One of the things we talked a lot about when I was partnering with Skype (many years ago) was the eco system. For Skype it was important and it contained the users, partners, the core platform and extra’s. It was functioning really well and everyone profited from it (although there have been discussions about that).
For any product such an eco system is important because it keeps the vibe alive.
My questions is if there is a SharePoint eco system? I’m actually not sure because in my opinion something is missing, the needed dynamic interaction with end users! Let me explain a little more.
When I look around there are a lot of solutions for SharePoint, stuff like: generic web parts (better versions of what SP offers), backup tools, collaboration+ tools, enhanced versions of out of the box sites etc. Most are useful but IMO, a lot of times boring for end users. Boring? Yes, boring and not specifically tailored for what they need in their daily work. Don’t get me wrong, we need all these tools too!
We, the technical people, expect them to “get” web parts and how to use them without a proper education but in the back of our mind we all know that user adoption isn’t probably that great in the end. Do we really know that many end users that mix and match web parts and build their own useful site? I know a few but that’s it. If I'm wrong please correct me because I'm trying to tease a little to get a good open discussion on this subject.
SharePoint has all the potential to become the most important Enterprise collaboration platform of the last 10 years and all partners make good money with it (we too). But that is not what I’m talking about. What am I talking about? I talk about end users that buy vertical SharePoint solutions that are tailored for their needs. Right now this is missing IMO. There is no dynamic marketplace where people take a look to see if it can solve their daily problem. And if they would see something they would need to go through their IT department to purchase it because most of the solutions need to be installed on the front end web server. End users don’t have much freedom when it comes to buying SP solutions. Is that a big problem? You bet! IT departments are busy running all their systems and new functionality can be a pain because you also need to know how to support it (what if the installation on the server goes wrong).
Now I’m going to do what you probably expected, I’m going to plug our own products :-) But, I do this with the best intentions because I want to give end users choices and solutions for their problems without overloading the IT department! It is a win-win for everyone in the end!
We think we can help to create a better eco system by offering a platform that brings flexibility but also binds groups of people. The end result is different type of solutions (think out of the box) that are available in two tastes:
- no-assembly installable solutions
- services (dynamic data, API’s) that connect to SharePoint lists.
The first one is done by using ProduShare (produce and share) and its framework to install things easily. A vertical solution can be something very simple like a list that contains very important information for a financial department. Period ending tasks for a financial period could be something like that. Sure you can create it yourself but why would you, it takes time. I can come up with plenty of other examples for this. Another one could be a branding package. Your site looks ugly when you create it? Download and install a branding package and voila a better looking site.
The second one, services, is done by using TunnelPoint. TunnelPoint is the middleman and it makes sure that interesting and up-to-date information can be seen inside your SharePoint site. This information is offered by calling web services/APIs (very abstract and difficult to understand for end users) and transforming that to information that can be offered to lists inside a SharePoint site. We have developed several services and we are planning to develop much more the coming months.
For both products we believe in the eco system. A system that has: partners that co-develop new services, solution builders and end users that buy it from us (subscription or one time payment).
Let me share one thing with you before I end this post. It is a sample of the status of SharePoint. Sometimes people ask me what I do and when I say Enterprise Collaboration portals with SharePoint people gaze and then turn their head to talk to other cool people :-) This could mean a few things:
- they never heard of SharePoint
- they don’t like collaboration (probably a lot);
- they use folders and network shares;
- they just ignore me because they don’t like me :-)
- they think I'm an alien from a planet far far away.
But what if I could have said, “I have built an awesome social application for SharePoint, just like Facebook”. Probably that would have caught their attention.
Overall I think we need much more exciting and useful applications for end users to increase user adoption. We are ready to help all people in the eco system to fulfill this!