The Business of SharePoint: Training The Collaborative Platform
It is no surprise to anyone that SharePoint has become the business term for productivity and extensibility in the workplace; indeed, with such a powerful tool--a server based platform with an array of clients and customization tools--it's no wonder that SharePoint has become the drive for many businesses to consolidate, streamline and improve productivity in their environments.
Here at Learn iT!, I have been given a grand responsibility; offer the best possible solutions for training the workforce to better handle, use, and enjoy this amazing tool. Why is it so grand? Because by far one of the top reasons for a SharePoint deployment failing is the organization who deployed it to fail to properly train and educate their employees on how to use this product in whatever form it has been deployed. So if their SharePoint training time means the employee gets the most out of what they have and they do become more productive, then I'm not just selling a class, I'm practically teaching the hungry man how to fish.
We have recently organized our portfolio regarding our training, breaking down the main disciplines within the product to at least four areas: IT Professional, Developer, Designer, and Information Worker. By creating roles-based training we can focus on the specific skill sets of those who are responsible for their part of the SharePoint pie to be fully competent and able to address their day-to-day work with confidence and efficiency.
Presently, we will have two key SharePoint offerings per discipline. For the Information Worker, an introduction course to get the new business user more familiar with the tool, and an intermediate course for training those familiar with SharePoint from previous versions to better manage their content and communication. For SharePoint site Designers, the tool of choice is SharePoint Designer, and we have focused on both introduction and intermediate level skills directed toward mastering this powerful tool and crafting a site to best showcase their information.
For the IT pro, we will leverage available Microsoft curriculum in two (5) day choices, which once released we will enhance with additional materials, exercises and other tools to let those busy IT folk take home and put into practice everything they need. The developer is not forgotten either, as a strong web development course to get the average developer up and running with SharePoint but to take them further with another training course related to customizing and creating applications built on this platform.
We have equivalent offerings for both versions 2007 and 2010, but in looking toward the future, we are already planning more material to make the teaching and applying of SharePoint a powerful solution through Learn iT!
Timothy Calunod
Technology Lead: SharePoint, Windows 7