Not Considering All Your Options
SharePoint, particularly MOSS, has a lot of features that many companies don't take advantage of. For example, not many organizations leverage user profiles, even though they're a powerful way to improve people-search functionality.
In a nutshell, here's how user profiles work. For each user, SharePoint pulls information from AD or another LDAP database, such as Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) or Active Directory Lightweight Domain Services (AD LDS). You can extend the default information it pulls from AD, so you can pull standard or custom attributes into SharePoint user profiles. You can also pull information from a database and use a process (e.g., Identity Lifecycle Manager or a script) to synchronize that information with the AD data, then import the combined information into the user profiles. In addition, you can use the Business Data Catalog (BDC) to pull information directly from other types of databases, such as an HR database. Although the BDC can't provide the primary source of user information, it can supplement the user information imported from an AD or LDAP database. (If you'd like more information about user profiles, see the resources listed in the sidebar "Where to Get the Scoop on SharePoint's User Profiles.")
Because user profiles can pull information from many different types of databases, they work well when you need to create a directory that end users can use to search for and connect with people in an organization. For example, a major financial services firm had a employee directory on the intranet. The intranet directory pulled information from a variety of sources, including AD. The company wanted to integrate or replace the intranet directory with SharePoint's user-profile and people-search functionality. In this case, the company had several options, including:
- Placing a link to the existing intranet directory on appropriate SharePoint pages or My Sites
- Presenting the existing intranet directory within SharePoint, such as with a page viewer web part on appropriate SharePoint pages
- Developing custom web parts to create the desired interaction with back-end data sources and/or the existing intranet directory
- Replacing the intranet directory with SharePoint user profiles, people search, and My Sites, using the BDC to pull information from sources other than AD
Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. The first two options require the least effort, but achieve the least integration. The last two options require various amounts of configuration and custom code, depending on the functionality and two-way interaction with the back-end data. However, custom web parts are very versatile (you can do just about anything with them) and user profiles give you the ability to pull information from AD. And by using the BDC, data from other sources can pulled in, indexed, and leveraged by various SharePoint features.
Another possible but unconventional approach would be to use SharePoint's user profiles and My Site functionality without actually deploying personal My Sites. Ian Morrish discusses this strategy in his blog post "SharePoint User Profiles, My Links and My SharePoint Sites without a personal My Site". Why would you want to do this? Because My Sites can open a can of worms from a governance perspective and might not fit your corporate culture. Why not leverage all the people-search benefits of user profiles without that can of worms?
As this example demonstrates, there are usually many options to consider. When you have to make a decision like this one, it's wise to take a step back and evaluate the full spectrum of solutions—including skipping SharePoint—before blazing forward.
Avoid the Potholes
Now that you know about some of the common potholes in the road to implementing SharePoint, you can be on the lookout for them. And if you encounter one, you can take the necessary steps to make sure that your SharePoint implementation stays on track.