The e-comms team engaged with the end users of team sites in the right language, asking them what they wanted their sites to be called and then helping them to understand the importance of adding metadata for themselves. With skilled super-users (information scientists) adding the metadata, this approach meant little or no training was needed.

Harvesting Records at Defra -- RM in Action

Roger Smethurst, head of information and records management at Defra, customised the router that moves documents from a team site to a records site for retention. The MOSS 2007 out-of-the-box solution moves the required document, but leaves a copy on the team site, causing problems of duplication and confusion over which is the official version. The customized router means that when a document is moved, only a link is left behind on the team site, but no actual copy of the document. This means that they can still access the document but that it is the records copy. The National Archives approved this approach. Smethurst demonstrated his customization to Microsoft developers at the Seattle SharePoint conference and they are adding this functionality to the next version of SharePoint.

Darren Collins, practice lead at Hitachi Consulting, says the importance of the growing discipline of information diagnostics in the migration from legacy systems to SharePoint. With many clients deleting up to 50 per cent of their data due to duplication, his key message was content rationalization and organization before migration into SharePoint.

Adrian Dale, TFPL associate consultant says the importance of bringing professional disciplines together cannot be under estimated. The need for CIOs who aren't pure technologists but who look at the business through a pair of information spectacles - at workflow, information architecture and knowledge sharing is vital. "If you chuck SharePoint at the organization cottage-industry style, allowing team sites to set up their own repositories and their own policies, you will get the mother of all messes."