Ok, I admit it, I think Sharepoint is a really great product. It can help in so many business areas or be expanded to produce some really great applications. One of the biggest problems I find is that I.T. themselves often don't understand how useful it is so don't generally put it forward as a solution to business. The irony is, Sharepoint within an IT department is a god-send, and once you start to use it and see its benefits then it can really help you solve your business needs.

It seems to be a strange thing that I.T. departments are often the worst places for adopting technology...go figure ?

Let me give an example. I did some work recenlty in a team that developed Workflow and document management solutions for business. And often complained that business were not using their software to its true potential. Yet the same people complaining about business were managing their own processes using whiteboards and e-mails without ever thinking about using their own software ?

Ok, back to Sharepoint. Right, how many of you out there find the following familiar : During a project, all informtion is stored on a network drive in a complex directory structure. Project issues and tracking is done via a shared spreadsheet buried in a directory somewhere. The project plans are stored on the PM's own area who spend half their day telling people what tasks they should be doing and running round with printouts checking progress with the team.

Right same scenario but after installing sharepoint and Project Server :  An MS Project team site is set up with several documentation libraries to store project information (which is all versioned, change controlled and searcheable). The issues and activities logs (Sharepoint lists) are visible to all team member with individual alerts available. The Project plan is managed by the PM but stored in Sharepoint using a central resource pool (so that a developer can work on multiple projects without 2 PM'sgetting into a fistfight), once in Sharepoint, each user will see their own task list (derivable from all plans to which they are allocate), and they can send online updates of progress, whcih can automatically keep the plans updated with reality (you can enforce PM approval here).

So, for little overhead you now have a streamlined IT process with minimal process overhead, and your managers can get on with managing rather than admin. Plus, you now understand how Sharepoint works and can start to find benefits elsewhere in your organisation.

Win Win scenario.