Business Users today have to operate on tens, if not hundreds of applications, as part of their daily routine to run through their quota of work, moving from one silo to another to another, and if that isn’tenough, the increased application access and password complexity, making it absolutely hard to maintain focus on their core jobs. Add to that, a lack of interoperability between these systems, and a lack of a truly integrated experience, and you’ve just defined virtual hell. Not to mention, the virtual nightmare that it is, for the IT departments, to manage and maintain these varied platforms and applications on a day to day basis.
In a world where the focus has moved from “ one solution for all “ to “doing one thing, and doing it right“, vendors are building software solutions that meet some specific need and Enterprises, in an attempt to stay current, and to give their employees the best-of-the-breed software end up bringing in a myriad of applications and platforms within their environments. The result: “Virtual Hell“.
Positioning of SharePoint as a Business Platform
SharePoint Features and Benefits
ïÆ’Ëœ Provides out of the box collaboration features like blogs, wikis, discussions, project management, document libraries, lists etc., that are easy to use and allow information workers to share and manage contents.
ïÆ’Ëœ Allows building applications that are supportable, extensible and easily maintainable by business users
ïÆ’Ëœ Workspace templates along with the collaboration tools can be used to manage specific information about projects, IT, HR etc.,
ïÆ’Ëœ Advanced Document management capabilities with support of content types allow information workers to easily create documents, fill information and share them securely.
ïÆ’Ëœ Can be a single platform for Intranet, Extranet and Internet with support for hosting to provide applications and software as service
ïÆ’Ëœ Supports collaboration both within the internal users, external users, and anonymous users of the Enterprise.
ïÆ’Ëœ Supports out of the box reporting dashboards, KPI web parts etc. that can be used to build mash ups and integration with backend systems
ïÆ’Ëœ Offers a component, the Business Data Catalog that allows for integration of LOB systems with SharePoint, and surfacing the data from within these disparate systems, right into SharePoint.
SharePoint is a great platform for building robust and flexible Enterprise 2.0 solutions that are extensible and secure, and leverage Web 2.0 in a holistic fashion to empower business users, and help organizations become more agile, efficient and productive, all in a seamless and secure fashion. Common areas where Enterprise 2.0 solutions prove particularly useful are IT helpdesk, Active Directory user provisioning and profile management, eProcurement and the like. Well designed Enterprise 2.0 solutions virtually become key strategic assets for any organization’s business performance.
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