
The knowledge management system added further challenge because the design required specific document taxonomies, the ability to profile documents using those taxonomies, the ability to search for documents with results weighted on specific characteristics such as age, type, title, description etc.
This system used a heavily customised SharePoint search and a customised SharePoint document profile.
Budget was always a significant challenge and so the project was carefully monitored with tasks being moved between consultancies and internal resources to ensure budget was adhered to.
The final challenge was content creation. At the start of the project the expectation was that site/page owners would create content. In reality they neither had the time, interest or skills to do it. The critical delivery for the project was the knowledge system but that couldn't go live without the complete intranel. All internal project team members were therefore co-opted to create content with the site/page owners reviewing and signing it off.
Outcome
The project was delivered 4 weeks later than planned given the time needed to create content.
The intranet and knowledge system attracted a large number of users on a daily basis but interestingly only to the home page, knowledge system and those pages that offered specific functionality needed on a daily basis. The client, department and group pages were not well visited.
The overall system was nominated for a number of awards and did win one and placed second in another.
Lessons Learned
- A small delivery focused team is more effective than a large team
- Focus on simplicity. Technical solutions may be attractive but may be costly and difficult to use.
- Manage relationships with suppliers well.
- Be prepared to have difficult discussions with suppliers
- Focus on budget and be flexible in delivering projects.
- Ensure that there does not need to be a complete reliance on external resources. Good internal resources are cost effective and can deliver quickly to a high standard.
- Ensure good communication within the project team and to the wider firm.