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Get the NewsletterStudy Finds SharePoint Primarily Used for File Sharing
It seems like everyone is studying the use of SharePoint in organizations today. Do you use it? How do you use it? What do like about it? What don't you like? Most of the studies tend to come to the same conclusions.
A study by AIIM and Information Architected also reveals many of the same common themes on the use of SharePoint. It's widely implemented, but not used to its fullest extent.
The Latest Study on SharePoint
This latest study was performed by Information Architected on behalf of AIIM and Oracle. It included a survey that was sent out to 2000 AIIM members in November of 2008. Of the surveys sent out, 616 responses were returned. Of those, only 353 were used for this report based on a focus of medium to large sized enterprises.
Now although that is not a high number of responses to evaluate, the process makes sense and is described at the end of the report, which is free to download.
Key Takeaways From the Report
There really weren't a lot of surprises in this report. It is a similar story compared to other SharePoint studies we've read and covered. Some key takeaways include:
- 83% currently use, or are planning to use, SharePoint
- SharePoint is more widely deployed at the workgroup or department level
- 75% said implementation of SharePoint took one year or less, which would make sense considering
- 47% use it primarily for File Sharing (and/or as an internal Portal - again 47%)
- Few use it for complex business processes, records management or digital asset management
- It is seen as a component of a larger Enterprise Content Management strategy
- 47% said they would use it as an Extranet/Internet solution (whereas 22% do already) - this was one a little surprising
Customization of SharePoint
Another area of interest is the required effort to customize SharePoint and integration other third-party solutions. In this case, 50% of survey respondents indicated custom solutions required more effort than expected (33% “somewhat more” and 17% “much more”).
The integration challenges focused on a lack of training/documentation and integration with non-Microsoft based repositories and existing applications.
The Cost of Using SharePoint
Reading all these different reports may have paid off for many organizations who have chosen to use SharePoint. According to this research, most were not surprised at the cost to implement SharePoint, nor were they surprised by the licensing costs.
This may also mean that Microsoft has become much better at explaining the licensing model.
The Path Ahead for SharePoint
This report doesn't provide real insight into the path ahead for SharePoint — not that it should. If the reality is that SharePoint is only being used for a small percentage of its functionality, then there is much work that needs to be done by Microsoft and the SharePoint community at large to make organizations aware of its full potential.
If Microsoft can sell over a million copies, only to have most use it as a document repository with some collaboration, think how many they could sell if organizations saw its value as a true "platform".
Many vendors of third-party enterprise content management and social media solutions already see this as they continually offer integrated solutions to SharePoint. Yet the continual misuse and incorrect implementations that are regularly reported seem to shy enterprises away from using SharePoint as a more critical component of their technology strategy.
Perhaps its time we see more positive use case studies on SharePoint. Perhaps its time to balance the story. Perhaps. Of course, this assumes the positive case studies are out there.
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Collaboration is not about technology. Don't be surprised that a minority are using SharePoint to its full potential.
Implementing collaboration can involve a significant amount of process changes across an enterprise. That's why vendors focusing more on collaboration support than Swiss-Army-Knife application flexibility are doing well as SharePoint competitors.
Dennis D. McDonald
Alexandria Virginia USA
http://www.ddmcd.com
I used to do product strategy for SharePoint. In fact, I think the challenge for SharePoint is two fold- do its core well and also expand beyond its charter.
One of the biggest complaints around SharePoint is that as a file sharing tool, the file shares would often go stale because people would stop using it. So I think to prove its valuable in a broader set of use-cases, I think SharePoint needs to do what it already does even better!
Shan Sinha
http://www.docverse.com
The problem is that most companies that deploy SharePoint do so because they have an existing relationship with Microsoft. I'd be curious to hear, of the group in that 83% that are planning to deploy SharePoint, how many have done an analysis to properly understand the business needs and the user needs before they selected SharePoint. I'd also be curious to hear how many have a plan to foster adoption amongst their user base.
When I hear people inside an organization complaining about SharePoint, it reminds me of someone complaining that their hammer is no good at sinking screws and the ones that did go in are in the wrong spot. It's hardly the hammer's fault.
There are many legitimate criticisms of SharePoint, but some are a result of poor analysis, poor planning, poor business processes and poor cultural deployment.
Have a look at arguments on why SharePoint is more then a file share SharePoint is More then a File Share
@SharePoint Buzz I recently wrote a blog post comparing SharePoint to Confluence, Atlassian's enterprise wiki. In the post I specifically mention that SharePoint is mostly for MS Office file sharing. One of the members of the SharePoint product team responded in vehement disagreement saying:
While SharePoint has document library capabilities, and Office has the ability to see these libraries as if they were a file system, this has nothing to do with the SharePoint Wiki functionality. In fact, of the many list types supported by SharePoint, only a few are designed around storing documents from desktop applications. Other than the "true" document library, almost all of them, even the ones that *can* interact with desktop applications (e.g. Outlook calendar sync), are fully browser editable and have no *dependency* on desktop applications what-so-ever.
Not sure if that helps.
This study clearly goes to show, the power of SharePoint is mostly wasted. Part of it has to do with the needs at departmental level, as well as the ease of using other features.
The costs and time of deployment for a SharePoint solution certainly do not justify what is extracted from SharePoint. It makes more sense to deploy solutions which are "alternatives to SharePoint" (like HyperOffice Collaboration Suite).
These solutions bring those functionalities which are commensurate with the needs at departmental level (and the needs of smaller businesses, which are close to the needs of departments and workgroups) -- file storage, file collaboration, intranet and extranet workspaces with a degree of customizability, forums, task management, calendars, wikis etc -- but these functionalities are packaged for end users, so that anybody who has a bare minimum familiarity with computers and internet can use them.
Another advantage this brings is that content owners can also be content managers and publishers, without having to go through an IT intermediate. For example, a marketing manager who is attuned to the needs of an important client can himself (or through someone in the marketing team) set up an extranet portal where he can publish important information for the customer, also add additional information to cross sell, and also collaboration tools which the client can use to interact with the company as an added service. Doing this through an IT intermediate means time delays, as well as a "loss in translation" of content.
We have found "through client studies" that design really does help to drive adoption for SharePoint throughout the organization.
SharePoint is a pretty cool platform to build on but straight out of the box it is cumbersome to use for those who need to. By taking away the unnecessary items and keeping only those that directly apply to the business needs/goals you create a more usable site.
We concentrate on building out a SharePoint site just like any other web portal. First defining the overarching information architecture and then diving into actual/expected user flows and experiences and finishing with a visual design that makes the users want to come back.
I have been looking for this report for some time. First the site said "Due to circumstances beyond our control, this report is no longer available." Now the website says "Please note: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the availability of the report has been delayed. By signing up below, we will notify you when it has been re-published. Our sincere apologies for this delay."
While the general message of the report has been captured in articles like this one, the source material has been missing for a month now. It's easy to jump to the conclusion that Microsoft quashed the report and is busy strong-arming the researchers to produce something more supportive of their claims, but that would be pure supposition.
On the other hand, neither the original report nor the "delayed" version is currently available. Does anybody know what's really going on with this research?
People use SharePoint like a file storage because that's what they know and people / organizations are always reluctant to implement change. Everything is geared toward an immediate ROI and they generally don't want to take any time away from what they do to improve their process, meanwhile complaining about how their process needs to be changed.
Couple this with the fact that most organizations ask their Network Admins to implement SharePoint because it is an "Office" product and no upfront planning is involved so users are given full control creating an unhindered mess.
SharePoint is difficult to get right but when it is, it provides a solid foundation for key business automation. Knowing when to use SharePoint, when NOT to use SharePoint and enforcing rules in SharePoint is really the trick.