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February 21, 2009
Sharepoint 800-lb Gorilla?
It is rare to actually have the time to troll around the web looking for items of interest. My first stop was to Susan Scrupski's blog to see what she is writing about. Her slides on Enterprise 2.0 caught my attention. Here is the quote from the 5th slide:
Microsoft is IT's BFF. Just deal with it. Microsoft will continue to play in the starring role of the 800-lb gorilla in the corporate corridors of IT power. And, sadly, IT still has a heavy hand in what technology users can liberate their inner social child with. If Microsoft says it has wikis, blogs, and RSS then guess what…? IT will believe them and make a safe choice. Unless, of course, they choose IBM Lotus Connections, which is a better choice.
Ok, I should begin with an agreement that if traditional control based IT is in charge then the Sharepoint implementation will be limited as would the social tools be. Hence, the nature of management is to limit and control. We see that in our own implementation (50,000 Collaborative Environments); despite our success the traditional IT organization continues to put up roadblocks. But, what would life be without the challenges. In my humble opinion, Susan is looking at this from the ideology perspective but not the end users perspective. I can promise you one thing is for certain, if the business wasn't getting value from the application then they wouldn't be using it. Two years ago, not many folks actually knew of Sharepoint and now it's pervasive. This success has nothing to do with the traditional "focus on failure" ideas of IT nor the other options available to them (yes, Connections is in the space as well). The great thing about being in a very large company is that the end users have a choice to which solution they select. Yes, there are several other collaborative solutions; two of which we consumed last year.
Another issue I take exception to is that business users rarely want a wiki or a blog as some singularity application. They want a business solution to their communications and customer engagement problems. To think that a single blog is all they need is clearly short sighted. They want a solution package that includes traditional Intranet, profiles, information management, surveys, blogs, etc. While I agree that if you take a single communication element like blog and try to compare IBM to Microsoft then IBM wins. But, when you look at the needs of the business for a solution, then the BFF wins hands down.
Ok, one more comment. To think that IT is on the side of Microsoft in every company may be over stated. In fact, I would say our organization is the exact opposite in that they make no secret of their dislike. That being said, the better product continues to become the 800-lb gorilla. Not because of some sacred relationship with IT but simply a better solution for the business. I have said this many times, it is not the tool but the implementation that matters more than anything.
Posted by Todd at February 21, 2009 8:53 AM
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I feel the main difference between SharePoint and other Enterprise 2.0 solutions is the intent of use.
Big enterprises typically will be more organized and tends to use formal documents in the exchange of information. Therefore they are more likely to be in the SharePoint camp.
Wikis and blogs are more meant for unstructured or informal communications at the moment.
And I do not see any good Web 2.0 replacements for Excel and Powerpoint at the moment.
It is most likely both will continue to exist and complement each other. To strengthen the offering in big enterprises, E2.0 solutions will have to provide better integration with the office apps.
Posted by: Sim at February 21, 2009 12:07 PM
Great feedback!
It has been my experience, and admittedly my sample was limited to F200 IT folks, SharePoint has been "the answer" for social networking and collaboration. So, I'm not saying it's universal, but I was amazed at how many large customers gravitated to SharePoint without seriously considering alternatives (or ruling them out for reasons not related to the needs of the business). Additionally, no one in this space is putting numbers on the board like Microsoft... Sales over $1B? What "better product" can match that growth?
Don't misunderstand me-- I wish this phenomenon were not the case. I was simply pointing out the obvious from my experience and SharePoint's exceptional foothold in the enterprise.
I know Thomas Vander Wal is working on an analysis of the SharePoint phenomenon. You might want to ping him with your POV. http://www.vanderwal.net/random/index.php
As an aside, I saw AT&T mentioned in the McKinsey Quarterly piece and was hoping they spoke to you: "At AT&T, it was frontline staffers who found the best use for a participatory technology�in this case, using Web 2.0 for collaborative project management. Rather than dictating the use, management broadened participation by supporting an awareness campaign to seed further experimentation. Over a 12-month period, the use of the technology rose to 95 percent of employees, from 65 percent."
In this example, I'm assuming it was not SharePoint?
Posted by: Susan Scrupski at February 21, 2009 4:24 PM
I think strongest MOSS point is user's acceptance. People just took it as replacement for file/folders shared everywhere. So, it's great as simple users can take it into operation, but many of them find themselves few month later covered by hundreds of virtual sharepoint libraries. I expect MS (or partners), still need to work on SharePoint offering...
Regards, Oleg
Posted by: Oleg Shilovitsky at February 22, 2009 2:29 PM
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