SharePoint Tip of the Month

February 2011: SharePoint 2010 Migration Trends

Last month we discussed some of the issues clients face when considering upgrading to SharePoint 2010. We detailed factors to consider when migrating and reviewed how the complexity of your existing environment determines the migration effort.

So this begged the question: how many companies are actually planning to upgrade or move to SharePoint 2010 this year and why? As Atlanta’s SharePoint experts, we’d like to broaden our knowledge base and inquire about your current or planned move or upgrade. We ask your assistance by participating in a quick on-line survey about your plans.

Some national studies indicate that there is a fivefold increase in companies planning to move to SharePoint 2010. Our early evaluation of Atlanta-based companies planning to move to SharePoint 2010 this year reveals that two thirds are migrating from SharePoint 2007 and a fourth are migrating from WSS. For one out of eight companies, SharePoint 2010 is their first implementation of SharePoint.

Companies that previously deployed true business solutions and workflow enabled processes are choosing to upgrade their environment, but companies with a previously ill-planned or experimental implementation “gone wild” are opting to re-deploy SharePoint 2010 in a more well thought out process this time around.

Interestingly, this need for a better-structured and well-planned deployment of the new environment in order to apply SharePoint’s capabilities to add real business value is leading nearly half of the organizations we evaluated to decide to re-deploy instead of upgrade.

Why are companies excited about SharePoint 2010?

A recent survey from another provider found companies are increasingly looking to SharePoint for enabling improved business processes through managing document workflows.

This has been our experience as well. We see companies moving to “true business solutions” rather than just collaboration. The dramatic increase in upgrades to SharePoint 2010 mirrors Gartner’s repeated report of the past several years that CIOs number one priority is improving business processes.

In order to obtain a more comprehensive view of the local market, we invite you to participate in our own survey querying when, how and why companies plan to migrate or move to SharePoint 2010 this year. Please help us understand your motivation for moving to SharePoint 2010, what key benefits you hope to capture as well as risks you anticipate. The information from the survey will help us focus on key concerns. We will also publish the results on our website and in a future Tip of the Month.

This month’s tip contributed By Hank Edwards, Abel Solutions SharePoint Strategy Consultant