3 ms·

After reading through all of the comments left here about what it does, how it does it and the pros/cons of it, I was left wondering what would be a capable alt

After reading through all of the comments left here about what it does, how it does it and the pros/cons of it, I was left wondering what would be a capable alternative to it. Sure, I can implement a chat system, a wiki and a blogging plaform separately, but each platform will stand apart from the others. Having a single method of login will require additional programming and administration skills in addition to time spent actually implementing them. I'm currently analyzing the possibility of implementing SharePoint at work (small office, 5 people counting myself) but do dislike the fact it would only enhance format lock-in. Walking away from Microsoft products is not a possibility since pretty much every single document we come across is created on Microsoft software, except for PDF documents; what I would like is increase workgroup capabilities, regardless of document format. So, what would be a decent alternative to it? I've seen most PHP-based systems and have always been left wanting.

mikeryan 17y ago
If you're willing to pay check out Jive SBS http://www.jivesoftware.com/products http://www.jivesoftware.com/products
- nullrend 17y ago
  I'll see how The Boss likes it, but don't hold out much hope of him actually getting past the price tag issue. Hell, I'm having a hard time getting him to move away from Yahoo Mail to Google Apps as it is.
DanielBMarkham 17y ago
Seriously? If everybody is already using MS docs (excel, word, powerpoint, access, xpath) and you're all on Office 2007,go ahead and use SharePoint. But be prepared to have somebody take 40 hours or so and read 2-4 books on maximizing Sharepoint capabilities. That person will have to handhold everybody else for a while. If you don't want to do that, it's not worth your time. There are lots of hosted Sharepoint solutions you can find that aren't very expensive. They handle the backups, hotfixes, versioning, and such, and you guys just worry about your business. That's much easier than trying to glue together several other services from separate providers, in my opinion. I'm not a MS fanboy, but Sharepoint does seem to be a logical progression from Office to something more web-centric.
- blogimus 17y ago
  I've been using Sharepoint for 3 months so far on a big ($100M+) government contract project. Our prime is hosting it. I'm not a fan, but I don't maintain it and it does the job. The most use I've gotten out of it so far is for document management and document peer reviews. It IS convenient for editing Office 2007 documents if you're on Windows using IE. You can just checkout files through the browser. This feature does not work for Firefox. One big problem we have is that the VPN breaks Sharepoint links so that the links that the people on the inside pass around break for those of us using VPN. That's not necessarily a Sharepoint issue, but it is annoying nonetheless as it does not have pretty URLs.
- alaricsp 17y ago
  What about OneIS? It's hosted, which isn't for everyone, but it does mean one less thing to worry about. I've used it as an intranet, and it's easy to pick up: http://www.oneis.co.uk/ http://www.oneis.co.uk/

mikeryan 17y ago

If you're willing to pay check out Jive SBS http://www.jivesoftware.com/products http://www.jivesoftware.com/products

nullrend 17y ago
I'll see how The Boss likes it, but don't hold out much hope of him actually getting past the price tag issue. Hell, I'm having a hard time getting him to move away from Yahoo Mail to Google Apps as it is.

DanielBMarkham 17y ago

Seriously? If everybody is already using MS docs (excel, word, powerpoint, access, xpath) and you're all on Office 2007,go ahead and use SharePoint. But be prepared to have somebody take 40 hours or so and read 2-4 books on maximizing Sharepoint capabilities. That person will have to handhold everybody else for a while. If you don't want to do that, it's not worth your time. There are lots of hosted Sharepoint solutions you can find that aren't very expensive. They handle the backups, hotfixes, versioning, and such, and you guys just worry about your business. That's much easier than trying to glue together several other services from separate providers, in my opinion. I'm not a MS fanboy, but Sharepoint does seem to be a logical progression from Office to something more web-centric.

blogimus 17y ago
I've been using Sharepoint for 3 months so far on a big ($100M+) government contract project. Our prime is hosting it. I'm not a fan, but I don't maintain it and it does the job. The most use I've gotten out of it so far is for document management and document peer reviews. It IS convenient for editing Office 2007 documents if you're on Windows using IE. You can just checkout files through the browser. This feature does not work for Firefox. One big problem we have is that the VPN breaks Sharepoint links so that the links that the people on the inside pass around break for those of us using VPN. That's not necessarily a Sharepoint issue, but it is annoying nonetheless as it does not have pretty URLs.
alaricsp 17y ago
What about OneIS? It's hosted, which isn't for everyone, but it does mean one less thing to worry about. I've used it as an intranet, and it's easy to pick up: http://www.oneis.co.uk/ http://www.oneis.co.uk/