It’s very important, when implementing SharePoint, to take time planning the installation carefully. Performance, scalability, and security are all important factors to take into consideration. The following 10 items can help you manage a successful SharePoint implementation:
1. Get familiar with the way SharePoint works OOB (out of the box).Customization can be tempting if your IT department has developers. But, be cautious. Microsoft will not support customized installs of SharePoint.
2. Consider and reconsider your company’s vision of how SharePoint will fit into your workplace. Build your installation accordingly.
3. Training. End users will need it.Administrators will need even more. Microsoft offers a lot of documentation on their website.
4. Capacity planning is an important exercise if you want to make your portal a one-stop solution for your users.Document conversion services are all resource intensive. Designing a farm that can scale with your users is of the utmost importance.
5. Configure your SharePoint backup for maximum efficiency. A great way to do this is by reducing the backup window. This can be done by reducing the amount of data being backed up, performing backups incrementally, or executing backup jobs on a more business-appropriate schedule.
6. Disaster Recovery. Plan for it.Test your backups. Document any tweaks and configurations done to your SharePoint server. Also, practice a couple times each year a disaster recovery scenario using virtualized servers.
7. Implement your rollout of SharePoint in phases. This gives administrators and end users time to learn and use each the new functionalities, as it is added.
8. Implement security.Arriving at a security model that satisfies the business without restraining the users is crucial to success. Over engineering ng security puts additional burdens on the IT staff for support. Inadequate security leads to unmanaged site growth on the portal. Striking the right balance and documenting it early on is important for preventing issues later.
9. Gather feedback on your SharePoint system. After end users have had ample opportunity to utilize SharePoint, poll them for valuable information and insight on what is and isn’t working.
10. Involve workers in the planning stages.This ensures that there is an adequate level of buy-in from all levels of the organization. Key stakeholders should be introduced to the product in the early stages of the rollout to build their level of comfort with the tool and increase the amount of feedback.
At Northwest Computer Support, we have several experts on staff to help your company manage SharePoint implementation, and utilization. Contact Us today for a consultation.