Damon Isaac's E-Portfolio

Dear CIO,

Currently we utilize 1500 hours of our 2000 scheduled hours towards productivity. However we waste 400 hours each year managing documents which is  time we cannot bill our customers for.  We can eliminate excess work and work towards more efficient use of our billable time by utilizing a Share Point server implementation. By doing so, we can increase our data security and efficiency while also reclaiming $70,000 per year in lost productivity.

Microsoft SharePoint allows users to share documents; emails and other inter office communications. Right now with our current system, we waste time sharing files and re-sending documents to our partners because we have no way of controlling the versions that exist of a document. With SharePoint, we will have a centralized way of organizing documents and ensuring the accuracy of reports and summaries by making sure there is only one real copy. SharePoint accomplishes this through integrating directly with our daily office tools such as our Microsoft office suite.  Another way Share Point can increase productivity is through the creation of a simple and easy to use intranet page for each user at their workstation. Workers will no longer have to remember URLS, have custom bookmarks or remember complicated paths to use day-to-day applications. By centralizing all the employee resources, we again will increase efficacy and additionally streamlining everything from checking email to scheduling appointments. Thirdly, SharePoint allows us to more easily secure our business intelligence and infrastructure. By using SharePoint, our IT department can set permissions on every item from calenderers to individual files.  These  “self-service collaborative workspaces” have preset parameters that ensure that those not involved with a project do not have access to any related information. By having a centralized space, old drafts of documents sitting in email boxes are no longer a liability. New features enable our IT department to set top-down policies for better content recovery and users, groups, and team workspace site administration.

One of our PMPs already has experience with SharePoint. He quoted an estimate of $100,000 for the purchasing of hardware and software plus an additional 18% for annual hardware/software maintenance or $18,000.  In addition, our PMP will need to spend 10% of his time administering and supporting this system.  His lost productivity time will cost us 15 hours a year or $33,250.However by utilizing this technology, we will gain 400 hours a year in lost productivity, which equates to $70,000 a year reclaimed in billable hours. Server maintenance costs sum to $54,000 over the three year period. Over three years we will save $210,000 with the server hardware paying for it self in the first 2 years.

Works cited

Gilbert, Mark R., Karen M. Shegda, Gene Phifer, and Jeffrey Mann. “A First Look at SharePoint 2010.” Gartner.com. 19 Oct. 2009. Web. 10 Mar. 2012.

Microsoft. “Sites.” What Is SharePoint? Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/product/capabilities/Pages/default.aspx>.