A recently released market study conducted by Information Architected (on behalf of AIIM and Oracle), found that most organizations have allowed SharePoint installations to run away from them.

•    40% of the organizations that stopped using SharePoint did so for security/control issues
•    40% did not know the size of their SharePoint deployment

“Many organizations don’t know how many documents they have in SharePoint, and do not know the number of sites deployed, reflective of the general unmanaged nature of SharePoint deployments,” commented Carl Frappaolo, Information Architected co-founder and principal, and author of the study.

•    60% of survey respondents found SharePoint records management to be poor-fair
•    36% found content security to be poor-fair
•    Only 22% currently use SharePoint outside the firewall; 53% say lack of security is the reason why
•    50% say customized (read integration of security and governance) solutions require more effort than expected

To download the full report with over 20 charts and 25 pages of observations and commentary go to: www.informationarchitected.com/moss09wp

“The individual facts uncovered in the survey are interesting,” said Frappaolo, “but its when you look at them collectively that the real story emerges. SharePoint is simple to implement initially, but that does not mean that good business governance and planning are not needed. SharePoint does not obviate the need for security and control, it heightens it.  Unfortunately most of those polled do not realize this until it is too late.”

Attendees to a recent webinar during which the survey findings were discussed were quick to ask questions regarding the need for governance, information architecture and strategy planning.  The questions and answers from that webinar are posted to the Information Architected blog.

Information Architected provides a comprehensive methodology for SharePoint optimization and governance for this very reason.

About the Survey

This Information Architected survey was conducted during November 2008.  A total of 616 end users participated in the survey. There was an almost even split between medium and large organizations; IT staff and business users.

About Information Architected (www.informationarchitected.com )
Information Architected is a consultancy focused on the intelligent use of content, knowledge and processes to drive innovation and thrive in a digital world.  It provides objective user and business needs assessments, strategy and solution design and training organizations focused on content, process, knowledge and innovation management for the global 5000.

Primary Contact:
Carl Frappaolo
Principal and Co-founder
Phone: 617-933-2584
E-mail: cf[at]InformationArchitected[dot]com