I touched a while back on the problem with SharePoint trying to be all things to all people and in our offering to clients this has recently taken shape in a meaningful way. With 100 million (yes, 100,000,000) or more seats sold over the last some years there is no getting away that SharePoint has a powerful place in the business software landscape.
The CEO of our author partner - FlowCentric - has published a white paper on turning SharePoint from Good to Great. This harks back to my previous points that it attempts to be all things to all people and in doing so fails to be great at anything.
In reality as we see Microsoft mature its marketing message it appears to move away from the quite exact terms in 2007 of "Streamline Processes" and "Business Intelligence" to more generic terms in 2010 of "Composites" and "Insights". Reading between the lines this suggests to me an acknowledgement that all-things-to-all people is not a viable path to success. Rather it shows an acceptance that SharePoint is a framework and perhaps the plumbing that underpins an array solution sets delivering outcomes to end users.
In the area of Streamline Processes/Composites this allows for and supports the existence of specialist fit-for-purpose tools to address composite areas across the business whilst standing firmly on the foundations that SharePoint brings in the server layer.
So how do we turn it from good to great? By bringing worthwhile and tangible benefits to the key stakeholders - more control for the IT department, better and more visible process outcomes for the business, less confusion for end users.
Get a copy of the whitepaper "FlowCentric turns SharePoint from Good to Great" here.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
I thought I was buying a kitchen splashback ...
A little while ago we finished off the tail-end of our home kitchen renovation. The cupboards and benchtop and appliances etc had been in place for ages but the missing thing to bring it all together was glass.
Now it wasn't as simple as a splashback behind the stove, it was that and much more - feature glass on the exposed cabinets facing the external deck, pretty little glass shelves to hold kick knacks and mobile phones, a floor to ceiling mirror at the end of a hallway, a shower screen, new bathroom mirrors - not an inconsequential job but all just commodity stuff, right?
Using a shortlist of glass suppliers gleaned from magazine articles and friends' recomendations we started the "measure and quote" cycle. we had the naieve thought that this was a cost based decision and for the first 3 companies it was. The guy would arrive and ask what was going where, do his measurements, hem and haw about an exposed corner where two sheets of glass were to join, fill in his form and hand over the quote. You couldn't pick any one of them from the pile.
Then Ray arrived. He sat down and asked us what we were doing and what the overall goal of the renovation had been. What did we like about the kitchen now that we had been using it for some months - was our experience different to our expectation? He walked around the room pointing out things from different angles. He sat on the deck and looked back in to where the feature glass was to go. We discussed the mix and match of colours and textures and surfaces and the natural elements outside (sky and plants) that would be reflected within at different times of the day. He made good considered suggestions about what would work where and why. He showed us pictures of other jobs he had done and told us about the satisfied customers. He talked about our feelings for the project. What? Our feelings?
By the time he got around to taking the measurements we were like putty in his hands. We thought we were buying glass. His glass was no different to anybody else's and all the quotes were within 10% of eachother but Ray knew it was about more than that, Ray sold us lifestyle, and he got the business.
In a nutshell - he added value.
Now it wasn't as simple as a splashback behind the stove, it was that and much more - feature glass on the exposed cabinets facing the external deck, pretty little glass shelves to hold kick knacks and mobile phones, a floor to ceiling mirror at the end of a hallway, a shower screen, new bathroom mirrors - not an inconsequential job but all just commodity stuff, right?
Using a shortlist of glass suppliers gleaned from magazine articles and friends' recomendations we started the "measure and quote" cycle. we had the naieve thought that this was a cost based decision and for the first 3 companies it was. The guy would arrive and ask what was going where, do his measurements, hem and haw about an exposed corner where two sheets of glass were to join, fill in his form and hand over the quote. You couldn't pick any one of them from the pile.
Then Ray arrived. He sat down and asked us what we were doing and what the overall goal of the renovation had been. What did we like about the kitchen now that we had been using it for some months - was our experience different to our expectation? He walked around the room pointing out things from different angles. He sat on the deck and looked back in to where the feature glass was to go. We discussed the mix and match of colours and textures and surfaces and the natural elements outside (sky and plants) that would be reflected within at different times of the day. He made good considered suggestions about what would work where and why. He showed us pictures of other jobs he had done and told us about the satisfied customers. He talked about our feelings for the project. What? Our feelings?
By the time he got around to taking the measurements we were like putty in his hands. We thought we were buying glass. His glass was no different to anybody else's and all the quotes were within 10% of eachother but Ray knew it was about more than that, Ray sold us lifestyle, and he got the business.
In a nutshell - he added value.
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