1 day seminar to help you harness the power of SharePoint to enhance internal communication, support your intranet and encourage collaboration.

You have SharePoint already as part of your Enterprise package, but should you use it?

Is IT forcing you down this path?

Is SharePoint a prison sentence or can you turn it to your advantage?

The good news is that more and more communication managers are turning to SharePoint out of choice - and this seminar will tell you why.

Led by SharePoint experts Core with case studies from the UK and the US will answer all your questions and help you develop a route map to implement the most important technology to hit your organisation since email.

Find the answers to these key questions:

• Is SharePoint the right platform for me?
• What is it good for – and where are the weaknesses?
• Can SharePoint deliver a state-of-the-art intranet?
• I already have SharePoint with mixed results – am I using its full potential?
• How can I work better with my colleagues in IT?
• What do I have to invest to make SharePoint work?
• Why should I change to SharePoint?
• How can I convince my boss to invest my time and resources?
• How can I create powerful dashboards?

What the workshop covers:

Developing your SharePoint Roadmap:

• Pain points
• Proof points
• Goals
• Benefits

Eamon McGann is the Operations & Technical Director at Core, a Microsoft Gold Partner based in the city of London. Founded in the 1990s, Core is the UK’s leading provider of Microsoft® SharePoint solutions and services. Core delivered the first Microsoft® SharePoint solution in the UK in 2001 and has more SharePoint customers than any other company in the UK. Core is Microsoft’s number one SharePoint Deployment Planning Services partner in the UK and has been accredited with 10 Microsoft competencies.

Eamon will bring his own Geek Squad to help you with specific technical issues at clinics during the breaks.

Jim Ylisela is a senior consultant working out of Chicago. He was the Head of Consulting at Ragan Communications where he has worked on some of the most innovative and successful implementations of SharePoint in the US. A former lecturer on Journalism at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. In 2001, Jim joined Ragan to revamp the editorial operation. He stayed on as Editorial Director and then hit the road to teach Advanced Writing and Editing, one of the most successful workshops in Ragan history.

Case studies: Learn from people like you

SharePoint in Government

How one U.S. agency turned a mind-numbing IT project into a communications marvel.
State officials used SharePoint first as a documents repository for a massive, nearly incomprehensible IT systems overhaul. But communicators used that same system to create a web site that explained the project in clear language, answered employees’ questions and addressed their fears about the future.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• create a communications portal where none existed
• organize content around employee needs, based on audience research
• employ e-mail to drive employees to the site
• incorporate interactive tools to address rumors and questions
• use video and podcasting to connect leaders with employees

SharePoint in Big Business

How a giant U.S. food company used SharePoint to engage employees in a culture change with competitive implications

The stakes are high. The competition is fierce. For one U.S. food company, innovation is not a choice, but a necessity. There was just one problem: Innovation requires culture change, and employees are skeptical. The answer: a full-service SharePoint site to promote information, interaction and strategic direction.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Use research to identify barriers to culture change
• Design content on SharePoint to address those barriers
• Market your content to a busy, distracted and skeptical audience
• Launch an executive blog to model behavior and reinforce messages

SharePoint in the Not for Profit World

How one major U.S. hospital is using SharePoint to break down silos and engage busy employees to pursue its mission

The audience research was overwhelming: Employees at a busy U.S. health care center didn’t know what took place outside their own work area and felt little connection with the medical center’s leaders—or the institution’s strategic goals.
Enter SharePoint, as a means to inform, engage and change behavior. But first, IT and communications had to reach an understanding—and they weren’t talking.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Avoid clashes with IT by collaborating early
• Use a communications audit to make a business case for change
• Create SharePoint pages to promote important initiatives
• Develop interactive and multimedia tools to engage a busy audience

Who should attend

• Communication Directors and Managers who have responsibility for intranet, knowledge management and channel development.
• HR Professionals who work with online and DIY systems.
• IT Directors and Managers who work closely with the communication function
• Communication executives who want to build their knowledge of SharePoint and online

What will you get out of attending

• How to create a Roadmap on how to implement SharePoint successfully in your organisation
• A broader understanding of the scope and capabilities of SharePoint
• Examples of successful implementation
• How to collaborate—not clash—with IT
• How to use audience research to create content that will engage employees
• How to write a comms plan that makes a business argument for change
• How to design a site that puts content first, not architecture

Agenda

9:00 Reception and coffee.

9:30 Build a wish list. In this session, we’ll find out what everyone needs to accomplish as a starting point for our planning session. 

10:00 Overview of SharePoint. 

• IT: How SharePoint works, what it can and cannot do, with examples from best practice sites.
• Comms: What kind of content you can build on a SharePoint site, with examples.

11:00 Coffee break

11:20 Planning your site

• How to get started. How Comms and IT should collaborate and assemble a plan of action.
• Setting your course: Clarifying mission and objectives for IT and Comms. Identify the pressures on each side
• Interactive session: Create your IT and Comms work plan
• How to create a workflow plan

12:30 Lunch & Networking. Visit the IT help desk! 

13:30 Content development. 

Research, planning and execution.

Interactive session

• Audience research: Who do you need to talk to?
• Comms plan (with IT). Align comms with business objectives
• Content: text, interactive, multimedia

15:00 Design and metrics

• Design plan 

Home page
Inside templates

• Analytics 

Measurement plan 

15:45 Tea and networking

16:00 Interactive: Delegates share content ideas.

Q&A, and immediate feedback from Eamon and Jim

17:00 Ends