There are a lot of SharePoint consultants out there. Seriously, if you lay them end to end I'm sure they'd reach the moon or something.
So if there are so many of them, organisations must be using them. And from what I've heard, they are. Relentlessly so. What concerns me is what happens once the consultants have been and gone. Who looks after SharePoint then? How much in-house SP skill do most organisations have?
We used a consultancy for the initial set-up, but after that we did everything ourselves. It's true we didn't know very much at the start, but we had a small close-knit team and we made mistakes and learned quickly. We were learning SP - what it could do, how it could be used - but most importantly, we were learning how to successfully implement it in our organisation. And as I've said before, the installation and launch is just the beginning of a long road.
The decisions you make as you travel along this road can and should be affected by the answers to these questions, and others like them:
What do people like about it?
What do people hate about it?
What are the tangible benefits for them?
How difficult do they find it to use?
The answers to these questions will be quite peculiar to your organisation, and will differ from person to person. Consultants can offer you advice on how to deal with getting 'buy-in' from staff, but in reality, you need someone who knows the organisation, and who can deal with all the different attitudes coming from different areas of it.
So, once the consultant moves on to his next job, make sure there are people in your organisation who know what they're doing with SP. People who can move the project forwards. People who understand what compromises were made in the initial stages, and why they were made. People who can provide training and ongoing support to staff. Otherwise, you'll end up with staff who hate it and no one to defend it.
Then people won't use it. And if they don't; project failed, simple as that.
I'm not trying to do consultants down. I've learned a lot from consultants, and there's no doubt they know SharePoint. Just remember, they don't know your organisation.
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2 comments:
Hello Swazzee,
Just stumbled onto this blog: an interesting read - it's good to get this kind of view- I speak as one of the SharePoint/KM consultants you discussed in this post. I think your comments and concerns are reasonable, and, from my experience, quite common too.
I think this post raises an important issue: I would suggest another important part of any 'real story' to a SharePoint implementation: select the right consultancy - one that genuinely offers the right services for your needs.
This seems obvious (don't mean to be condescending!), but I think it is worth expanding on:
As you point out, there are lots of consultancies that can deliver a SharePoint solution. However, in my experience, this is usually not enough - we have been asked by clients to review and/or take over a SharePoint solution - where important questions before, during and after implementation were not tackled properly.
To speak in general terms, I thought I would make a few points that can be missed. I hope it's useful to someone.
For instance, without sounding too conceited or like a sales plug, the consultancy I work for (as any quality one should)would do a lot of the following before proposing any solution:
To understand and know your organisation - honestly.
This would involve getting answers to important questions that include:
Understand current IM/KM and/or collaborative working in the organisation
- How information used/stored currently:
- What is bad and good about current practices?
- How could this be improved/corrected?
- Could MOSS (or any alternative) be suitable - if so, how?
- Would the solution fit in with current and future strategy, policies or constraints of the organisation?
Support/Training
Before, after AND during implementation
- Does the consultancy understand the technical abilities and needs of my staff, of training and support needs for the organisation?
- Are services offered to address these post-delivery? E.g. support and training services- (to answer your question of 'what happens when the consultants have been and gone?').
Sorry for the verbose response, I hope it is of some use.
Regards,
Ab.
I agree with you in general.
I think that one of the main issues that people face 'after the consultants have gone' is just having internal SP skill - someone in the organisation who understands little niggly problems. And can tell them apart from whopping great problems, so they know when to call for help, and when (and how) they should be able to deal with it themselves!
I haven't worked that much with SP consultants, so a lot of what I wrote above is second hand from colleagues in other organisations.
I'm willing to believe there are consultants out there who will take the time to get to know the organisation etc. Guess it's down to recommendation who you choose to go with, and how much you can afford!
This last point is not a flippant remark. When working in the charity sector, spending money on something that is an internal system is not always well received - and often point blank refused by the powers that be.
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