Paradoxically, SharePoint is a tactical tool that measures its success in the strategic.

The day to day value of SharePoint comes from automating and facilitating small transactions:

• The company is ready to welcome a new team member because the SharePoint New Employee Onboarding workflow ensured he had a computer waiting for him when he arrived.
• A new project manager can quickly get up to speed because the relevant information is centrally located on the SharePoint project site.
• Someone in accounting can find a copy of the latest contract without having to email the Client Engagement Manager because versioning and metadata organizes the documents.

It’s all very tactical, immediate, end-user focused.

But the goal of SharePoint is often strategic:

• Make better use of internal talent by improving communication between departments and leveling the company hierarchy through organic project groups
• Improve culture and employee engagement through social interaction and transparency
• Improve client experience with better visibility into the process and clearer communication
• Improve decision making through better access to company data

Strategic SharePoint goals are realized through tactical successes. A successful SharePoint site (one that meets strategic objectives) does so with tactical wins.

• Because individuals can solicit feedback on proposals with collaboration tools, and because versioning and other ECM type features make tracking documents through the approval process easier, and because the client portal gives the client good visibility into the state of their order; client experience, employee engagement, and project accuracy are all improved.
• Because social features lead to stronger internal relationships, and because remote users can contribute to process conversations through the portal, and because automation tools make the company operate with less stress; employee turnover is reduced, knowledge capital is retained, and clients are happier.

Tactical benefits lead to strategic success.