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SharePoint's Shining Star is Not Its Customer Support

A new study from Info-Tech Research Group shows that while SharePoint is exceeding customer expectations, their customer support is falling far short of the mark.

According to the research study customers are praising SharePoint as a collaboration tool for it’s business value and the low cost of ownership. But close to one quarter were disappointed with Microsoft’s support.

“I don’t think they (Microsoft) knew what to expect, and they were the first ones to admit it because they didn’t expect that SharePoint was going to reach this kind of demand. They are just overwhelmed with calls,” stated one survey respondent.

The Info-Tech study looked at 258 organizations that had SharePoint implementations across Canada and the US.

Apparently Microsoft’s SharePoint support is the lowest-ranked aspect of product deployment (23% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied). The highest value categories included functionality, end user experience, TOC, and end user acceptance.

It’s not the tools and training that are at issue, but the ongoing operational support that is required after deployment.

This is not really surprising considering how fast SharePoint came out and how little documentation came with it. There are probably a lot more developers out there who understand the ins and outs of the technology that there are front-line Microsoft support people.

Maybe Microsoft should just hire these guys to carry a pager.