As a SharePoint applications vender we constantly go into accounts and find the clients totally confused about what SharePoint is. Most the time they think it is just a document management platform, because that is what Microsoft told them. We all know it is much more. What is your opinion? Does the Microsoft field know how to position SharePoint?
Yes it is so much more, but that’s only half the problem. They are also being told it is so easy to use – and that is certainly not the case as we all know. I don’t have a problem with them pitching it as a document management system, it’s certainly seemed to work and gotten the foot in the door. The vendor network can explain and show how it does much more. But the management and rollout is made to seem like it’s a walk in the park, and that doesn’t work for me. Managing the expectation on how long it takes and how much money it’s going to take is causing 10 times the damage than saying it’s a document management system. This results in failed implementations and bad opinions about SharePoint on top of the confusion about what it can do.
I don’t think so.. and as you know.. Microsoft doesn’t even “Market” SharePoint. Why? because it’s already their top product, and there are so many companies selling it for them they don’t need to.
Compare that to System Center suite where they have big promotional campaigns every week… I got at least 4 10$ coffee cards downloading SCCM Demos. They don’t give that for SP.
