If the purpose of the SharePoint in your company is significant, then the change to the users’ working style could be profound, and users need continuous support to understand that new working style and understand the value of the change. Continually sell the program by improving it and raising awareness of what it can do and has done for the company.
- Product Advisory Committee – As part of the process for considering further development, form a committee of users from several departments to provide feedback on existing features and needed additions. This group will beta test any changes and help to market new releases.
- Brown bag luncheons – Sponsor a monthly meeting for power users and site owners to show off their work and learn more about the product. The deployment team should play a minor role in the meetings. They should step back and let the users have their say.
- How-to webinars – Run regular webinars answering the questions that are most often asked of the help desk.
- SharePoint Guru Certification – Give an award to power users who have made an exceptional effort.
Deploying SharePoint hopefully resolves some business problems, but others are sure to crop up. Continually developing SharePoint keeps it current and ensures the business is getting the most out of the investment.
SharePoint is a bag of tools, a box of Legos, modeling clay, whatever your metaphor… SharePoint can solve a wide variety of problems. Chances are, it does more than what you’re using it for. Educate every level of the organization on what it can do. Support new changes with an enthusiastic user base, and the site will take off.
For more power SharePoint techniques, check out our training courses.
