No one really knows what SharePoint 15 or (SharePoint 2013) is going to look like, how it will function, or indeed if it will even appear in 2013. Well, no one outside of Microsoft. Oh and a few people with very strict NDAs. And all those guys on the early access program. Erm..
But basically no one really knows much about the direction Microsoft might choose to take. That doesn’t stop a little bit of speculation though. So what are the 3 biggest lessons SharePoint 15 can learn from rival products? Let’s have a look.
1. Better integration with external (social) platforms
SharePoint 2010 lets me pull in data from external systems, using a number of methods. I can use external lists, specific webparts, or custom code if I have to. But SP2013 really needs to take a lead from the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and improve how it talks to other platforms. Twitter has lead the way here, and now integrates into a wide number of other sites and applications (even your iPhone). Facebook is trying, and seeing considerable success, to make itself the defacto authentication method on the web.
SharePoint MySites are a prime area for improvement here. I don’t want to post an update, I’ve already done it on Twitter. Why can’t it be pulled through automatically? All my skills and biography information can be found on LinkedIn, why can’t I select parts of that to populate my MySite with? There is so much potential in this area that is simply not being exploited.
2. Dropbox style document management
SharePoint 2010 is a very good document management system. It is a core strength of the product. But in all my years, I’ve never seen consistent use of document libraries mapped to network drives. Getting documents into SharePoint is key to its success as a DMS. Mapped drives make it easy, but it always seems like a big deal to sort out.
SharePoint 15 should come with Dropbox style apps for a whole host of platforms (At least Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android). Each app installs on the appropriate platform and connects to a SharePoint implementation. The user gets to select the relevant sites and document libraries (SharePoint permissions allowing of course) and these are created as folders on their file system. Any documents dropped in the folder is automatically synced to the relevant library in SharePoint. This makes files easy to add in the first place, available across different devices, and also available offline. What’s not to like?
3. Better email integration
A client I have recently worked with would like their Outlook Inbox to ‘sync’ with a SharePoint library. There are a number of ways of doing something close to this, but nothing really jumps out as the perfect solution.
Many social and enterprise platforms are now include their own ‘internal’ messaging systems. Facebook is a notable example. It is not uncommon for its (albeit generally younger) users to give up on email altogether and stay inside Facebook to send messages. Huddle has recently added a new feature in this area, though they are going in a different direction. They are allowing users of Zimbra to connect directly to Huddle from within their email client. If a user gets an email from Huddle they can interact with Huddle functionality directly from the email. Contacts and content can also easily be moved from Zimbra to Huddle.
SharePoint 2013 needs to do something similar with Outlook and Exchange. There is already a degree of integration but it doesn’t go far enough. Why not build a version of Outlook webmail directly into SharePoint 2013? Let me manage and deal with my email as though it were an extension of SharePoint itself. Make it a part of my MySite and let me file content directly into libraries and lists. SharePoint is often trumpeted as the centre of ‘digital working’ (I’ve done it myself). For this to be true, email needs to come right into the centre. After all, despite some over excited tech journalists, email is not going anywhere for a long while yet – if ever.
