Why will my users care about upgrading to SharePoint 2010?

SharePoint Expert Blog

Keith Smith

Community Topic(s): SharePoint

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By Keith Smith, Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton

November 11, 2010 - 12:25 AM

I thought I would discuss some of the key reasons I see for upgrading to SharePoint 2010.  For now, I’m going to stay away from the behind the scenes items such as scalability and focus more on the end user perspective. 

  1. All about the metadata – This is a bit of a passion of mine.  I’ll go into more detail here in a later post.  From managed terms and keywords to the term store and tagging, the features are intuitive, simpler to manage and easier to re-use.  For now, I’ll just say that your users will actually want to use the metadata and taxonomy features in 2010. 
  2. Where did my file go – A big difference between prior versions of SharePoint and many of its competitors was the concept of persistent links.  Renaming or moving a file in 2007 would instantly break all links pointing to it.  The new persistent object ids allow for a single link to access the item no matter where it is moved or how its name changes over time
  3. Fewer clicks to edit publishing content – While this isn’t really a specific feature, I have observed that experienced SharePoint users maintaining publishing sites are immediately drawn to the simplicity of “Edit Page”.   
  4. What about my photos and videos? – Out of the box digital asset management is finally here.  A new library is available in SharePoint Server 2010 which allows users to manage and share digital assets like video, audio, pictures, and other rich media files.
  5. The ever-present ribbon – Love it or hate it, the office ribbon is here to stay.  Users will appreciate the interface similarities with the Office products they use every day. 
  6. Social Media – Microsoft has filled the social media gap in SharePoint with 2010.  Some of the new features include tags, “I like it”, activity feeds and ratings
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Comments

Veronique Palmer

Submitted by Veronique Palmer November 11, 2010 - 4:33 PM

Hi Keith,

On point 1 - I am pleased to find someone passionate about the metadata for sure, but while users might want to use the Managed Metadata Service, it's going to be a governance nightmare for most organisations. Few have the resources to build and manage it.

Point 3 - the key words here being "experienced users" and "publishing sites". For average business users having to edit site pages on team sites, this is not going to be so easy. It's a dead awful editing tool. I'm personally very disappointed with the way that was thrown together with no thought to end users.

I do agree with you on the rest though.
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Tom Resing

Submitted by Tom Resing November 15, 2010 - 11:20 AM

Great take on upgrades. End users drive the upgrade cycle. The behind the scenes improvements will make it easier for IT Pro's and devs to make the base, but the big news is the end user stuff.
One click to edit is a huge win!
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