SharePoint 2007: Friend or Foe? – 3 of 4 -

We continue to discuss Microsoft’s SharePoint in this 4 part series, and whether SharePoint 2007 is a friend or foe of the independent dealer. In our last post, we discussed some of what’s under the hood in SharePoint, briefly.

Let’s move on to discuss how SharePoint usually interacts with the channel’s traditional Document Management Systems (DMS) offerings, and offer a few potential business models to think about in the months to come as your company decides how to cope with SharePoint.

How SharePoint Interacts with Your DMS Offerings:

As the popularity and bench strength of Microsoft’s SharePoint offerings have grown over the years, DMS players have had to take notice and begin to consider strategies to either coexist or oust SharePoint. Earlier versions of Microsoft were largely considered departmental solutions, according to Jeetu Patel of Doculads. This, however, is not the case with SharePoint 2007 offerings.

In Russ Edelman’s AIIM E-DOC article, SharePoint In The Enterprise, he asserts there are 2 fundamental paths traveled by organizations – those of exclusive (no existing DMS infrastructure) and inclusive (merge with existing DMS infrastructure) strategies. Russ goes on to expand upon the advantages and disadvantages:

Exclusive - Path 1 SharePoint Only:

• Advantage: No existing DMS migrations are necessary
• Advantage: Lower maintenance costs
• Advantage: Consistent user interfaces
• Advantage: Common repositories and reduced duplication of data
• Disadvantage:SharePoint is limited in certain functionalities
• Disadvantage:SharePoint records management is version 1.0
• Disadvantage: Users may have limited knowledge of DMS benefits
• Disadvantage: Architecture may impose limitations in various applications

Inclusive – Path 2 Coexistence:

• Advantage: Users and implementers have familiarity with DMS concepts
• Advantage:DMS applications may be more suitable for specific applications
• Disadvantage: Additional maintenance cost
• Disadvantage: Confusion on which software to apply
• Disadvantage: Potential inconsistent  user interfaces
• Disadvantage: Duplicate data may need to be maintained

From personal experience with integrating WSS within my own organization, in coexistence with a current DMS application, it is interesting to see the key differences. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but the greatest weakness of SharePoint has to be its architecture in how it handles documents themselves.

Truly, SharePoint is far better than any other application to date with collaborating with Office documents, but architecturally, it cannot compete with a true DMS in handling large amounts of documents – in its current iteration.

However, one strategy to skirt around the coexistence issue is what is known as “surfacing”, or the ability to overlay SharePoint as the user interface to reach into the DMS repository itself.

Getting Down to the Business of Business Models:

As you build your strategy, you must decide whether Microsoft SharePoint will be part of your go-to-market strategy or part of your hit list. There is a case to be made for embracing SharePoint, and several viable business models that might make some sense:

1. Acquire a development or integration partner: Acquisition of talent would offer a quick upside to both talent and possibly an existing customer base; in essence, you can drive the car off the lot. Obviously the downside would be a generally large capital outlay and potential culture clash.
2. Build your own shop: The do-it-yourself approach is a lot like building the model using a kit versus buying the car off the lot; possible margins, blending with the existing culture, and overall control can be better controlled. However, many dealers wouldn’t know where to begin, so creating the synergy would be generally difficult leading to a longer ramp time for success.
3. Partner with another company: For the independent dealer, this has potentially the best outcome. While strong partner documentation must be in place, dealers can immediately ramp up by simply adding solutions to their portfolio. The caution here is to know whether your existing teams are already strong in solutions selling. If they are not, this solution could be a recipe for disastrous distraction from your core business. Be sure you can ante up before you ask for your cards.

Which business model works best in your environment?

In the last article in this series, we conclude our analysis of SharePoint and its place in the dealer channel.

Read this series here.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.