Today Microsoft released 30 Industry and Role-based SharePoint applications (available for download at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sppt/wssapps/default.mspx .

I have talked about the value derived from any type of collaboration is based on three aspects: people, process and technology, with most of the value (80%) being on the people and process side.

In the last few years Microsoft has pushed its way into the collaboration market by buying up companies like Placeware and Groove. They have also offered their own technology and according to Microsoft "Windows SharePoint Services technology in Windows Server 2003 is an integrated portfolio of collaboration and communication services designed to connect people, information, processes, and systems both within and beyond the organizational firewall."

What SharePoint is, is mostly the ability to use the SharePoint server to share folders and their contents. Over the past year we have seen Microsoft giving away SharePoint in a number of deals, and where it is being used, it is rolling out slowly (i.e. NASA). Most of the users we talked with were both enthusiastic and reticent about SharePoint. They were enthusiastic because now they had a tool to collaborate with colleagues that were distant in time and space, but they were reticent because SharePoint is not the most intuitive of applications and there was some barrier to use.

There are a number of basic (Horizontal) applications that deal with a number of common processes not specific to any industry where Microsoft is offering applications (or utilities) including:

- Absence request and Team Vacation Schedule Management
- Board of Directors Communication and Management
- Project Change Request Management
- Competitive Intelligence Resource Center (aggregation and syndication)
- Employees Activity (community site)
- Employee Time Sheet and Schedule Management
- Employee training
- Event Management (Uses Excel 2003 spreadsheets)
- Expense Reimbursement Request (uses InfoPath forms)
- Help Desk
- HR Programs and Services
- IT Team Development site
- Meeting Management Site
- New Product Development
- Performance Review Management
- Professional Services Contracts Management
- Professional Services Engagement Team Management
- Project Team Site
- Recruiting Resource Center
- RFP Management
- Room and Equipment reservations
- Travel request

In the past we identified 6 critical business areas where collaboration played a critical role:

1- Sales/Marketing (proposal development)
2- Support (exception handling)
3- Internal and partner training
4- Value network management
5- R&D (new product development)
6- Crisis management

Microsoft has hit just about 100% of these critical processes with a number of the above applications. Many of the applications, or processes, which Microsoft claims are usable out of the box were applications that in the past many end-user organizations paid good money for, or the IT organization had to build them on top of an ERP platform like Oracle or SAP. Although we have not seen or played with any of these applications and don't know how good or complete they are, they WILL make a difference in the enterprise collaboration space.

Some of it because they are from Microsoft, but more importantly even if they only hit 70-80% of the critical functions in a specific process, because they are free IT organizations will use (and extend or customize) them. There are many vendors in the project team space, or offering the best in NPD (new product development) and these vendors have much better functionality and knowledge of that process then Microsoft does. But in the long run it may not matter!

It's like when I first tried early versions of Excel (Versions 2 & 3) were terrible and I much preferred Lotus 1-2-3 (which was the dominant spreadsheet at the time). But Microsoft does listen to their users and eventually get it right, and by the time Excel 4 came around, it was pretty good. By Excel 5 Microsoft had started to take market share from Lotus, and we all know where the spreadsheet market is today. I see these applications from Microsoft in much the same light as those early versions of Excel. They might not be much right now, and the hundreds of vendors that compete against them will cheerfully tell you in great detail all of the features and functions they have over the Microsoft applications. Often that does not matter, if you hit the right mix of functions to cover most people about 70-80% of the time, and often that is good enough (especially if it is free).

On the down side how are these “free” applications integrating with other data in the enterprise, and who has to do that integration? Take for example the expense reimbursement application, a simple application that almost everyone uses. How does it integrate with your ERP or accounting system? How much work is involved in this integration?

What is the implementation strategy? How would a company take these applications and deploy them so they are useful. It is not as simple as “throwing them over the wall” we all know that, that never works with collaborative applications! With any collaborative application the barrier is not technology, it is people and process. Is this a “partner play” by Microsoft, and an effort to create more business for Microsoft partners?

I don’t see these SharePoint applications like Lotus Notes applications where anyone who had access to the Notes server could create a database, resulting in the “tribble effect” (uncontrolled proliferation of applications).” First of all you need to have Windows Server 2003, SQL Server, and everyone who wants to use the application has to be a “domain member, who sets up the domains? Microsoft says in its release that the applications are
“targeted towards IT professionals.” So I guess that means that IT needs to do the integration?

The other direction vendors can go to avoid Microsoft is to go vertical. This is where we believe most of the collaboration vendors that don't want to go head-to-head with Microsoft will go. Here they can add great value from their knowledge of industry processes and have a high level of credibility with customers. Microsoft has also released a number of vertical industry applications including:

- Case Work Management
- Classroom Management
- Legal Document Review and Workflow Management
- Loan Initiation
- Marketing Communications Campaign Management
- Public Activity and Issues Management
- Public Relations Work Site
- Publications Review Site

Who do we think will begin to use these applications first? Probably SMBs, and most likely mid-sized businesses that have the Windows 2003 server (etc.) but not a large IT staff. These organizations will either use Microsoft partners or consultants to customize these applications for their organization and processes.

Larger enterprises have the staff, and if the application is critical to the business probably already have one running. For these enterprises the question then becomes one of maintenance costs. Is it more costly to maintain a "home-built" application or to take a more generalized set of templates like those that Microsoft offers and extend and customize them? Sure, you may not get 100% of the functionality you had with the home grown application, but the cost (initial and maintenance) is probably a lot less.

Microsoft’s current strategy is great for embedding SharePoint use in companies that already have it, but does it really do much to expand Microsoft market share (those that are using other collaborative tools)?

By giving away these applications for free we see Microsoft buying its way in. When you’re a company with a $50 B war chest you can afford to implement strategies like this! That’s my opinion. What do people think Microsoft’s strategy really is here?