Many organizations are understandably hesitant to enable My Sites for their users. For one thing, the name “My Sites” sounds a lot like “My Space.” My Space is an excellent social-networking tool, but it is not at all the same as SharePoint’s My Site service. The problem is that people learn new technologies by using examples and analogies, and My Sites are a new concept. With no obvious analogies to use, it is understandable that folks will make an analogy based on a dissimilar tool that sounds similar.
An Example from Higher Education
In order to explain what a My Site is, and why it is important that you enable it, I’m going to use an example from my consulting experiences. I’ve had the honor to work with a number of colleges and universities over the years, and one such engagement involved the effective use of SharePoint My Sites. Most schools are pretty quiet during the summer months, and then the entire student body shows up on a single day and demands immediate service. This can present a particular problem for the IT department which is usually staffed according to the quiet times and judged during the busy times (like most places).
During welcome week the IT staff must get everyone an email account, a file sharing account, a storage account, links to class room management sites, links to appropriate online services, phone directories and the like. This usually involves handing one several slips of paper with cryptic login information, account names, temporary passwords, and other details that add to the confusion experienced by the students. It therefore can exponentially increase the support demands placed on the already burdened IT staff.
Using My Sites to onboard students
We developed an improved process to simplify the “onboarding” of students during welcome week, and we used My Sites to make it happen. Here is how it worked.
1. SharePoint automatically created a unique My Site for each student and faculty member when they first logged into the system.
2. The My Site included a web interface to their email account, task list, calendar and other Outlook tools.
3. The My Site included a private library for the student to house confidential documents and a public library to include documents to be shared.
4. Links were included to the various online tools and applications the student would need.
5. Each student had the ability to create sub-sites, so they could form clubs, study groups, and so on.
6. Each My Site had a set quota
7. The My Site included RSS feeds for school news, departmental news and student body news.
8. Emergency and frequently used telephone numbers were included
9. A link to the student handbook was included as well.
10. As the SharePoint deployment grows to include team sites for each class the student is in, these links can be added to the site.
11. It is also possible, once the classroom sites are implemented, to have calendar, task list, contacts, and forum rollups to the student’s My Site. This gives the student the opportunity to automatically see and stay on top of assignments, classmates, deadlines, and discussions from each class the student attends.
Instead of numerous slips of paper and a list of instructions a mile long, the student was able to gain access to personally relevant and tailored information with a single sign-on.
Imagine My Sites at your organization
Imagine if, with a single logon, each employee in your organization immediately had access to their team mates, supervisor, employee manual, email, tasks, forums, documents, and external applications. Imagine if this information was automatically tailored to their individual needs and requirements. Further imagine if they could modify and personalize it to better fit their needs. That is what a My Site does. It is an agile and personalized portal and tool kit designed to support each individual user when they log into the system.
With the support of the proper taxonomy and governance model, My Sites empower the user to focus on their jobs rather than trying to work around their tools.
During my Governance and Taxonomy Workshop, I make sure you understand the role and placement of My Sites within your taxonomy plan.
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