Here at Salem, one of the biggest issues we find with SharePoint client strategy is the lack of clarity regarding the value of SharePoint enterprise services. We spell this out when we consult using the Salem Process with our clients. Imagine a partner simply asking "what would you like ?" and the a client simply provides an uninformed answer without actually understanding what is possible. It is then very easy for a partner to develop a custom solution without ever informing the client that actually this service already exists, often fully formed, within the SharePoint services - at an enterprise level. For many clients they simply do not understand the value of enterprise services until they are demonstrated from a real business-value perspective.
In simple terms, once an enterprise license is purchased, a range of exciting services suddenly become available within SharePoint that offer a huge range of new possibilities. Because many CIO's do not have a clearly-defined long-term SharePoint strategy, so they cannot inform their business audiences of the potential roadmap and potential solutions available and therefore excite the audience about SharePoint potential. Therefore a rather reactive situation occurs without relevant budget in place. A business division asks for a business service and the question is then pitched back to the internal SharePoint administrator/developer/architect - can we achieve this and how, and when? The next thing you know, either a partner is developing a custom solution with little view of the requirements of other business divisions or something is cobbled together that 'may suffice for now'. And things progress slowly and awkwardly and the business audience begins to think that everything in SharePoint land must be like this. No it isn't!
Very frequently business audiences will discuss requirements for management reporting, business intelligence, dashboards, scorecards, workflows, electronic forms and the 'electronicizing' of laborous paper-based processes. yet they are never shown what SharePoint can easily achieve with an enterprise license in place. Then we find quite extraordinary IT-driven conversations regarding the cost of enterprise licensing and how it doesn't make sense without ever working out that if one was to match the enterpise services of SharePoint through bespoke development the costs would be astronomical.
Microsoft have spent years developing the enterprise features and services of SharePoint with their leading international development teams - how could this possibly be matched by a single developer contractor - easy, it can't. What is really happening is often that an IT division itself is not aware of the enterprise services an the business value they bring. Therefore, the business audiences remain uninformed. Consequently it is absolutely essential that any client has a clearly-articulated description of the value of SharePoint enterprise services at the very start.
At Salem we absolutely understand the value of SharePoint as a development platform and we have stressed this in other articles. But we have also seen a number of custom solutions put in place that were clearly developed to work around enterpise licensing costs and are all the more inferior as a result. Short-cuts always show themselves in the long run and there is a reason why enterprise SharePoint services offer such great value for the business audiences.
If SharePoint offers a business audience a wide range of superb, richly featured, integrated SharePoint services then they key is to understand their value at the start, plan them into a sequenced business service plan and justify the cost as a longer term activity rather than simply stating - 'we will deal with that later'. Budget for enterpise licensing for SharePoint as part of the overall strategy and then harness and sweat the SharePoint assets one has purchased to demonstrate how much a business can truly achieve with the right tools.
A good workman should never blame his tools - but without enterprise services, the ambitious workman may well be right !
