Tuesday 12 April 2011

SharePoint Internet Websites - The Perfect Platform

Here at Salem Consulting we are often asked whether SharePoint is a good platform for publishing internet websites and the answer is certainly yes. To demonstrate this effectively take a look at this excellent website for inspiration:

http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/topwebsites.aspx

However, it isn't SharePoint that is the issue, but more to do with badly thought-through corporate websites in general. What are they there to achieve, who are the audiences, are the sites effective and have they been optimised for search engines (yes we are skilled in SEO strategy at Salem too) ? We have seen far too many badly thought-through internet facing sites (on a wide range of platforms) that simply achieve nothing and act as poor brochureware. If a company is going to design a new internet website, first ensure that the correct analysis takes place so that the website achieves the goals set from the start.

It is true that for ecommerce and webshops, SharePoint is not as yet ideally suited as things stand. However do take into account that it will only be a matter of time before we find Biztalk modules servicing these requirements, in our opinion.

If you are wanting to leverage your SharePoint assets, then incorporate your websites into your SharePoint strategy, as SharePoint is a fantastic platform to facilitate. If it's good enough for Ferrari, it is good enough for us !