Martin Hardy, Director of Solutions and Technology

M-Hardy-smNow that the fanfare is over and SharePoint 2013 is several months old, what are people saying  about it? What are the new and exciting features that are going to make companies want to invest  in SharePoint technologies or upgrade their current SharePoint system?

WELL, SOME OF THE TOP DRIVERS WE’VE HEARD INCLUDE:

  • Integration of the FAST Search feature – The amount of features depends on the type of license purchased, but even with the Standard CAL there is more bang for the buck.
  • Branding or designing your site – SharePoint 2013 brings ease of use and simplicity to what was a complex and potentially confusing process.
  • Enhanced mobile capabilities – SharePoint 2013 provides a variety of views based on the user’s mobile device, with separate views for Windows phones, Windows, iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
  • Improved business intelligence – SharePoint 2010 introduced business intelligence functionality. SharePoint 2013 builds on that foundation via PowerPivot, PerformancePoint Services and Dashboard Designer.

SO IS NOW THE TIME TO UPGRADE? WELL, PERHAPS NOT QUITE YET, BUT VERY SOON.

When SharePoint was first released, DocPoint Solutions advised customers to wait until the release of the first service pack. Our advice on SharePoint 2013 is no different. Why? It allows early adopters to find and report the inevitable system bugs and gives Microsoft time to expound on how new features should be used.

For example, consider the integration of Yammer into SharePoint 2013. Microsoft has spent the past 6 years convincing us that MySite is the key to SharePoint’s social media aspects. Yammer is bigger, better and much more attractive, so how can MySite and Yammer coexist? The answer is not yet clear, but as adoption grows Microsoft will need to address it.

SharePoint 2013 promises a lot and DocPoint Solutions believes that it will prove to be even more popular than SharePoint 2010. Don’t rush into an upgrade just yet, though. When you do, give DocPoint Solutions a call.