SharePoint: 'Forcing It To Fit' Is An Expensive And Painful Experience

By Scott Smith, Invisible Fist

Each time I’ve sat down to write about Microsoft SharePoint, I’ve experienced a sensation that is the polar opposite of writer’s block. Indeed, there is much to say about SharePoint. The current ‘deluxe’ edition, (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server aka MOSS), is a big, feature-rich solution, developed by a gigantic company that has bankrolled an aggressive marketing campaign. Additionally, there are many Microsoft partners and bloggers helping to spread the SharePoint gospel. There is also a proportionally large population of SharePoint detractors and companies that profess to offer solutions that rival those of MOSS.

Some time ago, after decades of experience with the Macintosh, and several years in supporting Unix systems, I found myself working for a Microsoft development partner. Thus, I can assure you that I have already received my life’s ration of SharePoint hype. I have also seen a fair amount of unwarranted criticism of SharePoint. Neither unbridled praise nor baseless criticism are helpful, if you, the content specialist, or your clients are considering SharePoint as a possible solution.

To add another layer of confusion, Microsoft is scheduled to release a new version, SharePoint 2010. this year. We’re already seeing a fresh wave of SharePoint hype, and SharePoint hate.

In this article

• What is SharePoint? (really, I’m going to try to answer that)
• What are some of the merits and drawbacks of SharePoint?
• How much does SharePoint cost? (I’ll give you the final answer right now: it’s complicated. However, I will try to provide some guidance on the factors that may impact SharePoint’s price tag for you.)
• What types of resources are available for to help ensure successful SharePoint implementations?

I’ll explore SharePoint, attempt to reduce your uncertainty about the product, and help you understand what it means for the content manager. As stated, SharePoint is a gargantuan solution, this article is merely a flyover of SharePoint’s features and functionality.

Though there is new version of SharePoint forthcoming, this article’s focus is on MOSS, with some discussion of other members of the SharePoint family, including commentary on the new SharePoint 2010.

Really Brief Background on SharePoint’s Genealogy

Some of the confusion surrounding SharePoint is natural because there are several different flavors of SharePoint. I won’t go through the entire family tree, but I do want to clarify that there is a version of SharePoint that was bundled with Windows Server operating systems. This is known as Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). WSS offers some basic portal and document-management services at no additional charge to owners of the Windows Server license.

MOSS, released in 2007, is an amalgam of several key Microsoft server technologies, including:

• SharePoint
• Content Management Server
• Forms Server

MOSS provides the same collaborative technologies as WSS, with value-adds including web content publishing. The ‘Enterprise” edition of MOSS provides enhanced search capabilities, and the means to extract content from legacy systems.

What Does MOSS Do?

When asked what MOSS can do, without hesitation, I can honestly say that “MOSS can do a whole lot of things.” There are indeed many things that MOSS does pretty well out-of-the-box. Additionally, there are things that it can do reasonably well with minor configurations. Finally, there are attributes of MOSS that are probably not going to be on par with your expectations. While desired functionality might be achieved with custom development, this may not be the most cost-effective tactic for you or your clients.

The glut of literature making claims about MOSS is highly confusing. You may have encountered articles and blogs that profess that MOSS provides:

• Web Content Management (WCM)
• Social Networking
• Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
• Records Management (RM)
• Enterprise Portal
• Document Management Suite (DM)
• Web 2.0 Collaboration (including blogs wikis and discussion forums)
• Digital Asset Management (DAM)

While each of the above descriptors are technically true (errr, possible), such labeling is of little value as you consider solutions to your communications challenges. Let me boil it down to this:

MOSS is a content management system.

With every digital photo, every key stroke…you are making content. At issue is whether MOSS can manage your content types and whether it can do so in a manner that meets with your needs.

I realize that content management (CM) is a term that is rather elusive in its own right. So, to provide some structure to our conversation about MOSS, I offer this rather simplistic definition of CM:

Content management is about who gets, what, when and how in an organization.

My fellow political science minors might recognize the inspiration of this definition: the scholar Harold Lasswell.

Essentially any content management solution should address the following organizational challenges:

• Who gets your content? (security)
  • Content consumers: Students, customers, employees…
  • Content contributors: Artists, photographers, videographers, writers…
  • Content approvers: Editors, managers…

• What content can they get? (content creation, repurposing and transformation)
  • Web pages
  • Documents
  • MPEGs

• When can they get the content? (content publishing and workflow)
  • When they browse: Content consumers
  • When they’re working on it: Content contributors
  • When it’s ready to be published: Content approvers
  • When they search: All users

• How do they get the content? (fulfillment)
  • Downloaded to desktop
  • Via email
  • Via FTP
  • Via iPhone

MOSS security: Who gets your content?

The MOSS security model is a bit confusing at first glance (and probably second glance, too), but with proper planning, an organization can make its content as open, or as restricted, as it chooses. By default, content access requires that users be authenticated; however, MOSS allows for anonymous access configuration. This permits content to be made available outside the organization, as in the case of a public website.

A deep-dive of security is beyond the scope of this article; thus let it suffice to say that SharePoint offers a range of user roles from full control to read-only access and that can be applied globally or to individual content items.

MOSS content creation, repurposing and transformation: What content can they get?

MOSS pages are built upon Microsoft’s ASP.Net framework, thus they support bundles of reusable code known as Web Parts. Similar to components (portlets, widgets, gadgets…) that you may have used with other content management systems, Web Parts enable eligible users to create or aggregate content on a MOSS Page.

MOSS also provides the capability to create many types of document libraries, as well as lists — things like calendars and announcements — that you can embed directly in a page, the same way that you would do with a Web Part.

Some of the types of content that you can manage and deliver with MOSS include:

• Browser-ready pages – You can create web content from scratch or you can choose from the numerous sites templates that are available. You can modify the page layouts and master pages (look-and-feel) with SharePoint Designer to suit your own needs.
• Documents - MOSS document libraries provide for storage and metadata classification of document files. Documents can be downloaded, or can be created/edited in the library with Microsoft Office products. When you edit a file in a document library, you can modify metadata attributes directly from the Office tool you’re using.
• PowerPoint Slides - Interesting feature that allows you to upload entire presentations that are stored as individual slides. You then have ability to select, and reorder, individual slides to generate a new presentation (requires Office 2007).
• “Web 2.0” collaboration – This includes wikis, blogs, discussion forums and social networking.
• Surveys – This is probably one of the most underused content features in MOSS. With the survey tool you can easily create survey questions and a variety of response formats (text, single- or multiple-response).
• Rich media – Images and video files can be stored in a library, thus allowing for descriptive metadata, version control and workflow.
• Content from legacy systems – The enterprise edition of MOSS permits aggregation from disparate systems (like an ERP system) by the Business Data Catalogue Web Part (requires customization).

With base-level configurations, you also will have some ability to convert content, on-the-fly, from one format to another. However, you will only be able to convert content from one  Microsoft Office format to another, or to HTML

MOSS content publishing and workflow: When can they get the content?

One of the key challenges to an organization is that content is made available when, and only when, it is approved for public consumption. It’s surprising how often workflow is accomplished manually in some organizations. For example, content might be routed–through e-mails, or printed pages–for approval before the ‘final’ version is sent to a web specialist tasked with “adding it to the site.” MOSS can help to automate this process.

MOSS has features to ensure that content has gone through proper quality control before it is available to end users. This includes content status (‘draft’ vs. ‘published’ states) and approval workflow. Content creators (and site administrators) can see sites and documents when they are in a ‘draft’ state, but end users can only see the content when it has been approved and published.

MOSS provides content-approval workflow capabilities out-of-the-box. These are rather simplistic, but fit the needs of many organizations. A MOSS workflow requires that content be ‘approved’ by an eligible user (an administrator or approver) before it can be viewed by end users. In the event that more complex workflows (integrating with other information systems, for example) are required, MOSS allows for workflow customization.

MOSS fulfillment: How do they get the content?

There are an array of methods by which users can find content in MOSS, but the primary means are browsing and search. Users who are familiar with the site’s taxonomy, or are intrepid clickers, can browse to a specific page, where they might download a document or view calendar items. Others may rely on MOSS search functionality to return results based on users’ input.

MOSS search service will index all of your site content, including documents housed in your libraries. You will also have the ability to index documents on your file servers. This is a handy feature because you will have access to a robust document search — even if documents have not yet been migrated to a MOSS document library.

MOSS’s search service can index external content that can is available via the Internet. Thus, you can configure MOSS search service to index public-facing websites that are relevant to your users.

Strengths

Some key areas in which MOSS excels:

• A wide variety of ways to create, manage, and share content – MOSS provides the means to create web pages, documents, surveys and many types of “Web 2.0” content. You have the potential to solve many business problems with MOSS out of the box.
• Document libraries allow to you better describe your documents than you are afforded with storage on the file server - You can customize metadata for documents, which can make the document more findable for your users. Furthermore, metadata descriptors enable the development of custom document sorting and can be leveraged for document archiving, workflows and security (with customization).
• Simple site brand management - If your organization has expertise in cascading style sheets, applying your own look and feel will be a relatively simple endeavor. You can see many great examples of custom-branded MOSS sites here.
• Version control, publishing state and workflow are available for of all forms of content – Publishing states and workflow help to ensure that content is in front of the right eyes at the right time. There is nothing better than the ability to “roll back” to a previous edition of your content in a pinch.
• Private collaboration areas - MOSS “My Sites” allow authenticated users to create documents, calendars, announcements in their personal workspaces, that they can choose to share with others in the organization. My Sites provide the added utility of providing a safe area where user can become acquainted with SharePoint concepts and procedures for creating content.
• SharePoint Designer makes design changes easy - Designer is a descendent of Microsoft’s Front Page, that is tuned for SharePoint. In addition to facilitating changes to a site’s look-and-feel, Designer offer features such as developing site-usage reports and Section 508-compliance accessibility checking.
• Many integration opportunities with other Microsoft solutions – With relative ease, MOSS can be joined to Project Management Server, Exchange Messaging Server and other Microsoft solutions.

Some Drawbacks

Some areas where SharePoint is lacking:

• SharePoint is Microsoft-centric – Should I get you some smelling salts? Certain features are only available ony with Office products. For example, the ability to edit metadata from a document, will be unavailable with products outside the Microsoft family. If you work in the creative services, you likely have Adobe products in your quiver. While you can still work with SharePoint libraries, you will have to forgo some of the advanced editing features available with the Office suite. 

From an IT standpoint, Microsoft-centricity means that there are strict limits to choices among Web servers (Microsoft IIS Web server) and database servers (Microsoft SQL Server) that will work with SharePoint. If you are already a Microsoft shop, then this is no problem. If you are not yet (nor do you intend to be) a Microsoft shop, then these restrictions might be show-stoppers.
• SharePoint has a really (really, really) confusing licensing structure - Early in my career as a MOSS consultant I attended a seminar in which Microsoft showed a slide that illustrated its SharePoint licensing structure. To borrow from Facebook lingo, “It’s complicated”, to say the least.
• Creating accessible content will take some effort - Many of the conveniences available in SharePoint, such as the ease of adding content with Web Parts and lists, can throw a curveball at accessibility. You will require custom-development expertise to ensure 508-compliance (an added expense).
• Inadequate support for traditional digital asset management services - While you do have some ability to manage high-resolution photography and video, MOSS’s preview capabilities, limited conversion options, and file-size limits will likely frustrate your graphic specialists.
• Social networking functionality is likely to be disappointing for your users - When the term “social networking” is used in consideration of collaborative solutions, stakeholders soon have visions of FaceBook, MySpace, and Linkedin dancing in their heads. MOSS is probably not going to fulfill their wishes.
• Batch features (upload, metadata-editing, fulfillment) are a bit on the clunky side – While there are settings and views that make batch edits possible, they are rather difficult to use.
• Ability to create structured content is unlikely to meet the needs of those who require a component-content management system, which provides granular control of reusable content components, a must-have for many who are attempting to deliver personalized, dynamic XML content on demand.

Overcoming MOSS Obstacles

A lot of people are using MOSS. This isn’t an attempt to get you to succumb to peer pressure, but it does mean that a lot support (people, products and solutions) is available. To paraphrase The X-Files, the truth is (probably) out there.

Some reasons that MOSS may still be a possibility for you even if it comes up short out-of-the-box:

• There is a large body of literature—books, blogs, discussion forums on MOSS – You have instant access to information about everything MOSS — from the most basic tasks (such as creating a document library) to many that are rather complex (like development of a customized Web Part).
• Other, content companies are adopting the “if you can beat ‘em build a connector to them” philosophy to SharePoint – Many content companies have developed the means to integrate with SharePoint. For example, there are several solutions available that will deliver advanced rich media management (format repurposing, color management) for SharePoint. Those who are interested in component-content management, there are solutions available that can make a SharePoint portal work with the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).
• There are Microsoft partners and independent consultants all over the globe available for customization projects of all sizes – Consultants can help you ensure 508-compliance, provide custom workflows, develop custom Web Parts, and much more.
• If you bump into a wall with SharePoint, chances are great that many others have, too. There is also a rather-strong possibility that someone has written a solution. Many of these are freely available at sites such as CodePlex.  A great example is the open-source SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK) which adds e-learning capabilities to SharePoint. Numerous other solutions are available for purchase.

Coming Attractions

A major upgrade of SharePoint is due to be released this year – I haven’t actually taken SharePoint 2010 for a spin yet, but in the final version you can expect:

• A more elegant user interface – If you are already using Microsoft Office 2007 (formerly known as Office 12), this should be familiar. If you are not using Office 2007, you should expect a few days of foul language among your colleagues. It’s not a bad interface, just very different from the traditional Office look -and-feel.
• Tighter integration with the Office suite – For example, you can create a theme in PowerPoint, or Word and to apply it to a SharePoint site.
• Improvements to the social networking capabilities - This was an area of high focus in the upgrade. SharePoint 2010 is a great leap forward in the area of corporate social networking.
• Better support for traditional digital asset management (DAM) services - One thing that is a key addition is the integration of Silverlight (more Microsoft-centricity) for video streaming, and for image-zooming capabilities.

Key Questions Regarding SharePoint

1. Is SharePoint the right solution for my organization? To this, I offer a resounding “I don’t know!” It may very well be a good fit as is, or could be with some proper customization. Though I hope that in my descriptions of SharePoint’s strengths and drawbacks that I have helped to reduce your uncertainty.
2. If my organization or clients are convinced that SharePoint is the appropriate solution, should I wait for SharePoint 2010? I can’t answer that definitively for individual contexts, but my predisposition would be to wait. You probably want to avoid a scenario where you are migrating to MOSS and then upgrading to SharePoint 2010 later in the same year. My own preference would to wait until the release of a service pack upgrade from Microsoft, though if your organization is an early adopter, the rest of us owe you a debt of gratitude for blazing the trail.
3. How much does SharePoint cost? OK, I have been putting that one off, because it’s complicated. However, this price calculator from Bamboo Solutions is a really useful tool that will help determine what characteristics (concurrent users, CPUs) will increase or reduce your total costs. While the actual price-tag is going to between you and Microsoft, I will say this: If you are planning to use MOSS to host a public-facing site, consider baking a batch of cookies for your CFO before you submit the purchase order.
4. What can be done to help ensure a successful SharePoint project? I won’t lecture about best practices for a content management initiative. Much has been written on that topic. I feel that Ann Rockley’s book, “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy” is a great reference for any such endeavor.

I can, however, offer a few guidelines for a SharePoint project:

• Try before you buy - I can’t overstate the value the proof-of-concept to help you make a better-informed decision about a complex information system. This allows your users to get some hands-on experience with SharePoint’s features. If a prospective vendor has the means to provide a MOSS sandbox for you, then you should insist upon that. Alternatively, you can obtain a trial license and set up a SharePoint server on your own infrastructure.
• Don’t skimp on the training - SharePoint is a big product, there is ample opportunity for your users to be confused. The most carefully architected, well-developed system that money can buy is meaningless if your users aren’t properly acquainted with your site’s functionality and comfortable with its usage.
• Listen to your users – The work doesn’t end when the site launches. You should provide mechanisms to allow your users to communicate with you to address usability issues and suggested site enhancements. There are several SharePoint features that you can leverage to help facilitate this dialogue (issues and tracking lists, wikis, discussion forums and surveys).

SharePoint is a growing force in the content management industry. As discussed it offers many ways to create and deliver content within the confines of a single organization or throughout the world. And despite weaknesses in some key areas, its presence is buttressed by a huge development community and numerous commercial software vendors offering solutions to extend SharePoint’s functionality. It’s hard to ignore.

However, it is important that content experts be able to separate SharePoint’s functionality from SharePoint hype in evaluating content management solutions. SharePoint is not for everybody. Forcing SharePoint to fit in an organization is painful, and costly.

Learn more

• The Microsoft Sharepoint Team Blog

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