The collaborative features, the central repository for project documents and the know-how for standard/best practices are valuable.
Director of Development with 501-1,000 employees
It has improved the exchange of knowledge from team to team. There should be an easy way to integrate images into the wiki through the drag and drop option.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
It has:
- Improved the exchange of knowledge from team to team.
- Provided better product support through the centralized documentation of procedures.
- Assisted in how-to to fix production issues.
What needs improvement?
The integration of Office document editing and publishing with the wiki component that we use for creating our how-to section needs to improve. At the very least there should be an easy way to integrate images into the wiki through the drag and drop option.
We also have many other tools that create their documentation in the form of HTML pages, sometimes with hundreds of pages. We should be able to directly integrate those into our site, not just through a link but to truly integrate this content as if it was native.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for four years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The only issue that we have is when we are creating a new site from templates. During such a situation, many of the sub-components do not work or have to be completely reconfigured once created. This makes the creation of a new project based on our project site template very painful.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues but then again, we are only about 30 people who are using it constantly.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support level is practically nil.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have anything before.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not so complex but our attempt to migrate was plagued with some issue and it was ultimately abandoned. It was not worth redoing everything what was there .
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For us, in terms of the project development and support tools and for a collaborative repository of live documents, there is nothing like this solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did evaluate a few other options. I know we looked at Jostle which we did adopt for the social-side of our intranet and for the publishing of static articles.
What other advice do I have?
What is costly with SharePoint is the customization and maintenance of these custom components.
Unless you are a .NET development shop or are thinking about hiring a SharePoint person on staff full-time, you need to stay close to the out-of-the-box config.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Project Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
The two-way synchronization is valuable. The number of files that can be uploaded has a limit.
What is most valuable?
The two-way synchronization is very valuable.
How has it helped my organization?
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.
What needs improvement?
There is a limitation on the number of files that can be uploaded.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There is a limitation on the number of files that can be uploaded.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
As per Microsoft support, the issue should be fixed in the next releases. But until now, the same problem is occurring.
How are customer service and technical support?
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.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
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.)
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SharePoint is embedded in our Office 365 license. The price is very competitive. (I believe it is one of the best.)
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PCV Engineering & Bus Driving Recruitment Consultant at Likewise Consulting
Helps with document collaboration and workflow
Pros and Cons
- "Helps with document collaboration and workflow."
- "Needs improvement on the user interface."
What is our primary use case?
Enterprise collaboration.
How has it helped my organization?
- Helps with document collaboration and workflow.
- Provides us with a records center.
What is most valuable?
- Records center
- Shared calendar.
What needs improvement?
- Ease of use.
- Improvement on the user interface (UI).
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant - Business Intelligence at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
I especially value document sharing. I would like to see more freedom given to a power user.
What is most valuable?
I especially value document sharing.
How has it helped my organization?
The product has made document sharing with customers easier instead of emailing.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see the following:
- More freedom given to a power user
- Feature development on a site collection level without the need for farm-level rights
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the product for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I encountered no stability issues.
What other advice do I have?
I don't think that this whole review is worth the effort as we are talking about a product (Sharepoint 2010) that is six years old, close to end of life, and not sold anymore. People who are new to this will certainly look for the latest version which I have no experience with.
We are mainly using the document sharing feature to share documents with customers in a secure way.
Actual development depends on server-side tools (Visual Studio running on the Sharepoint server itself), administrator access rights, and activities that cannot be done from machines. I guess this is by design, and probably is not going to be changed.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Services Manager at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
We use it for storing, collaborating and archiving documents with versioning and custom workflows.
What is most valuable?
I find that SharePoint when used for the right purpose, lends itself to be a fantastic collaboration and workflow service.
It is very easy to store documents, collaborate and archive documents with versioning and custom workflows.
How has it helped my organization?
SharePoint provides a simple way to store documents and we created lots of subsites to contain the courses and materials for our students.
We found that applying permissions were very easy, due to the integration with the Active Directory.
What needs improvement?
It was a shame to see the SharePoint Design being deprecated, as this was a great way to create very customizable workflows.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used SharePoint since the 2003 release, back in the year 2007. We initially used it as a Virtually Learning Environment and a business platform for our college.
We found it simple enough to manage and were able to integrate it with third parties.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were very few stability issues. The issues are usually related to problems with the related Microsoft stack such as Windows Server/ SQL/ IIS.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
When you set it up as a single server, you will quickly outgrow it. If deployed correctly SharePoint scales very well with the ability to provision multiple web front ends, dedicated reporting servers and SQL clusters. This all helps to remove a single point of failure.
How are customer service and technical support?
As this is a Microsoft product, it can be difficult to obtain direct support. That being said, there is a thriving partner community around this product.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before SharePoint, we used internally designed websites, WordPress and Drupal. We found that they did not provide the collaboration features and integration that we would have liked.
How was the initial setup?
As we were new to SharePoint, we found that the initial process was complex. So, we hired a partner to perform the installation. Over the years, this experience has improved drastically.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
As a an education institution, we had a very favourable pricing policy.
What other advice do I have?
Read and research this subject area thoroughly. Reach out to the large community and visit others that have adopted this solution.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Business Analyst at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
There are integrated workflows and it has the flexibility to store various document and lists.
What is most valuable?
It has a lot of flexibility to store various document and lists. There are integrated workflows and it helps to improve the end user's ability to be more efficient.
How has it helped my organization?
Automating the basic approval processes is an easy win. You are no longer required to do the work in emails, but instead using the email as a conduit, you can facilitate the work in the work flow.
The rock solid central document storage makes it very easy for all business departments to have a standard location for their documents.
What needs improvement?
The user interface should improve. It is still a bit clunky for the new user to navigate around.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this product for three years as an administrator and twelve years as an end user.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For the enterprise environment, I did not encounter any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no scalability issues as such. However, the 500 items limit in views can be limiting in some instances.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would rate the technical support a 7/10, i.e., by using the internal support teams with various level of knowledge.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were not using any other solution previously.
What other advice do I have?
For a medium to large scale business, it is excellent.
For a small business, there may be too much overhead costs and a steep learning curve for the solution to be adding any value.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
I like the document libraries, team sites and workflow engine. It could be more intuitive.
What is most valuable?
Document libraries
Team sites
Workflow engine
How has it helped my organization?
Improved collaboration through multi-user document editing capabilities. Improved governance through process workflows.
What needs improvement?
The product could be more intuitive both from an administrative point of view and from an end user point of view.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We did not have any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did not have any scalability issues. However, we have deployed a very simple system, with no bespoke tooling or plugins. We have, as yet, not had to scale the solution beyond adding more RAM or disc to either the database or application server.
How are customer service and technical support?
Never had to use technical support from Microsoft for this product.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have a previous solution.
How was the initial setup?
Setup was complex. Setting up the solution requires a solid understanding of the various architecture options available. While Microsoft has made significant improvements in changing the deployment method so that it is much more guided, decisions taken at the time of deployment can have long lasting detrimental impacts if the decision is not well understood.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Atlassian Confluence (we use both products in house for different things).
What other advice do I have?
Plan thoroughly and well for your deployment and make sure that you understanding the implications of the decisions you make around multi-server implementations for scalability and resilience.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're a Microsoft partner.
Change Management Consultant at a analyst firm with self employed
I used it to build tactical solutions such as a document control management system for the Policy and Procedure Department and a case tracker for Legal Counsel.
What is most valuable?
- Libraries
- Lists
- The workflow module
How has it helped my organization?
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.
What needs improvement?
- Workflow management module
- The web page editor
- The reporting tools
For how long have I used the solution?
I used SharePoint 2007/2013 for six years as the super administrator from the business side.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I definitely encounter stability issues, like all other Microsoft-related solutions.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not encountered any scalability issues. It’s highly robust, and can be scaled further as the organization’s requirements increase.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is bad, as the support is for all other Microsoft products.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Don’t really know what to say here. I’d rather not answer. In general, we didn’t have any issues with SharePoint licensing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did evaluate other products, but I don’t remember the names at this stage.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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