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How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
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One of the most important features of SharePoint 2007 is document management. I decided to review SharePoint in terms of features that a document management solution should have. Definition on DMS can be found here (I just adapted this definition with few things mentioned in April 2007 edition of Directions on Microsoft).

Feature SharePoint Score
Metadata star_five.gif
Very strong, especially when used with Office 2003/2007 documents.
Integration star_three.gif
Integration is present, but only with Microsoft tools. Needs improvement.
Capture star_one.gif
There is no built-in functionality to capture paper documents.
Indexing star_five.gif
Very strong. Indexing for non MS formats (like PDF) and other content sources is also available.
Storage star_three.gif
SharePoint and SQL Server 2005 act as very stabile storage platform. Document migration and retention policies be introduced in SharePoint 2007 but these still need improvements. 3rd party tools are required for serious document archiving.
Retrieval star_three_half.gif
Search and filtering technologies have been improved in new version but search capabilities are far from ideal.
Security star_three.gif
Item level security is available, but product lacks abilities to set permissions on file type and reports on permissions already set.
Workflow star_four.gif
Workflow capabilities have been improved, but managing complex workflows cannot be done without 3rd party products.
Collaboration star_four.gif
Strong for users using Internet Explorer. It still needs to be improved for Firefox users.
Versioning star_four_half.gif
Strong. It misses some advanced versioning rules.
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Posted 10-09-2007 9:18 PM by toni

Comments

Luis Du Solier G. wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 10-09-2007 4:33 PM

Hi if you said that there's no biult-in functionality to capture papers why you rate it 5?And in versioning ahy you said 4.5?

toni wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 10-09-2007 4:53 PM

I pasted wrong image for Capture. :(

Versioning is great but sometimes is a bit hard to configure it in complex implementations: you cannot store minor versions for previous major versions, you cannot limit versions by document size etc.

Jeremy Thake wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 10-09-2007 8:55 PM

Just out of interest, where it doesn't mean that 5 stars, what would you like to see in the product?

For example, integration - because you can navigate to online document libraries via the Windows File system, any applicaiton in Windows can access this and save to these libraries. Were you referring to have further integration with metadata in other applications?

Very good overview for Document Management though, just interested in how you thought through these ratings.

Hassan wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 10-10-2007 7:14 AM

Good overview, but yeah how did you came to this conclusion, it would be a good idea if we could know what we would want more in SharePoint's Document Management features.

Hassan

Mirrored Blogs wrote How good is SharePoint v3 as a Document Management System
on 10-10-2007 8:03 AM

This post is a follow-up to a blog post by a fellow blogger. In that post few variables had been taken

SBC wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 10-10-2007 11:09 AM

Is this for WSSv3 or MOSS 2k7?

Review of SharePoint features relevant to document management : End User SharePoint wrote Review of SharePoint features relevant to document management : End User SharePoint
on 10-10-2007 7:38 PM

Pingback from  Review of SharePoint features relevant to document management : End User SharePoint

Review of SharePoint features relevant to document management : End User SharePoint wrote Review of SharePoint features relevant to document management : End User SharePoint
on 10-10-2007 11:53 PM

Pingback from  Review of SharePoint features relevant to document management : End User SharePoint

toni wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 10-11-2007 2:45 PM

@Jeremy & Hasan: I will post additional post with "missing features"

@SBC: This is for MOSS 2007. But since MOSS is built on WSS; I would say that grades for Metadata, Storage, Security, Workflow, Collaboration and Versioning are same for MOSS and WSS.

Rehman Gul wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 11-27-2007 3:01 PM

Storage at 3 is a bit strict on the marking side...

I think it should be rated around 4 and 4.5....

http://rehmangul.wordpress.com

MaryHS wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 02-18-2008 8:11 PM

By 'integration - MS Tools only' do you mean that there's still no ability to add comments to PDFs that are on a document library?

toni wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 02-19-2008 11:23 AM

@MaryHS: You can, but only MS tools will allow you to use 100% potential of SharePoint like tagging documents from your client, working with documents stored to SharePoint directly etc.

When working with other files like PDFs all basic functionalities will work, but you advanced will not.

Tom Bizannes wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 06-26-2008 2:51 AM

Retrieval? Security?

What about Navigation and Ease of setting Security.

You need a third party tool like WISDOM DMF to make navigating and retrieving easy or to WISDOM DMF Professional to make setting document level permissions a snap and working with PDF files a breeze.

www.macroview.com.au/WisdomProducts.htm

Steve wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 09-16-2008 8:09 AM
Greg wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 12-09-2008 10:31 PM

It's not Linux. Enough said!

What would you use to run your business?

Ryback wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 12-13-2008 1:14 AM

I was looking for SP as DM. I was also Comparing IBM, Open Text .. etc, who are leaders in DM. The functionalities of SP is a basic in nature. Which cannot be called a DM, which can still called a collabration tool.

Secondly, Open Text & IBM is having the functionalities Email Archiving which really strong. I dont see that in SP.

Tom Bizannes wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 01-29-2009 3:52 PM

Email Management and Archiving are easily achieved with WISDOM Message for SharePoint....

One tool to do emails and your documents

stefan demetz wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 05-04-2009 6:45 AM

Excellent overview, will use it as slide in my next Sharepoint event

Kashif Saleem wrote re: How good is SharePoint as Document Management System?
on 06-03-2009 9:27 PM

Nice post, however will be good to see a comparison of other DMS available in the market. I am working on compiling features and cost of different DMS available in the market.

This will give SharePoint users and developers a better view of competition in the market place.

www.sharepointperth.com

Kashif

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