ECMS207 A VIACOM SNAPSHOT • Content is King • Brands you (or your kids) know and love • Dynamic and creative cultures spread throughout the company • Global reach for all brands VIACOM’S MISSION • • • • Expand our brand-building capabilities Execute on a multi-platform content strategy Capitalize on our creative strengths Partner with our internal and external customers • Be great world citizens (Go Green) • Help our employees enhance their work experience REDMOND, WE’VE GOT A PROBLEM • First generation portal was suffering a slow decline – – Original power users left over time and were not replaced Content management was too difficult for the average end user to grasp – Too much centralization/overhead for production and support • The End Result – – – Over time, business content and information moved to other methods such as emails, shared directories and faxes What content remained was supported by IT developers Stale content lead to the devaluing of the portal, abandoned communities and a great place to see the lunch menu • Global reach. What global reach? – Locations outside of the US created their own portal and collaboration environments using everything from emailed spreadsheets to custom coded portals REDMOND, WE’VE GOT A PROBLEM • Collaboration sites built in SharePoint 2003 proliferated throughout the company – – – No policies or ability to effectively organize the sites Lack of SharePoint skills made a number of these sites ad hoc .net creations with little follow-up support Unable to accommodate business needs for Branding, Security • End users throughout the organization were demanding collaboration sites and not prepared to wait for a broader organizational mandate • Public Viacom.com site faced similar challenges – – Lack of content management and workflow led to full IT support for business related processes Site became a landing page for earning statements OUR MISSION Create a global communication and business tool that empowers end users with content management, minimizes technical support and facilitates global collaboration internally and externally on one technology platform LET’S FLY ONE TYPE OF AIRPLANE • Put the entire company in one virtual room and allow organizational creativity to be shared – – – – Flow of information and ideas is the most critical asset in what we do as a company Knowledge and creativity need to be captured and exposed across information silos No mushrooms!! You need to be able to find things no matter how much information exists One platform for portals, collaboration, B-2-B and internet sites • one training program • one user able to maintain a host of sites • Ability to leverage both content and technical development for multiple uses THE SharePoint SOLUTION Leverage Viacom’s Microsoft environment by deploying SharePoint 2007 throughout Viacom – Provide superior functionality to re-energize the company’s interest in portal vehicles • Search and actually find what or whom you are looking for • Make Al Gore and Judy McGrath happy, reduce our carbon footprint through online forms and processes • Create blogs and wikis to streamline communication • Revamp Collaboration sites, the unsung workhorse that allows working groups to easily share information and assets – From Office to Active Directory, Microsoft applications could be easily integrated into a SharePoint solution • Security, Email Alerts, SQL Reporting Services THE SharePoint Team Janni Plattner SharePoint Analyst Henry Axelrod SharePoint Infrastructure Dave Mike Kramer SharePoint Designer Evan Stark SharePoint Application Management Computer Education SharePoint Training Thao Nguyen SharePoint Producer Dave Joye – Consultant SharePoint Technical Architect ENTERPRISE PORTALS • Viacom’s Technology requirements for a successful portal: – – – – – – – Branding: easily customizable interfaces Usability: not bogged down by technology that users find hard to adopt Searchability: search all resources (people, documents, media) with one click Targeted content delivery: users see the important things Security: ability to protect content at a granular level One stop shop model: drive information flow to and from a single central location Launch point for e-workflow solutions and forms routing COLLABORATION SITES RULE! • Develop the culture of sharing and learning – Cross brand synergy – Business owners able to create, manage, and share content • Flexibility of site features enable delivery of solutions tailored to the customer – – No ‘One Size Fits All’ strategy Implementation ranges from out of the box to customized • Automate manual business processes through online forms and workflows • Ability to connect with existing applications or external news sources provides added value to these sites • Viral Demand – high word of mouth advocacy LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT: External Presence • Provide business units with an internet presence they can manage themselves – Leverage MOSS publishing features to handle content administration, approval and deployment without IT support • Facilitates communication and interaction with Viacom partners and consumers • Wow!! Is that really SharePoint? THE SAME, ONLY DIFFERENT • SharePoint solutions are easily customizable to reflect brand sensibilities – Every division in the company is on one software platform, but design elements and personalization of content allow each site to feel unique USER EMPOWERMENT • Pushing responsibility out to the end user – Users (and they’re usually not technical) are trained to take on responsibility for administration of their sites – Content managers maintain site information and authorize new users – Creates a self-policing environment where Administrators are responsible for site content, including blogs and wikis • Immediate and sustained productivity with little incremental effort – No one has ever added head count to manage a teamsite – Eliminate bottlenecks for content updates • Collaboration sites have been widely accepted and integrated into the day-to-day operations of the business Lessons Learned • Plan! Plan! Plan! – – – Design and architecture are key Know the implications of exposing years of backend data Leverage pre-existing building blocks • Manage Expectations – – – Win ‘em over with a quick success story Don’t be a pig, don’t over-commit Think out of the box (solution) • Communication – Team Effort Required • • • • • Business Users Application development Infrastructure Security DBAs LONG TERM VALUE • Eliminate stand-alone sites in favor of a common portal architecture to lower costs – – – – – – Globally deployed information from central location Easier deployment Same technology platform lowers complexity Helps drive the standardization of business processes Uniform provisioning and publishing process Rich out-of-the-box functionality, with ability to customize SharePoint sites when required • Platform flexibility - strong growth, scalable for the future • Extensibility - leverage the development platform to adapt to new business capabilities • IT enables the process (and does not become the process) NEXT STEPS • Focus – Pressing forward, we are interested in providing the maximum amount of communication and interaction for business users, and provide a launch pad and platform for a number of business applications based on SharePoint • Next steps – – – – – International portal rollout Increasing reach Social networking Business Intelligence Records management PANEL Q&A • Dave Mitchell VP, Application Development • Janni Plattner Business Analyst, Project Lead • Evan Stark Application Manager, Technical Lead • Henry Axelrod Manager, Systems Architecture • Mak Bhave Director, Applications Development Thanks For Your Time Post Event DVD brought to you courtesy of: © 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries. The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.