Axceler Survey Finds Microsoft SharePoint Governance Important To Majority, Yet Most Organizations Unprepared
Respondents Consider SharePoint a Strategic Enterprise Platform, But Development of Plans, Roles and Procedures Are Just Beginning or Non-Existent
According to the initial results of a Microsoft SharePoint governance survey commissioned by Axceler, the leader in SharePoint governance, administration and migration solutions, more than two-thirds of the respondents consider SharePoint governance to be extremely or very important to their organizations. Yet nearly half of those same respondents confirmed that SharePoint governance policies do not exist or are undefined.
The survey launched Axceler's initiative to help the SharePoint community better understand the state of SharePoint governance today. The initiative helps keep Axceler on the cutting edge of SharePoint best practices by understanding constantly shifting priorities in the community. Survey results and analysis will help customers and the community to better align SharePoint planning to business results, thereby improving SharePoint's overall return on investment.
A total of 265 participants, three-fourths of whom are SharePoint administrators or managers, responded to the first part of the survey. They represent 34 diverse industries, and just over 60 percent of the respondents work for organizations with more than one thousand employees.
Nearly 65 percent of the respondents consider SharePoint a "strategic enterprise platform," while a strong majority said governance is important or extremely important in their 2012 SharePoint planning. Despite those responses, the survey also found that more than half of the organizations have just started their governance planning efforts, or have not begun them at all. The complete results of the first part of the Axceler survey are available at: http://info.axceler.com/governance-survey-phase-one.
"This SharePoint governance community survey is just one of many aspects of our governance initiative in 2012," noted Christian Buckley, Director of Product Evangelism at Axceler. "We also recently sponsored the IDM Governance Survey in Australia, and while in the region to participate in the Australia SharePoint Conference, we were able to facilitate a roundtable event on SharePoint governance at Microsoft's Perth offices with partners and customers, as well as present to the Perth SharePoint User Group on governance best practices.
"What we heard in Australia is consistent with what we're hearing globally: the management of SharePoint, particularly governance policies, has become a top priority for organizations now relying on SharePoint to work smarter and gain competitive advantage. But we are not surprised that many organizations have yet to set their governance policies, or determine how they will be managed. Planning generally takes a back seat to getting SharePoint deployed and functioning, and governance is too often viewed as a planning luxury. Companies don't think about it until they experience pain."
The second part of Axceler's four-part SharePoint governance survey, seeking to understand how companies define the roles and priorities of those involved in SharePoint governance, is now available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/govsurvey2.
SharePoint governance can be broadly defined as a set of guidelines for how SharePoint will be used in an organization. Proper SharePoint governance can help clarify responsibilities and access levels to various members of an organization to ensure SharePoint runs smoothly. It may address individual and group roles and responsibilities, and policies around hardware, storage, operations, locations, application use, branding, configuration, navigation, training and support.
About Axceler
Axceler solutions enable enterprises to simplify, optimize and secure their collaborative platforms. Today, Axceler is a leader in managing SharePoint governance, security, reporting and analysis. Among its numerous Microsoft SharePoint solutions, Axceler offers award-winning ControlPoint for administration and Davinci Migrator and FileLoader for migration. In 2011, ControlPoint won the Best of Connections Award, the Gold Editors' Best Award and the Bronze Community Choice Award in the SharePoint category from the readers and editors of Windows IT Pro. More than 2,000 organizations worldwide are using Axceler products to control their SharePoint environments. Headquartered in Woburn, MA, USA, Axceler maintains offices in Seattle, Los Angeles, London and Sydney. For more information, visit http://www.axceler.com.
SOURCE: Axceler solutions