SharePoint Reviews

• Libraries
• Lists
• The workflow module

It improved communication, collaboration and content/record sharing in the organizations I worked for. It helped us manage our documents and records effectively and at a reasonable cost. The TAT for process/document review, approval and publication cycles have significantly improved from maximum of three months for each document down to two weeks.

Everyone, from the board level down to the most junior staff, was able to utilize SharePoint for their own needs. I even used it to build a simple tactical solution to fulfill the needs of various units within the organization. Eventually, these solutions became instrumental in building strong business cases that convinced management to adopt fully fledged comprehensive solutions. Examples:

• - Routing of documents to be checked within Trade Finance.
• - Document control management system for the Policy and Procedure Department.
• - Case tracker for Legal Counsel.
• - Specialized workspaces for minutes of executive committees and business cases presented there.
• - Online approval workflow for executive committee.
• - Project tracker workspace.
• - ISO surveillance tracker.
• - Knowledge management center.
• - Etc.

• Workflow management module
• The web page editor
• The reporting tools

I used SharePoint 2007/2013 for six years as the super administrator from the business side.

I definitely encounter stability issues, like all other Microsoft-related solutions.

I have not encountered any scalability issues. It’s highly robust, and can be scaled further as the organization’s requirements increase.

Technical support is bad, as the support is for all other Microsoft products.

I did not previously use a different solution.

Initial setup was complex, but it was due to our experience and knowledge as an organization. Data deployment was a nightmare as the vendor (a Microsoft business partner) was not well prepared.

Don’t really know what to say here. I’d rather not answer. In general, we didn’t have any issues with SharePoint licensing.

We did evaluate other products, but I don’t remember the names at this stage.

Go through the vendor-selection process thoroughly. Dig all the information you can about them and try to meet other organizations who utilized them for implementing the solution.

I would give Microsoft SharePoint 2007 a lower rating. SharePoint is an excellent solution that is highly scalable. However, like all other Microsoft products, it has some frustrating bugs and other issues relating to customer experience. However, version 2013 showed significant improvement. The level of empowerment for the business administrator significantly improved as well. The solution is cost effective and licensing is highly flexible and straightforward.

The two-way synchronization is very valuable.

Automatic synchronization with our file server library: Once all the data is uploaded to SharePoint, changes made by any user (regardless the access location) who has access to given files are automatically downloaded to our file server.

There is a limitation on the number of files that can be uploaded.

I have used it for six months.

There is a limitation on the number of files that can be uploaded.

As per Microsoft support, the issue should be fixed in the next releases. But until now, the same problem is occurring.

The technical support related to Office 365 in general was good, but we have faced some issues related to the SharePoint support. We have received different opinions (some were contradictory) from different support agents.

I did not previously use a different solution.

The setup is not complex; we just create the libraries and the sync will start. (We have downloaded and used various tools including Microsoft’s own tools.)

SharePoint is embedded in our Office 365 license. The price is very competitive. (I believe it is one of the best.)

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

Office 365 SharePoint is a powerful and great tool, as long as your libraries’ content is limited in terms of the number of files. For huge data uploads, limitation problems will start popping up.

The most valuable features are:

• MS Office Web Apps allow anywhere/anytime access to the apps used, most often for documents.
• The collaboration feature allows multiple people to read and edit documents simultaneously.

• The list feature makes it easy to integrate database information into the same place as documents. It allows exposing of that data to create reports and views within the site for real-time reporting as well as point-in-time views. This is extremely useful.

We created a hang management system with a simple list including views and reports, instead of purchasing a bloated application. We created inventory tracking in the same way.

Instead of switching, this has kept all the information in one place and within one application. It allows easy data exports into other applications.

Latest versions of this product have addressed the functionality issue on non-Windows devices.

I have used this solution for five years.

Occasionally, the SQL database backend would have issues to address regarding maintenance.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

Microsoft provided excellent support.

Prior to this product, I have not used any other solution.

The initial setup was somewhat complex. To get the best results, a farm configuration was needed and many additional components are required to have all the features fully functional.

If possible, consider using what Microsoft offers in Office 365 as it includes all those features plus email. For a smaller organization, it makes a lot of sense and Microsoft will still manage the environment.

We have not evaluated other options.

Try the Microsoft Cloud Services first and implement on-premise only if you really need to.

The cross-site search is great for finding knowledge stored or used somewhere in the organization. Most documents are created in MS Office. Each MS Office Document can be stored directly on SharePoint. The threshold for people sharing their documents online has gone down. The cross-site search enables browsing all that knowledge with ease.

The ability to edit MS documents directly from SharePoint makes it easy to collaborate on documents with other people.

The strength of Microsoft has never been in its OS, but in its MS Office suite. MS Office 365 in combination with SharePoint, as a total collaboration tool, brings collaboration to another level.

There is much more collaboration and sharing across SharePoint.

Google Docs has two abilities that SharePoint should support as well:

• The ability to work in the same document at the same time would be a huge improvement. During my MBA studies, we used Google Docs for this. Unfortunately Google Docs doesn’t convert well to MS Word to add the finishing touches.
• Just like Google spreadsheets within Google Docs, I would like to be able to fill an Excel spreadsheet through a form posted on SharePoint. SharePoint has list views that can do something similar, but I want it to do more, tightly integrated with Excel. This would improve the document collaboration options for spreadsheets.

I have been using it for three years.

We had issues with stability when we implemented it at a previous company. We had issues where the system was down for a while.

We did have issues with scalability. Performance isn’t so good if too many people use it.

At a previous company, Sonepar, we were supported by VX company, and at my current organization, Canon Europe, by Capgemini.

Previously, we used enQuira to store questions.

Initial setup was straightforward.

It is affordable for what you get.

At Sonepar, we considered using open source CMS systems, like Drupal and DotNetNuke.

Ensure the search is quick enough. If not, look at the indexing configuration.

The features that I find most valuable are:

• Indexing
• Search
• BI
• Custom apps model
• Team sites
• My Site
• Integration with Yammer

SharePoint provides out-of-the-box data indexing and caching. BI is optional and driven by content population as well as external sources import. Custom App model is a platform allowing for a variety of home-grown or enterprise based solutions. We have a local team developing proprietary applications available via an in-house App store that is rolled out either globally across all pages, or individually per team site.

With the use of “My Site”, we were able to minimize our data center shared drive footprint and roll most user data into a searchable database. SharePoint provides file level,content security, and shifting data management to the customer.

With version management and recovery options, customers can easily restore files from the recycle bin. However, once files are removed, administrators are forced to turn to third-party tools. Administrative recovery and data management need more attention. File recovery is not made simple. Once files are discarded from within the SharePoint product, recovery turns into a long process of restoration from databases.

Alternatively we use a third party product by AvePoint called DocAve. It allows for an easy point and click recovery preserving original security permissions, which is not possible with direct database restoration. I would like to see a native Microsoft product do this.

We have used this product for two years.

With an on-premise, or even a hybrid model, local operations and platform teams are responsible for the uptime of the system. Most common issues are service halt, drive space management, and database corruption. All of this can be resolved easily with an Office 365 infrastructure migration.

Scalability was not an issue for us at the time of deployment. Capacity planning and resource management was done well. However, scalability issues with the current version is done much better than in previous versions

The quality of technical support depended on the support contract and severity of the issue. An enterprise level contract allows us to raise Priority 1 cases which are addressed on a 24/7 basis. Most issues were resolved promptly.

We upgraded from SharePoint 2007 and 2010. Data migration was the biggest culprit. The main reason for an upgrade was to provide easier platform management.

Deploying essential components was fairly straightforward. "MySite" page customization for multi-brand organization was a bit complicated due to the application of custom templates and role-based access control.

Do your homework and work closely with the vendor during capacity planning. Think a few years ahead.

We did not evaluate other products. However, also invested into WordPress and Kentico CMS under the MS Azure PaaS environment.

Make sure the product meets your business needs. Once you make that decision, rollout the proper internal marketing and adoption of the product. Workshops are available by Microsoft along with adoption recommendations.

What makes SharePoint special is that it applies to a wide range of company scenarios; document management, knowledge management, project management, and records management.

When you want to save information, collaborate, or discover information, SharePoint is the first point-of-contact. You can search, use metadata, or access content via business intelligence created as Excel reports or dashboards. You can also access data from PowerPoint presentations, PowerBI, JavaScript. or jQuery.

Since the core structure is based on ASP.NET technology, you can manage simple development projects using standard .NET developers who have no specialization. You are also able to brand the product using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

SharePoint has benefitted us a lot regarding optimization. We can automate document management, project management, and basic service desk functions.

The biggest value is that you are able to integrate systems using workflow management middleware. You can also use business intelligence to integrate data and display output on a SharePoint page with predefined restrictions applied for separate security groups.

There is occasionally a problem when an organization has several in-house developed systems without any integration connectors, etc. But this is only an issue in some really specific cases.

The allowed size of document libraries and lists, i.e., the number of items allowed, needs to be increased. This was already improved in the latest 2016 version of SharePoint.

Also, there need to be more options to brand solutions without needing developers. This would be good for end users.

I specialized in the implementation, configuration, and branding of SharePoint for about 7+years. I’ve implemented solutions for many customers, large and small, in many architecture scenarios.

Stability is always a big issue, but not from the view of SharePoint itself. It’s more of an issue from the architecture and infrastructure point of view. Many customers implement SharePoint on virtual machines with dynamic memory allocation. VMs have slow disk access speeds that are below recommended specifications.

In these situations, there are always issues with stability, especially regarding search services, etc. For example, if you installed SharePoint on a virtual machine with dynamic memory, it could destroy the farm without any possibility of repairing it. You will then have to reinstall the whole farm. This would really be a big problem in the case of a farm with 10 virtual servers.

Scalability issue are related to the previous question regarding stability.

The main burden of technical support is on Microsoft partners, who implemented the particular solution. If customers want extra support from Microsoft, it is possible I think, but only if they have Software Assurance or an Enterprise Agreement. Even if a customer has one of these, they still mostly use Microsoft Partners for consulting, maintenance, or new projects.

I previously used SharePoint Services 3, SharePoint Server 2007/2010/2013. Now, I am using SharePoint Online 2016 in a hybrid model that has new features and some new innovations. There are many reasons to switch.

The initial setup was really difficult, because we had no experience. But, together with my colleagues, we managed to solve the initial issues. Then, we used specialized consultants to help us. All subsequent implementations, even in our own environment, were successful. There is always some troubleshooting to do, but this is normal.

I advise to really plan carefully before implementing a solution. You need to allocate the correct number of licenses of various types (standard versus enterprise), including the required SQL licenses. Be careful with SQL licensing as many companies get this wrong. Licenses for other systems, for example, AD CALs or terminal server CALs, also need to be considered.

One of the most common mistakes is that a project plan will not take into account the use of features that require an enterprise license to run. For example, if the planners allocate only 50 enterprise licenses and the rest are standard licenses, there may not be enough enterprise licenses for all the components that need them.

My advice is to look around the Internet and find some justification to negotiate with your boss to buy this product. Alternatively, you could go to the cloud as well and create a hybrid model to reduce the cost of infrastructure (using Azure/Office 365).

Also, optimize your business using automation, forms, document management, etc.

Valuable features in this product are:

• Easy customization with MS .NET and related tools
• Stability
• Performance in a medium size environment (100-200 users)
• Full support by MS

We implemented custom approval workflows (for approving Opex items) using Windows Workflow Foundation which simplified and helped in speeding up the process of approving HW and SW licenses.

Performance: The web page was sometimes not as fast as we'd like to see.

Application of custom CSS/visual styles was cumbersome and usually required a complete re-write of out-of-the box SharePoint site pages.

I have used this product for three years.

Stability was usually good.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

It's standard MS-quality support. We got the help level we expected as an MS Gold partner.

Previously, we used custom ASP.NET application. We wanted to use SharePoint because it is easy to deploy in a new environment and has out-of-the box functionalities like AD authentication, file versioning, wiki pages, .NET extensible, etc.

The installation of SharePoint server was easy and had no issues.

I cannot make any specific recommendations.

SharePoint didn't have a direct competition at the time of our evaluation, mainly due to its deep integration with .NET Framework technologies like Windows Workflow Foundation. Thus, it was our only choice to try.

Consider what level of SharePoint Web customization you are looking for. If you would be okay with some basic color changes, adding your logo and other small visual changes, it would be easy for you to build what you want. However, if you are looking to build a custom look and feel website and consider using SharePoint, you will end up building a completely new product using some SharePoint components that may lead into technology/customization limitations.

The document library feature in this product is most valuable.

This product does a good job of maintaining an easy, searchable knowledge base, which is the key for supporting applications and business teams.

I personally don't use this product. However, my clients find it useful for locating documents in a format, that is easy to navigate.

Submitting document changes function needs to be improved.

It is hard to identify deltas in documents especially ones with drawings.

The process of updating a document on the fly takes a while to download and update.I am used to robust versions of management systems and hence end up using Apache Subversion (SVN) rather than SharePoint for version management.

I would also like to see who makes the changes inside the documents, that are managed.

I have used this product on and off for 10 years.

I have encountered stability issues when connecting to TFS 2013 for reporting.

I have not yet encountered any scalability issues.

I have not used any technical support.

Previously, I have used HP document solutions. I made the switch to SharePoint as it was what the client was using.

The initial setup for me was fairly simple.

I don't know since I did not source the production and used existing licenses.

I did not evaluate other options as I have not purchased this product.

It is best to ensure that all configuration options are explored when connecting
to other solutions.

Collaboration with other Microsoft products has made SharePoint a real tool for us. You can use a personal OneDrive storage to share your own documents with others, but also use SharePoint sites to manage projects with external users.

All attachments are put under SharePoint. So, no more of network sharing is required to store documents. Document versioning is also a useful feature for our organization.

No need to worry any more about emails with attachments and obsolete versions with those attachments. People can edit an online version at the same time. You don’t have to save and send anything anymore.

Though Office 365 Groups is only partly based on SharePoint Online, it gives a great option to share team information with inside and outside users.

SharePoint Online is excellent as is, but licensing for the on-premises version is expensive.

I have been using this product for eight years.

I have not encountered any stability issues. It is an excellent product if you don’t have to customize it too much.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

I would rate the technical support level 9/10.

I did not use any other solutions prior to SharePoint and I would not change to another product either.

Setup is very straightforward when you know the architecture.

I didn’t evaluate other products.

Keep it simple. Make use of this product without huge amounts of custom applications and scripting.

The key features in this product are:

• Use of list functionality
• The ability to easily modify the default screen on a new Web site
• The ability to quickly create and modify subsites
• The ability to create unique access rights to the subsites

We use the list functionality within SharePoint to create integrated test scripts. This has allowed us to have a Web solution for running integrated test scripts across multiple applications, along with multiple testing resources in numerous physical locations.

The product can be improved in the following aspects:

• In order to put certain customizations in place requires the downloading and installation of SharePoint Designer 2013. For large organizations where security has the majority of devices locked down, downloading and installing applications is not a simple process. It would be nice if some of the SharePoint Designer functionality could be baked in/part of the edit page functionality.
• The reporting functionality needs improvement, to combine multiple lists (for the most part) requires a solution outside of SharePoint. It would be great if there was an option to combine lists that have the exact same layout (fields and order of fields) so that the combined lists could be summarized and reported on.

I have used SharePoint for a total of 14 years; 11 years with my current employer.

Mostly, we have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

I cannot comment as I simply use Google to find answers for technical issues.

The initial setup process was fairly straightforward.

My advice is to not hesitate; just plunge in and implement SharePoint.