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Veronique Palmer

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SharePoint MVP, Managing Member, Lets Collaborate

538 points

SharePoint User Adoption Specialist and End User Trainer
Owner of Lets Collaborate
Co-Owner and Moderator of SharePoint Experts on LinkedIn
Team Lead at Information Worker
Initiator of SharePoint Business Workshops
Organiser of SharePoint Saturday Jhb
Spoken at various SharePoint events

WEB: Blog

Jan. 31, 2012

Veronique Palmer and 1 other person answered this question

Best way to train beginners on SharePoint 2010?

Well, time solves most things. As did I resolve my own question. :) Formula found after much trial and error. more

Human Resources

Dec. 5, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 10 other people answered this question

How do you define "big data"?

I found this video clip (with PDF download) to be the most informative about what big data is in layman's terms. Zettabyte is my new favourite term! :)
http://www.emc.com/collateral/demos/microsites/emc-digital-universe-2011/inde... more

Information Technology

Dec. 5, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 2 other people answered this question

How many of you send gifts to clients during the holidays?

Can you take them to lunch instead maybe?

General Management

Business Development

Dec. 5, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 3 other people answered this question

What are the signs your community manager isn't as good as you thought?

When they're all talk and no action. Get very detailed specifics about the contributions they made in their last community and get references on their performance from their co-community leads if there are any. There are community leads who are in it purely for the ... more

Human Resources

Community Management

Oct. 31, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 3 other people answered this question

What is your best advice for executives who are planning a SharePoint implementation?

First decide what business challenge they are trying to resolve by using SharePoint. If they're just using it because it's the latest buzzword or they're getting the licenses for free, there will be little appetite to do it properly and adoption will be very slow ... more

Information Technology

Enterprise Software

Sept. 14, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 1 other person answered this question

When is it beneficial to let SharePoint group members manage themselves?

Information Technology

Project Management

Sept. 13, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 1 other person answered this question

How does SharePoint stack up when it comes to social networking tools?

If the company blocks all social networking tools, then SharePoint My Sites can stack up well because there is no alternative for employees. But if social media is embraced in an organisation, it might not do so well. You'd probably need a 3rd party tool ... more

Information Technology

Sept. 13, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 1 other person answered this question

Who is generally responsible for training end users at your organization on how to use SharePoint?

I've seen business fund training, and I've seen IT fund training. I've seen it done inhouse and seen it outsourced.
In my experience, the best results come from inhouse training funded from a central SharePoint budget, with vendors authorised by IT. more

Human Resources

Information Technology

End User Support

Aug. 16, 2011

Veronique Palmer answered this question

What is the difference between Microsoft Certified Engineers, Trainers, Masters, and MVPs?

Short answer :
Certified Engineers - MCSE's - network specialists that design and troubleshoot networks and infrastructures.
Certified Trainers - MCT's - technical experts on Microsoft technologies allowed to teach content for Microsoft certification.
Masters - MCM's - Microsoft Certified Masters - top of the food chain ... more

Information Technology

Aug. 16, 2011

Veronique Palmer answered this question

What does SharePoint Designer do?

SPD is a developers tool to brand SharePoint, build custom workflow, connect to external data sources, and do some editing of your site.
People often get confused between SharePoint and SharePoint Designer - especially when it comes to training. If you are new to SharePoint, you ... more

Information Technology

Aug. 16, 2011

Veronique Palmer answered this question

What are the pain points in implementing enterprise collaboration?

Time, money, understanding the problem, understanding the technology, communication, ownership, management.
Short version. :)

Information Technology

Aug. 5, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 1 other person answered this question

What type of events would you like to see during Focus SharePoint Week?

Search - best practices for Site Collection Administrators / Power Users / Site Owners to get the most from their search results. more

Information Technology

Aug. 1, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 2 other people answered this question

How should SharePoint administrators decide who should have access to certain content?

I agree completely. Permissions / access control should be decentralised to business to manage as they require - only once they have sufficient training of course, and within any governance rules.
Think about Google Docs or Dropbox. Do you email them every time you want to ... more

Information Technology

Content Management

Aug. 1, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 1 other person answered this question

What is the best way to manage old inactive information in SharePoint?

You can also apply expiration policies to whole sites. If dormant for a certain period of time, they can be automatically deleted.
Whatever route you take, make sure it is communicated properly to your user base and well documented in your governance plan. more

Information Technology

Document Management

July 19, 2011

Veronique Palmer is now following Brielle Nikaido and 4 other people

July 19, 2011

Veronique Palmer recommends this answer by Martin Hatch

Would you ever run 2 SharePoint environments in parallel? Why?

I would think there are loads of reasons, and with SharePoint 2010's "Service Application" architecture this becomes even more viable, where you can shared service between your SharePoint environments, such as central search / user profile services.
In terms of why you might do this, as ... more

Information Technology

July 19, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 4 other people answered this question

What are the top 3 mistakes often made when managing SharePoint?

Applicable to large organisations :
1. Lack of Ownership
So much time is spent fighting about who owns SharePoint and why, that it takes ten times longer to achieve anything. Make a decision, stick to it, and get the job done. The owner needs hire/fire power and ... more

Information Technology

July 19, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 3 other people answered this question

When rolling out a SharePoint training program, is it best to go with external or internal training?

Speaking for end user training only in my answer :
Internal is better if you have the Right SharePoint trainer in-house, a dedicated training centre, system in place to manage the training, and decided who will pay for it all. The benefit is that it can ... more

Human Resources

Information Technology

July 14, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 31 other people answered this question

On average, how many hours a week do you work?

I wish it was still 40 hours a week. That was the case when I was permanent employee and contractor, but now that I've started my own business, it's more like 70 hours a week. It's busy, but when you're doing something you LOVE, it's ... more

Human Resources

40 Hour Work Week

Talent Management

July 14, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 33 other people answered this question

What is driving employees to want to leave their jobs?

It sure isn't Kimberly. Luckily we all have a choice though. :) Thanks for the feedback. more

General Management

Human Resources

Succession Planning

July 6, 2011

Veronique Palmer and 1 other person answered this question

SharePoint Business Users: What is your biggest pain-point when trying to manage information?

We also host a lot of business user groups, and the same topics keep coming up. Have a look at the Share conference series for an awesome round up of what those topics are.
http://www.shareconference.com/za/hottopics
I would add to this list - time. It's sometimes impossible ... more

Information Technology

Document Management

Information Management

July 6, 2011

Veronique Palmer recommends this answer by Rene Modery

What factors did/will you consider on your FY12 SharePoint budget for your org?

As we're just upgrading to SharePoint 2010, I will recommend to have a training budget for administrators as well as power users and "normal" end users included.
And as we will probably also want to do some design improvements, some money for that as well.
The third ... more

Information Technology

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