Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for Associations
 ISG helps associations that use iMIS and SharePoint 2010 together to get
tighter integration between the two products, automate more capabilities, and get more out of both iMIS and SharePoint 2010.
ISG offers two software products that help associations do more with SharePoint 2010:
- ISGframework lets you use the information already stored in iMIS to help manage SharePoint
2010.
- ISGsites gives you the ability to create collaboration sites for association groups — it is
built on top of SharePoint and gives you the power of SharePoint, without you having to purchase SharePoint separately.
Why should associations use SharePoint 2010?
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is a powerful web-based information-sharing
platform, document management system and reporting tool that helps groups work efficiently together via the Internet.
Associations can benefit from SharePoint's functionality wherever
they have defined groups, such as committees, councils, volunteers,
advocacy organizers, project teams, chapters, boards and special
interest groups, whose work involves multiple sources of input
and a need for ongoing access to shared materials.
The opportunity: Make it easier for association groups to work together
Associations derive a great deal of value from the activities of
their many types of workgroups, but it can be challenging for
those groups to work together when the team members are geographically dispersed.
These groups share information by a variety of means, including e-mail messages,
distribution of documents to the group as e-mail attachments, phone calls,
periodic face-to-face meetings, mail, and internal filing systems.
But they need to eliminate the following problems:
- Un-searchable resources – Without shared libraries, there is no one place
where team members can go to find the definitive version of relevant materials. Team
members may be storing resources in their own filing system, offline or on internal
networks, and in inconsistent ways – all of which prevents the team from searching
for content as needed.
- Confusion from multiple sources of edits – It generally takes considerable
manual effort to consolidate edits from multiple team members into a version
that all can review, especially when new edits are made to obsolete versions
of the document and team members are unaware of contributions by the others.
- Scattered communications – Because e-mail is distributed outward to team
members, it ceases to be manageable as part of a centralized system – not
attached to a particular event or topic or context. Even setting up an online
discussion board does not in itself provide the context, priorities and
relationships needed for goal-oriented communications.
- Information overload – Too much communication about the wrong things is
just as problematic as too little communication about important things. When
communications are not organized and filtered for relevance, members expend
wasted effort wading through, and trying to tune out, the static.
While it is up to the group members themselves to coordinate their activities
and produce results, the association can add value by acting as a facilitator,
providing a more nurturing environment for the suggestions, decisions,
submissions, feedback and conversations that have to happen for the group
to be successful. It is here that SharePoint can make a tremendous difference.
The SharePoint Solution
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is designed to address these issues by offering
tools that groups can use to support each of their different types of
communication. The SharePoint toolset includes searchable document
libraries and many popular Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs and wikis,
which are designed to encourage members to contribute content online.
But the critical value that SharePoint 2010 provides associations is
its site management functionality, because of the administrative ease with which it allows
associations to set up navigable, organized, multi-faceted, and private
websites each dedicated to the communication needs of a particular
workgroup. These private websites are highly effective in organizing,
enabling and targeting communications, so that group members can find
and post timely and relevant information that relates to the group's activities.
SharePoint 2010 features
- Site creation templates
- Group-based security
- Document libraries
- Forms libraries
- Contacts
- Related links
- RSS to aggregate postings from multiple sources
- Group calendars
- Meeting workspaces
- Blogs
- Wikis
- Search for documents
- Surveys
- Discussion forums
- Document versioning
- Content management
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