A few years ago, a co-worker sent me a cartoon from projectcartoon.com that I absolutely loved. It made light of how different people working on the same project could see and describe the same idea so very differently and end up with a completely new end result. That cartoon has been on my desk since that day as a reminder to think about other perspectives (plus it really made me laugh).
Recently I decided to visit the projectcartoon.com website and discovered, to my delight, that you can create your own custom cartoon. So that is, indeed, what I did. My cartoon is called Law Firm Intranet Projects, and it is specific to intranet projects at law firms.
I’m sure it’s not news to most of you that projects never go 100% smoothly. When you’re working on an intranet, you at least have some standards (both technical and organizational) to count on within a known and controlled environment. If you have the pleasure of working on a law firm intranet, however, there are the added complexities of the lawyers/partners, summer associates, management committee, group heads, executive directors and everyone else who gets a say in the things you do. My cartoon creation is simply a tongue-in-cheek way of reminding myself how different each view will be, no matter what the project is.
Why don’t you create your own project cartoon and tell me about it?
~ Amy Witt
Join Nina Platt Consulting Inc. on August 20 for the fourth session in our five-part webinar series called “Creating the Successful Law Firm Intranet” when we will tackle the topic of successful rollouts. Registration is now open for the fourth session on rollout, or you can register for both the last two sessions on rollout and measurement/maintenance at a discount.
In the rollout session you will learn:
- Three steps to a successful intranet rollout
- What to include in your training plan
- Five communication ideas to put in your strategy
In the final session on measurement & maintenance (to be held September 24), you will also learn:
- Three key metrics to track to communicate your success
- How to plan for changes to your intranet
- Creating a user advisory board for future input
Both sessions will be moderated by Nina Platt, presented by Amy Witt and Laurie Southerton, and the fourth session will be corroborated by a law firm case study from O’Melveny & Myers. Other details include:
FEE: $30.00 USD per person for the fourth session on rollout, $25.00 USD per person per session when registering for both sessions together.
REGISTRATION: Registration is by credit card or check. Registrations received after August 19, 2008 for the fourth session may not be accepted depending on space availability.
SUBSTITUTIONS: Institutions that have remitted payment of the required fee are permitted to substitute a replacement attendee from the same institution in place of the original registrant at any time.
GROUP REGISTRATIONS: Save 15% when 5 or more attendees register from the same firm. Please refer to the instructions on the registration form for registering more than one person for the event.
Mark your calendars now!
~ Amy Witt
The third webinar in our five-part series called “Creating a Successful Law Firm Intranet” has been successfully completed! This latest session focused on developing with users, and we covered some key issues such as:
- Should you build your own law firm’s intranet, buy an external product, or a combination of both?
- Definitions of portal vs. intranet
- Vendor technologies (like SharePoint, Handshake, XMLAW, and LawPort)
- Pitfalls to avoid during development
- Creating a test plan and test environment
It was a full session but we did have time for just a few questions before we concluded. In particular, there was one attendee question that I’d like to further expand on, and that was the difference between WSS and MOSS. Aside from the very basic differences I covered in my slides (WSS is free to create customizable websites, MOSS is paid version for Office server suite with more functionality and enterprise search), I found a few other resources that help explain the differences in more detail.
- Which SharePoint technology is right for you? (from the Microsoft website)
- Windows SharePoint Services Version Comparison (from Microsoft TechNet)
- MOSS 2007 vs. WSS 3.0 (from Miles Consulting Group - Microsoft Certified Experts)
I also mentioned in the session that when you hear “SharePoint” it can mean many different things. To reiterate this point, I found a SharePoint Blogs posting that talks more about the broad label of SharePoint.
We still have two more sessions in our series coming up, one on intranet rollout, and the final one on intranet measurement and maintenance. Registration details will be posted soon, but for now mark your calendars to attend:
Webinar 4: You built it, now will they come? Plan the successful intranet rollout.
Wednesday, August 20 Noon -1:00 PM Central Time
Webinar 5: Measure & Maintain: Planning for your Intranet’s future.
Wednesday, September 24 Noon -1:00 PM Central Time
We hope you can join us!
~ Amy Witt
