EndUserSharePoint.com: How do I get End Users to actually use SharePoint?
Question of the day from Shawn:
How do you get users to accept/actually use SharePoint? “I’ve been doing X for 10 years, why now do I have to do it through SharePoint?” Part of implementing SharePoint [for] my customer was to prevent users from using a shared folder for all of their documents, thereby enforcing version control, and also allowing teams to share information across one another. But its gotten to the point where people won’t use it unless they are explicitly told they have to.
Am I putting the cart before the horse, in that once we get a better structure in place/make it more user-friendly, then they will come?
Shawn – I was going to tackle the subject myself, but I think there are so many people with actual case histories, it will be better to let them respond. I’ll let it sit for a day or two and watch the responses, then I’ll add my own, real world experiences to it.
Just to leave you with something to think about: Information Structure and Interface Design are two different animals. The first defines how your information is stored. The second is how that information is accessed. You can have the best information structure in the known universe, but if people can’t get at the information they need quickly and intuitively, you are fighting a losing battle.
Mark
There is a great article/document by Susan Hanley (of http://www.susanhanley.com) on exactly this topic. It is called “If you build a portal solution, will users come?…six key strategic elements for building successful portal solutions with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007″ :-)
Very interesting read. Here is the link:
http://www.susanhanley.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/ifyoubuild-june2007.pdf
Great topic. I think one key thing is to have users involved in the development of the site from the beginning, so that there is a sense of ownership. Being prescriptive-”Here is your site, now go use it”, especially when there is culture/process change involved, is very tricky. Having superusers who can advocate for the new system is helpful too, so that it isn’t a case of some stranger swooping in, doing some training and then leaving them with a new system/process, and subsequently only being available if there are “problems”.
From my experience, it comes from the support at the top just like any other major initiative/project. If it’s properly funded and deployed as a project with all the trimmings it also has a better chance to grow into their daily life. I’ve had to do some “skunk-works” (budget limitations/change management) SP projects that gain traction only in some groups. At other companies where it is woven into the strategy/vision as the prime center for collaboration, and then given resources to deploy, develop & train, it wasn’t really even questioned – it was the tool to be used.
In addition to all of the above comments which are certainly factors, another great way to ensure adoption is to appeal to their pain points. If you can show users how using SharePoint will work better for them, they are more apt to use it.
I have approached it with the understanding that, for the most part, my users have already developed a process which works for them without SharePoint. It may not be the most efficient – but it works. So I always begin by understanding exactly what their work process is like – and then show them where SharePoint can fit into that process. Minimize the disruption to their workflow. This is a big difference from – “here is the new solution, here’s how to use it, good luck” and leave them to fend for themselves.
Along those lines, we do a post installation audit at 2 weeks and then at 6 weeks to find out where SP has been integrated, how satisfied they are and what is still “outside” SP.
If at 2 weeks they haven’t done any adoption – we team up with them for more personal training / assistance as appropriate.
I started off back in March of last year with some people being familiar Sharepoint 2003 and now have users building workflows, a few requesting copies of Sharepoint Designer and a couple of offices switching everyone over to Sharepoint for most storage and tasking.
It is just myself supporting 500 people during normal operations. So going around and providing much hand holding is out the window.
I started off setting up a Sharepoint site for training, with all the microsoft provide stuff and a few more documents custom focusing on our environment and other info on how sharepoint can help offices. I include a link as a signature.
Next I started marketing. I would get mass messages sent out requesting thing like offices identifying design managers. In those message I would include short articles on how sharepoint could make make certain items easier. I tried to do one a month with official but minor items, making sure it could not really be call spam. While I did get some requests for items here most did not turn into anything long term, generated some busy work but the purpose was advertising and getting the name out.
Finally I went and started identifying small management related processes that could be automated with sharepoint. This was the main pull since it now forced people to start using sharepoint and since it was small items most of them were a mash up of other things so for users it was actually easier in some cases they did not have a problem with them.
One easy thing in this area is get a document on surveys, get the text from microsoft office site. When anyone sends out a survey in email send them the document. Minor but it gets people into sharepoint.
So with the name recognition and being forced into sharepoint with minor items that got some managers to look at sharepoint and switch their offices over to it for file and tasking it has snowballed from there and I have enough projects to keep me busy for the next 6 months.
Will – Thanks for the extended comment. Describing case studies such as yours helps others focus on what needs to be done to get End User buy-in. In your case it was marketing in small chunks by defining basic functionality that could help the existing workflow and then extending from there.
Thanks again for a very informative post.
Mark
I really think it helps if they know some of the different ways they can use it. Simple things, you know?
There’s not a lot of material available to provide businesses with ideas on how to use SharePoint to solve everyday and common needs, especially in the non-technical sense. Sometimes people just need some general ideas to spark their thinking. I do SharePoint Services end user training and I’d like to think of myself as an end-user advocate.
A few years ago I started a blog/podcast to educate end users in Outlook and SharePoint. I think there’s a need to have more and more information like this available that can assist and educate those that can use a little help in better utilizing these products/services.
Recently I did a podcast called “Top 20 Way To Use SharePoint Effectively”, which outlines ways businesses can use SharePoint for business needs just by using the out-of-the-box features in SharePoint. Nothing complicated, but it shows how SharePoint can be applied to common business needs.
If you’re interested, feel free to stop by my podcast blog to see the types of end-user posts I offer up as free tidbits of training to help them with technology.
http://www.productivitypodcast.com.
I’d love to know if you think it’s a valuable resource for the non-technical business person it is really meant for.
On another note, I do love to peruse the more technical SharePoint blogs and try to pick up ideas to implement into my clients SharePoint sites. I especially love ideas on utilizing the Content Editor Web Part and wish I could find more examples and samples for it.
Thanks!
Andrea Kalli