Mr Sharepoint: 10 Years in SharePoint Today!

Thursday, November 17, 2016

10 Years in SharePoint Today!

Today is my 10 year SharePoint anniversary! Where did the time go….? What a journey it has been. You know how sometimes you wonder if you are on the right path, or imagine that you should be somewhere else? I’m a serial bush baby and nature lover, so I assumed that I would only be thriving and happy when I own a nature reserve and lodge.

But you know, the Universe is a funny little place. It opens and closes doors for you when you are on the right or wrong path. I was not convinced for a long time that I should be “doing SharePoint”, but when you take a step back and look at what’s been achieved over 10 years, you can only believe that I am indeed right where I am meant to be. What an honour to be part of this incredible global community and a privilege to run a business that keeps and grows talent in this country. So here goes …..

First SharePoint project – roll SharePoint out to 43 000 users! (Whaaaaaaat?)

Just under 3 years later, started a SharePoint adoption business. My business is now over 7 years old and in that time…

Won 10 awards :

British Airways Business Opportunity Grant Winner in 2010
SharePoint MVP Award in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016
Metalogix Influencer Network Award in 2014
Finance Monthly CEO Award Winner in 2016
NSBC Top 20 Small Businesses in South Africa Award in 2016

Also a finalist in :

Harmon.ie Top 25 SharePoint Influencers in 2016
NSBC National Woman Business Champion 2016
NSBC National Entrepreneur Champion 2016
NSBC National Small Business Champion 2016

And then :

Wrote almost 600 blogs
With just over 650 000 blog hits
Maintain 6 social media accounts, 6 websites and 3 blogs
2907 LinkedIn followers
3976 Twitter followers
2120 Facebook followers
Reached over 400 000 people with posts made in the past year alone
Spoken at 30 conferences and user groups in South Africa, UK, Canada, USA, Singapore and Australia
Reinvented the South African SharePoint community and helped grow it to the monster it is today
Hosted 4 SharePoint Saturdays (including the first ever all green SharePoint event in the world and raised R15 000 for rhino conversation)
Sponsored 11 conferences
Hosted and / or attended 141 user groups, including inventing a new one called SharePoint Business Workshops
Made new friends all over the world
Partnered with some big vendors in the industry on some projects
Designed and hosted the first ever SharePoint Awards program for South African clients
Co-authored a book that’s on Amazon
Spoken on radio twice
Got 2 certifications
Signed up 100 VIP clients, including Massmart!
Built and still manage a multi-million Rand intranet for Nando’s South Africa (and got a thank you letter from the CEO)
Changed offices 4 times and eventually got our own fully equipped training centre
Trained nearly 2600 people
Designed our own certification program
Expanded from being a one man band training company to a multi-million Rand full service SharePoint company with business and technical teams
Gained the ability to give clients value and direction within half an hour of the first meeting when they have been struggling with SharePoint for years
Created a business where people can invent and reinvent themselves any way they want to
Took 10 days leave and did not check email one single time – and the company was not only still standing, but new business was signed up
Ended the year being fully booked for 3 months in advance
And took 7 years to get the exact culture I want in my business, and boy, was it worth the wait!

While I am proud of all the awards I’ve won, I think I am the most proud to be listed as one of South Africa’s Top 20 businesses within 7 years of starting my business, because the playing field was leveled and I was up against every industry out there, not just IT. We made Top 20 out of 6509 candidates. That, and being able to take leave and not check emails and still have a company to come home to.