From Plaything to Platform

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In the relatively short time span of ten years SharePoint has grown from a Plaything into a Platform.

I remember when SharePoint – aka Tahoe – was announced. What were you doing 10 years ago?

Father of SharePoint

imageI give a lot of credit to Jeff Teper, who is also known as the Father of SharePoint. It was his vision combined with the guidance and execution efforts of a lot of very smart people to create the platform SharePoint has become.

SharePoint is a Business Operating System

At the SharePoint Conference in October 2009 Steve Ballmer was asked about SharePoint. He said "SharePoint, in a sense, is becoming an operating system."

imageI also like how Barry Baronas of Kollabria describes SharePoint. He says “It’s a Business Operating System”

The new general manager on the SharePoint team, Eric Swift, says he’s looking forward to working with partners and customers and to see how they take advantage of the Offline and Business Intelligence features as well as the Visual Studio and Line of Business integration capabilities of SharePoint 2010.

It’s a Partner Thing

As a platform there is no better or faster way to success than with partners. Microsoft has done a great job of getting partners involved. The road is still long and there are thousands of potential partners out there. Microsoft has made the right move by continuing to build SharePoint as a platform. As a platform SharePoint is going to be THE place for partners to create the next generation of solutions.

It’s come a long way baby

SharePoint has come a long way in 10 years. As the partner ecosystem continues to embrace and extend the SharePoint platform I expect to see a lot of solutions far beyond the traditional ECM market place. However, I do think that in the short term people that have spent time in the traditional ECM market have an advantage as I mentioned in The Value of the ECM Experience.

What do you think?

  • Is SharePoint a Platform?
  • Are Partners the Key to SharePoint Success?
  • What Applications do you want to see on the SharePoint Platform?

A few posts about why SharePoint as a Platform makes sense:

clip_image002About The Author:
I have spent the last 20 years working in various aspects of the ECM industry. I am currently with Kodak as a Director of Business Development. In my past I have spent time at Kofax, Microsoft, FileNet, K2, and at Captaris (which was acquired by Open Text). Prior to that I was a Unix VAR running my own company. Follow me on Twitter, check my blog, send email or find me on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Next Up – Will SharePoint be the first business to spin out of the MSFT machine?

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