Item: Microsoft SharePoint
Rating: 6
Author: Daniel Blazquez

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our organization's information technology platform is built under the Microsoft ecosystem and products umbrella. When it comes to groupware (creation of micro sites that enable content, wikis, and document libraries) the natural tool to deploy is Microsoft SharePoint, and its cousin OneDrive. The whole organization has built-in pre-approved and pre-configured access to SharePoint, and it is encouraged as the go-to tool.

Pros and Cons

Transparent integration within an organization under the MS umbrella
Leveraging of existing single sign-on facilities
Advanced customization with centralized Active Directory features

User experience is subpar
Unclear behaviors when sync-ing devices
Some users report bugs in the Windows client

Return on Investment

Built-in license in Office 365 subscriptions is a plus

Alternatives Considered

Dropbox, Dropbox Business, OneDrive and Alfresco Enterprise Content Management

In terms of user experience and usability, other apps have done a better job proving an intuitive workflow and behaviors that just work. In contrast, SharePoint's use cases (in particular sharing with non-Microsoft users) result a bit more confusing sequence of events.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 365, Splunk Cloud, Splunk Enterprise

Likelihood to Recommend

Once you train your users to understand the peculiarities, organizations that are already fully integrated in the MS corporate platform should adopt MS SharePoint. However, organizations that might have challenges in terms of providing adequate training to its users might benefit from other groupware and file sharing systems that have been designed with usability in mind.

Workhorse that gets the job done, but poor UX

Overall Satisfaction with MS SharePoint