SharePoint's hard to define, but you can't ignore Microsoft as an ECM player

It's somewhat surprising (at least to a content management geek like myself) that Microsoft doesn't have a pure-play content management product, especially since they make tools to generate so much of traditional enterprise content and it would be a logical place for them to hang their hat. Yet SharePoint, the closest tool they have to content management, is like the 10,000 pound gorilla in the ECM market, even though it may not even actually be an enterprise content management system, at least in the traditional (or pure) sense of the term.

What is it exactly?

Even customers aren't sure what it's for, at least according to a survey released recently by AIIM [1] and Information Architected [2]. As I wrote last week in "Survey finds that SharePoint remains a file server for almost half of users [3]," the survey indicated that a large percentage of people don't even recognize the levels of sophistication in SharePoint and ignore much of its capabilities. In a recent AIIM seminar, as reported in the blog post: SharePoint: Sharing Real World Perspectives [4], this was exemplified by one participant who suggested that out of the box, SharePoint was nothing more than "an enhanced network drive," which may be harsh, but is consistent with the survey findings. It clearly can do much more, yet something seems to be preventing companies from using its more advanced capabilities.

ECM or not ECM?

Arpan Shah, the Director on the SharePoint Product Management team, said in a recent One on one interview [5] that Gartner certainly sees SharePoint as an ECM product, giving it the highest placement surpassing more traditional ECM vendors:

"Microsoft's leader position in Gartner's 2008 Enterprise Content Management Magic Quadrant report signifies the strides SharePoint Server 2007 is making in the ECM industry. In fact, Microsoft beat out all other vendors for completeness of ECM vision."

Yet some companies install hundreds of individual SharePoint installations at the departmental level, which creates silos of isolated information, a problem that content management is at least theoretically supposed to eliminate. So while SharePoint can help "manage" content, is it really an "enterprise" content management system? Microsoft thinks so. Gartner thinks so, but how companies are using it is not really consistent with an enterprise vision of managing content across an organization.

You can't deny the success

Microsoft is clearly selling a lot of SharePoint licenses and the product is an undeniable success from that standpoint. There is a whole ecosystem of partners, consultants and third-party developers who are creating enhanced functionality or customizing SharePoint for individual organizations. At this point, it doesn't really matter what we call it because SharePoint is clearly having a huge impact in the ECM marketplace, but the nagging question remains exactly where the product fits in the enterprise software infrastructure. Is it an Intranet, a social media tool set, a content management system; or perhaps it encompasses at least parts of all three. Writers like me may keep trying to define it, but customers keep buying it, regardless of what you call it. - Ron [6]