SharePoint is more of a collaboration platform than a product. Depending on what your business needs are, it can be compared to any and every product out there.

To give you an analogy, Windows when it first came out was pretty much used for basic office productivity tasks (i.e. word processing, calculator, etc). Through the years, Windows is used in various ways depending on where you are, who you are and the time of day. For example, when you're at home, you use Windows to get on the Internet and get on Facebook. When you're at work, you use Windows to get on your email, corporate systems, etc. If you're a teenage kid, you use Windows to play games.

Similarly, with SharePoint, depending on who you are and what you're doing in the organization, there are various applications. You see, collaboration is more than just sharing files. It is more than just replacing e-mail or network shares.

Here are some example videos/articles to further see how SharePoint can be leveraged for your business:

- 5 Reasons Why Executive SharePoint Ignorance is Not Bliss http://spgur.us/7tKkKz
- How to Prioritize Business Needs Before Implementing SharePoint http://spgur.us/8sCiVR
- 7 Ways to Leverage SharePoint for PM Success http://spgur.us/cureCt
- Delivering SharePoint Success: Why Collaboration is More Than Just Technology http://spgur.us/cX3I6G

All the best,
Dux

JB Holston

Posted on Nov. 24, 2010

In re Dux' response, there is a vibrant ecosystem around SharePoint for augmenting the platform -- http://www.newsgator.com has about 250 of the global 2000 using its socialsites product to turn SharePoint 2010 into a zippy enterprise social computing experience.

Veronique Palmer

SharePoint MVP, Managing Member, Lets Collaborate

Posted on Dec. 22, 2010

I agree with Dux, SharePoint can be positioned for many things, so finding just one competing product is going to be tricky. For us fanatics there is no comparison though. :)

For basic content management you could look at :

Google Sites : http://bit.ly/gqDHzH

Hyper Office : http://www.hyperoffice.com/

Documentum : http://www.emc.com/domains/documentum/index.htm

Alfresco : http://www.alfresco.com/

Oracle Beehive : http://www.oracle.com/us/products/middleware/beehive/index.html

Jive : http://www.jivesoftware.com/solutions

O3 Spaces : http://www.o3spaces.com/

Mindtouch : http://bit.ly/eF6554

Lotus : http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/category/messaging/

Veronique Palmer

SharePoint MVP, Managing Member, Lets Collaborate

Posted on Dec. 27, 2010

You can also download a sample of 30 CMS vendors :

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-cms/sharepoint-portal-alternatives-a-cr...

Ritesh Sinha

Head-Business Excellence, Public Listed Company (India)

Posted on July 7, 2011

Hello David,

We experienced a similar situation with one of our premium client (world largest silicone major) and we opted for Vignette over Sharepoint.

'SharePoint' is effective but I bet more on "Vignette" for several reasons:

1. Scalability
2. Platform Independence
3. Multilingual capabilities
4. Better Content Management
5. Vignette has inbuilt features whereas Sharepoint uses Toolkit for several stuffs

So to sum up, Vignette provides larger Scalability and every facet of the product can be customized as per the business requirement. 'whereas' Share Point although provides inbuilt templates however that can restrict us in getting a desired template or functionality as per our specific business requirement (not every business is same...)

Thanks
Ritesh Sinha
Head - Business Excellence
Public Listed Company (India)
ITIL, Six Sigma, Lean, ISO, PMP
Email: rs.ritesh@gmail.com
Phone: +91 9810171291

Martin Hatch Replied on July 8, 2011

I would be interested in which specific comparisons you drew?

Scalability shouldn't be an issue unless you are looking at extremely vast amounts (tens of terabytes) of data ..

Platform independence is an odd one (SharePoint is web based.. how much more independent can you get?)

SharePoint is currently supported in dozens of languages, for both collaboration and publishing of multi-lingual content

Keen to know what "better" content management features Vignette offers over SharePoint? Documentum for example offers 2-way global content replication ..

My final point is that every single facet of SharePoint can also be customised, the APIs, extension points and the base technology (ASP.Net) result in an incredible amount of customisation (for the RNIB we completely redesigned the entire UI from scratch, even down to each field control .. but that was still fully integrated into the standard "out of the box" framework)... developing new templates to meet business needs is bread-and-butter SharePoint development .. I can't think of a single project where I haven't done this ..

Michal Pisarek

Senior SharePoint Analyst and SharePoint MVP, Habanero Consulting Group

Posted on July 12, 2011

Let be honest here, currently there isn't a product out there with a feature set that is as diverse and broad as SharePoint offers.
By no means do I suggest that it is the perfect tool for every job either because with the breadth that SharePoint offers it lacks depth in certain areas.

If you are looking for a complete platform that provides a broad range of capabilities that you can customize heavily with a vibrant partner eco-system then SharePoint is in a league of its own.

However if you are looking at a more point orientated solution for DM, RM, Social Tools, BI or something else then there are many other products out there that you can compare it against.

However SharePoint is a beast, both in the feature set it offers and the governance you may need to keep things under control. Unless an organization is serious about adopting SharePoint with respect then it might be better to look at these smaller point solutions.

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