INTRANETS: THE SUCCESSES AND
THE FAILURES
By Michael Doyle
MICHAEL DOYLE
SharePoint Architect
Worked for EPA, Intel, Propoint, HCA,
Deloitte, US Navy, CA State Lottery, Air
Resources Board, Waggener Edstrom,
etc.
Website: www.SharePointNinja.com
Twitter: @sharepointninja
Email: [email protected]
Other Books
SharePoint 2010 Inside Out
Tale of Two Stones
Exam Ref: 70-332
Customizing My Site (2010)
A
single stop to deliver information to your
organization
A
collaboration tool
A
publishing platform for departments to
deliver information
WHAT IS AN INTRANET?
 Total
cost of ownership
 Ability
to support implementation
 Large
investment in other technology that
you can leverage
 Animosity
toward previous
implementations may make success
improbable
WHY WOULDN’T I USE SHAREPOINT?
 What
version of SharePoint
 Foundation
(gone in SP2016)
 Standard
 Enterprise
 Office
 Should
365
I even use SharePoint?
CHOOSING THE RIGHT OR WRONG
PLATFORM
A
whole lot cheaper
Can
bundle with other Office 365
products
No
server maintenance
Much
lower skill requirements
OFFICE 365 BENEFITS
No
control over search crawls
No
server side code
No
access to database
Additional
branding concerns
Issues
of slowness (especially random unexplained
slowness)
Have
to go to Microsoft with any server issues
OFFICE 365 CONCERNS
 Even
if the goal is to minimize the amount of
programming necessary it is important to include
your programming staff in the development of your
intranet
 Invite
them to meetings
 Adapt
 Get
to their talents
some specific training on SharePoint
INTRANET FAILURE:
PROGRAMMER EXCLUSION
Don’t
assume you know what features
that users find useful
Roll
out upgrades to small groups of
“friendly users”
Survey
end users and walk through
functions with them
INTRANET FAILURE:
ASSUMING FEATURES WON’T BE MISSED
INTRANET SUCCESS:
REPLACING EMAIL LINK IN SHAREPOINT 2013
Format as
a number.
Inconsistent
navigation
confuses end users
It
wastes time and
time=money
People
are creatures of habit
so use that to your advantage
INTRANET FAILURE:
INCONSISTENT NAVIGATION
CONSISTENT NAVIGATION
 Can
use custom providers such as XML
Files, Web Services, or Databases
 SharePoint
interface to manage
navigation is easy to use but limited (per
site collection and two levels)
 Writing
your own is pretty straight forward
with lots of examples online
 PDFs
were not indexed (could not use search
to find document)
 The
common forms and regulations were all in
PDF form
 Manual
navigation took up to 7 clicks to
locate a needed form or regulation
INTRANET FAILURE:
7 CLICKS TO FIND A COMMON FILE
•
•
•
ONE click is still the goal
for important items.
Popular items (my sites,
search, tagging) need
to be easy to get to
and in familiar places
Easy access to the
home page from
anywhere on
the intranet
INTRANET EXAMPLES
INTRANET EXAMPLE 1
INTRANET EXAMPLE 2
INTRANET EXAMPLE 3
INTRANET FAIL:
TRYING TO SUPPORT TOO MANY BROWSERS
Chrome
Remove
items that don’t add value in an
intranet setting
Check
boxes
Headers
Unused
space (i.e. Office 365 header)
INTRANET FAIL:
CLUTTERED UP INTRANET
INTRANET ON THE CHEAP
Using
the Standard version (or
even the free version)
Going
with the Team site template
Cleaning
Client
up the landing page
Side Scripting

<style>

.ms-core-navigation { DISPLAY: none }

#contentBox { margin-left: 0px }

</style>

<script>

_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("HideBrandingsuite");

function HideBrandingsuite()

{

document.getElementById('suiteBarLeft').style.visibility = 'hidden';

document.getElementById('suiteBarRight').style.visibility = 'hidden';

document.getElementById('s4-ribbonrow').style.visibility = 'hidden';}

</script>
HIDE THE CHROME IN O365
CHROME REMOVED EXAMPLE
• Powerful tool for editing pages and
creating workflows.
• Free to download
• Dangerous in the wrong hands
• Can make the intranet unusable
• Can slow down the intranet for all
users
• Need governance to control users
INTRANET SUCCESS AND FAILURE:
ENABLING SHAREPOINT DESIGNER
TURNING OFF SHAREPOINT DESIGNER
• At the Site Collection
Level (can be done at the
web application level
too)
• Must be site collection
admin to change settings
 An
intranet is only successful if people know to
go to it
 Fresh
content means not only adding but
updating and deleting
 Updating
content has to be part of a person’s
responsibilities and not an ad hoc task (People
need to be required to update the content)
INTRANET FAILURE:
STALE CONTENT
INTRANET SUCCESS:
FEATURE STORIES KEEP PEOPLE COMING BACK
INTRANET SUCCESS:
PERSONALIZED CONTENT
• Links to commonly
used items such as
Timesheets and
Paychecks
• Personalized
information such
as vacation
available
• Picture links to
person’s My Site
SECURITY GUIDELINES
 Security
Groups in SharePoint Groups
 Minimize
the number of groups
 Security
is a means to an end. Don’t
over do it.
 Third
party products can definitely
help to manage security.
Company
intranet (of 400 people) had
over 120 groups that were not being
used at all and growing almost daily. This
made figuring out security very difficult
and at some point would cause
slowness in the system
INTRANET FAILURE:
TWO MANY SECURITY GROUPS
OFFICE WEB APPS
•
Provides thumbnails
•
On SP2010 and SP2013
•
Allows multiple users to edit file at the same
time
•
Office Web Apps for SharePoint 2013 requires
a separate server
INFOPATH FORMS
 Best
bang for the buck of any service
 InfoPath
money
 Client
Web forms saves time and
not required
 Worth
the cost of the Enterprise
edition
 Don’t
program if you don’t have to
InfoPath is supported until 2023
INTRANET SUCCESS:
MY SITE CUSTOMIZATIONS
MY SITE CUSTOMIZATION CAVEATS
Lots
of work
Politically
charged
Powerful
momentum from social
networking
Less
is definitely more
2010,
2013 and even O365 are all
vastly different in their look and feel
 Size
should be guided by disaster
recovery guidelines
 General rule of thumb is still below 200
gig
 New technology can make content
databases in the terabyte size
 BLOB storage. Really make sure you can
recover these files.
CONTENT DATABASE SUCCESS GUIDELINES
Questions
3
7