Will You Show Me Yours If I Show You Mine?

Will You Show Me Yours If I Show You Mine?


Sure, we’re all involved in the world of SharePoint… We love it…  But what if a few of us decided on a change of career?  Let’s say a few of us got together and decided to start a coffee shop…

Getting It Right

So how do we build a successful coffee shop?  How do we design a good retail layout, choose our products and services and price them appropriately?  Most importantly, how do we avoid all the unsuccessful business models and potential pitfalls?

Well, if we’re smart, we’ll forgo the consultants, the “Mission and Vision” statements, and the focus groups.  What we’ll do is visit and analyze a few successful implementations, like Starbucks and Peet’s.

No need to reinvent this wheel, they’ve each created a very successful model.  Just by visiting a few locations we’d learn about effective site design, product offerings and even pricing.
It’s amazing the time and expense you can save by analyzing a few successful implementations.

Not So Fast…

One little problem… what we would be doing could be construed as industrial espionage and it’s not very ethical or, strictly speaking, legal.

That, in a nutshell is the problem with implementing a successful SharePoint Intranet, too.

Not only are successful Intranets corporate owned “intellectual property,” but they are private and secure too.  There is no easy way to get tours of successful, well designed, Fortune 500 Intranets.  So call out the Consultants, fire up the focus groups and let’s get started with that Mission Statement, because we each get to reinvent our own wheel, in the dark…  yuck.

Intranet Exposé

As a community, we need a better way.  We need to establish a portal, or exhibit, where we can share examples of effective SharePoint structures.  Sure, intellectual property and financial investments need to be protected, but that still leaves a lot of common sense designs and best practices that could be shared.

Until then, we can still peek through the keyhole with the occasional guided tour, but it’s not quite like visiting a Starbucks and tasting the coffee.