John Wieland Homes SharePoint Corporate Portal
Challenge
John Wieland Homes had been using a custom-designed, outdated and unwieldy intranet solution that over time had become extremely expensive and inefficient to maintain. The firm wished to replace the old solution with a new Windows SharePoint Services 3.0-based portal system, but its technology team was uncertain how to approach the project or determine which areas would yield the greatest early return. With “where do we start” a key consideration, the company turned to Abel Solutions and its FastPortal offering. With FastPortal, Abel Solutions’ technology experts helped the company get up and running quickly with SharePoint by leading the project team through implementation of one or more key components in the system.
Solution
With the initial phase of the project, Wieland wanted to rapidly provide more consistent functionality for all employees, including easier access to information and services from the home builder’s Human Resources organization and from Wieland University, the company’s internal training organization. A chief goal for the new infrastructure was to improve employees’ ability to find and use information from all over the company.
Abel Solutions technology experts worked hand in hand with the Wieland IT team, showing them how to use and implement SharePoint effectively. The team picked key areas and functions within Human Resources it felt were integral to the initial roll-out and already in a position to manage their own content.
Results
The Wieland IT professionals now have the competency to set up additional SharePoint sites that replace other ad-hoc systems throughout their organization. Rather than being expected to absorb information through academic education or test scenarios, the IT team learned how to build SharePoint sites in a real-world deployment environment that created a key component of their final solution. Those team members are now equipped to tackle other components of the system and can use the information they gained to empower other employees across the company to securely manage their own sites and content.
