Is SharePoint Responsible for Poor SharePoint Adoption?

While Microsoft SharePoint forms a substantial part of the ECM pie, it is quite strange that several CIOs of some enterprises are struggling hard to gain internal acceptance from employees – the real user-base. In concurrent market dynamics, ECM – Enterprise Content Management has become a crucial tool that ensures secure storage, better compliance and enhanced findability of corporate data. However, it is really unfortunate that several enterprises fail to derive any significant value from SharePoint as a content management tool, mainly due to lack of proper understanding.

Even AIIM international, in one of its surveys, mentions that though SharePoint acts as a medium between CMS and enterprises, adoption has always been a challenge for the CIOs.

When the respondents were asked to describe about the development of their SharePoint project:

• 7% respondents described their project completely successful
• 11% said that their project was successful, though they encountered several issues
• Approx. 26% said that they achieved some success at initial stage, however; later the project stalled
• Approx. 30% said that they struggled hard in meeting original expectations

It is widely believed among the corporate world that SharePoint's failure is basically due to its reputation of being “a jack of all and master of none”.  This may or may not be true, however; this cannot be deemed to be the only reason why SharePoint still struggles to achieve wide acceptance. In fact, there have been numerous instances, where failures in SharePoint projects can be directly attributed to human factors including poor up-front planning, lack of executive enthusiasm for the platform and more.

Contrary to our beliefs, the fault does not lie in Technology – it is all there in our so called highly developed human brains!

Experts who have worked closely on SharePoint strongly believe that the technology is not the real problem. Rather, it is mostly the people, who are to be blamed. Most often, enterprises demonstrate several errors with SharePoint, including:

• Enterprises leave development and deployment of SharePoint to IT, so when it gets implemented and integrated, the business managers, who were the main users, either have no idea about what is it all about or, they possess partial knowledge.
• Moreover, short comes in the initial planning stage is considered as one of the main reasons leading to failure in SharePoint deployment.  Lack of thorough research and proper articulation of business requirements makes the situation difficult.
• Furthermore, figuring out how SharePoint will solve specific problems prior will put the organization in a better position, resulting into preparing training modules.
• Also, SharePoint is primarily build to be user friendly, with a learning curve. Therefore, employee training modules needs to include an elaborate explanation of the platform' and its purpose in the organization. A demonstration video of how it works, also will it easier to understand.
• Moreover, once it is deployed, follow-up is extremely important, however, it often neglected. Many employees are slow-learners and may take time to learn SharePoint. They might fall short of best practices or get frustrated with problems which are relatively easy. Demonstrating an interest in the users' experience provides necessary perspective to keep deployment on the right path.

So, which are the major reasons for SharePoint projects getting stalled or its failure?

• 5% said they were stuck up in the earlier versions or conventional systems
• 30% said the users never really liked it or used it
• 35% said that there was lack of proper planning at the very onset of the project
• 40% said it was due to lack of adequate modules for user training
• 45% attributed lack of enforcement and endorsement from senior management

Moreover, one of the most critical statements that surfaced was; lack of planning /purchase/deployment of SharePoint in the context information governance strategy. When asked how well-aligned is SharePoint with information governance policies:

• 12% said that it aligns well with the enterprise’s governance policies
• 18% said it is not well-aligned
• 22% said they don’t have much left to do with the governance policies
• 48% said they still have work to do in alignment of SharePoint and 1G

One very important thing that catches the eye is that around 85% of respondents acknowledged these shortcomings. We all are like drivers, who never ask for directions and get upset when navigators miss the destination. We started rallying against SharePoint, rather than finding the real obstacles.

To sum it up, I would say that the survey indicates how organizations need to delve deeper and find answers for “Why SharePoint deployments aren't working”?

While user training forms a major part of the problem, organizational hurdles like inadequate support from the higher authorities, no or less IT investment, and poor planning play significant role in making SharePoint implementations, unsuccessful. Addressing these shortcomings up-front and concentrating on user training is the best recipe to ensure successful SharePoint adoption.

by Chirag Shivalker via Everyone's Blog Posts - SharePoint Community