Gartner released its annual ECM market Magic Quadrant report this week and the big surprise was that Microsoft had been promoted from Visionary to Leader. This is fairly significant because it shows how much Sharepoint has penetrated the enterprise content management space. Just how much Microsoft is influencing the enterprise as a whole, however, is still open to debate.

Just this past week, Alan Pelz-Sharpe wrote in a post on CMS Watch that his research found that while Sharepoint had made significant penetration in the enterprise, it was mostly confined to Microsoft Office documents and not other types of content. What's more, nobody Pelz-Sharpe asked intended to replace existing systems with Sharepoint.

So what does this mean? Microsoft Sharepoint has a role to play in many enterprise content management mixes, but it's not going to replace other content management systems any time soon. It suggests that perhaps the strong growth we have seen from Sharepoint, although significant, could bottom out at some point, especially if companies begin to search for lower-cost replacements for expensive Microsoft Office licenses should the economic slow-down continue.

On one level, Microsoft has a right to be proud of this new designation by Gartner. It shows they are a true player in ECM. Still, be careful as a buyer not to read too much into it.

For more information:
- read the Gartner Magic Quadrant Report [1]
- read Pelz-Sharpe's CMS report on Sharepoint [2]