Microsoft’s SharePoint Server service is being adopted by organizations, a recent survey from AIIM found. However, despite that positive result, the survey found SharePoint has some engagement issues. Indeed, the content and document management system remains a hard sell for employees who are not using it.
The survey was conducted amongst 274 of AIIM’s members. The nonprofit is a noted trade association that is an authority in IT, trade, and enterprise models. In a report titled “Impact of SharePoint” (available here through registration), AIIM shows that companies are embracing Microsoft’s service.
Since last year there has been a small rise in the number of organizations using SharePoint. However, 58% say that convincing employees to use the software is a challenge. Employees are already ingrained into their own file sharing apps that they use daily. 43% say convincing employees to change to SharePoint is difficult.
“I’ve heard personally from folks that have said senior management decided to deploy SharePoint because it’s SharePoint but they have no clear understanding of what it’s supposed to do,” said Bob Larrivee, vice president and chief analyst of AIIM. “Change management is still a big issue when it comes to SharePoint.”
SharePoint Adoption
SharePoint Online is becoming a popular choice, but only in a hybrid system. 23% of organizations are mixing the online service with their own on-premises tools to maintain secure data. However, 17% say they will make a complete shift to SharePoint Online at some point.
Microsoft rolled out the final end user version of SharePoint Server 2016 in May. It seems the company has not engaged businesses about the new features. Only 23% of those asked were aware of the new features included in the latest release.
Legacy builds remain popular, especially since Microsoft maintains support for SharePoint 2010 and 2013. 41% of all people using the service are on the 2013 release. The goal for Microsoft is to get those users to upgrade to SharePoint Server 2016. However, only 17% are willing to take the financial outlay and upgrade.
They are not unconvinced.I know, I’ve trained hundreds of them over the years. They are typically either clueless, or lazy. Fixated in their routines.