The Need for a Microsoft SharePoint Alternative

Microsoft SharePoint – A Big "No No" for Growing Businesses?

In the hyper-competitive 21st century, executives are pressed from all quarters. On the one hand, they need to be flexible, always on the move, and on the other hand, there is also a greater need for collaborative teamwork and information exchange. This underlines the importance of online collaboration technology – online document management, company intranet & customer extranet portals – for running an efficient business. This is just as true for growing businesses, faced with tough competition and limited budgets.

Unfortunately, growing organizations have had to contend with an ill fitting solution. The most prominent solution, Microsoft SharePoint, in its different avtars (SharePoint 2003, SharePoint 2007, and its latest "with-it" avtar Sharepoint Online) was crafted for an entirely different segment - big businesses with very different needs and mega IT budgets.

SharePoint & Growing Businesses – A Match Made in Hell

High Setup Costs - The immediate disadvantage of Microsoft SharePoint is the forbidding set up costs. You need to set up servers at your premises (it takes an estimated $4000 to set up a single SharePoint Server), hire expert staff to configure & maintain them on an ongoing basis (more costs), and train your employees to use SharePoint. Although Microsoft SharePoint works well at larger scales, it is completely ill suited for companies of smallish scales looking to break even real quick. What’s more, many of the features are inappropriate for the small to mid sized business context.

SharePoint Works Best Only With the MS Family – Another draw back of SharePoint is that it integrates best only with the Microsoft family (Windows OS, MS office, IE etc). If a company mainly has systems running on Microsoft tools, this would work well for a company intranet solution. But when a company is looking to set up a SharePoint portal which is, "internet facing", i.e., looking to collaborate with traveling teams, clients and partners; and the possibility of having to operate in diverse environments (mac, linux, different browsers) one has best keep ones fingers crossed.

No Mail Functionality - The last straw on the growing business’s back is that SharePoint offers only a partial deal, lacking email capability, which forces companies to purchase communications and collaborations tools piecemeal. This backbreaking burden often proves to be a major distraction, channeling energies and resources away from important areas. 

Support & Training Issues – An additional problem area is SharePoint services. Given its clout, Microsoft is able to demand a price for its support services, which is otherwise unheard of. As if this is already not a major disincentive for smaller firms, there have been reports of Microsoft being unable to cope with the quantum of service requests it gets, and having problems. Due to the complexity of SharePoint and the inadequacy of the high level training it provides, its support staff has been incessantly battered.

The SAAS Model - Win-Win for Growing Businesses

Although it would have been true 8-10 years ago that growing businesses did not have many alternatives to SharePoint, the landscape is much changed now. Modern day technologies and approaches have spurned a new breed of solutions which open incredible online collaboration possibilities even while offering a much better cost-benefit deal. Moreover, many such solutions are targeted specifically towards the hitherto neglected small to mid sized business segment.

In recent times there has been a discernible movement towards the hosted, software-as-a-service (SAAS) model. This holds true not just for the SharePoint hosting market, but for just about any software technology, with web based office suites, video editors, telephony solutions, operating systems and what have you. There’s talk of “death of the desktop” and behemoths like Microsoft lagging in the race with solutions like SharePoint.

The SAAS / SharePoint Hosting Advantage – Bettering SharePoint Vices

The SAAS model offers certain basic benefits which make it the best Microsoft SharePoint alternative, and especially suitable for growing companies. The “hosted SharePoint” approach has particularly been a big hit.

Zero Setup - Firstly, the solution provider takes the bother of hosting SharePoint, saving the customer the effort of purchasing, configuring and maintaining servers, and hiring specialized support staff. 

Ready to Use - With all the hard work done, companies can get a ready made solution with all the features of SharePoint fitted to their needs, plus a whole lot of extra features. These solutions are ready to use from day one, requiring little more than the user getting on an internet browser and signing up.

Security - The hosted model also scores from a security point of view. These solution providers often have security expertise and technologies not available to smallish firms.

Low Cost Commitment - Almost no upfront monetary investment is needed. The cost structure is usually a low monthly user based subscription fee. This ensures that companies pay only for what they use, and there is no obligation of carrying on with a bad solution to recover initial investment. Companies have the flexibility of opting out whenever they please.

Get All That is Good About SharePoint

Document Management - Almost all of the good SharePoint alternatives duplicate its entire feature set. Like online document management - the ability to organize, store and share documents online, along with document collaboration features – document version control, access permissions, change notifications, comments etc.

Intranet/Extranet Portals - Or the ability to publish a dedicated company intranet or partner or customer extranets to collaborate and interact with external groups like vendors, suppliers, travelling employees or customers. These solutions also allow for a great deal of customization where intranet and extranet portal look and layout can be intricately managed; and select online collaboration tools be added, like shared documents, online calendars, contact management and online address books, or a project management tool. In some cases there are added layers of customization where information access to people at different levels within the same intranet or extranet can be managed. Some solutions even allow users to build entire websites.

Beyond MS SharePoint

Some SharePoint alternatives even go beyond SharePoint collaboration features, and offer a whole tool box of features for almost the entire range of small business needs. For example, one SharePoint alternative solution has an email system inbuilt in its toolkit and also allows customers to set up custom business email for their companies. Microsoft Exchange like features such as the ability to share contacts, calendars and tasks; Outlook online access and Outlook sync, and mobile collaboration are also included. Extra features like online polls and surveys and discussion forums are also part of the mix. This saves companies the need to purchase solutions piecemeal for different needs.

Flexibility

Cross Platform Use - Flexibility is another hallmark of hosted SharePoint alternatives. All you need to access them is a web browser, & you can use the entire feature set from any internet enabled device – Mac, Windows, desktop, laptop or mobile devices. This makes for a better internal as well as “outside facing” solution. Traveling teams, partners, vendors, clients just need the internet to be on the “network”.

Communicate With other Software - Moreover, these solutions are built to communicate seamlessly with other software. These solutions can be used in tandem with popular software which are a part of every company, for example Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Office.

No Need for Updates - The hosted model also renders unnecessary the need to download and install updates regularly. The provider simply keeps adding upgrades, patches and new features at his own end and these are instantly available to the users of the software.

Decision Criteria

Even within vendors who provide hosted SharePoint alternatives, a decision is to be made. A comparison of various SAAS SharePoint alternatives is provided in the next page. Some important criteria that need to be considered while making the selection are:

• Do they provide the basic SharePoint feature set?
• What kind of initial investment is involved in terms of effort and costs?
• What are the costs?
• Is the solution scalable as the organization grows?
• What kind of security do they provide?
• Are there additional features? (relevant to needs)
• How well are features integrated within the solution?
• Can their system communicate and integrate with commonly used software like Outlook?
• Do they provide support and training?