Information without context is sometimes not enough. It is important to do your own research and analysis so that you can come to your own conclusions the impact SharePoint has on the industry and the impact the industry has on SharePoint.
A: As per experience, employees always complain about two things: cafeteria food and IT.
|
Cafeteria complaints |
IT complaints |
|---|---|
|
It doesn't have what I want. |
IT can't give me what I want. |
|
It is too expensive or it is not free. |
What do you mean I have to help? |
|
The line is always too long. |
IT takes too long. |
|
There isn't enough selection. |
Don't tell me what I need. |
|
There is too much selection. |
Just tell me what I need. |
|
The food is better next door. |
I prefer this technology over ours. |
While it is always useful to know what employees complain about, it is also important to understand more about what their pain points really are.
Ask your users what technology they are using. Find out if your users are working from home. Find out what they think the biggest challenges are, what they are frustrated with, and what changes they want to see. What trends are they seeing?
This information will always be far more actionable and useful than any external trend information.
A: Keep a close eye on significant changes in the consumer marketplace. These almost always impact the business, though often in indirect ways. The most significant ones right now are social, mobile, tablet, and software as a service. In a few months there could be new concerns and trends that you as businesses need to carefully evaluate and watch when planning for the future.
To keep on top of many of these trends here are some recommended sites:
- TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/
- Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/
- Gizmodo: http://www.gizmodo.com
- CNN Technology: http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/index.html
- Forbes Technology: http://www.forbes.com/technology/
- Mashable: http://www.mashable.com/
- Wired: http://www.wired.com/
Note
Did you know you can also monitor industry news through Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts), which provides personalized e-mails based on new search results. This can simplify the delivery of new industry information as it relates to a specific topic like SharePoint. While it won't be as structured as the RSS feeds provided by the sites listed here, it can provide additional exposure to events and insights.
A: Being ignorant of external forces and market impacts puts your organization at risk of not remaining competitive and ready to handle the incredible pace of change you experience in the world of technology. So be sure to read up on what is going on in the industry regularly.
Here are a few free resources to help get you started:
- CIO.com: http://www.cio.com/
- Harvard Business Review: http://www.hbr.org/
- ReadWriteWeb: http://www.readwriteweb.com/
- CMSWire: http://www.CMSWire.com
- ZDNet XE "ZDNet:URL" : http://www.zdnet.com/
- Focus: http://www.focus.com/
- Alltop: http://cio.alltop.com/
- GigaOm: http://www.gigaom.com/
If you are looking for something more comprehensive and are willing to pay for it, the following recommend:
- Gartner: http://www.gartner.com/
- Forrester: http://www.forrester.com/
- Real Story Group: http://www.realstorygroup.com/
- IDC: http://www.idc.com/
- Intranet Benchmarking Forum: http://www.ibforum.com/
- Jakob Nielsen: http://www.useit.com/
Note
Be careful when evaluating external research reports and industry news. Keep in mind that public statistics can help, but without the entire context behind the statistic your interpretation may be inaccurate, or worse yet the statistic may be written to infer a specific interpretation that benefits someone else.
For example, in a 1000 employee company, lost productivity costs approximately $5 million a year. However you have no context as to when this statistic was determined or what its source was. In this example the statistic comes from "Hidden Costs of Information Work" written by the IDC in 2006. To fully understand the statistic and how it came about you would need to read that entire report. This statistic is outdated and shouldn't be the sort of thing you make a decision based on today.
Generally internal statistics are far more effective and reliable than external statistics when it comes to making SharePoint investment decisions. Here are some sample internal statistics that might influence your decisions around SharePoint:
- 20 percent of your IT support people who travel do not have access to your IT policies and support documents when travelling. Source: "Support Review Q4," IT, 2011.
- Four out of five of your workers do not know that there is an employee disaster relief fund. Source: "HR Employee Benefits Survey," HR, 2011.
- Currently you pay for full licensing on seven different enterprise document management solutions. Source: "Financial Audit of Licensing Costs," Finance, 2011.