August 2009
The Changing face of SharePoint
"The last twelve to eighteen months has seen an interesting shift in the technology landscape from Provoke's point of view. A change in Government (red to blue) and the recent downturn in the global economy have, without a doubt, impacted on the nature of projects we have been engaged on, but we've also seen a distinct change in the buying lifecycle.
While we are still experiencing a surge in SharePoint demand in New Zealand, which we predict will continue, the focus has shifted from the early days (late 2007/08), back when SharePoint was considered to be the 'silver bullet' - promising to solve the world's problems in one clean sweep.
Clients that have already invested in the SharePoint platform seem to be more aware of the strengths (and weaknesses) of SharePoint and have responded by 'beefing-up' their internal capability. This has raised the bar of the local install base and lead to much more savvy SharePoint user community. Gone are the days of the 'rare as hen's teet' and outrageously expensive SharePoint consultant, which means SharePoint partners like Provoke need to work harder to deliver more value.
In these times of 'economic strain', clients are more focused than ever on ROI and getting value for money from their technology partners. To that end, we have seen a lot more interest in SharePoint-based products like Nintex or Macroview, which can extend the usefulness of SharePoint and enable customers to leverage their investment at minimal cost.
SharePoint is now considered a serious player in the document and records management space, through the likes of RecordPoint, where public sector organisations have a requirement to work within the bounds of the Public Records Act, but don't necessarily have access to the same funding as the larger Government agencies.
There are now plenty of SharePoint deployments here in New Zealand, many of which have been established for quite some time. In many cases, Provoke are engaged to conduct 'health checks' on the early deployments now that our knowledge and experience has evolved and it's amazing to see how much the market has moved on from the early days.
SharePoint continues to excite us at Provoke and from what we have seen of SharePoint 2010, it will continue to do so. There is significant potential for success with the SharePoint platform if deployed correctly aligning the goals of the user, the business and technology but that's a discussion for another day..."
Ian Oliver, National Sales Manager
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