Huddle Offers SharePoint Alternative
February 6, 2014
There are many SharePoint alternatives on the market, but only a few that really meet the mark. Furthermore, while many exist, few do more than a small part of the greater SharePoint functionality. So users would have to find themselves cobbling together bits and pieces into a larger system. Huddle is attempting to share in the game despite the environment. Their effort is discussed in the CMS Wire article, “Is Huddle Still a SharePoint Alternative?”
The article has this to say about Huddle’s viability:
“’Sure, Huddle is legitimate competition to SharePoint,’ says Rob Koplowitz, SharePoint analyst for Forrester Research. ‘It doesn’t do everything SharePoint does, but in the areas where there is overlap, Huddle is very robust.’ Huddle today launched another tool it claims continues to make its offering an alternative to SharePoint . . . Huddle Office, which is designed to enable workers to collaborate in Huddle’s cloud via their Microsoft Office tools.”
Stephen E. Arnold often looks at SharePoint and SharePoint alternatives on his Web service, ArnoldIT.com. He finds that while SharePoint has and will continue to maintain a lion’s share of the market, it is clear that there is room for smart competition.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 6, 2014
SharePoint 2013 Migration May Not be as Simple as You Think
January 31, 2014
Data migrations of any kind can be costly, time consuming, and expensive. But a SharePoint conversation has a particularly bad rap. The latest Search Content Management podcast focuses on the issue in their piece, “The Trouble with SharePoint 2013 Migration.”
The overview says:
“In any migration, you have to consider your current environment, as well as governance and architecture concerns. And you need to review your data to determine what you will migrate. In addition to your evaluating your architecture and whittling down legacy information and sites, you need to review your taxonomy and metadata and consider secondary issues such as storage capacity.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search, so he has a vested interested in covering SharePoint on his site, ArnoldIT.com. And while he often finds that SharePoint remains the industry leader in enterprise, there are struggles with customization and implementation, especially when a major new release hits. And while good planning benefits more than just a company’s data management, it is especially helpful when so much is at stake.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 31, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Making the Most of SharePoint 2013
December 27, 2013
This holiday season, CMSWire is holding out some love for SharePoint in their article, “A Stolen Kiss for Your SharePoint Governance.” The author, Andrew Bishop, finds that while SharePoint 2013 adoption moves along at a rapid pace, implementation of the improved features of 2013 does not keep this same pace.
Bishop writes:
“My first article for CMSWire discussed the exciting new features of SharePoint 2013. There is much to like about this latest release of the Microsoft collaboration wunderkind. In the period since the release I’ve seen a steady move by customers to SharePoint 2013, but not necessarily a big uptake of its new features. This is the case with my own customers, but also what I have heard from other end users and consultants.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime leader in search and he keeps up with SharePoint at his search news service, ArnoldIT.com. Arnold finds that while SharePoint adoption is widespread, users are still widely dissatisfied with implementation. It may be that many do not take full advantage of all the SharePoint features, or that not enough time or energy is given to customization. Keep up with the latest SharePoint news at ArnoldIT.com.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint 2010 Disappoints on ECM
July 31, 2013
Microsoft’s SharePoint can be many things to an enterprise. It helps us manage intranets, portals, forms processing, BI, business process management, collaboration. . . . However, one of its most basic functions, content management, has underwhelmed many companies, we learn from “Does SharePoint Measure Up for Enterprise Content Management?” at Australia’s IDM. In fact, many organizations supplement their SharePoint investment with a traditional enterprise content management (ECM) platform.
The article cites a recent whitepaper from AIIM that addresses SharePoint’s shortcomings:
AIIM recently released a whitepaper that explores the topic of SharePoint adoption, titled: “The SharePoint Puzzle.” In this Whitepaper, AIIM discusses why organizations selected SharePoint in the first place and how it performed against expectations. AIIM describes the drivers within this report:
“The collaborative aspects of SharePoint were the strongest original driver for exactly half of our respondents, rising to 57% for the largest organizations, with 38% for the smallest. Web portal/intranet (26%) and project management (13%) were also strong drivers but of more interest is the fact that SharePoint was more often selected to be a file-share replacement than a live document/content management system.”
Some key findings include:
– 28% of respondents have SharePoint in use across their whole workforce. 70% have at least half of their staff using it once a week or more.
– Over half feel they would be 50% more productive with enhanced workflow, search, information reporting and automated document creation tools.
– Over half (54%) are using or planning to use 3rd party add-on products in order to enhance functionality. Only a third thinks they will stick with the vanilla product.
– Difficulty of content migration and information governance capabilities are given as the biggest shortfalls in expectations.
The article discusses anecdotal examples from a couple of companies. The Aussie offices of law firm Herbert Smith Freehills uses SharePoint 2010 for its intranet, but relies on the Autonomy‘s Interwoven Filesite for ECM. In the public sphere, the city of Bunbury, Western Australia, was happy to replace its old data repository with SharePoint 2010. However, reports the city’s IT manager, they are disappointed by the platform’s limited search capacity.
Note that in both these examples, the SharePoint version used is 2010. Does SharePoint 2013 step up its search-functionality game?
Cynthia Murrell, July 31, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
MetaVis Rolls Out Another Organizational Tool for SharePoint
December 7, 2012
SharePoint’s stronghold shows through in recent news about MetaVis. MetaVis Technologies offers organizational tools for SharePoint and they are rolling out a new governance solution for an upcoming conference. The press release, “MetaVis to Preview New SharePoint Governance Tool at SharePoint Conference 2012” discusses the latest and greatest from this company.
The release discusses the boom in information and data we are experiencing. However, the statement that content growth is happening at an exponential rate is no surprise to anyone. Two words: big data.
In response, MetaVis serves up Informant for SharePoint, software designed to analyze content, identify sensitive information and enforce compliance standards or governance policies in the file system, SharePoint or Office 365.
Market Watch also discusses the accumulation of more file sharing and storing options:
“As a result, more and more content is uncontrolled and unmanaged by a company’s IT department which can lead to information leaks, security breaches and compliance risks. MetaVis Informant for SharePoint helps mitigate these risks by providing a convenient and familiar way of crawling, analyzing, reporting, and taking action across enterprise data.”
Is there a need for an entire company to tackle add-ons for an existing software solution? With the multiple tools for organizing SharePoint that MetaVis offers, it sounds like SharePoint can be a challenging system to manage.
Megan Feil, December 07, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Azaleos Survey Reveals Increased SharePoint Adoption but also Challenges
November 16, 2012
SharePoint adoption continues to grow and remain high according to an Azaleos Corporation and Osterman Research survey. The survey also revealed some inhibitors to greater SharePoint growth, including lack of administrative skills, training, and knowledge for current staff members. HeraldOnline weighs in on the findings in the article, “SharePoint Cost of Ownership Jumped 16 Percent in 2012 Finds Osterman Research.” This is added about possible challenges:
’According to Osterman Research, SharePoint is still an extremely high growth platform, but soaring management costs, coupled with insufficient staffing levels and training are leading to performance and satisfaction issues. This is threatening its momentum,’ said Scott Gode, vice president of product management and marketing for Azaleos. ‘To derive maximum business value from SharePoint enterprises need to reevaluate current approaches to systems administration and storage management in order to reduce costs. In addition, SharePoint governance should be given a much higher level of priority by both IT and business leadership.’
The author adds that staffing cut backs and poor governance are also challenges for organizations. The article highlights some important SharePoint issues you may want to consider when evaluating your approach to the ubiquitous platform. One approach worth looking at is a cost-effective third party solution to extend SharePoint capabilities, like Mindbreeze. Mindbreeze facilitates the comprehensive incorporation of all electronic data repositories and connects seamlessly with SharePoint. And with an intuitive user interface, users will find can easily adapt.
Philip West, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
AvePoint Continues Support for SharePoint
November 5, 2012
Many excellent options exist for third party SharePoint support. AvePoint, with its focus on governance and management solutions, has been supporting SharePoint deployments for eleven years. In the full report, “AvePoint Showcases Tradition of Excellence and Support for Microsoft SharePoint 2013 at SharePoint Conference 2012,” the author discusses how AvePoint will participate in the upcoming SharePoint 2012 conference.
AvePoint, leader in governance and management solutions for Microsoft SharePoint, today announced that it is a Platinum and Keynote Sponsor of Microsoft SharePoint Conference (SPC) 2012, taking place from November 12-15 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV. AvePoint’s Platinum and Keynote sponsorship for the third consecutive SPC highlights the company’s continued commitment to the global SharePoint community, and provides an opportunity to showcase the DocAve Software Platform, its award-winning product line for managing, governing, and scaling enterprise technology platforms with support for Microsoft SharePoint 2013.
Some companies need more than governance, management, and backup support. Some enterprises struggle to implement a SharePoint infrastructure because of staffing, funding, or other shortages. That is where a third party add-on can help bridge the gap. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is quick, cost-efficient, and service oriented. Its intuitive interface flattens out a potentially steep learning curve. Furthermore, Mindbreeze works as a standalone solution, or as an addition to an existing infrastructure.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 5, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Concept Searching Set to Sponsor SharePoint City Party at 2012 Conference
October 23, 2012
Concept Searching, a provider of enterprise-grade software products that aim to deliver conceptual metadata generation, auto-classification, and taxonomy management from the desktop, is sponsoring the ‘SharePoint City’ Party, to be hosted by Axceler exclusively for attendees at the SharePoint 2012 Conference, on November 14th in Las Vegas. Concept Searching provides basic enterprise-search capabilities, and this is explained about their additional product:
Going beyond a technology solution, Concept Searching’s Smart Content Framework™ for information governance is a toolset based on conceptClassifier for SharePoint that provides the enterprise infrastructure framework to mitigate risk, automate processes, manage information, protect privacy, and address compliance issues. The result is one set of technologies, running natively in SharePoint, which improves search, provides an enterprise metadata repository, automates records management, ensures compliance, protects and secures data, and facilitates migration.
If you plan to attend the conference, the party held at Tryst Nightclub may be worth checking out. A link to register for the party is provided in the article. If you’re weighing enterprise search applications for your existing SharePoint investments, you may also want to look up Mindbreeze. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise gains each employee two weeks per year through focused finding of data, a competitive business advantage and added bonus to employee satisfaction. In addition, their suite of solutions includes mobile and Web site search, a variety of connectors, and certified security.
Philip West, October 23, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
The Long Wait for SharePoint 2013
August 14, 2012
Microsoft has hyped the release of SharePoint 2013, with many enterprise junkies highly anticipating the public availability of the revamped product. ClearBox Consulting takes on the question of whether or not the new SharePoint is worth the hype, and the long wait, in, “Is SharePoint 2013 worth waiting for?”
While the author has many positives to highlight, he does have this to say in reference to the negatives:
By SharePoint 2010 the main challenges for an intranet manager had become governance and user adoption. Governance has definitely been improved, but adoption has been less substantially addressed. For example, the user experience for content owners is still over-fiddly and at the moment the mobile experience is well below what will be needed over the next 2-3 years. Moreover, the new version has done little to reduce the complexity involved in producing and managing a SharePoint-based intranet for business owners of sites and content.
It is no mystery that regardless of the changes that are made to SharePoint, it is a huge product that requires a lot of time, attention, and customization. So for many smaller organizations, a smarter, more efficient third party solution may be a better choice. A product like Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise can work as a standalone enterprise search solution, or as an enhancement to an existing SharePoint infrastructure. Used either way, customers will marvel as the intuitive interface and increased productivity of Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 14, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Governance Listed as Top Challenge in Enterprise
July 25, 2012
A new Gartner report shows that more SharePoint users are failing in the category of governance than in any other. SharePoint Joel gives his opinion on governance in, “Governance the #1 Challenge to Managing SharePoint.”
SharePoint Joel begins:
According to Gartner 66% of SharePoint Customers do not believe they have adequate governance. (Based on a recent Gartner survey) Governance can be defined as a set of defined roles, responsibilities, policies, and procedures that will help your company to proactively manage your information technology resources in a way that maximizes business value.
But governance does not have to be an ongoing struggle or an agonizing process. Third party solutions like Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise can work with an existing SharePoint installation to add efficiency and functionality. Fabasoft Folio Connector works with Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise to specifically address the issue of governance.
Fabasoft Folio is the standard software product for Enterprise Content Management, Collaboration, Compliance Management, agile Business Processes and Information Governance. The solution provides uniform, reliable and controlled management of digital content in the enterprise. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise links Fabasoft Folio for uniform enterprise-wide information access.
Do not continue to struggle with governance issues, allow Fabasoft Mindbreeze and their suite of smart solutions to ease your enterprise troubles.
Emily Rae Aldridge, July 25, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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