Network World article - SharePoint taking business by storm

Published 27 March 08 09:57 PM

There is a good article about SharePoint on Network World. Here are some of the more interesting quotes:

"Microsoft's SharePoint Server is on a billion dollar juggernaut to potentially become the next must-have technology, offering companies tools for building everything from collaborative applications to Internet sites..."

"Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 is the fastest growing product in the company's history and seems to have as many uses as a Swiss Army knife. Its six focus areas are collaboration, portal, search, enterprise content management (ECM), business process management and business intelligence."

"In 2008, SharePoint has evolved into the prototypical Microsoft tool – good enough for small-to-midsize businesses, adaptable to large enterprises, and, most important, plenty of financial opportunities for third-party independent software vendors and systems integrators."

The article goes on to talk about the exploding growth, some of the current SharePoint weaknesses, and the looming battle with IBM. Interesting stuff...

From a personal perspective it has been rewarding to watch SharePoint grow up as a product. I can remember back in early 2002 when a small group of us invented the Web Part framework and the list web service APIs thus molding SharePoint into a developer platform. Interestingly, many of the key contributors of the first version of web parts went back to work on Access 2007 and are now working on Access vnext.

by clintc
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Comments

# CyrusB said on March 28, 2008 8:03 AM:

"Its six focus areas are collaboration, portal, search, enterprise content management (ECM), business process management and business intelligence."

How can you have six areas of 'focus'?

# clintc said on March 28, 2008 12:18 PM:

Good question Cyrus. Internally, you end up having six different teams that are collaborating on a pillar. It wouldn't be possible for one team to tackle all areas at once. When you split out the areas of "focus" across teams and have one team drive that area you end up getting critical mass in one particular area.

# CyrusB said on March 30, 2008 8:57 PM:

I really wasn't expecting a reply, but thanks Clint for your dedication (and diplomacy).

I was really just making a joke about the overuse of the word 'focus' these days.  It used to mean concentrating upon just one or maybe two important things.  I often chuckle to myself when I hear some company CEO or other suitably dark-suited person prattle out a long list of things their company is 'focusing' on!

Its a general phenomenon in the business world these days, not a specific criticism of Microsoft, Sharepoint or the author of the article.

Having now climbed down off my soapbox...

...I'm interested to see how Sharepoint continues to develop in the future.

Kind Regards,

Cyrus

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