SharePoint Cluster Project

SharePoint Cluster Project Team 6 Bright Amadi TejaVadlamudi Lin Yuan November 15, 2010

Table of Contents • Executive Summary…………………………………3 • Problem Statements………………………………...4 • Stakeholder Analysis…………………………….….5 • Objectives……………………………………………..6 • SharePoint SWOT Analysis……………………..…7 • Pros and Cons of Blackboard………………………8 • Costs of SharePoint………………………………….9 • Recommendations…………………………………..10 • Conclusion……………………………………….…..11 • Appendices…………………………….………...12-19

Executive Summary SharePoint, according to Microsoft, is a collaboration tool that “makes it easier for people to work together.” Additionally, using SharePoint, it is possible to “share information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions.” Within the scope of our final project for this class, we were asked to determine whether SharePoint is an ideal collaboration tool for usage in College of Business, more specifically within the Integrated Cluster program. After having done a thorough analysis, we have determined that SharePoint is indeed the ideal tool and have even developed an implementation plan along with recommendations to ease the process of implementing it. Using our SWOT analysis, we have developed three recommendations for our MIS department to best implement SharePoint as the primary collaboration tool and best receive value from it. These recommendations include: First and foremost, actually adopting SharePoint as the primary collaboration tool for Cluster classes. If the initial response is positive within Cluster, look to expand SharePoint to the rest of College of Business. Finally, to save costs, forego hiring external SharePoint consultants as we have several professors and students who have thorough knowledge in SharePoint. In conclusion, by implementing SharePoint as the primary collaboration tool, we are looking to make it easier for students to work together, share information, manage documents, and publish reports. We thoroughly advocate using SharePoint over Blackboard or ISMS for collaboration purposes.

Problem Statements Business Problems: The primary reason in implementing SharePoint as the collaboration software platform for the College of Business lies in the fact that it is an extremely powerful. Provided it is used to its potential, SharePoint could essentially combine features that exist in Blackboard and ISMS into one central platform. Functional Problems: On a technical level, aside from ISMS, Blackboard isn’t central to Ohio University. Blackboard currently runs on third party servers, while this does save space in terms of server usage, it also means any outages are out of our control. SharePoint on the other hand, could be run centrally as well as externally if we feel the need to use third party services. Security Problems: SharePoint is a well-established platform that is consistently maintained by Microsoft, similar to Blackboard. Having said that, the same expectations don’t necessarily apply to ISMS. Combining these two collaboration platforms into one would greatly reduce security risks, since you would only have to worry about risks associated with one platform.

Stakeholder Analysis

Objectives

SharePoint SWOT Analysis

Pros and Cons Blackboard PROS CONS

Costs Of SharePoint • Other Costs • Hardware Costs: • Microsoft suggests customers to use multi-processor 64 bit servers with 2 GB of RAM • Consulting Costs: • Optional because the MIS department has several professors who have prior experience working with SharePoint

Recommendations • Adopt SharePoint as a main collaboration tool for cluster classes. • If the response is positive, implement for the rest of the College of Business. • Have professors who have experience with SharePoint act as subject matter experts in the event of any problems that may arise.

Conclusion • Ohio University is experiencing many functional problems related its current usage of Blackboard. In order to eliminate these problems, we recommend implementing SharePoint 2010 as the main collaboration tool. Some of the costs of SharePoint include licensing costs, hardware costs and consulting costs but we feel that the pros of this SharePoint outweigh both the implementation costs and the costs of sticking with the current system.

Appendix A: Site Collection Prototype In order to create the Business Cluster homepage we used the SharePoint designer. We removed the recycle bin and all site content links because they are unnecessary to the usability of this site. We also added a description so that visitors know exactly what this site is for. Most of the pages within this site and in the images below will only be able to be edited by the site administrator. We also customized the home page of the Mis202 site by putting the calendar and the announcements on the homepage. Available in SharePoint is the ability to see the Calendar in the left web part and the announcements in the right.

Appendix A continued When a user clicks on the announcements link on the Mis202 homepage, this announcement page is what shows up. When the assignments link is clicked, this Mis202 assignment page shows up. It would show every assignment that has been added to this Mis202 page.

Appendix A continued The image above shows the Mis202 grade page. This page shows the assignment title, the grade received, the average grade, possible points, the due date and others (meaning comments). On the Mis202 course material page, documents can be uploaded by the administrator. When the Exam/Quiz link is clicked, the page above shows up. The user can see a graphical summary of responses and also all of the responses that were given. The user will see the name, description, time created and the number of responses.

Appendix A continued Above are the results of a sample Exam/quiz. The user will be able to see all of the questions and the percentage of people that choose each response. The user will be able to compare their answers to those of the rest of the class. When the course discussion board is clicked, the page above will show up. All users and Administrators will be able to add content to this page. Each discussion shows the subject, who it was created by, the number of replies, and when it was last updated. Above is a sample discussion on the Mis202 discussion board. This page has the picture of the person who posted the discussion and with the topic and the replies.

Appendix A continued This image shows the Cluster project tasks page. Half of the page shows the tasks in a list while the other half shows when these tasks should be started and completed. This is the Team 1 site (under project 1a). Each of the 8 teams will have their own site and will be able to edit the content on the site. On the homepage there are four web parts; File exchange, Calendar, Group discussion board, and the group members.

Appendix A continued Above is the Team 1 site group member page. This page shows the name, email address and telephone number of each group member. This is the Team 1 site instructor site. This page shows all of the information about the instructor. The image above shows the templates we created and used to make this site.

Appendix B: Site Collection Design

Appendix C: References • Bakker, A. (2010, May 27). Indicative SharePoint 2010 licensing costs. Retrieved from http://www.sharepointconfig.com/2010/05/indicative-sharepoint-2010-licencing-costs/ • Evans, M. (n.d.). What is SharePoint. Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-foundation-help/what-is-sharepoint-HA010378184.aspx • Welfer, J. (2009, April 14). SharePoint deployment SWOT analysis. Retrieved from http://shareperl.blogspot.com/2009/04/sharepoint-deployment-swot-analysis.html

SharePoint Cluster Project