Denver Business Journal Technology Section

A jargon-free look at SharePoint's ups and downs

May 18, 2007 - by Gene Smith (general manager) of Mission Critical Systems

As with most technology, explanations of Microsoft Windows' SharePoint tend to be filled with techno jargon. Often, nontechnical types go "deer in the headlights" trying to figure out what the program does.

Since SharePoint is rapidly gaining popularity with small and midsized businesses, it's time to explain in simple, general terms what it is, what it can do and whether it's right for your company.

As the name implies, SharePoint facilitates sharing of information among employees, and extends that sharing beyond the organization to customers, suppliers, partners and any other entity tied to your company. SharePoint offers an end-to-end platform for collaboration. Everyone involved can integrate their input and ideas.

Inside the company, SharePoint can provide a single workspace framework that employee teams can access to coordinate schedules, check on the status of company tasks, access company announcements, participate in discussions, brainstorm together, and modify and manage documents.

For those outside the organization, SharePoint offers a variety of critical business process benefits. For example, those ordering parts online can get real-time status on their orders through a Web-based system and know when the products will arrive, instead of making phone calls and fretting.

In a professional services realm, SharePoint can help a law firm that's collaborating with a client and co-counsel to create acceptable settlement documents. Instead of everyone writing, reviewing, making changes, and e-mailing back and forth (which can get extremely cumbersome and confusing), key parties can check out documents, create/edit content, then check them back in. Other people can see the changes made, by whom, and when, so that they're reviewing the most up-to-date version.

For a company monitoring inventory, SharePoint virtually automates the process by running inventory reports, then ordering product based on specified thresholds. This is in stark contrast to printing out inventory information, then calling the vendor to place an order.

And, it establishes security-clearance thresholds, giving employees permission to view and work with company information pertinent to their level of clearance -- no more, no less. This minimizes unauthorized access to information, and provides an uncluttered information base specific to workplace function (e.g., marketing and financial workers deal with different spheres of information).

SharePoint can consolidate legacy systems into central, easily accessed repositories, eliminating much of the time companies waste looking for information.

Advocates of SharePoint discuss ease of deployment (depending, of course, on what you want to deploy), user familiarity with such integrated tools as Microsoft Office and the ability to create teams that can work together remotely with large volumes of information.

These advocates tout SharePoint's readiness of such features as basic Web page layouts, adding that more complex, customization needs will require developer-level competency.

Critics cite lack of capability to go deep in such areas as Web development and document management. Better Web-development and document-management tools exist and should be explored when needs are complex and/or scalable, they say.

There's also been criticism of the newest SharePoint 2007 product as being too complex to satisfy plug-and-play Web-development expectations. Reports identify the need for an "experienced developer," and the requirement "to do a lot of configuration."

Given SharePoint's myriad features and multiple versions, how do you decide if it's for you? Look at:

• What you need to accomplish, then match your needs with SharePoint's offerings and pricing. If you need heavy use of one type of function, such as document management, there may be better choices. If you have very basic general needs, SharePoint may work well.

Start your search at www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/sharepoint/, click on "Product Evaluation."

You also can go to www.microsoft.com, then type "SharePoint" in the search bar. It will give you results about SharePoint Server 2007, SharePoint Designer 2007, Windows SharePoint Services in Windows Server 2003, among others. Do some self-education to get familiar with which product may work best for your requirements and budget.

• Review the Internet buzz, both about SharePoint in general and regarding your particular desired uses (e.g., file sharing for purposes of document review and editing). Check search engines, blogs and other opinion sources to start getting a feel for the pros and cons as defined by the user public.
• Address do-it-yourself versus hiring help. Unless your needs are very basic, and/or you have strong in-house familiarity with the program and its versions, don't self-install.

If you seek help, carefully review resources needed to help you set it up, get it working and provide employee training. Go to directory.microsoft.com/mprd/ and fill out the electronic form to locate local SharePoint-savvy Microsoft Certified Partners.

Generally, the more you want to do (both in terms of quantity of program features and people), the more you need to spend on the program, setup and training.

SharePoint offers many fine features and benefits, if your business needs and budget match its key performance points.

Gene Smith is general manager of Mission Critical Systems, a Denver-based IT management firm. Reach him at gene.smith@mcstech.net or 303-383-1627. The firm's director of training, Jenny Douras, contributed to this report.