FEATURE EDITORIAL

Strategies to Fend Off A SharePoint Invasion

At the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2008 being held in Seattle this week to a sold-out list of attendees, Bill Gates announced in his keynote that there were 100 million licensed users of SharePoint. We need to remember that this is not the number of actual users. Many organizations are forced to license SharePoint whether they want to use it or not, based on its inclusion in the Enterprise CAL for end-users. Thus when a Microsoft account manager or solutions partner comes calling, the customer is told that they are "already licensed to use it, so why waste money on another offering?" There's some validity to that reasoning. However, before embracing it completely, throwing all upfront analysis out the window, let's consider four reasons why you might want to fend off SharePoint.

Firstly, fend off SharePoint if it doesn't do what you want it to do. Do not take the word of Microsoft or a solutions provider at face value; ask to see the evidence that what's being proposed for you has been done elsewhere. Go to a local SharePoint user group meeting to discover what other people really use SharePoint for, and how well it is performing. See if you can get a briefing from them on what they are doing. Microsoft, too, should be able to link you up with other customers that are implementing the sorts of things that you want to do. Explore the reality — do not buy the promise on face value. You are talking about changing the way that a whole business works together, and once you have made the transition, there's no easy exit strategy. Do the due diligence upfront. And if you find that SharePoint cannot do all that you want, fend it off.

Secondly, fend off SharePoint until the total overall incremental cost of embracing SharePoint within your environment is fully understood. You cannot just take the Enterprise CAL licensing costs that you have already paid and expect that there won't be more to pay. That is absolutely wrong. You will need new server hardware for the multiple SharePoint Server 2007 instances that you will need to run. There will be licenses — for each of those SharePoint 2007 instances, and for Microsoft SQL Server as the database engine of SharePoint. And that is just to get going. You will then need to pay for in-house developers or contract with an external SharePoint specialist to take the out-of-the-box capabilities of SharePoint and turn it into something wonderful for your business. Scope those key applications in advance, figure out the estimated cost for each, and decide whether you are willing to pay the price. Also, is there a set of users that will need access to SharePoint when out-of-the-office and not connected to the corporate network? Factor in the price for purchasing offline clients for those end-users. Microsoft doesn't offer anything good enough for offline collaboration with SharePoint, forcing you to go to a third party (e.g. Colligo). If you are not willing to pay this overall cost, fend off SharePoint.

Thirdly, fend off SharePoint if you want the flexibility in your IT infrastructure to mix-and-match servers and software from many different vendors. Perhaps you have already standardized as a business on the Oracle Database. Or are running numerous Linux servers. Or you want to keep the possibility of having Mac and Linux run alongside Windows on the desktop. Microsoft offers a fairly complete set of servers, services and client applications for doing business, but if — as a business and IT strategy — you want to avoid lock-in to one vendor, do not start down the SharePoint path. Look elsewhere. Fend it off.

Finally, fend off SharePoint if the incremental change in functionality to the end-user is not significant enough to warrant the investment. This will require an analysis of what end-users are doing today, how they get their work done, and what applications are driving the business. If you could snap your fingers and have a complete Microsoft infrastructure and SharePoint running the way that you think it should run, where and how will end-users notice an improvement in their work? Is the financial cost that you will incur, along with the cost of disruption and change in the way that people work, be worth the delta? If not, fend off SharePoint.

Remember, the Enterprise CAL licensing money that you have paid is a sunk cost, and there are many other options in the market. Do not walk down the SharePoint path until you have done a full and complete investigation.

Michael Sampson

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

Collaboration Product of the Year

Mindjet MindManager 7 won Collaboration Product of the Year in the Intranet Journal awards. "What started out as a simple mind mapping software years ago when I first wrote about it has become a full-fledged collaboration solution, rich with possibilities because of its tight integration with business applications and existing technologies such as web services, RSS, and enterprise data sets. Its core identity remains the mind map because they do it so well. It is insanely easy to use and can turn a boring meeting with spotty note taking and unclear responsibilities into a highly participative, creative, and well-documented session with clear action items."

AvePoint Releases New Software

AvePoint released the DocAve eRoom Migrator, to enable organizations to migrate content from Documentum eRoom to Microsoft SharePoint 2007. "With DocAve eRoom Migrator, administrators can easily perform seamless, full-fidelity content migration to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services version 3. It supports selective migrations and allows for the co-existence of multiple platforms as businesses migrate content incrementally into SharePoint."

New Service on Force.com Platform

IntraLinks launched DealStream, a deal management solution for syndicated loans built on Salesforce.com. "IntraLinks has leveraged salesforce.com's market-leading Force.com Platform to create DealStream, a customized, comprehensive deal management solution for the loan syndication process. Through this integrated Web-based platform, users can easily manage their syndications process and track and report the deal pipeline across a bank's regional or global footprint. DealStream also facilitates investor communications, including a full suite of call-note, email, activity tracking and an easy-to-use report wizard to instantly generate custom reports."

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