Turning SharePoint from good to GREAT

Speaking to clients and prospective clients, I frequently and not unsurprisingly, come across Microsoft SharePoint.  There appears to be an awareness amongst users, that despite its obvious and significant capabilities and strengths, SharePoint is trying [and some would say failing] to be all things to all people.

With $1.3bn in sales, 100 million (yes 100,000,000) or more seats 'sold' over the last few years SharePoint is Microsoft’s faster growing server product. There is simply no getting away from the fact that SharePoint has a powerful place in the business software landscape. This status is clearly built upon SharePoint’s well documented strengths in the areas of Collaboration and Content Management, some would argue that despite this, it has critical limitations.

I came across the following comments in a publication ‘SharePoint as a Strategic Weapon’ from BPM Focus 2009: “…it is entirely possible to leverage the best parts of SharePoint – it’s Content Management and User Interface/Collaboration features – and still benefit from the best in class BPM capabilities.” The document goes on to say, “SharePoint provides strong capabilities to support the Portal and Collaboration as well as Content Management requirements, but it runs out of steam in the wider Business Process domain.”...and Forrester in a paper entitled ‘SharePoint and BPM - Finding the sweet spot’ observed that, “Out of the box, SharePoint processes are simple, so you can’t create seamless business process without a lot of custom coding.”

Taking this point further Pieter van Schalkwyk the CEO of our author partner - eXomin - has published a white paper on turning SharePoint from Good to Great. This focuses on my previous point that SharePoint attempts to be all things to all people and in doing so fails to be great at anything.

In reality we are seeing Microsoft mature its marketing message - can you spot the difference?



In 2007 this message included terms such as "Streamline Processes" and "Business Intelligence". Coming up to date, more generic terms appear in Microsoft’s 2010 ‘pitch’, which include "Composites" and "Insights". Reading between the lines this suggests to me an acknowledgement that all-things-to-all people is not a viable path to success. Indeed I would suggest that it highlights a realisation on Microsoft’s part that SharePoint forms only part and not the entire solution, for delivering better outcomes to end users.

In the area of Streamline Processes [e.g. Composites] specifically, this allows for and supports the existence of specialist ‘fit-for-purpose’ tools to address composite areas across the business, whilst standing firmly on the foundations that SharePoint brings in the server layer.

So how do we turn it from good to great? I would suggest by bringing worthwhile and tangible benefits to the key stakeholders; more control for the IT department, better and more visible process outcomes for the business and less confusion/more clarity for end users. Can I suggest you get a copy of the whitepaper "eXomin turns SharePoint from Good to GREAT"   here and make up your own mind?

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