Microsoft SharePoint remains 'underused' in spite of improvements

SharePoint continues to be an "underused" piece of software, despite Microsoft adding new features in hopes to increase the uptake.

These are the results of a new survey by independent information management analysts, AIIM.

The company polled 274 respondents, asking if they’re aware of what SharePoint has to offer. Less than half (43 percent) said they were "somewhat aware", while 29 percent said they had "no awareness at all".

SharePoint is a piece of software enabling its users to collaborate on files, storing and synchronising group work files.

Yet the report, entitled "The Impact of SharePoint -- 2016", states that the software could have a much larger userbase. Currently, it has some 200 million users worldwide.

"Using SharePoint has always meant a change in the way we work, and given that SharePoint has been with us for many years, it is disheartening to find that many organizations are still saying that their SharePoint project has stalled or failed due to either inadequate user training (67 percent of respondents) or bad user experience (66 percent of respondents)", says Bob Larrivee, vice president and chief analyst, AIIM.

A quarter (26 percent) say they plan to spend more on SharePoint add-ons, and another 27 percent say they’ll spend more to integrate with "other repositories".

"This should be reassuring for Microsoft and we hope SharePoint can further empower people and organizations", concludes Larrivee. "It is a platform that can offer a lot to any organization and the people that work within it. The right training and user support is essential for it to deliver even more value than it is now".

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