SHAREPOINT
CLUSTER PROJECT
Team 6
Bright Amadi
Teja Vadlamudi
Lin Yuan
November 15, 2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary…………………………………3
 Problem Statements………………………………...4
 Stakeholder Analysis…………………………….….5
 Objectives……………………………………………..6
 SharePoint SWOT Analysis……………………..…7
 Pros and Cons of Blackboard………………………8
 Costs of SharePoint………………………………….9
 Recommendations…………………………………..10
 Conclusion……………………………………….…..11
 Appendices…………………………….………...12-19

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SharePoint, according to Microsoft, is a collaboration tool that “makes it easier for
people to work together.” Additionally, using SharePoint, it is possible to “share
information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to
help everyone make better decisions.”
Within the scope of our final project for this class, we were asked to determine whether
SharePoint is an ideal collaboration tool for usage in College of Business, more
specifically within the Integrated Cluster program. After having done a thorough
analysis, we have determined that SharePoint is indeed the ideal tool and have even
developed an implementation plan along with recommendations to ease the process of
implementing it.
Using our SWOT analysis, we have developed three recommendations for our MIS
department to best implement SharePoint as the primary collaboration tool and best
receive value from it. These recommendations include: First and foremost, actually
adopting SharePoint as the primary collaboration tool for Cluster classes. If the initial
response is positive within Cluster, look to expand SharePoint to the rest of College of
Business. Finally, to save costs, forego hiring external SharePoint consultants as we
have several professors and students who have thorough knowledge in SharePoint.
In conclusion, by implementing SharePoint as the primary collaboration tool, we are
looking to make it easier for students to work together, share information, manage
documents, and publish reports. We thoroughly advocate using SharePoint over
Blackboard or ISMS for collaboration purposes.
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PROBLEM STATEMENTS
Business Problems: The primary reason in implementing SharePoint as the
collaboration software platform for the College of Business lies in the fact that it
is an extremely powerful. Provided it is used to its potential, SharePoint could
essentially combine features that exist in Blackboard and ISMS into one central
platform.
Functional Problems: On a technical level, aside from ISMS, Blackboard isn’t
central to Ohio University. Blackboard currently runs on third party servers,
while this does save space in terms of server usage, it also means any outages
are out of our control. SharePoint on the other hand, could be run centrally as
well as externally if we feel the need to use third party services.
Security Problems: SharePoint is a well-established platform that is
consistently maintained by Microsoft, similar to Blackboard. Having said
that, the same expectations don’t necessarily apply to ISMS. Combining these
two collaboration platforms into one would greatly reduce security risks,
since you would only have to worry about risks associated with one platform.
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STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
The stakeholder who has the final
decision and are in position to benefit
from the deployment of this 491
SharePoint site would be the Ohio
University’s College of Business. The
implementation of SharePoint as the
collaboration software platform could
essentially combine multitude of features
that are separate from Blackboard and
ISMS into one platform. Additionally,
allowing students to have experience
using SharePoint would allow them to
differentiate themselves with a more
unique set of skills that are well
applicable to the job market today.
Since the MIS faculty members have decided to
pilot SharePoint for the cluster class, the initial
stakeholder would be for the cluster students as
well as the professors involved with it. The
challenges lie in initial skepticism held by the
professors who aren’t fully aware of what
SharePoint is and what it can do as a
collaboration tool.
It is our responsibility to educate the professors
on SharePoint on what it is, and what it can do
to better add to CoB’s tools for collaboration.
From both student and faculty perspective,
maintaining one standard collaboration tool
would be much more feasible. Faculty wouldn’t
have to make the decision whether to use
Blackboard or ISMS for their class. In addition,
students wouldn’t need to have to switch
between the two from class to class.
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OBJECTIVES
The objective of this team
project can be broken
down into the following:
Implement SharePoint as
the collaboration software
platform for CoB in the
future
Pilot SharePoint with the
cluster classes
Develop a prototype on
the intranet (virtually)
Develop a concrete
business case about
implementing SharePoint
in the college
Educate the professors on
what SharePoint is and
the capabilities of
SharePoint
Deliver the schematic
report along with
prototype to the
professors
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SHAREPOINT
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
Weaknesses
- Microsoft enterprise level product
- Multiple out of box tools
- Widely used
- Expensive upfront costs
-Need a subject matter expert
-System requirements are high
-Intuitive web-based tool
SWOT
Opportunities
Threats
- Easy to organize and search for
documents
- Easy to extend SharePoint using
InfoPath
- Requires extensive planning in order
deploy
- Many other alternatives
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PROS AND CONS BLACKBOARD
- Easily tailored to academic purposes
- Widely used at Ohio University
PROS
- Simply out of box functionality
- Security is not CoB’s concern
CONS
- Remotely stored (not centralized)
- Not all out of box functionalities are
suitable for CoB needs
- Collaboration tools are not up-to-par
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COSTS OF SHAREPOINT
Licensing Costs
Price
SharePoint 2010 Server
$4,200
SharePoint 2010 Internet Sites
Standard
$10,200
SharePoint 2010 Internet Sites
Enterprise
$37,000
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Other Costs

Hardware Costs:


Microsoft suggests customers to use multi-processor 64 bit
servers with 2 GB of RAM
Consulting Costs:

Optional because the MIS department has several
professors who have prior experience working with
SharePoint
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Adopt SharePoint as a main collaboration tool for
cluster classes.
 If the response is positive, implement for the rest
of the College of Business.
 Have professors who have experience with
SharePoint act as subject matter experts in the
event of any problems that may arise.

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CONCLUSION

Ohio University is experiencing
many functional problems related its
current usage of Blackboard. In
order to eliminate these problems,
we recommend implementing
SharePoint 2010 as the main
collaboration tool. Some of the costs
of SharePoint include licensing costs,
hardware costs and consulting costs
but we feel that the pros of this
SharePoint outweigh both the
implementation costs and the costs
of sticking with the current system.
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APPENDIX A: SITE COLLECTION PROTOTYPE
In order to create the Business Cluster homepage we used the SharePoint designer. We removed
the recycle bin and all site content links because they are unnecessary to the usability of this site.
We also added a description so that visitors know exactly what this site is for. Most of the pages
within this site and in the images below will only be able to be edited by the site administrator.
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We also customized the home page of the Mis202 site by putting the calendar and the
announcements on the homepage. Available in SharePoint is the ability to see the Calendar in the
left web part and the announcements in the right.
APPENDIX A CONTINUED
When a user clicks on the announcements link on the Mis202 homepage, this
announcement page is what shows up.
When the assignments link is clicked, this Mis202 assignment page
shows up. It would show every assignment that has been added to this
Mis202 page.
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APPENDIX A CONTINUED
The image above shows the Mis202 grade page. This page shows the assignment title, the grade received, the average
grade, possible points, the due date and others (meaning comments).
On the Mis202 course material page, documents can be uploaded by the administrator.
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When the Exam/Quiz link is clicked, the page above shows up. The user can see a graphical
summary of responses and also all of the responses that were given. The user will see the
name, description, time created and the number of responses.
APPENDIX A CONTINUED
Above are the results of a sample Exam/quiz. The user will be able to see
all of the questions and the percentage of people that choose each
response. The user will be able to compare their answers to those of the
rest of the class.
When the course discussion board is clicked, the page above will show up. All users and Administrators will
be able to add content to this page. Each discussion shows the subject, who it was created by, the number of
replies, and when it was last updated. Above is a sample discussion on the Mis202 discussion board. This
page has the picture of the person who posted the discussion and with the topic and the replies.
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APPENDIX A CONTINUED
This image shows the Cluster project tasks page. Half of the page shows the tasks in a list while the other half shows
when these tasks should be started and completed.
This is the Team 1 site (under project 1a). Each of the 8 teams will have their own site and will
be able to edit the content on the site. On the homepage there are four web parts; File
exchange, Calendar, Group discussion board, and the group members.
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APPENDIX A CONTINUED
Above is the Team 1 site group member page. This page shows the name, email address and telephone number of
each group member.
This is the Team 1 site instructor site. This page shows all of the information about the instructor.
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The image above shows the templates we created and used to make this site.
APPENDIX B: SITE COLLECTION DESIGN
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APPENDIX C: REFERENCES
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Bakker, A. (2010, May 27). Indicative SharePoint
2010 licensing costs. Retrieved from
http://www.sharepointconfig.com/2010/05/indicativesharepoint-2010-licencing-costs/
Evans, M. (n.d.). What is SharePoint. Retrieved from
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointfoundation-help/what-is-sharepointHA010378184.aspx
Welfer, J. (2009, April 14). SharePoint deployment
SWOT analysis. Retrieved from
http://shareperl.blogspot.com/2009/04/sharepointdeployment-swot-analysis.html
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