Following his own Opening Address, Transform Your Enterprise with SharePoint, Dux Raymond Sy introduced the first of two Keynote Presentations this morning at SHARE. Delivering the first keynote, Productivity Delivered, was Microsoft Senior Product Manager for SharePoint, Gideon Bibliowicz. Despite SharePoint's being the fastest growing product in Microsoft history, with more than 125 million licenses sold to date, Gideon said that there are "so many users out there that own it, but don't do enough with it." Based on a recent survey, Gideon explained that, at 67%, "over two thirds" of enterprise customers have deployed SharePoint throughout their entire organization, which represents a tremendous opportunity for business users.
Gideon shared that Microsoft's guiding principles for SharePoint from the outset have been to redefine collaboration, unleash the ecosystem, and build a world-class system. "The origin of SharePoint was the notion that portals, for example, don't have to be separate from your content management system," Gideon said, going on to say that he thinks the "essence for SharePoint's success is … the ability to redefine collaboration."
Speaking of Microsoft's global partner ecosystem, Gideon said that, "Part of the magic of SharePoint is really letting [Microsoft's SharePoint partners] be successful," and went on to say that "unleashing the ecosystem is a huge part of SharePoint's success." With a partner network that includes corporate developers, software vendors, systems integrators, and more, Gideon recognized that "the knowledge is out there, the talent is out there," and that leveraging the partner ecosystem will help SharePoint customers attain SharePoint success.
Addressing SharePoint as a world-class platform, Gideon said that the approach of the SharePoint team has always been "Don't take it one step further, but take it a few steps further" by including a self-serve user experience, a social fabric ("we want SharePoint to work more and more with you than to work for you … social is about making those features and capabilities work where it makes sense – as a business solution"), and embracing customers and partners. Collaboration isn't just internal, and as collaborating with external customers and partners increases as a business need, SharePoint is evolving with the changing needs of the enterprise.
Touching on the notion of the consumerization of IT, Gideon pointed out that today, "We bring devices from our personal life and we expect them to work in our workplace … and younger people, that's how they expect to collaborate." As such, Microsoft aims to continue delivering productivity gains through social functionality in SharePoint.
In conclusion, Gideon called on SHARE attendees to join the global SharePoint community. Saying that "We're seeing that business decision-makers are becoming more and more influential" in SharePoint decisions, Gideon encouraged participation in the larger SharePoint community to help attendees get the most out of the platform.
