Do you want better access to accurate, timely corporate intelligence that provides improved performance management, inventory management and production planning and control?  Do you have high collaboration costs because of inefficient document production, meeting coordination, and project collaboration tools?  Do you have a geographically dispersed or large mobile workforce that requires access to timely information?

SharePoint solutions address these issues by serving as a portal and knowledge repository for the capture, collaboration and communication of enterprise information, best practices and organizational learning.  Information workers can sign in once to SharePoint and have a view into multiple systems such as business intelligence, project management systems, and existing line-of-business applications.

As part of our SharePoint QuickStart, the collaborative solutions experts at Allin Consulting will assist you in quickly realizing the full benefits of a Microsoft SharePoint 2003 solution. By applying best practices learned in the field from over 50 deployed SharePoint solutions, Allin will work with Customer team to plan, design, deploy and provide best practices guidance for the rapid implementation of a Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 workgroup collaboration and information portal.

Objective:    Provide a working SharePoint solution that meets requirements for the targeted 
                   pilot group, including end user training and knowledge transfer and a roadmap
                   to give a clear understanding of best practices and steps required to expand the
                   solution to a larger set of stakeholders

Cost:            Contact your Allin Account Manager today for more information

Deliverables: Solution Requirements and Design Document and Project Plan, SharePoint Pilot
                    Solution, Best Practices and Operations Guide, Knowledge Transfer, One Day of
                    End User Training

Outline:        This workshop is designed to last approximately 4 weeks; QuickStart will involve
                   the following high level project plan, which will be further defined during the
                   engagement:

Solution Planning and Design (1 week)

• Kick-Off Meeting
  • Identify goals and objectives
  • Define scope
  • Identify pilot group
  • Establish meetings with pilot group members
• Requirements Gathering
  • Introduction to Business Value of SharePoint Solution
  • Business
    • Define requirements for pilot group
    • Identify longer term requirements (not to be addressed in QuickStart)
    • Identify high level use cases – e.g. team collaboration, search, navigation, specific business process
    • Prioritize requirements and establish QuickStart features
    • Document requirements
  • Technical
    • Gain understanding of current technical environment
    • Plan server architecture (logical and physical)
    • High level capacity forecasting and planning
    • Establish security requirements
    • Document server architecture
• Install SharePoint 2003 Proof of Concept Server
  • Portal Structure Design
  • Design portal area hierarchy
  • Design team site templates
  • Define My Site usage
  • Define web parts to be used in web part pages
  • Look and Feel
    • Define CSS and color scheme
    • Define layout of web parts
• Document Libraries
  • Define base library template and metadata
  • Decide on number of libraries - One per department? One at the corporate level?
  • Define base library views (filters)
  • Identify documents to migrate (if any)
• Approval Processes and InfoPath Libraries
  • Assess workflow 
  • Design workflow approval (by area, by document library)
• Search
  • Define content stores to crawl (file shares, web sites, Exchange public folders)
  • Define search scopes - By department, by team site, by content source, etc.
• Security
  • Define and plan permission/access strategy
  • Identify/Define AD groups
  • Define SPS site groups
  • Authentication requirements - internal and external
  • Validate blocked file types
• Creation and editing of Solution Design Document

Solution Development (1-2 weeks)     

• Portal Structure Configuration
  • Create and configure portal areas and web part pages
  • Create and configure identified team sites and web part pages
  • Install web parts
  • Look and Feel
  • Create CSS and color template
  • Obtain feedback on structure from pilot users
  • Modify structure based on feedback
• Document and InfoPath Libraries
  • Create document/InfoPath libraries for content categories
  • Create metadata columns for libraries
  • Create views for libraries
  • Configure versioning
  • Upload documents to document library
• Search
  • Configure content sources to include in search
  • Create search scopes
  • Configure best bets and keywords
  • Set up index crawl schedules
• Approval Processes
  • Configure approval and apply permissions groups to areas, lists and libraries to define workflow
  • Configure or prove out workflow tools are requirements dictate – e.g. K2.net
• Security
  • Create security groups and roles
  • Apply security groups and roles to areas and WSS team sites

Solution Deployment (1-2 weeks)      

• Deploy solution to production servers
• User acceptance testing for pilot group
• Instructor lead, hands-on end user training
• Knowledge transfer and operational best practices