On the web, I use Google for search, and Facebook, Delicious, and Twitter for social. I have a WordPress blog. I have two web sites – one hosted in the Linux stack and one in ASP.NET.
Why do I use several tools and not do everything in one service? Why not use Live.com or a similar aggregating service? There are two reasons – personal preference and wanting to use applications that are stupid simple.
Facebook makes social easy. I don’t like that it’s a closed network, however. So I supplement with other tools. Delicious makes sharing bookmarks easy, so I’ve used it for several years now. Meanwhile, WordPress just keeps getting better. Is SharePoint getting better? Or is just getting more complex?
SharePoint probably is getting better at some things than others, depending on your use case scenarios. Which is really my point here – Why use SharePoint for everything when preference and usage scenarios demand better options?
There’s a whole world of applications out there beyond SharePoint. Need an enterprise portal solution with good document and records management? Consider using Liferay with Alfresco. Just need to power a few marketing sites? Drupal’s probably a good choice.
I’ve implemented dozens of SharePoint portals and web sites over the past three years. Here are the most common reasons given for using SharePoint:
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We already own it.
Because of how Microsoft’s licensing works, many companies end up buying SharePoint licenses bundled with other software. I can’t help but wonder how much of the success of SharePoint is a reflection of Microsoft’s licensing strategy.
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We want one platform for everything.
Can I be politically incorrect here and say this is just dumb? Unless you’re talking about the Web – you know, HTTP, HTML – there is no “one platform”. I’m sorry but I thought it was the job of IT and Information Officers to know how to make systems and platforms interoperate. You don’t want one platform. You want one vendor to make it easy for you. Newsflash: This isn't about making your job easy. It should be about what's right for the business.
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We just want everything to work out of the box.
If you do social networking at all, then you’ve probably seen this acronym: ROFL. It means Rolling On Floor Laughing. If it worked out of the box, then why are you hiring a small army of consultants to help you implement it?
Because I’ve worked with a Microsoft Gold Certified partner for the past three years, suggesting anything other than SharePoint was strictly verboten. Even when I knew in my heart of hearts that SharePoint wasn’t the right fit. Is that some kind of consulting malpractice on my part? Probably not because in my experience IT Managers and CIOs are colluding (or deluding) on this SharePoint-can-do-everything fantasy. In other words, they wouldn’t have heard me anyway. Can you hear me?
#SharePoint #sharepoint