SharePoint Déjà Vu – 4 Observations
At last week's AIIM Road Show in Chicago (focused on the theme – Automating Document-Centric Processes: Is SharePoint Enough), I found myself listening to the presentations and reflecting on how the perception of the elephant in the room has changed from about a year ago.
Observation number 1. SharePoint DOES represent something unprecedented in this marketplace. Any product that sells over $1B in a year must be thought of differently than what went before. Some suppliers love that we have been trying to educate people on how to keep their viral SharePoint deployments from becoming the next decade’s digital landfill on steroids. Some hate it. Last year, the traditional ECM guys were talking about SharePoint vs. ECM and how “they [SharePoint]” aren’t “us” [ECM]. Now the predominant approach is acknowledgment and coexistence and leverage of SharePoint.
Observation number 2. Listening to SharePoint presentations a year ago one got the impression that it could do ANYTHING. It could slice -- it could dice -- it could shred – it was the “Magic Bullet” of content management. Most SharePoint presentations talking about the traditional ECM players seemed to carry the underlying impression that “we” [SharePoint] aren’t “them” [ECM]. A lot of the tone has changed, even from Microsoft. There is an acknowledgment that life (and user needs) are perhaps a bit more complicated than initially presented.
Observation number 3. I think a key thing transforming this marketplace is the perception by IT people that no one will get fired for recommending SharePoint. I have heard this observation a number of times. Like most generalizations, it is not completely true, but there IS a strong element of truth to it. In a time where IT investment resources are rapidly drying up, SharePoint is the low risk decision for many organizations wanting to do SOMETHING about their documents. It does not matter whether it is the OPTIMAL choice. Risk minimization is a pretty strong driver in the current climate.
Observation number 4. I am convinced that in the end analysis, “the elephant” is not really SharePoint. I think “the elephant” is really the “mainstreaming” of this industry -- the drive of content, document and records management to the desktop and the drive of these technologies into the mid-sized market. SharePoint is a big part of this drive, but it is not the only part. The drive of the IT infrastructure players to either enter or expand their presence in this market (and the resulting consolidation) is reflective of this movement of ECM technologies into the mainstream. The greater attention being paid to ECM by the big consulting guns and the services arms of the infrastructure players is reflective of this. So too is the emergence of credible open source players like Alfresco.
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