What once was clear in the world of SharePoint solutions is no longer so. Whereas before SharePoint could only really be sold as a collaborative solution (come on, it never was a real Document Management solution), now it can be sold as a complete Business Intelligence, Electronic Content Management, Document Management, Records Management and Web Content Management solution(s), not to mention more.
So where does that leave a us poor SharePoint H@cks working for companies that offer all of these solutions but utilize different products? Once we could say "I am a SharePoint / Collaboration specialist" now we have to rethink this. In my mind and current experience, SharePoint 2007 can be broken up into 3 distinct categories:
- Business Intelligence (think KPI, BSM integration)
- Knowledge and Collaboration (think EPM integration, CMS etc)
- Content Management (include ECM, Document Management and extranets)
I am sure many will disagree, but I believe that we will now need to decide what 2 of the 3 area's we need to focus on, and the 1 we need to specialise on, no one can truly say that they are an expert on EVERYTHING because the 3 areas require different ways of thinking.
Me? I think I am going the "Knowledge and Collaboration" way with a little "Content Management" chucked in for good measure.
Regards,
bob-the-builder (and yes, i have just rebuilt my machine)