SharePoint Alternatives
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The document discusses the limitations of SharePoint as a content management system, particularly in large organizations, and suggests alternative solutions for various scenarios such as social intranets, partner extranets, and document management. It emphasizes that while SharePoint has strengths in certain areas, its high costs and customization challenges may lead organizations to consider other more cost-effective tools like Atlassian Confluence or Alfresco for document management. The document concludes that SharePoint is best for Microsoft-heavy companies, but alternatives should be explored for greater flexibility and lower costs.
SharePoint Alternatives
- 1. SharePoint: Where it comes up short and what you could use instead Perttu Tolvanen, Web & CMS Expert, @perttutolvanen 1 North Patrol Oy 2013 / 2013-11-06 / J. Boye Aarhus 13
- 2. Security agency for web projects 2 © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 3. - - Security agency for web projects 3 © 2013 North Patrol Oy - Vendor-neutral CMS consultants Helsinki-based, but most clients operate in Northern Europe / Scandinavia / Russia CMS selections and partner selections for large projects Founded 2012, growing
- 4. Agenda Best-fit use cases for SharePoint 4 North Patrol Oy 2013 Challenging, but typical scenarios for SharePoint Main challengers for SharePoint in each scenario
- 5. Speaker’s background • Technology advisor in web & extranet & intranet projects – Lot of background with Microsoft tools, involved in SharePoint projects since 2007 – Also a lot of project experience with Oracle’s systems and open source systems like Liferay and Drupal – Most of the customers are large organisations headquartered in Finland – Note: Finland is a Microsoft & open source country (so I am biased in some ways) • Lessons learned in buying IT systems 1. Only choose products that are supported by (somewhat) local partners 2. Features don’t matter, philosophy of the product matters 3. Long-term success is dictated more by the partner selection than the product 5 North Patrol Oy 2013
- 6. SharePoint as a product and platform 6 © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 7. SharePoint as a product and platform • • • • • • Document management product Team sites & collaboration Search engine for documents & pages Decent publishing system Portal platform wannabe Social intranet platform wannabe Cloud is the new business of Microsoft and O365 is the gateway.
- 8. SharePoint as a product and platform • • • • • • Document management product Team sites & collaboration Search engine for documents & pages Decent publishing system Portal platform wannabe Social intranet platform wannabe Too early to say: Social layer on top of other services Out of bounds: Application development platform Out of bounds: Websites with eCommerce Cloud is the new business of Microsoft and O365 is the gateway.
- 9. Remember: SharePoint is not a light-weight “point solution”. If you go SharePoint, you should consider implementing all the best-fit-scenarios. Source: http://www.interact-intranet.com/sharepoint-alternative/
- 10. Best-fit scenarios for SharePoint 10 © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 11. “The big picture” Phonebook / people profiles ERP (SAP & others) (+ other line of business systems) HR systems (Oracle, SAP, etc) CRM Websites Intranet News, guidelines, phonebook, important documents, search Custom apps Document management & project sites Customer extranets eCommerce Partner extranets North Patrol Oy 2013
- 12. “The big picture” Phonebook / people profiles ERP (SAP & others) (+ other line of business systems) HR systems (Oracle, SAP, etc) CRM Websites Intranet News, guidelines, phonebook, important documents, search Why NOT Document SharePoint? management Custom apps Customer extranets & project sites eCommerce Partner extranets North Patrol Oy 2013
- 13. “The big picture” Phonebook / people profiles ERP (SAP & others) (+ other line of business systems) HR systems (Oracle, SAP, etc) CRM Websites Intranet News, guidelines, phonebook, important documents, search Why NOT Document SharePoint? management & project sites Why the Customer HELL extranets SharePoint? Custom apps eCommerce Partner extranets North Patrol Oy 2013
- 14. Best-fits “Social, one company intranets” (organisations which have a common purpose and everyone can see everything) Social team sites and document management (eg. University departments or team site areas inside large corporations) Partner extranets (B2B, document-centric) North Patrol Oy 2013
- 15. Best-fits + challenging, but typical scenarios Social intranets for heterogeneous organizations (eg. ”Groups”, large organisations with independent business divisions or local operations) “Social, one company intranets” Websites without eCommerce (organisations which have a common purpose and everyone can see everything) Social team sites and document management (eg. University departments or team site areas inside large corporations) Partner extranets (B2B, document-centric) North Patrol Oy 2013 Customer extranets
- 16. Challengers for each scenario 16 © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 17. Scenarios 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Social, one company intranets Social intranets for heterogeneous organizations Social team sites & document management Partner extranets Customer extranets Websites without eCommerce Direct challengers Products that are competing with SharePoint directly or clients see them competing with SharePoint directly. Expensive products Cheaper alternatives Products that do not compete directly, but clients see them as alternative choices for things SharePoint does. In-direct challengers 17 © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 18. Scenario 1: Social, one company intranets
- 19. Scenario 1: Social, one company intranets • SharePoint is the king of the hill • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Newsfeed for social concepts – Document library capabilities – People profiles and search – Both on-premise and cloud choices • Pain points: Cost-effective alternatives – Licence cost can be high – No easy personalization capabilities for the intranet frontpage – Customizations expensive to build – Limited multilanguage management Additional sources: - UK market information received also from Sam Marshall (http://www.clearboxconsulting.co.uk/) - Sweden’s market info received from Kristian Norling (http://norling.co/) - Netherland’s market info received from Eric Haartman (http://www.erikhartmancommunicatie.nl) Social intranet players In-direct challengers
- 20. Scenario 1: Social, one company intranets • SharePoint is the king of the hill • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Newsfeed for social concepts – Document library capabilities – People profiles and search – Both on-premise and cloud choices • Pain points: – Licence cost can be high Cost-effective alternatives Summary: Most intranet concepts could be done – No easy personalization capabilities for with any of the tools. the intranet frontpage Social Document libraryintranet players – Customizations expensive to build capabilities and social feeds – Limited multilanguage management In-direct differentate some, but not challengers much. Atlassian Confluence Additional sources: and Interact are the main - UK market information received also from Sam Marshall (http://www.clearboxconsulting.co.uk/) - Sweden’s market info received from Kristian Norling (http://norling.co/) challengers usually. - Netherland’s market info received from Eric Haartman (http://www.erikhartmancommunicatie.nl)
- 21. Scenario 2: Social intranets for heterogeneous organisations • SharePoint is often chosen for this scenario, but this is often really hard to do with SharePoint! Direct challengers • SharePoint’s strenghts: – Newsfeed for social concepts – Document library capabilities – People profiles and search • Pain points: – No easy personalization capabilities for the intranet frontpage Cost-effective alternatives Social intranet players – Limited content targeting capabilities – Limited content re-use capabilities – Customizations expensive to build – Limited multilanguage management 21 © 2013 North Patrol Oy In-direct challengers
- 22. Scenario 2: Social intranets for heterogeneous organisations • SharePoint is often chosen for this scenario, but this is often really hard to do with SharePoint! Direct challengers • SharePoint’s strenghts: – Newsfeed for social concepts – Document library capabilities – People profiles and search • Pain points: – No easy personalization capabilities for the intranet frontpage Cost-effective alternatives Social intranet players – Limited content targeting capabilities – Limited content re-use capabilities – Customizations expensive to build – Limited multilanguage management 22 © 2013 North Patrol Oy In-direct challengers
- 23. Scenario 2: Social intranets for heterogeneous organisations • SharePoint is often chosen for this scenario, but this is often really hard to do with SharePoint! Direct challengers • SharePoint’s strenghts: – Newsfeed for social concepts – Document library capabilities – People profiles and search • Pain points: – No easy personalization capabilities for the intranet frontpage Cost-effective alternatives Social intranet players – Limited content targeting capabilities – Limited content re-use capabilities – Customizations expensive to build – Limited multilanguage management 23 © 2013 North Patrol Oy Summary: Intranet concepts for large, heterogeneous organisations are usually In-direct challengers more “portal scenarios” than “SharePoint scenarios”.
- 24. Scenario 3: Social team sites with document management • Some tools are more social than others and have better messaging/notification systems, but in the end differences are small • Only few tools have some ’philosophy’ behing them, eg. Basecamp • But there are few things that differentate… Most notably… 24 © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 25. Scenario 3: Social team sites with document management • Saving changes directly to team site’s document library is something that only MS Office programs do – and only with SharePoint • MS however has published the standard, but only Alfresco has used it so far in their cloud-service • Other products use WEBDAV or some plugin/software to upload/download in the background (=> limited) © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 26. Scenario 3: Social team sites with document management • SharePoint is the king of the hill • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Newsfeed for discussions – Integration with Office (ctrl+s saves directly to SharePoint) – Teamsites can be extended and customized for different use cases – Offline editing to documents Cost-effective alternatives • Pain points: – Licence cost can be high – Building a hybrid environment not really possible yet (cloud + on-premise) – Creates a siloed environment by default 26 © 2013 North Patrol Oy In-direct challengers
- 27. Scenario 3: Social team sites with document management • SharePoint is the king of the hill • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Newsfeed for discussions – Integration with Office (ctrl+s saves directly to SharePoint) – Teamsites can be extended and customized for different use cases – Offline editing to documents Cost-effective alternatives • Pain points: – Licence cost can be high – Building a hybrid environment not really possible yet (cloud + on-premise) – Creates a siloed environment by default 27 © 2013 North Patrol Oy Summary: Can you live without documents? If yes, then you have options, if In-direct challengers not, then choices are very limited.
- 28. Scenario 4: Partner extranets • Mostly document-centric information sharing, but some custom elements and/or reporting views 28 © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 29. Scenario 4: Partner extranets • SharePoint is very strong in this scenario when most use cases are document-centric use cases • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Document library capabilities – Extensible team site templates – Integration to other MS products • Pain points: Cost-effective alternatives – Integration to non-MS systems – User access management demands separate products (eg. UAG) – Hybrid environments difficult to setup 29 © 2013 North Patrol Oy In-direct challengers
- 30. Scenario 4: Partner extranets • SharePoint is very strong in this scenario when most use cases are document-centric use cases • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Document library capabilities – Extensible team site templates – Integration to other MS products • Pain points: – Integration to non-MS systems – User access management demands separate products (eg. UAG) – Hybrid environments difficult to setup 30 © 2013 North Patrol Oy Cost-effective alternatives Summary: Again, if you need the document collaboration then there are few real options for SharePoint. Mainly Alfresco. If youIn-direct challengers don’t need the documents then probably any portal works for you.
- 31. Scenario 5: Customer extranets
- 32. Scenario 5: Customer extranets • SharePoint is shortlisted for this scenario only in Microsoft-heavy companies • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Integration to other MS products (especially to Biztalk) – Document library capabilities • Pain points: – Integration to non-MS systems – Limited support for different user access management possibilities – Customizations are expensive to build and maintain & hard to update 32 © 2013 North Patrol Oy In-direct challengers
- 33. Scenario 5: Customer extranets • SharePoint is shortlisted for this scenario only in Microsoft-heavy companies • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Integration to other MS products (especially to Biztalk) – Document library capabilities • Pain points: – Integration to non-MS systems – Limited support for different user access management possibilities – Customizations are expensive to build and maintain & hard to update 33 © 2013 North Patrol Oy Summary: Customer extranets rarely benefit from SharePoint unless all the background systems are also challengers In-direct MS-products. Even a traditional portal product might not be needed.
- 34. Scenario 6: Websites without eCommerce
- 35. Scenario 6: Websites without eCommerce • SharePoint is shortlisted for this scenario only in Microsoft-heavy companies • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Integration to other MS products (especially to Biztalk) • Pain points: – Limited digital marketing capabilities Cost-effective alternatives – Limited multilanguage capabilities – Limited content re-use capabilities – Limited preview capabilities – Expensive to implement 35 © 2013 North Patrol Oy In-direct challengers
- 36. Scenario 6: Websites without eCommerce • SharePoint is shortlisted for this scenario only in Microsoft-heavy companies • SharePoint’s strenghts: Direct challengers – Integration to other MS products (especially to Biztalk) • Pain points: – Limited digital marketing capabilities Cost-effective alternatives – Limited multilanguage capabilities – Limited content re-use capabilities – Limited preview capabilities – Expensive to implement 36 © 2013 North Patrol Oy Summary: If you have too much money and don’t really care about running an In-direct effective online channel you challengers should do the website with SharePoint.
- 37. Summary “Social, one company intranets” Social team sites and document management Partner extranets • Great for SharePoint, if you have the money for licencees and implementation: 1. Social, one company intranets 2. Social team sites & document management 3. Partner extranets (when it’s about documents and team sites) • For a more cost-effective intranet solution you might consider Atlassian Confluence or dedicated intranet products like Interact or Igloo (but many of them are not very cheap for larger orgs!). • For document management you might consider Alfresco (great Office integration) or cloud-solutions like Huddle or M-Files. Currently Office integration is the main problem for most alternatives. • For complex intranets with personalization demands you should evaluate portal products that have local partners near you (eg. Oracle, Liferay or Jahia). SharePoint can be really problematic in more complex scenarios even if you had the money to customize. • For customer extranets you should evaluate portals or Web CMS solutions or consider even building them as custom solutions. SharePoint rarely makes sense for customer extranets. • For websites SharePoint makes sense only when you have to integrate to other MS products heavily (eg. Biztalk), and even then systems like EPiServer are usually better and cheaper. 37 © 2013 North Patrol Oy
- 38. - Slides will be available in SlideShare (follow #jboye13) Twitter: @perttutolvanen and @NorthPatrol perttu.tolvanen@northpatrol.com http://www.northpatrol.com Thank you. 38 North Patrol Oy 2013