Five Critical Success Factors for Getting More From SharePoint Search

Getting more from SharePoint Search

Five Critical Success Factors

www.earley.com | 781-444-0287

Copyright © 2014 Earley & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Five Critical Issues for Deriving Value from SharePoint
1. Develop an “Intentional Architecture”
2. Align SharePoint functionality with the needs of the business
3. Correctly leverage taxonomy to drive IA
4. Understand maturity: develop appropriate interventions

5. Fully leverage search mechanisms to improve findability

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Copyright © 2014 Earley & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.earley.com | 781-444-0287

Overview
•

SharePoint 2013 is an evolution in technical capability that can change how
organizations collaborate, leverage knowledge and make decisions

•

The challenge is that most enterprises don’t know how to take advantage of its
capabilities

•

This is due to:



“Lift and Load” migration with overdependence on tools



Lack of sufficient resources devoted to content processes



Ineffective governance without buy-in from the business



•

Inattention to core information architecture (accidental or haphazard, fragmented metadata
and architecture)

Out of the box search implementation without tuning to enterprise terminology

This deck is meant to assist business and technical stakeholder to understand the
key issues around SharePoint business value and help create a common
understanding of critical issues.

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1. Develop an Intentional Information
Architecture

4

Being “Intentional” about Information Architecture
•

Getting value from SharePoint requires development of organizing principles based
on user tasks and scenarios

•

Many SharePoint deployments are haphazard without a focus on specific tasks and
user requirements or the user requirements are not at a sufficient level of detail to
drive meaningful functionality – the organization ends up with an accidental
architecture

•

Consider building a new house: one does not start digging holes and pouring a
foundation without a plan. SharePoint is the virtual house for the enterprise
knowledge and information and requires intentional design

•

The challenge for many organizations is not being clear about the value of
embarking on enterprise information architecture projects

•

The next two slides are used to explain information architecture to business
stakeholders

•

The important point to make is that making things simple to the user can mean
complexity behind the scenes

5

What is Information Architecture?
•

A combination of approaches for understanding user and business needs
and developing capabilities to meet those needs using information

•

Includes taxonomy, metadata, content models, search integration, the
user experience, wireframes, workflow processes and supporting
processes.

•

Just as an architect designs the physical world, the information architect
designs the virtual world.

•

As in the physical world, multiple perspectives are required.

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Information architecture is…
•

The structure and framework for our content-knowledge environment

•

Approaches for understanding user and business needs, and
developing capabilities to meet those needs using information

•

Designing user experience by associating structured and unstructured
data with the user’s intent

•

About what’s not obvious. What is not obvious is the complexity behind
the scenes that makes things appear simple to users.

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2. Align SharePoint Functionality with
the Need of the Business

8

Value and Linkage to Organizational Strategy
•

IA projects need to be put into the context of the larger goals of the
enterprise

•

Executive leadership is concerned with getting the greatest return for an
investment of resources

•

Your IA project competes with dozens or hundreds of projects that require
not only funding but also the attention of executives and business
stakeholders

•

A business case needs to show where the project will impact business
operations and provide new or improved capabilities as well as align with
strategic priorities

•

Unless value and alignment can be articulated, sufficient resources will not
be allocated

9

Aligning enterprise strategy with enterprise content
CEO: “Show me how will this project increase our revenue.”
Grow top line revenue

Enterprise Strategy

Objectives align
with strategy

Measuring here
(macro level outcomes)

Increase customer satisfaction

Improve retention

Increase wallet share

Business Unit Objectives
LINKAGE

Processes enable
objectives

Measuring here
(micro level effects)

Customer Support

Customer Acquisition

Business Processes

Content supports
processes

Content Sources

Web Channel Sales

Working here
(tools, technology
, IA, taxonomy, se
arch, etc)

Call Center
Knowledge
base

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Customer
Relationship
Management

E Commerce
System

Value and Linkage
•

The prior slide starts at the bottom. Consider the purpose of your content:
who does it support and what process does it enable? This requires
engagement with business stakeholders and an understanding of high
value content.

•

When high value content is identified and aligned with business processes,
those processes need to be prioritized according to the initiatives that are
most important to the organization.

•

In these case of these business unit objectives, it is important to
understand how progress is being measured and how the SharePoint
application will impact those metrics.

•

Business unit objectives are typically derived by business leadership from
the organizational strategy so no work (by the SharePoint Architect) needs
to be done there. But whenever communicating about the program, it is
important to identify the linkage and talk about how the project aligns with
the processes and imperatives that support that strategy

11

3. Correctly Leverage Taxonomy to
Drive IA

12

Taxonomy and IA
•

There is a great deal of confusion around the role of taxonomy. Taxonomy
drives all aspects of SharePoint organizing principles. Taxonomy can drive
navigation but is not necessarily the same as navigation.

•

The process of defining taxonomy begins with concepts and those
concepts are then translated into multiple design elements.

•

Taxonomy can drive development of content types (the content
model), metadata schemas (columns) and the values that are used to tag
content.

•

Taxonomy can also power many aspects of search – from facet
development to query rules and transformations, entity extraction, query
guidance and result blocks.

•

When considering taxonomy programs, consideration must be given to the
broader enterprise information ecosystem. Many SharePoint projects are
at the department level however they can be the integration point for many
non SharePoint information sources.

13

Taxonomy starts as a
collection of terms…

…that becomes translated
into design elements through
a structured process
14

4. Understand Maturity: Develop
Appropriate Interventions

15

Maturity
•

The following slide illustrates that improving findability of content requires
attention to many areas. It is not a function of getting a better search
engine or simply developing an IA

•

Depending where your enterprise is on the learning/maturity
curve, different interventions may be required

•

If there is no governance in place, then developing an enterprise
taxonomy will require installation of roles, responsibilities and procedures.

•

User proficiency, tagging discipline, workflow processes, and search
integration will require consideration in order to have the greatest impact
on content findability.

•

The level of enterprise maturity will drive appropriate remediation
programs.

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Maturity Model | Findability (Search, IA & Content Choreography)
1-Unpredictable

2-Aware

3-Competent

Metadata
Processes

Enterprise taxonomy
Chaotic tagging practices Custom metadata, use of
replicated in site columns
with no taxonomy
lists
and managed metadata

IA / User
Experience

Haphazard creation sites
with inconsistent content
models and poor site
experience

More consistent stable
departmental sites with
little cross site structure

Site collection
consistency, reference
metadata with content
relevant to specific
groups and audiences

4-Synchronized

5-Choreographed

Document sets, term
store and attributes used
effectively to group,
aggregate, sort and filter
assets

Contextualized/
personalized metadata
with auto-population of
values and quality audits

Cross collection
consistency, enforced
metadata standards
context dependent user
experience

Integration of structured
and unstructured
information from multiple
systems dynamically
presented to support user
tasks

Search
Integration

Random document
generator

Some tuning of search
with content tagging

Scope-able search with
consistent but
uncontrolled tagging

Faceted search with
taxonomy-governed
tagging

Search-based application
with associative
relationships (related
search), tuned
algorithms, facets, and
metrics driven use cases

User
Proficiency
& Content
Practices

Poor or minimal usage,
lack of awareness of
capabilities or content
practices

Early adopters and power
users using out-of-box
features, little control of
content

Departmental
collaboration with basic
content control

Cross-team projectoriented collaboration
with information lifecycle
management

Automated workflows
and reporting for
compliance with
enterprise content
standards

Governance

Information sprawl, lack
of vision, no intentional
decision making

Awareness of challenges,
activity is monitored but
not constrained

Assigned responsibilities,
oversight and
communications
infrastructure in place

Intentional decision
making, resource
allocation, change
controls in effect

Agenda-driven business
leadership and
stakeholder engagement
to effect continuous
process improvement

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Understanding Maturity
•

The point of understanding maturity is to do what is appropriate given the
stage of organizational development and specific gaps

•

Conduct a maturity assessment and benchmark against your competitors
or your industry.

•

Use that assessment in your discussions with executives when looking for
program funding.

18

5. Fully Leverage Search
Mechanisms to Improve Findability

19

Consider Search as an Application
•

Search needs to be designed to meet the specific needs of users

•

Out of the box search rarely performs satisfactorily

•

Search in SharePoint 2013 has a number of mechanisms that can be
leveraged to significantly improve information access.

•

Search is an experience – it is more than a white box

•

SharePoint 2013 has a number of mechanisms that can be tuned to bring
content to users in very precise ways

•

These mechanisms build on information architecture and content
enrichment with metadata.

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How Earley & Associates Can Help

Earley & Associates can assist you in these and other
areas to help you make SharePoint a success: helping
executives see the value of SharePoint, making the
business case, developing core architecture, building and
applying enterprise taxonomies, designing governance
programs, performing maturity assessments and designing
and developing search programs and strategies.
Feel free to contact me personally if you would like to discuss your challenges
and how we can help.
Seth Earley, CEO
Earley & Associates
seth@earley.com
781-820-8080
21

Seth Earley, Founder and CEO, Earley & Associates

•
•
•

Co-author of Practical Knowledge Management from IBM Press

•

Former Co-Chair, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,

Editor of IEEE Information Professional Magazine
20 years experience building content and knowledge
management systems, 25+ years experience in technology
Science and Technology Council Metadata Project Committee

•
•
•
•

Founder of the Boston Knowledge Management Forum

•
•
•

AIIM Master Trainer – Information Organization and Access

Former adjunct professor at Northeastern University

Guest speaker for US Strategic Command briefing on knowledge networks
Currently working with enterprises to develop knowledge and digital asset
management systems, taxonomy and metadata governance strategies
Course Developer and Master Instructor for SharePoint IA and Search Courses

Founder of Taxonomy Community of Practice – host monthly conference calls
of case studies on taxonomy derivation and application.
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxoCoP

22

E&A Company Overview
World-Class Experience Serving Market Leaders

23

Earley & Associates | Company Overview
What we do – Since 1994, E&A has helped organizations realize the
business value of their online content, digital assets and information. We make
information more findable, usable, and valuable through our approach to
Information Architecture (IA) and Taxonomy.

We’ve built market-leading solutions in –
 Knowledge Management with Enterprise

Search & Findability
 Dynamic Content & Digital Asset Strategies with Content Choreography
 Product Information Architecture with Multi-Channel Product Agility
Our team – Top-notch information architects, UX designers, project
managers, library scientists, process improvement consultants, solution
architects, content specialists, business analysts, developers and QA

24

Earley & Associates | Industries & Clients
Pharma, Life Sciences & Healthcare

25

Financial Services & Insurance

Earley & Associates | Industries & Clients
Manufacturing

26

Retail

Earley & Associates | Capabilities

Search Based
Applications
Collaboration
& Portals

Creating
Digital
Experience
through
UsabilityKnowledge
Driven
Management
Design

Strategy
Program
Management
Business Analysis /
User Research

Digital Asset
Management

Information
Architecture
& Taxonomy

Content
Management

Technology
Selection
POC Development
Socialization &
Training

Rights
Management

Workflow
Management
Product
Information
Management

27

Governance

Success Metrics

What We Do | Focus on Value

Enhance user
experience,
increasing
revenue across
channels

Improve
operational
productivity and
quality

Increase working
value of
information
assets through
reuse

Ensure value
results from
investments in
content
management and
search platforms

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Big Firm Expertise | Small Firm Attention
• E&A offers a single point of delivery from strategy and design through
day-to-day operations – we’ll be there where you need us most
• We’ve designed and deployed taxonomies and IA programs for many
of the world’s best-known enterprises
• You’ll get world-class IA and taxonomy leadership that drives results
 Design approaches based on business-focused use cases, with an
iterative testing approach to ensure alignment with your customers

 Real-world best practices for Product Information Architecture, integrated
master and display taxonomies, product content quality and workflow –
we leverage successes in similar engagements with top companies
 Our consultants have the business experience (on average 10+years) to
mitigate risk, and find pragmatic solutions to technical constraints

• And E&A is committed to building a lasting relationship

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EARLEY &
ASSOCIATES
Founded - 1994
Headquarters - Boston, MA
We help market-leading
brands & organizations
up their game –
maximizing the
strategic impact & contribution of
people & information assets

Seth Earley
CEO
Phone: 781-4820-8080
Email: seth@earley.com
www.earley.com

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Copyri4ht © 2014 Earley & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Five Critical Success Factors for Getting More From SharePoint Search

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