Using SharePoint at an SMB to Get Stuff Done

TAG Enterprise 2.0 MeetingJune 1, 2011

Who is MAG Mutual?– Company started in 1985 focused on insuring Physicians &

Surgeons in Georgia– Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia; Now with Offices in FL, SC, NC

and VA. – Leading Medical Professional Liability writer in the Southeast –

Ranked 9th in the country– Write other Commercial Lines, such as WC, BOP, General Liability

and D&O, for the same market– Approx. $240 million in Direct Written Premium– Three Subsidiaries: Agency, Financial Services, Physician Services

What makes an SMB different?

– We’re smaller!– One primary location to support– “Walk & Talk” to each other– Centralized decision making – faster?– “Simpler” processes– More Control over Infrastructure– Less Revenue – Less Capital to invest

What makes us similar to bigger companies?

– We have processes– Mobile and remote employees– People Issues: Domains / Accountability– Compete for the same customers– Do the same stuff – Marketing, Sales, Operations, HAL

(HR, Accounting & Legal)

….. So we really aren’t that different!

What was happening?

– Backlog of I.T. requests was growing - “Do more with less” directive as a result of soft market (in year 5)

– The Company developed a new 5 year Strategic Plan– Instituted formal I.T. Governance surrounding project

and resource management – focus I.T. resources on Strategic Goals

– Demand for smaller projects didn’t go away, nor did the backlog

What was the Business doing?

– Increased requests as demands placed on business units grew– Using Office for workflow and information, and contracted

with third-party vendors for specific tasks– Realized there was no integration with corporate data, and no

controls between departments– What a surprise!– Demands placed back on I.T. to respond – I had to do

something!

What were the Obstacles?

– Resource Constraints: Skills / Staffing Levels / Money (remember the “Do More with Less”?)

– Collaboration was NOT a corporate culture – everyone felt they were a silo and unique

– Few commit the time to define what they want– Fewer have the ability to define what they want!

What did I do?

– High-level awareness about Collaboration, what SharePoint is and what it could do to address issues

– Licensed SharePoint as part of another project (OCS), with an Enterprise CAL

– Brought in help - ThreeWill (Alpharetta, GA) - for SharePoint guidance, resources and best practices

– Conducted a series of meetings with each Department to identify their manual non-transactional tasks

What did I do (continued)?

– Identified 3 advocates – either used SharePoint at prior company or saw the value proposition

– Developed high-level estimates / ROIs and prioritized candidate efforts for those folks

– Convinced them (aka “I’ll pay the tab”) to let me automate their high-impact tasks (Operations Schedules, Employee On-boarding, Annual Report, etc.)

– They said OK!

First Steps…

– Site Taxonomy• One Site Collection versus multiple Sites

(Inheritance / Management)• Departments? Communities? Workgroups? All 3 (of

course!)• Site Map• Public / Private Sub-Sites• Enhanced Security - An enabler to all of the above

First Steps…

– Navigation • Look & Feel• Left-side Navigation versus Frames• Forms

First Steps…

– Search / Tags / Metadata• Enterprise Search• Best-Match presentation• Tags by Department & Document Type• Shared Tags across Enterprise• Minimal Metadata (initially…TBD)• Used Network Drives / Folders as a Guide

First Steps…

– Content Management• End-Users manage their own content!

First Steps…

– Administration• Quotas• Retentions• Backups / Restores• Utilization Reporting• Templates

How did we approach development?

– Used Agile development to manage scope and see incremental and continual value

– Involved early adopters – daily stand-up meetings and short work sessions

– Lived the “80% is good enough” rule– Kept to the core capabilities of SharePoint – no custom

coding or third-party tools– Listened to our partner…and they listened to us

What were the Results?

– Initial functions went live within 90 days– Transitioned skills in-house (still use ThreeWill

for visioning and staff-augmentation)– SharePoint gets considered for new requests

involving workflow and/or specialized databases

– But…still haven’t obtained “cultural critical mass”

What’s the Future for SharePoint?

– Viral Growth – “the more you use it, the more uses you find for it”

– Continue to foster Collaboration as a culture – New Sites / Functions identified:

• Employee Intranet (default homepage for IE)• I.T. Projects & Service Tickets• Agent Portals• Risk Management Site Visits• Board of Directors• World Peace!

In Conclusion….

Questions?

Thank You!