Implementing Global Intranet Governance with a Proper Long-term Roadmap - EPC Group

1. You have probably been flooded with external sources telling you what SharePoint Governance really
is and I am here to state mine and my SharePoint Consulting organization,EPC Group’s, definitive and
believe only true way to implementGlobal Intranet Governance with a forward looking roadmap to
match. For Global organizations with tens of thousands of users, the Return on Investment by
following this strategy below should be in the millions. I have written a number of articles for AIIM but
I can confidently stand behind my position on Global Intranet Governance and Roadmaps because EPC
Group is engaged in there literally every day and for nearly the past decade.
To state a few probably obvious facts, but to build the case for EPC Group’s strategy here:
What is Governance?
Governance is the set of processes and policies affecting the way a system is directed, administered or
controlled.
Includes the relationships among the stakeholders involved and the goals of the system.
Creates mechanisms that try to reduce incomplete information
Why Governance?
IT’s capability is directly related to the investment choices taken by management that have long term
consequences for various stakeholders
Governance implies a system in which all stakeholders, including the board, executive management,
customers, and staff have clear accountability for their respective responsibilities in the decision
making processes affecting IT.

2. A Typical SharePoint Governance Plan (Uni-Centric Deployment)
The following are typically subjects hit on in a SharePoint Uni-Centric Deployment plan:
People
Roles & Teams
Sponsorship
Process and Policies
Security
Content Management
Hardware & Services
Procedures
Communication and Training
Communication Plan
Training Plan
Support Plan
Global SharePoint Considerations
(Note: These are all specific to Global, Large Scale, and Fortune 1000 Deployments)
WAN Performance
Farm Administration
Help Desk and Support
Cross Farm Services
User Profiles/My Sites
Managed Metadata
Search
Availability and Replication
Global WAN Performance
A typical LAN user will generally have an initial page load time of about 2 seconds.
A broadband user, with continental latency, would experience up to 2x-4x response time (e.g.
4-8 seconds)
A broadband user, with global latency, would experience up to 4x-8x response time (e.g. 8-16
seconds)
Low bandwidth, and extremely high latency response times’ experience is hard to predict
Global Farm Administration Considerations

3. Provisioning
Web Application Creation
Site Collection Creation
Content Databases
Features and Solutions
Local Service Applications
Excel Services
Access Service
Vision Graphics Service
Word Automation Services
Word Viewing
Global Help Desk and Support Considerations
Operations
System Administrators
Site Collection Administrators
Multi-Tiered Support
Tier 1: Help Desk
Tier 2: Subject Matter Experts
Tier 3: Farm Administrators
Support and Administrative Training
Global Governance: Isolation Levels Examples
Level Definition SharePoint Meaning (Potential)
Isolation Tier 1 (I1) ·Out of the box SharePoint ·Same SharePoint Farm
·Out of the box Security Same IIS Application Pool
(Global) ·Uptime During Business Operating Hours ·Same Web Application
(7am-5pm EST M-F) ·Same Site Collection
·Same Content Database

4. Isolation Tier 2 (I2) ·Custom SharePoint Features ·Same SharePoint Farm
·Unique SharePoint Permission ·Separate IIS Application Pool
(Global) ·Uptime During Business Operating Hours ·Same Web Application
(7am-5pm EST M-F) ·Separate Site Collection
·Separate Content Database
Isolation Tier 3 (I3) ·Third Party Application ·Separate SharePoint Farm
·Custom Functionality ·Separate IIS Application Pool
(Local) ·24 x 7 Uptime requirements. ·Separate Web Application
·Unique SharePoint Permission ·Separate Site Collection
·Separate Content Database
Global Governance: Service Agreement Examples
Service Level Agreement 1 (SLA 1) ·Recycle Bin Policy set to 30 ·Same SharePoint Farm
·Weekly Full Backups and Daily Incremental ·Same IIS Application Pool
·Uptime During Business Hours Backup ·Same Web Application
Retention for 6 months ·Same Site Collection
·Same Content Database
Service Level Agreement 2 (SLA 2) ·Recycle Bin Policy set to 120 ·Separate Farm
·Weekly Full Backups and Daily Incremental ·Separate Database Server
·Backup Retention 6 months
·Backup Retention for Incremental Backup for
4 Weeks
·Uptime During Business Hours
·After Hours Technical Support
EPC Group Lessons Learned
—Intranet and Internet Deployments
1. Identify Global Governance Board early
2. Roadmap features and solutions for at least 12 months
3. Get buy-in not only from global stakeholders but from local support groups as well
4. Create a unified governance model for ALL farms as though they are one

5. —Project and Team Collaboration Deployments
1. Identify the Global Governance Board early
2. Set limits on what is globally governed and what is locally governed
3. Create a high-level global governance which focuses on overall policies, architecture and
processes
4. Create local governance extensions which cover people, local policies, local processes and
operating procedures and needs.
Your Global Organization's Intranet Strategy

6. Summary
A Global SharePoint Intranet or Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Deployment is a whole
different animal than a non-Global deployment. In the weeks to come I will touch on additional
considerations such as using tools such as Riverbed to increase SharePoint's WAN performance,
language packs, international law considerations such as the Patriot Act, the Freedom of Information
Act, etc. and how those can affect your server placement and how to implement a Global deployment
with real cost savings in mind.
I have been extremely lucky to be surrounded by my brilliant colleagues at EPC Groupwho have also
been on the ground in places like Germany, Australia, Japan, etc. and experience these situations first
hand and I enjoy sharing this type of real “in the trenches” knowledge from our lessons learned over
the years.
I would also encourage you to read one of my previous articles on developing a Hybrid SharePoint
Platform as this also builds upon these type of Global Deployment and long-term roadmap strategies
and best practices.