Implementing Global Intranet Governance with a Proper Long-term Roadmap

Introduction

You have probably been flooded with external sources telling you what SharePoint Governance really is and EPC Group is here to state our definitive and we believe true way to implement Global Intranet Governance with a forward looking roadmap to match. For Global organizations with tens of thousands of users, the Return on Investment by following this strategy below should be in the millions.

To state a few probably obvious facts, but to build the case for EPC Group’s strategy here:

What is Governance?

• Governance is the set of processes and policies affecting the way a system is directed, administered or controlled.

Why Governance?

• IT’s capability is directly related to the investment choices taken by management that have long term consequences for various stakeholders
• Governance implies a system in which all stakeholders, including the board, executive management, customers, and staff have clear accountability for their respective responsibilities in the decision making processes affecting IT.

A Typical SharePoint Governance Plan (Uni-Centric Deployment)

The following are typically subjects hit on in a SharePoint Uni-Centric Deployment plan:

• People

• Process and Policies

• Communication and Training

Global SharePoint Considerations

(Note: These are all specific to Global, Large Scale, and Fortune 1000 Deployments)

• WAN Performance
• Farm Administration
• Help Desk and Support
• Cross Farm Services

• Availability and Replication

Global WAN Performance

• A typical LAN user will generally have an initial page load time of about 2 seconds.

Global Farm Administration Considerations

• Provisioning

• Features and Solutions
• Local Service Applications

Global Help Desk and Support Considerations

• Operations

• Multi-Tiered Support

• Support and Administrative Training

Global Governance: Isolation Levels Examples

Global Governance: Service Agreement Examples

EPC Group Lessons Learned

• ?Intranet and Internet Deployments

1. Identify Global Governance Board early
2. Roadmap features and solutions for at least 12 months
3. Get buy-in not only from global stakeholders but from local support groups as well
4. Create a unified governance model for ALL farms as though they are one

• ?Project and Team Collaboration Deployments

1. Identify the Global Governance Board early
2. Set limits on what is globally governed and what is locally governed
3. Create a high-level global governance which focuses on overall policies, architecture and processes
4. Create local governance extensions which cover people, local policies, local processes and operating procedures and needs.

Your Global Organization’s Intranet Strategy

Summary

A Global SharePoint Intranet or Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Deployment is a whole different animal than a non-Global deployment. In the weeks to come I will touch on additional considerations such as using tools such as Riverbed to increase SharePoint’s WAN performance, language packs, international law considerations such as the Patriot Act, the Freedom of Information Act, etc. and how those can affect your server placement and how to implement a Global deployment with real cost savings in mind.

I have been extremely lucky to be surrounded by my brilliant colleagues at EPC Group who have also been on the ground in places like Germany, Australia, Japan, etc. and experience these situations first hand and I enjoy sharing this type of real “in the trenches” knowledge from our lessons learned over the years.

I would also encourage you to read EPC Group’s previous blog post on developing a Hybrid SharePoint Platform as this also builds upon these type of Global Deployment and long-term roadmap strategies and best practices.