The social applications of an organisation's content management system (CMS) are the very thing that allows them to add value to a business, according to a prominent industry expert.
Symon Garfield is a leading technologist consultant who says that a CMS - when structured around a dedicated knowledge management (KM) approach - is more than capable of supplying an organisation with the collaborative tools it needs to be successful.
In a speech titled The Secrets of Successful Enterprise Social Computing with SharePoint 2010, Garfield says that savvy IT executives need to begin their development process with a vision of what they are looking to achieve, not just a formal strategic objective.
He explains that a KM approach to design will automatically provide the business with obvious choices as to who is the expert in any one area - giving the process access to valuable information regarding the best practices to include in the framework.
From there, Garfield suggested that the development team adopt an encouraging approach to employee consultation that empowers workers to make more valuable contributions to the process - resulting in a more user-centric system that delivers specific benefits across the board.
However, it is important to make sure that the entire design process does not get caught up on the specifics of this department or that business unit - as Garfield put it, the team needs to under-promise and over-deliver.
He asserted: "Your biggest problem isn't going to be the technology, it's going to be getting your managers to make this mind shift to lead the organisation."
From there, Garfield said that the development of governance frameworks can begin - with technology helping encourage accountability rather than trying to enforce it.
On this topic he suggested that assistance be sought from many sources outside of the IT team - with ongoing consultation and feedback being actively encouraged from as many stakeholders as feasible.
In turn , this will enable the development team to lay out the architecture of the CMS, with dedicated document management features that help to add value across the board, rather than focusing on the needs of single departments.
Once these have been delivered, Garfield suggests that the hardest remaining part of deploying a SharePoint solution lies in having it become widely accepted.
A combination of detailed demonstrations and intelligent branding can help to increase the rate of adoption across the board - he said - and can smooth out the frictions that tend to result from the introduction of a new technology.