This
video will create some diverging opinions and controversy, just as my
presentation “SharePoint Pros & Cons” did when I delivered it
in Denmark. This on-camera interview was conducted in Copenhagen immediately after my presentation (at IntraTeam). Granted I was severely jet-lagged
and suffering from exhaustion when I did the interview, but I stand
my words and assessment: SharePoint (MOSS 2007) is a fantastic
solution, but it is not the best solution for every scenario, and
every organization. Anyone who argues this should throw-away the
Kool-Aid.
As
I stress in my comments, SharePoint is ultimately what you make of
it, and you can do some amazing things with it, at any organization.
However, success with MOSS is a function of time and money. The
out-of-the-box solution is not appropriate for all business scenarios
in all companies. But it is an excellent solution for a small to
medium size business, or as a department-level solution in a larger
enterprise. Given the cost and complexity involved with
customization, I don't believe it makes sense to use it as a large,
enterprise intranet be-all solution for larger organizations; its
possible to make it so, but what is the opportunity cost versus other
portal or ECM solutions?
Feel
free to comment and weigh-in with your opinions, but no flame mail
please (I will just embarrass you for doing so). If you're a
Microsoft employee or partner, then please disclose that you rely on
SharePoint to make a living. Ditto if you're a Microsoft customer or
independent consultant.
Keep
in mind, I too am a SharePoint user, but we (Prescient Digital Media)
also uses other CMSs, portals & social media solutions too. We
are strictly technology-neutral with no reseller agreements. I have
no agenda or ax to grind; I merely seek to inform my readers and
clients about the strengths and weaknesses of the superb, but not
perfect solution that is MOSS 2007.
ADDITIONAL
READING:
I think sharepoint can be very useful for people with some understanding of technology and who can have it setup for their requirement.
However, we have seen a lot of business users are deprived of a simple content management solution for their teams. We have created an application called uhuroo, which we think will provide hassle free content management for business users.
i thinking SharePoint only useful for business
What would be the ideal CMS for a large enterprise portal if Sharepoint isn't?
It depends on the needs of your organization and what you're using it for? Is it strictly web publishing? How about Ektron or epiServer as low cost considerations? Or Vignette or Documentum with more bells and whistles, portal and document management functionality? Do have to post in multiple languages? How about Day or The Level. Do you have a Java environment or .NET? Do you want social media? Does the search engine have to be strong? Personalization? Workflow? Our CMS Blueprint evaluation matrix weights and evaluates hundreds of criteria based on the organizations business needs — those however have to be documented and detailed first.
For more info see:
http://www.prescientdigital.com/services/intranet%20services/cms-blueprint
I would agree with Dion Hinchciffe in his article “SharePoint and Enterprise 2.0: the good the bad and the ugly”, and am inclined to agree with some points he made about the downsides of SP – cost and complexity, not web 2.0 native, self service not emphasized. Although its marketed as mainly a SMB tools, its really not ideal for small firms, especially the sub 100 segment. Light weight web native solutions like HyperOffice are more suitable for this context.
I come at this from the perspective of trying to make sites (intranets and portals) that really help people do their jobs better. I have been working with small/medium-sized companies who have invested in SharePoint and want to leverage it. In general, I have found that with the possible exception of Collaboration sites, SharePoint out-of-the-box has what I would regard as such sub-optimal usability that in order to design an intranet that will really be adopted, there is no option but to do significant modification around even the out of the box element (document upload and document libraries for instance). The intranets we have developed, while they have been extremely successful, look nothing like SP and took a lot of design and development effort. As I'm not a techie, I'm not really aware of the technical benefits of SP vs other systems but I think it's really quite hard to get the SP front end to something that's usable in a really compelling fashion.
Well put. It's not everyone, especially if you're a Java or Notes shop, or you're really big and can't afford the licensing when all you want is the CMS. There are lots of options. Though the point is, it is good for some organizations, but not all.