http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/08/05/sharepoint-anyone-not-baffled-please-stand-up/ by Stephen E. Arnold Wed, 23 May 2012 16:51:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2008/08/05/sharepoint-anyone-not-baffled-please-stand-up/comment-page-1/#comment-20108 Kristofer Younger Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:40:55 +0000 http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/?p=1256#comment-20108 Well, being maybe in the same age-class as Stephen, I would offer up an observation of MS employees at TechEd in Orlando. Earlier in the summer, many of the MS folks who came past my company's booth were genuinely surprised that any company would sell add-ons to SharePoint(?). They were mystified by SP's apparent popularity and importance. "SharePoint?" one said, "Is there a market for SharePoint? The intranet stuff?" The fact that SP as a technology wave is outpacing almost all MS products of recent years was lost on many of the MS employees I spoke to - all of it indicates that yes, in any given segment of MS's business there is huge ignorance about most of the other MS's businesses. MS creates it's own ecosystems, but is also so large as to make it hard for even someone inside the tent to keep track of it all. This leaves aside the ability for an MS employee to know more than a smattering of 3rd parties outside the tent. And with a business as large as "search" within MS, it's not surprising so much confusion reigns - there is no doubt the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. While I am confused by MS search product offerings (esp in the area of federated search), I find this is a little like talking to IBM folks back in the mid-80's where the big iron people had no idea PCs were becoming important. Well, being maybe in the same age-class as Stephen, I would offer up an observation of MS employees at TechEd in Orlando. Earlier in the summer, many of the MS folks who came past my company’s booth were genuinely surprised that any company would sell add-ons to SharePoint(?). They were mystified by SP’s apparent popularity and importance. “SharePoint?” one said, “Is there a market for SharePoint? The intranet stuff?” The fact that SP as a technology wave is outpacing almost all MS products of recent years was lost on many of the MS employees I spoke to – all of it indicates that yes, in any given segment of MS’s business there is huge ignorance about most of the other MS’s businesses. MS creates it’s own ecosystems, but is also so large as to make it hard for even someone inside the tent to keep track of it all.
This leaves aside the ability for an MS employee to know more than a smattering of 3rd parties outside the tent.
And with a business as large as “search” within MS, it’s not surprising so much confusion reigns – there is no doubt the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing.
While I am confused by MS search product offerings (esp in the area of federated search), I find this is a little like talking to IBM folks back in the mid-80′s where the big iron people had no idea PCs were becoming important.

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