Check out this postby Lee Dallason why he thinks Microsoft has been so successful in redefining ECM around the capabilities of the SharePoint platform. To put it simply, it’s because of a brilliant marketing strategy and not because of SharePoint itself.
Dallas boils it down to three key points:
- Microsoft focused on solving the most pervasive problem first: self-management of workgroup file sharing (off-loading the burden from IT).
- Microsoft setoff a viral promotion campaign by letting end-users believe they could control their own data.
- Microsoft marketed the product through IT operations channels.
Dallas observes that because SharePoint deployments are so pervasive and are expanding so rapidly, the entire ECM food chain has been thrown out of balance to the point that traditional ECM vendors must now justify their products against mundane collaboration features instead of the more specialized features they tend to promote. But perhaps the most interesting observation is revealed by the following statement:
"There is no single department in any IT organization with greater potential reach than those that manage access and identity (i.e. Active Directory)."
Dallas argues that by marketing and promoting SharePoint through IT operations channels, Microsoft essentially achieved preferential status for SharePoint, even though the technical challenges in infrastructure and security were no less prevalent than with other products. In other words, the people evaluating SharePoint and who would ultimately bless its deployment had already invested their time and energy learning how to resolve the problems they would face after the product was put into production. Brilliant!
All in all, a good read for anyone interested in ECM.
Cool! Do you think this trend will continue? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!