The SharePoint Revolution

There is a buzz these days going around the workplace in the area of online collaboration and its name is Microsoft SharePoint.

As scattered individuals around the globe come together to add value and share knowledge and information in our new collaborative "project" based world, tools such as SharePoint are going to proliferate the landscape, if they haven't yet already.

As many of you know, Microsoft SharePoint is nothing new. The tool has been around for a while. I should know, I used the tool back in the late 90's when it was being touted as the breakthrough work flow tool for all your project woes. But only recently has it gained increased notoriety in the workplace, probably more so through necessity than any new technological breakthrough; but as more and more projects have become more complicated and more sophisticated, and where greater visibility is needed on these projects for all to see, tools such as SharePoint are only going to increase in scale and complexity.

Some of the key selling features of the tool is that it is a Microsoft product, completely integrated with all the other Microsoft products, such as Project, Excel, Word, etc. Another key feature is that it very, very, very easy to use. Once the site portal is up and running, setting up and configuring your own SharePoint project portal should take you less than an hour. And if there is an issue along the way, there is a myriad of tools, resources and individuals all welcome to lend a hand. The SharePoint community is fantastic in this regard.

But one of the key features that I gain from the tool is its ability to allow users to compile, coordinate and capture key content in one local repository for current and future preservation. Now there are other tools out on the market that can do just the same or a better job of content capture, but SharePoint has found its niche and is holding strong to it position. What else could you expect from Microsoft. I will wager that SharePoint will probably be the dominant social networking tool in the enterprise for the foreseeable future.

SharePoint integrates blogs, wikis, document libraries, tasks, project tasks, calendars, workflow, survey capabilities, etc. all under one umbrella and the interesting part is that it is done well. These features make managing and monitoring goals and objectives of a project, initiative, campaign or what ever you have in mind quite easily. The concept of integration and collaboration are key to the tool that seamlessly compiles content and data in one central location. It truly is a Share-Point.

As knowledge management, or as I like to refer to it, knowledge integration gets its second wind in the business environment, tools such as SharePoint will only increase in use. Primarily because these tools allows individuals, teams, groups, etc. to create new content, upload data and socialize information more readily among peers and management, where the integration of ideas and thoughts will only proliferate, and secondly, it provides a repository of future preservation, if used properly, will become the organizations central location for knowledge within the organization.

SharePoint also provides a venue to create communities of practice and communities of interest within the tool. So knowledge capture and dissemination is only created by the use of the tool, and did I mention, that SharePoint is a Microsoft product and fully integrated with all the other office components. Oh yeah, I did. But I digress

So march forward and collaborate.