“Content Management” is a phrase that often gets mentioned in technology and business discussions, but what does it actually mean? Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a technology that allows you to organize and manage important documents, tasks, meetings, e-mails and discussions. The advantage of a content management solution is it gives employees a single place to locate and store critical corporate information. One of the most widely used solutions for Content Management is Microsoft’s Windows SharePoint Services. A 2008 Gartner Survey placed Microsoft in their “Magic Quadrant” as one of the leaders in the ECM space, noting that “of all the vendors, Microsoft has driven the most change in the ECM market over the last 18 months with Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. By delivering a broad set of functionality… Microsoft has changed the way organizations think about content management and collaboration.”

Are You One of the 100 Million People Using SharePoint?

While many enterprise organizations utilize SharePoint Services, it is also an excellent tool for small and medium sized businesses. According to CIO Magazine, SharePoint is currently being used by “more than 17,000 organizations and caters to 100 million users.” Several small businesses have extensive SharePoint sites and use them for a wide range of solutions. Given its broad capabilities, SharePoint allows your employees to share information in ways they did not have available to them previously.

For Gordy’s’ Lakefront Marine in Fontana, WI, their SharePoint site has become a key part of their business. Much of the staff at Gordy’s is seasonal and owner, Steele Whowell, needed a simple way to distribute staff schedules and HR information, as well as developing a centralized location to keep everyone informed of corporate wide events and programs. Additionally, they were opening up a second facility in Fox Lake, IL and it was critical that the employees at this location keep all of their shared documents in sync and current with the staff back in Wisconsin. Steele noted that “by putting our staff schedules and important information in one spot, it was easily accessible to everyone. We opened the SharePoint site up on the internet as well, allowing employees to keep themselves up to date without having to call in or come by the office. They can simply download any forms or information they need right from home.” Because of the strong emphasis Gordy’s places on its brand, Steele went as far as titling the site “GNet” to add a corporate touch the employee interaction. Steele felt that for the SharePoint site to be successful, “it was important that everyone knew it was out there and by calling it ‘GNet,’ we could easily refer to it and create awareness within the company.”

Chris Gilmartin, owner of Lever Interactive, uses his SharePoint Site for several key aspects of his business. “For us, having a knowledge base to keep track of customizations for our search clients is critical, as is having a single location to store all of our client information. This keeps everyone on the same page as we manage projects and search campaigns, allowing us to give consistent information to our customers and keeping the entire team aware of what is happening with every client. The other advantage of using SharePoint is the integration with Outlook.” noted Chris. “Contacts, tasks, e-mails, and project schedules within SharePoint are easily accessed right from our Outlook client.”

When your staff is communicating and collaborating, it can only lead to improved productivity. Time is not wasted looking on network shares for various documents, schedules and tasks are easily viewed by the entire organization, and information regarding customers and projects is at everyone’s finger tips. In both Lever and Gordy’s cases, it was extremely important that these companies had an advocate supporting the SharePoint project as well as an organizational commitment to use the solution. Once in place, having a single location for all of this information greatly improved their business processes as well as their internal and external communication.

What Does It Cost?

Given the power and complexity of this product, you might anticipate that this is an expensive solution, but for the small and medium-sized business owner, the price is ideal: free! Windows SharePoint Services can be downloaded directly from Microsoft and it does not require the purchase of any client access licenses. And depending on your current hardware, there may not even be a need to buy additional equipment. The only thing it will take is the time to have a Microsoft Specialist set up the software and a few employees to get things implemented. One of the easiest ways to leverage this solution out of the box is by using the built-in document and picture libraries, team calendars, group task lists, and organizational wide contact lists. But before installing a SharePoint solution, it is extremely important to take the time to talk to your technology partner and critical people within your company to develop a strategy for a successful implementation. From there, it is up to you to take this solution and your organization in a completely new direction.