Last week, Socialtext's Eugene Lee forwarded a link on Twitter with SharePoint as the focus of the article.  The SharePoint article is titled, SharePoint 2007: Gateway Drug to Enterprise Social Tools and the author discusses the frustration enterprises and site developers have with the Microsoft product.  There is some truth in the article as I've heard from many people discussing their concerns about SharePoint lacking quality Enterprise 2.0 features or causing vendor lock for their organization.  However, the article borders slightly on the side of a rant on SharePoint and I've allowed it remain in a tab on my browser for quite awhile while I pondered what I wanted to take from the article.

I think the frustrations the author describes about SharePoint isn't a SharePoint problem.  And the author describes the issue very well without recognizing it's just not SharePoint that drives organizations crazy.

SharePoint does some things rather well, but it is not a great tool (or even passable tool) for broad social interaction inside enterprise related to the focus of Enterprise 2.0. SharePoint works well for organization prescribed groups that live in hierarchies and are focussed on strict processes and defined sign-offs. Most organization have a need for a tool that does what SharePoint does well.

This older, prescribed category of enterprise tool needs is where we have been in the past, but this is not where organizations are moving to and trying to get to with Enterprise 2.0 mindsets and tools. The new approach is toward embracing the shift toward horizontal organizations, open sharing, self-organizing groups around subjects that matter to individuals as well as the organization. These new approaches are filling gaps that have long existed and need resolution.

The problems identified with SharePoint can easily be said about many enterprise applications out there.  Many of the enterprise suites provided to the market traditionally offered turn-key solutions in an effort to deliver a single integrated solution for the customer.  These integrated suites can and do create "vendor lock" but that isn't the sole goal of enterprise products being delivered by such companies as Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle.  The customers asked for efficient and effective enterprise solutions and the big software companies responded by providing the expected tightly controlled software platforms (historically a good thing) along with terms of licensing, predictable pricing, training, and infrastructure support.

I recently added Frog CMS and Socialtext to CMS Report's CMS Focus page.  CMS Focus is a list of the top 30 Web applications that represent what I feel are the Web applications of today and tomorrow.  In a world where niche CMS news sites try to cover it all for their readers (more power to them), I feel one of the strengths of CMSReport.com is limiting our focus on a certain number of CMS.  The CMS on this list are applications I recommend site owners first look at before moving into the deep waters of content management and social software.

As I mentioned late last year, my latest obsession is the implementation and use of CMS and social software in the enterprise.  For many organizations it can be more challenging to implement content management and collaboration solutions on their own Intranet than it is for the Web.  Wanting to continue expanding our topics on Enterprise 2.0 is why I've put Socialtext on the list.  Frankly, I'm learning about Socialtext just as much as everyone.  Instead of putting Socialtext into CMS Focus, I did consider Opentext and even Ektron.  Socialtext made the list because they seemed to be more transparent with news about their product.  My advice to companies and their Web sites...keep those RRS feeds updated and accessible.

This may surprise regular visitors to my site, but I'm an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal.   Why is it surprising for some that I read the WSJ?  Well, probably because after all the links and excerpts to stories I have provided from CMS Report, this is the very first time I have ever mentioned an article from the WSJ in one of my blog posts.  The sad truth is that about every article found at WSJ.com can only be fully read if you are a subscriber of the online newspaper.  I have wanted to avoid frustrating readers the issues with providing a link to an article they can't access unless they're ready to hand over their credit card.  However, increasingly the WSJ has included articles in their newspaper related to how information technology can improve collaboration and business processes.  After reading so many good articles in the WSJ, it's difficult for me to not share some excerpts from those articles.

A recent article found in the WSJ focused on Microsoft's Sharepoint software, "Microsoft Embeds Sleeper in Business Software".  The article provides discussion on how content and collaboration management software is providing solutions that were once difficult to achieve for many organizations.   What I found interesting, is that the author, Robert A. Gugh, is not blinded by Microsoft products and is well aware of the alternative applications.  Some of those alternatives even include some well-known open source applications.