Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Microsoft: SharePoint is 'viral,' the real Facebook for the enterprise

By | September 14, 2011, 1:47pm PDT

Summary: Microsoft’s Kevin Turner on SharePoint: “It’s viral in most companies. It’s become the Facebook for the enterprise.”

Microsoft’s Kevin Turner was channeling Salesforce.com chief Marc Benioff for a few minutes at the company’s financial analyst meeting.

Turner, operating chief for Microsoft, was walking analysts through Microsoft’s key businesses. After all, the business software unit is thriving. After a rundown of successes, Turner broke out the SharePoint love.

Also: Microsoft Analyst Meeting: Live from Build

He said:

SharePoint is the fastest selling commercial business product of all time in the history of Microsoft. Fastest to a billion dollars. It’s viral in most companies. It’s become the Facebook for the enterprise.

And it’s absolutely got tremendous momentum that pulls a lot of the Microsoft suite with it.

If you’ve been following any of the collaboration and social enterprise companies, SharePoint is a common punching bag. Meanwhile, Benioff is looking to make Chatter the social enterprise standard.

Who knew everyone was dying to be the Facebook of the enterprise?

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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Microsoft: SharePoint is 'viral,' the real Facebook for the enterprise
Gritztastic 15th Sep
After prepping for a second 'MySite' launch on Sharepoint (the first launch was 2008 and I think maybe 1% of our company actually logged in a second time), it looks like Facebook circa 1995.
ITT: Company reps misunderstanding what viral means.
@Aerowind

sooo what does "viral" mean? I sure home you don't pull up a wiki article.
@blazing_smiley_face Viral is viral because it spreads like a virus. That is, someone sees it, they show it to someone else, who shows it to someone else, etc.

I honestly doubt Corporations are so astounded at how good Sharepoint is that they go tell their competitors how much money it can make them.
0 Votes
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I agree with Turner
facebook@... 14th Sep
There is an entire ecosystem built around SharePoint. To imagine the scale, there are more Sharepoint users than Linkedin and Google+ users. It is a huge investment in social collaboration.
0 Votes
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BS!
The Linux Geek 14th Sep
@facebook@...
I have yet to meet a sharepoint user.
@The Linux Geek That is one of the hazards of living in your parents basements.
@The Linux Geek
WHAT?!!! I'M A consultant with a fortune 500, I move from project to project on different clients, think companies like Shell and Exxon and every single one of those companies probably has close to 200 to 300 deployments of SharePoint, you know why? Microsoft Office integration, even information about Linux servers and tech arch is stored on MS SharePoint...
@facebook@... It isn't "social collaboration". Social collaboration is when the Amish have a barn raising. Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn users aren't working towards some common goal. It's just a bunch of people saying "look at me!" and competing for friends/followers/hits/views/attention. Social competition is the apt description.
@jgm@... Then, imagine SharePoint as the equivalent of an Amish barn raising.
If anyone is looking for work this is a great field to be in right now, look up SharePoint administrator... lots of hiring going on...
@Hasam1991
+1. Totally agree to that. Learn SharePoint and BizTalk, you are secured.
0 Votes
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No, it's anal!
Pu-239 14th Sep
Unfortunately I have to use Sharepoint and I can tell you it's ANAL!!!
0 Votes
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Funny how Microsoft was trying to use "viral" like a bad word when describing an open-source licence like the GPL, yet here it is suddenly trying to use it as a positive marketing term.

PR backfire, much?
After prepping for a second 'MySite' launch on Sharepoint (the first launch was 2008 and I think maybe 1% of our company actually logged in a second time), it looks like Facebook circa 1995.

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