Microsoft SharePoint Used But Underutilized, Survey Finds

In its 2008 State of the Industry Survey, the AIIM enterprise content management (ECM) community, found that Microsoft's SharePoint has already been implemented by one-third of end user organizations.

But, AIIM said most organizations still haven't developed a coherent strategy for leveraging SharePoint and other ECM opportunities.

"Only 15% of end users have a formal plan or strategy in place describing where they will utilize the SharePoint investments and where they will utilize other ECM investments," AIIM said in its report.

Earlier this week, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates predicted SharePoint sales would hit the $1 billion mark this year; Gates noted that SharePoint enables workers to share information in a better way. "You want to create a product that you can assume everyone in your company has access to," Gates said.

AIIM, which has signed up more than 50,000 industry associates, said the survey also indicated that more knowledge workers are becoming aware of the potential of ECM. In addition, the benefits of efficient ECM usage are increasingly becoming evident to small companies.

"We have moved in just a few years from an industry that was relevant to only a handful of users within the largest organizations to an industry that will soon reach most desktops within large organizations," said AIIM president John Mancini in a keynote address at this week's AIIM 2008 meeting in Boston. "More importantly, the solutions of this (ECM) industry are now within the reach of organizations of all sizes. There are 1.3 million business organizations in the United States alone with annual revenues over $1 million."

In its survey, AIIM listed several possible obstacles facing users wishing to deploy ECM technologies. The obstacle most cited -- by 41% of respondents -- was: "We didn't think through the process and organizational issues." The next most cited obstacle was: "Lack of knowledge and training among our internal staff."