1. Future Proofing Your
SharePoint Strategy
(and Tactics)
#SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Presented By: Richard Harbridge

2. Who am I?

3. Future Proofing Your SharePoint Strategy
Requires Understanding…
 What is SharePoint?
 To IT?
 To the Business?
 What is a SharePoint Strategy?
 How do we make our strategy complete?

4. Our Goal Today…
From Here To Here

5. SharePoint
Current and Future State

6. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Meet Joe
Hi!

7. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
At Joe’s Company…

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Decision Makers don’t have
Enough Information

9. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
The CFO needs to Reduce Costs

10. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
IT Services Struggles to Keep Up

11. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
People Are Having Trouble
Finding What They Need
And

12. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
So Joe has an Idea!

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Since…
Awesome! Not as awesome.

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And Everyone in Joe’s Company
uses Microsoft Office…

15. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
SharePoint is the Perfect Fit!

16. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge

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What is SharePoint?

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to IT Services?
What is SharePoint

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The Main Point of Implementing SharePoint:
 SharePoint eventually allows Business Users to
develop and implement business solutions that use
technology without IT’s direct involvement.
SharePoint and IT

20. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
When I Say “SharePoint Integration”
You Probably Think Of This...
Secondary (But Important) Points:
 SharePoint’s integration with technologies you
already use and it’s extendibility are invaluable.
SharePoint and IT

21. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
The Reality:
 IT struggles with supporting another technology.
SharePoint and IT

22. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Information
Search
Collaboration
ManagementControl
Process
InformationInformationInformationInformation
IT Information Overload

23. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Information
Search
Collaboration
Management
Control
ProcessForms Services
Business
Intelligence
Personalization
Records
Management
Information
Search
Collaboration
ManagementControl
Process
IT Platform Benefits

24. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
to the Business?
What is SharePoint

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Prioritize and Plan

26. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Map Solutions to Objectives
Centralize
Knowledge and
Resources
Enhance
Collaboration
Automate and
Improve Business
Processes
Enhance
Governance
Model
Reduce
Redundancy and
Improve Efficiency
Adjust Site
Structure and
Taxonomy
    
Migrate File
Shares
   
Create Dashboards     
Implement
Workflow
Solutions
   
Configure Search
Services
    
Branding    
 Direct Relationship  Indirect Relationship
* Objectives/solutions should be more specific – Example purposes only.

27. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Map the needs of the
organization to the right
technology…

28. SharePoint is not a Silver Bullet…
SharePoint is not a Silver Bullet at NothingButSharePoint.com

29. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
 Utilized by Business Users to develop and implement business solutions that use
technology without IT’s direct involvement.
 Our primary unified application delivery platform.
 Our primary workflow/business process automation platform.
 Our intranet and communication center for internal corporate communications.
 …
SharePoint will be…
 Our (external) web content management platform.
 Our primary document management platform.
 Our contact management platform.
 …
SharePoint will not be…

30. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Foundation
Standard
Enterprise
SharePoint has Multiple Options
2007
2010
Online
On Site

31. It’s Big Ecosystem

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It’s not just a
feature to feature comparison
People
Process
Technology

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So Joe does all that good
research and…

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SharePoint is a part of his overall
Enterprise Technology Plan

35. The Outcome
Within an overall enterprise technology
plan SharePoint and it’s solutions meet
specific business needs.

36. What to watch out for…
“Technology provides no benefits of its
own; it is the application of technology
to business opportunities that produces
ROI.” – Robert McDowell

37. Achieving a Scalable
SharePoint Strategy

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Strategy Approach

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Strategy Approach

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Phase the Strategies
Phase
3
Phase
2
Phase
1
SharePoint
Business Strategy
SharePoint
Infrastructure
Strategy
SharePoint Search
Strategy
SharePoint
Security Strategy
SharePoint
Performance
Strategy
SharePoint
Branding and
Usability Strategy
SharePoint
Development
Strategy
SharePoint
Integration
Strategy
SharePoint
Governance
Strategy
SharePoint User
Adoption Strategy

41. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
• Do you have clearly defined Governance teams, committees
or boards?
• Are the roles and responsibilities of the membership
clearly defined?
• Is all of the membership engaged?
• Does the membership rotate?
• How often are your members getting together?
• What are the reasons your Governance teams,
committees or boards get together?
• Are the outcomes of these meetings actionable?
• Do you have a Governance Site (and Governance Plan)?
• What is within your Governance Site?
Governance Strategy

42. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Without effective governance
organization, performance, and
capability are significantly
reduced.
What does
that mean?

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Without Governance

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So how do we tell if we have good
Governance?

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Teamwork is Key
There are typically 5 teams for SharePoint Governance:
 Business Strategy Team
 Initiatives/Technical Strategy Team
 Tactical Teams:
 Tactical Operations Team
 Tactical Development Team
 Tactical Support Team

46. Identify patterns.
Plan for patterns.
Execute patterns.

47. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
I think I see
a Pattern.

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Executing Governance

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No Single “Approach”
Projects
Tasks
Communities
Practices

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 Aggregate/Reference Document or Site
(Contains all SharePoint Info – Single Point of Reference)
 Objectives/Priorities
(Tech/Business)
Governance Deliverables

51. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
 Objectives/Priorities
 Disaster Recovery Plan
 Storage and Quota Policies
 Monitoring Plans
 Maintenance Plans
 Service Level Agreements
 Security Policies
 Deployment Process, Policies, and Schedule
Operations Deliverables

52. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
 Objectives/Priorities
 Branding Guide
 SharePoint Designer Policy
 Workflow Policy
 Development Standards (Including OOTB vs Custom)
 Development Environment Policy
 Testing Requirements
 Deployment Process, Policies, and Schedule
Development Deliverables
SharePoint Standards Online

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Deployment Process/Policies
Extremely Important! Ensure
you have clear schedules and
ownership.

54. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
 Objectives/Priorities
 Site Classification and Platform Classification
 Site Provisioning Process/Questionnaire
 User Expectations Agreement
 Roles and Responsibilities
 Support Agreement(s)
 Training and Communication Plans
 MySite Policies (Pictures)…
Support Deliverables

55. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
 User Lifecycle Policy
 Taxonomy Management
 Social Policies
 Content Standards
 Legal and Compliance Policy
 Search Management
Support Deliverables
SharePoint Standards Online

56. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Business Strategy
It is important to understand the vision,
direction, objectives, and priorities of any
SharePoint implementation or solution.
• Why are we using SharePoint within our Enterprise?
• What are we currently using SharePoint for within our Enterprise?
• What are the future uses for SharePoint within our Enterprise?
• How is SharePoint helping us achieve our business goals?
• What are our SharePoint objectives and their priority?
• What are our SharePoint initiatives and their priority?
• How do our SharePoint initiatives align with our SharePoint
objectives?
• What are ways we can reduce inefficiencies and duplication?
• What groups are doing similar initiatives and how can we help?
• What are the related systems, applications and services we have
within our enterprise?
• How is the business prioritizing SharePoint initiatives?
• Who are the people or key areas of the business involved in setting the
strategic direction for our SharePoint implementation?
• What areas of the business offer the most opportunity for growth?
• How are you communicating strategic changes or initiatives related to
SharePoint in your organization?
• How are you allocating costs?
• What are we currently using SharePoint for
within our Enterprise?
• Are we using it as our primary document
management platform?
• Are we using it to meet external web content
management needs?
• Are we using it as an application delivery
platform?

57. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Technical Strategy• What are the known current SharePoint Initiatives?
• What are the known future SharePoint initiatives?
• Am I using all the features our organization is paying for?
• Are we using any of the features incorrectly?
• What are the related business applications and services?
• Do any contain duplicate features/functionality?
• Are any being retired/eliminated in the future?
• What are the technical objectives for SharePoint within the
organization?
• How are these technical objectives prioritized?
• What are our current and future licensing plans with SharePoint?
• Do you have a communication plan?
• When do communications occur?
• What must the communications contain?
• Who are the contacts for key responsibilities?
• Am I using all the features our organization is
paying for?

58. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Do you know what people are
doing in your SharePoint
implementation?
• What content is the most
popular and where are
people going/coming from?
• What are people searching
for and what are they not
able to find?
• How fast are your sites
growing? How big are they
getting?
Analytics for Management

59. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
SharePoint Designer Management
Are you aware of who is
building and using SharePoint
workflows?
• Do you know how many
SharePoint Designer
Workflows you have in your
environment?
• Do you know how complex
the SharePoint Designer
workflows are in your
environment?
• Have you mitigated the
impact to end users from a
poorly designed workflow?

60. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Infrastructure Strategy
• Who is responsible for what when it comes to SharePoint infrastructure?
• Do they have a backup?
• Do they have the knowledge and training they need?
• Have you ever deviated from the default settings? Why and when?
• How are you monitoring SharePoint?
• Do you know when a content DB’s size is approaching it’s
recommended limit?
• Do you know when the site count of a site collection is approaching
it’s recommended limit?
• Do you know when the site collection count in a content database is
approaching it’s recommended limit?
• What quotas have you configured for SharePoint?
• How do you handle requests for a larger quota?
• What is the maximum quota?
• Do you have errors in your event logs?
• Do you have errors in your SharePoint logs?
• Have you changed the default settings for storing logs?
• Do you have errors in your SQL logs?
• How much space to grow do each of your logs have?
• Have you ever deviated from the default
settings? Why and when?
• What quotas have you configured for
SharePoint?
• How do you handle requests for larger
quotas?
• What is the maximum quota?

61. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
• How many servers do you have in your farm? (and possibly how many
farms?)
• How many web applications do you have in your farm?
• How many site collections do you have?
• How many databases do you have?
• How large are your databases?
• How many SQL Server Instances do you have?
• How many users are using your SharePoint site collections?
• How many requests per second are you seeing?
• How many sites do you have?
• How many documents do you have?
• What is the highest document size?
• What is the average document size?
• What are your resource throttling settings?
• What other technologies are you using with SharePoint?
• Are you using ISA or Forefront?
• Are your users using Micrsoft Groove or SharePoint Workspace?
• What is the current version of Microsoft Office you are using?
• Are you using Office Communication Server or Lync?
• Are you using Microsoft System Center products? Which ones?

62. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Are there performance
problems with large lists or
queries?
• What are the realistic limits
for list views and lookup
columns to protect server
performance and user
experience?
• What are the dangers of
DDoS and DoS attacks and/or
your servers running out of
resources based on existing
jobs and PUT/POST requests?
Resource Monitoring and Throttling
Wait a second… I have SharePoint 2007 (or 2003)!
• Large list views and lists with many lookup columns
(MM and User/Group are also lookups) lead to
performance challenges.
• If you are upgrading to SharePoint 2010 this is also
important to understand as the default throttling
limits may impact user experience.
• SQL Scripts (Read Only) and API calls can help identify
what lists you do have over the default throttle
settings, and which have a larger lookup count.
• Preventative Measures:
Selectively indexing large list columns can help for
add/delete ops, building smarter more efficient views
(1st filter), CAML/Search alternatives etc…

63. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Health Analyzer
Are there problems in your
server farm?
• What are the current
problems?
• Where are the problems?
• What are the solutions
for these problems?
• Awesome Tip?
• Turn on alerts for this list
(especially if you ignore
red warning bars).

64. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
SharePoint Diagnostics
How do you determine how
well different aspects of your
environment are performing?
• How do you quickly identify,
isolate and resolve an issue?
• How do you keep
Environments within SLAs?
• How do you reduce
downtime?
• How do you validate and
benchmark code
Download the Latest SharePoint Admin Toolkit

65. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
• What is your Disaster Recovery plan for your SharePoint
implementation?
• Do you perform a fire drills based on your plan? When was the last
one and how often do you do them?
• How do you provide single file recovery? (version control, recycling bin,
DPM, etc)
• How do you provide single or multiple site recovery?
• How do you provide server recovery?
• How do you provide data center recovery?
• Are you storing excess or unnecessary (unused) data in your SharePoint
farm?
• What are the costs of this storage?
• Why is it being stored?
Backup and Recovery Strategy

66. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
• How is SharePoint performance?
• What are the bandwidth costs associated with SharePoint?
• What are the costs associated with transferring redundant data
around your farm?
• What are my slowest performing pages?
• How heavy are my SharePoint pages?
• Are you using caching in your SharePoint implementation?
• Are you using Output Caching?
• Are you using Disk Based Caching?
• Are you using Object Caching?
• Are you using IIS compression?
• Are you monitoring SQL Server Latency?
• Is your latency 10 milliseconds or less for the Temp Database?
• Is your latency 10 milliseconds or less for the Search Database?
• Is your latency 20 milliseconds or less for the Database Log File?
• Do you have pre-negotiated SLAs for first time load of a site, subsequent
loads of a site, and performance at remote locations?
Performance Strategy

67. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Are you monitoring all the things
you should be?
• What are your slowest pages?
• What lists or sites are becoming
very large?
• Two Key SharePoint 2007 Tips:
• Look at the reports available
in SharePoint Designer.
• Explore
“_layouts/usagedetails.aspx”
Analytics for Management

68. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Security Strategy• How secure is your SharePoint environment?
• Do you have PII (Personally Identifiable Information) in your
environment? Is it secured and audited?
• How well are permissions managed in your SharePoint environment?
• Have you ever deviated from SharePoint’s default security levels?
• In what site collections?
• What was the reasoning/need behind creating your own security
levels?
• How can security be improved in your SharePoint environment?
• How can you more effectively monitor, manage, and maintain security in
your SharePoint environment?
• Do you have separate/specific site collections or web applications for
confidential data which are more tightly controlled, audited, and
managed?

69. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
• Do you have clearly defined Development Standards?
• What third party products are we using in our SharePoint environment?
• Where are they available? Who can use them?
• What is the status of these non-Microsoft products?
• Are there newer versions available?
• How is custom code performing within our SharePoint environment?
• Are you disposing of SharePoint objects correctly?
• Are you using best practices when querying or working with
SharePoint objects?
• Do you know how many workflows have been created within your
SharePoint environment?
• Do you know what they do?
• Do you know who owns them?
• Do you know what they were developed using? (SharePoint
Designer? Visual Studio? Third Party Product?)
• Who is using SharePoint Designer?
• How do you test your SharePoint environment when an update is made
to it?
• When new code is added or a third party product?
• How are you storing older versions of configurations, code and compiled
components?
Development Strategy

70. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
SPDisposeCheck

71. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Deployment Processes

72. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
• What kind of SharePoint support do you currently provide?
• Do you provide help material such as Manuals, Course Guidebooks,
Workbooks, How To, Tutorials, or Demonstrations?
• How do you train users on SharePoint?
• How do you currently provision your sites?
• How do you determine where each site should live?
• Who owns the site and who supports the site?
• How do you communicate new features, initiatives, or changes to
SharePoint to your users?
• How many SharePoint support requests do you currently get?
• How are these categorized?
• How are these assigned and escalated?
• How many are effectively responded to?
• How many are closed with success?
• Do you leverage/contribute to an internal knowledgebase for SharePoint
support?
• Do you have clearly defined SLAs for support and problem resolution?
• Do you offer face to face learning or unstructured/semi-structured
environments for learning? (Lunch and learns, after hours discussions,
communities etc)
Support Strategy

73. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Multiple Tiers for Escalation
Tactical Support Team
Help Desk
Site Administrators
End Users
Learning Libraries/Online/Help
(You can’t know everything)

74. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Measure Support
Learn and use data to be proactive.

75. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Diversify Support
resources/mediums
 Books and Manuals
 Online
 MSDN
 TechNet
 Blogs
 Cheat Sheets
 One on One
 Classroom Training
 Forums
 Help
 Etc

76. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
• Do you have a site map that represents the current site structures?
• Does this clearly indicate recommended containment hierarchy?
• Do you have a site map that defines future site structures?
• Are you using Content Types?
• Are you using metadata to help make content easier to organize and find?
• Are you using site columns?
• Are you using and managing Term Sets?
• Do you have tagging guidelines?
• Are you managing keywords?
• Are you using and managing Site Directories?
• Do you have classifications based on type of use?
• Communications based (publishing) portal/sites/collections?
• Team based collaboration sites/collections?
• Application/services based sites/collections?
• Are you checking for dead links?
• How well is your site structured?
• Can people find what they are looking for?
Taxonomy Strategy

77. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Structured Approach for Navigation

78. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Integration Strategy• Is your SharePoint implementation part of an overall enterprise
technology plan?
• What are the current systems and applications in place?
• What are the application and system lifecycles?
• Is there duplicated content that is contained in other systems or
applications and not just within SharePoint?
• How is this content kept synchronized when updates are made to it?
• Can data stored in other systems provide additional value to your
SharePoint business solutions?
• Can it give added context to SharePoint content?
• What are already integrated?
• How are they integrated?
• What are not integrated?
• Why haven’t they been integrated?
• Are there ways to reduce user disruption by providing more single
sign on opportunities?

79. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Usage and Adoption Strategy
• How do you share the benefit of existing SharePoint solutions in your
organization?
• Does this include user built SharePoint solutions?
• What is the SharePoint skill level of your users?
• Do you have user stories on how people are currently using SharePoint
successfully?
• Have you performed interviews or surveys to help understand how
people are using SharePoint or how specific SharePoint solutions can be
improved?
• How many people are using your SharePoint implementation?
• Are you reviewing SharePoint Usage Statistics on a Regular Basis?
• How many are using a specific site?
• How many are using specific documents?
• What times of the week are they using specific sites or documents?
• Are there patterns that can be identified to help in determining
the best time for updates or additions?
• Is your SharePoint accessible externally or via mobile devices?

80. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Usage and Adoption Strategy
• How usable are your SharePoint solutions or implementation?
• Have you performed usability assessments?
• How has your SharePoint implementation been branded?
• Does it have a unique name for referencing?
• What are your theme and styling guidelines?
• How does your SharePoint implementation work across
browsers?
• What about upcoming browsers?
• What are the accessibility concerns in your current SharePoint
implementation?
• How can this be improved?
• Do you have usage policies defined?
• Have your users signed off or acknowledged these policies?
• Do you enforce these policies?
• How often are these usage policies assessed and updated?

81. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Usability Strategy• Have you identified and defined user personas?
• Is your SharePoint accessible externally?
• Is your SharePoint being used on mobile devices?
• How is the user experience?
• How has your SharePoint implementation been branded?
• What are your theme and styling guidelines?
• How does your SharePoint implementation work across browsers?
• What about upcoming browsers?
• What are the accessibility concerns in your current SharePoint
implementation?
• How can this be improved?
• How do you make navigation changes in your SharePoint
implementation?
• Is your current navigation effective?
• Have you performed card sorting exercises?
• Have you performed the ‘blind’ test?

82. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Make it easier to work with
Powerful Columns You Probably Didn’t Know About

83. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Make it easier to work with
Why Leveraging SharePoint Blog Features for News is a Great Idea

84. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Mobile Strategy
• What is the mobile experience of your SharePoint site?
• Have you optimized the site for smaller resolutions?
• What mobile browsers do you support?
• Is your organization adopting tablet PCs (iPads)?
• What is the tablet experience of your SharePoint site?
• What support do you provide for remote workers?
• What are the offline and synchronization options your organization
is providing?
• Is SharePoint available outside of the firewall for employees?
• When a user receives an email linking to a SharePoint document on
their phone can they download that document?
• What is this mobile email and SharePoint experience like?

85. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Search Strategy• Are you using custom search scopes?
• Are you using people search?
• Are you checking what queries resulted in failure (no click through or 0
results)?
• Are you using best bets?
• Have you defined synonyms?
• Do you allow users to search non SharePoint data from within
SharePoint? If so what data?
• Are you using hit highlighting?
• Have you made organizational enhancements to the noise words file
and/or the thesaurus file?
• Have you defragmented your search database(s)?

86. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
Social Strategy• What does a one star versus a five star rating mean in your organization?
• What are acceptable tags?
• Are negative tags allowed?
• Are there examples of effective tags available?
• When should a user tag and when shouldn’t they?
• If content has already been tagged is it valuable to tag it again?
• Is it okay to tag content if that content already has a column (or
metadata) value that represents that tag?
• Are you using Status Updates?
• What are acceptable status updates?
• Are there examples of effective status updates available?
• What is acceptable About Me information for a user profile?
• Are there examples of effective About Me descriptions available?
• What is an acceptable user profile picture?

87. #SPSSouthFLA @RHarbridge
• Are you using keywords, key phrases, and a description that reflects
each pages content?
• Are you using Robots Exclusion Standard (robots.txt)?
• Are you placing your content higher up in the page (to improve search
engine processing).
• Are you ensuring alt and title tags are always filled on things like images?
• Are you using descriptive text in your hyperlinks?
• Are you using descriptive page titles?
• Are you automatically updating the sitemap (helps search engines crawl
or discover pages on the site).
• Are you adjusting the Search Visibility for sites or pages you don’t want
crawled?
SEO Strategy

88. The Outcome
You have a sustainable SharePoint
strategy based on your organizations
SharePoint maturity and use.

89. What to watch out for…
No organization in the world has a
future proof (complete/all
encompassing) SharePoint Strategy.

90. To Future Proof SharePoint You Need…
 The Business and IT to understand what
SharePoint is, why they are using it, and
when they shouldn’t use it.
 The organization to have a comprehensive
and constantly evolving SharePoint
Strategy that effectively provides answers
to relevant questions.

91. Questions? Ideas? Feedback? Contact me:
 Twitter: @RHarbridge
 Blog: http://www.RHarbridge.com
 Email: Richard@RHarbridge.com
 Resources:
700+ SharePoint IA Slides at.. PracticalIntranet.com
130+ SharePoint Standards at.. SPStandards.com
15 Pages of Important Questions at.. SharePointDiagnostics.com
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