SharePoint alternatives. Title: SharePoint - Where it comes up short and what you could use instead. Six typical scenarios and most common challengers in Scandinavia: 1. Social, one company intranets 2. Social intranets for complex organisations 3. Social team sites & document management 4. Partner extranets 5. Customer extranets 6. Websites (without eCommerce) Examples of competing systems mentioned: IBM Connections, Atlassian Confluence, Liferay, Drupal, Interact intranet product, Salesforce, Oracle WebCenter Suite, Huddle, EPiServer, Alfresco.

1. SharePoint:
Where it comes
up short and what
you could use
instead
Perttu Tolvanen, Web & CMS Expert, @perttutolvanen
1
North Patrol Oy 2013 / 2013-11-06 / J. Boye Aarhus 13

2. Security agency for web projects
2
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

3. -
-
Security agency for web projects
3
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
-
Vendor-neutral CMS consultants
Helsinki-based, but most clients
operate in Northern Europe /
Scandinavia / Russia
CMS selections and partner
selections for large projects
Founded 2012, growing

4. Agenda
Best-fit use
cases for
SharePoint
4
North Patrol Oy 2013
Challenging, but
typical scenarios
for SharePoint
Main
challengers for
SharePoint in
each scenario

5. Speaker’s background
• Technology advisor in web & extranet & intranet projects
– Lot of background with Microsoft tools, involved in SharePoint projects since 2007
– Also a lot of project experience with Oracle’s systems and open source systems like
Liferay and Drupal
– Most of the customers are large organisations headquartered in Finland
– Note: Finland is a Microsoft & open source country (so I am biased in some ways)
• Lessons learned in buying IT systems
1. Only choose products that are supported by (somewhat) local partners
2. Features don’t matter, philosophy of the product matters
3. Long-term success is dictated more by the partner selection than the product
5
North Patrol Oy 2013

6. SharePoint as a product and platform
6
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

7. SharePoint as a product and platform
•
•
•
•
•
•
Document management product
Team sites & collaboration
Search engine for documents & pages
Decent publishing system
Portal platform wannabe
Social intranet platform wannabe
Cloud is the
new business
of Microsoft
and O365 is
the gateway.

8. SharePoint as a product and platform
•
•
•
•
•
•
Document management product
Team sites & collaboration
Search engine for documents & pages
Decent publishing system
Portal platform wannabe
Social intranet platform wannabe
Too early to
say: Social
layer on top
of other
services
Out of
bounds:
Application
development
platform
Out of
bounds:
Websites
with
eCommerce
Cloud is the
new business
of Microsoft
and O365 is
the gateway.

9. Remember: SharePoint
is not a light-weight
“point solution”. If you
go SharePoint, you
should consider
implementing all the
best-fit-scenarios.
Source: http://www.interact-intranet.com/sharepoint-alternative/

10. Best-fit scenarios for SharePoint
10
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

11. “The big picture”
Phonebook
/ people
profiles
ERP
(SAP & others)
(+ other line of
business systems)
HR systems
(Oracle, SAP, etc)
CRM
Websites
Intranet
News, guidelines,
phonebook, important
documents, search
Custom
apps
Document
management
& project sites
Customer
extranets
eCommerce
Partner
extranets
North Patrol Oy 2013

12. “The big picture”
Phonebook
/ people
profiles
ERP
(SAP & others)
(+ other line of
business systems)
HR systems
(Oracle, SAP, etc)
CRM
Websites
Intranet
News, guidelines,
phonebook, important
documents, search
Why NOT
Document
SharePoint?
management
Custom
apps
Customer
extranets
& project sites
eCommerce
Partner
extranets
North Patrol Oy 2013

13. “The big picture”
Phonebook
/ people
profiles
ERP
(SAP & others)
(+ other line of
business systems)
HR systems
(Oracle, SAP, etc)
CRM
Websites
Intranet
News, guidelines,
phonebook, important
documents, search
Why NOT
Document
SharePoint?
management
& project sites
Why the
Customer
HELL
extranets
SharePoint?
Custom
apps
eCommerce
Partner
extranets
North Patrol Oy 2013

14. Best-fits
“Social, one
company
intranets”
(organisations which
have a common purpose
and everyone can see
everything)
Social team sites
and document
management
(eg. University
departments or team
site areas inside large
corporations)
Partner
extranets
(B2B, document-centric)
North Patrol Oy 2013

15. Best-fits + challenging, but typical scenarios
Social
intranets for
heterogeneous
organizations
(eg. ”Groups”, large
organisations with
independent business
divisions or
local operations)
“Social, one
company
intranets”
Websites without
eCommerce
(organisations which
have a common purpose
and everyone can see
everything)
Social team sites
and document
management
(eg. University
departments or team
site areas inside large
corporations)
Partner
extranets
(B2B, document-centric)
North Patrol Oy 2013
Customer
extranets

16. Challengers for each scenario
16
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

17. Scenarios
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Social, one company intranets
Social intranets for heterogeneous
organizations
Social team sites & document
management
Partner extranets
Customer extranets
Websites without eCommerce
Direct challengers
Products that are competing with SharePoint directly or
clients see them competing with SharePoint directly.
Expensive products
Cheaper alternatives
Products that do not compete directly, but clients see
them as alternative choices for things SharePoint does.
In-direct challengers
17
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

18. Scenario 1: Social, one company intranets

19. Scenario 1: Social, one company intranets
• SharePoint is the king of the hill
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Newsfeed for social concepts
– Document library capabilities
– People profiles and search
– Both on-premise and cloud choices
• Pain points:
Cost-effective
alternatives
– Licence cost can be high
– No easy personalization capabilities for
the intranet frontpage
– Customizations expensive to build
– Limited multilanguage management
Additional sources:
- UK market information received also from Sam Marshall (http://www.clearboxconsulting.co.uk/)
- Sweden’s market info received from Kristian Norling (http://norling.co/)
- Netherland’s market info received from Eric Haartman (http://www.erikhartmancommunicatie.nl)
Social intranet players
In-direct challengers

20. Scenario 1: Social, one company intranets
• SharePoint is the king of the hill
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Newsfeed for social concepts
– Document library capabilities
– People profiles and search
– Both on-premise and cloud choices
• Pain points:
– Licence cost can be high
Cost-effective
alternatives
Summary: Most intranet
concepts could be done
– No easy personalization capabilities for
with any of the tools.
the intranet frontpage
Social
Document libraryintranet players
– Customizations expensive to build
capabilities and social feeds
– Limited multilanguage management
In-direct
differentate some, but not challengers
much. Atlassian Confluence
Additional sources:
and Interact are the main
- UK market information received also from Sam Marshall (http://www.clearboxconsulting.co.uk/)
- Sweden’s market info received from Kristian Norling (http://norling.co/)
challengers usually.
- Netherland’s market info received from Eric Haartman (http://www.erikhartmancommunicatie.nl)

21. Scenario 2: Social intranets for
heterogeneous organisations
• SharePoint is often chosen for this
scenario, but this is often really hard to do
with SharePoint!
Direct challengers
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
– Newsfeed for social concepts
– Document library capabilities
– People profiles and search
• Pain points:
– No easy personalization capabilities for the
intranet frontpage
Cost-effective
alternatives
Social intranet players
– Limited content targeting capabilities
– Limited content re-use capabilities
– Customizations expensive to build
– Limited multilanguage management
21
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
In-direct challengers

22. Scenario 2: Social intranets for
heterogeneous organisations
• SharePoint is often chosen for this
scenario, but this is often really hard to do
with SharePoint!
Direct challengers
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
– Newsfeed for social concepts
– Document library capabilities
– People profiles and search
• Pain points:
– No easy personalization capabilities for the
intranet frontpage
Cost-effective
alternatives
Social intranet players
– Limited content targeting capabilities
– Limited content re-use capabilities
– Customizations expensive to build
– Limited multilanguage management
22
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
In-direct challengers

23. Scenario 2: Social intranets for
heterogeneous organisations
• SharePoint is often chosen for this
scenario, but this is often really hard to do
with SharePoint!
Direct challengers
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
– Newsfeed for social concepts
– Document library capabilities
– People profiles and search
• Pain points:
– No easy personalization capabilities for the
intranet frontpage
Cost-effective
alternatives
Social intranet players
– Limited content targeting capabilities
– Limited content re-use capabilities
– Customizations expensive to build
– Limited multilanguage management
23
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
Summary: Intranet concepts
for large, heterogeneous
organisations are usually
In-direct challengers
more “portal scenarios”
than “SharePoint scenarios”.

24. Scenario 3: Social team sites with
document management
• Some tools are more social than
others and have better
messaging/notification systems,
but in the end differences are
small
• Only few tools have some
’philosophy’ behing them, eg.
Basecamp
• But there are few things that
differentate… Most notably…
24
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

25. Scenario 3: Social team sites with
document management
• Saving changes directly to team
site’s document library is
something that only MS Office
programs do – and only with
SharePoint
• MS however has published the
standard, but only Alfresco has
used it so far in their cloud-service
• Other products use WEBDAV or
some plugin/software to
upload/download in the
background (=> limited)
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

26. Scenario 3: Social team sites with
document management
• SharePoint is the king of the hill
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Newsfeed for discussions
– Integration with Office (ctrl+s saves
directly to SharePoint)
– Teamsites can be extended and
customized for different use cases
– Offline editing to documents
Cost-effective
alternatives
• Pain points:
– Licence cost can be high
– Building a hybrid environment not really
possible yet (cloud + on-premise)
– Creates a siloed environment by default
26
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
In-direct challengers

27. Scenario 3: Social team sites with
document management
• SharePoint is the king of the hill
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Newsfeed for discussions
– Integration with Office (ctrl+s saves
directly to SharePoint)
– Teamsites can be extended and
customized for different use cases
– Offline editing to documents
Cost-effective
alternatives
• Pain points:
– Licence cost can be high
– Building a hybrid environment not really
possible yet (cloud + on-premise)
– Creates a siloed environment by default
27
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
Summary: Can you live
without documents? If yes,
then you have options, if
In-direct challengers
not, then choices are very
limited.

28. Scenario 4: Partner extranets
• Mostly document-centric
information sharing, but some
custom elements and/or
reporting views
28
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

29. Scenario 4: Partner extranets
• SharePoint is very strong in this
scenario when most use cases are
document-centric use cases
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Document library capabilities
– Extensible team site templates
– Integration to other MS products
• Pain points:
Cost-effective
alternatives
– Integration to non-MS systems
– User access management demands
separate products (eg. UAG)
– Hybrid environments difficult to setup
29
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
In-direct challengers

30. Scenario 4: Partner extranets
• SharePoint is very strong in this
scenario when most use cases are
document-centric use cases
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Document library capabilities
– Extensible team site templates
– Integration to other MS products
• Pain points:
– Integration to non-MS systems
– User access management demands
separate products (eg. UAG)
– Hybrid environments difficult to setup
30
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
Cost-effective
alternatives
Summary: Again, if you need
the document collaboration
then there are few real
options for SharePoint.
Mainly Alfresco. If youIn-direct challengers
don’t
need the documents then
probably any portal works
for you.

31. Scenario 5: Customer extranets

32. Scenario 5: Customer extranets
• SharePoint is shortlisted for this
scenario only in Microsoft-heavy
companies
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Integration to other MS products
(especially to Biztalk)
– Document library capabilities
• Pain points:
– Integration to non-MS systems
– Limited support for different user access
management possibilities
– Customizations are expensive to build
and maintain & hard to update
32
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
In-direct challengers

33. Scenario 5: Customer extranets
• SharePoint is shortlisted for this
scenario only in Microsoft-heavy
companies
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Integration to other MS products
(especially to Biztalk)
– Document library capabilities
• Pain points:
– Integration to non-MS systems
– Limited support for different user access
management possibilities
– Customizations are expensive to build
and maintain & hard to update
33
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
Summary: Customer
extranets rarely benefit from
SharePoint unless all the
background systems are also challengers
In-direct
MS-products. Even a
traditional portal product
might not be needed.

34. Scenario 6: Websites without eCommerce

35. Scenario 6: Websites without
eCommerce
• SharePoint is shortlisted for this
scenario only in Microsoft-heavy
companies
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Integration to other MS products
(especially to Biztalk)
• Pain points:
– Limited digital marketing capabilities
Cost-effective
alternatives
– Limited multilanguage capabilities
– Limited content re-use capabilities
– Limited preview capabilities
– Expensive to implement
35
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
In-direct challengers

36. Scenario 6: Websites without
eCommerce
• SharePoint is shortlisted for this
scenario only in Microsoft-heavy
companies
• SharePoint’s strenghts:
Direct challengers
– Integration to other MS products
(especially to Biztalk)
• Pain points:
– Limited digital marketing capabilities
Cost-effective
alternatives
– Limited multilanguage capabilities
– Limited content re-use capabilities
– Limited preview capabilities
– Expensive to implement
36
© 2013 North Patrol Oy
Summary: If you have too
much money and don’t
really care about running an
In-direct
effective online channel you challengers
should do the website with
SharePoint.

37. Summary
“Social, one
company
intranets”
Social team sites
and document
management
Partner
extranets
• Great for SharePoint, if you have the money for licencees and implementation:
1.
Social, one company intranets
2.
Social team sites & document management
3.
Partner extranets (when it’s about documents and team sites)
• For a more cost-effective intranet solution you might consider Atlassian Confluence or dedicated
intranet products like Interact or Igloo (but many of them are not very cheap for larger orgs!).
• For document management you might consider Alfresco (great Office integration) or cloud-solutions
like Huddle or M-Files. Currently Office integration is the main problem for most alternatives.
• For complex intranets with personalization demands you should evaluate portal products that have
local partners near you (eg. Oracle, Liferay or Jahia). SharePoint can be really problematic in more
complex scenarios even if you had the money to customize.
• For customer extranets you should evaluate portals or Web CMS solutions or consider even building
them as custom solutions. SharePoint rarely makes sense for customer extranets.
• For websites SharePoint makes sense only when you have to integrate to other MS products heavily
(eg. Biztalk), and even then systems like EPiServer are usually better and cheaper.
37
© 2013 North Patrol Oy

38. -
Slides will be available in SlideShare
(follow #jboye13)
Twitter: @perttutolvanen and
@NorthPatrol
perttu.tolvanen@northpatrol.com
http://www.northpatrol.com
Thank you.
38
North Patrol Oy 2013