SharePoint still a favorite CMS, but gaps in information accessibility concern users

In a new report, SharePoint: "Shows huge promise... Could do better..." UK-based content intelligence firm Smartlogic delves into the SharePoint gaps identified in an independent MindMetre Research study that polled more than 500 global users who offered up their likes, dislikes, and suggestions for improving the software platform.

Brutally honest in their assessments, 80 percent of users say they're disappointed with SharePoint's ability to deliver satisfactory access to internal information. Almost half of the platform's users (46 percent) think that its enterprise search facility is falling somewhat short of original expectations and 34 percent say that SharePoint is "failing to meet expectations by a considerable margin."

Calling SharePoint the content management "frontrunner," and clear choice for most Microsoft Dynamics users, Smartlogic CEO Jeremy Bentley says it's also the "platform of choice" for more than 50 percent of information professionals worldwide. "When you think that the [SharePoint 2010] platform was only introduced three years ago," says Bentley, "the fact that it's the top pick for more than half of these users is pretty amazing."

The amazement ends there. According to the report, 25 percent of information professionals using SharePoint think that less than half of the information assets in their organization are searchable, and over 60 percent report "a degree of disillusionment with the return on investment the platform has delivered, due to the fact that some important content is still difficult to find and search results are not sufficiently relevant."

SharePoint users also identify numerous gaps in the system that, in many cases, have to filled by third-party software applications. Many of these gaps impact the organization that's using SharePoint alongside Dynamics, says Bentley. For example, he sees successful access to internal information - including auto-classification and management ...