Ubiquitous SharePoint

There’s no getting around it.

With the number of seats estimated to be 130 million by the end of the year, SharePoint is the most dominant and versatile business software platform, ever. And, as SharePoint 2010 gains more traction, that number will only keep growing.

The SharePoint ecosystem continues to expand, as does the industry surrounding it, which is giving rise to an ever-increasing number of partners, developers, integrators, consultants and so on.

No one can argue SharePoint’s pervasiveness or value, but only recently has an accurate survey been published that explains precisely how, in its many forms, it is being deployed—and how users are finding the experience. But, thanks to Global 360, we finally do have solid usage data. In late September, the well-respected business process management provider released an independent survey How are Businesses Using Microsoft SharePoint in the Enterprise? Market Survey 2010. Participating in the survey were 886 people familiar with SharePoint from multiple industries worldwide.

While the vast majority of survey respondents (90 percent) currently use SharePoint, the survey found the targeted adoption rate should reach 97 percent of organizations. Two-thirds of the respondents answered that they had deployed SharePoint “enterprisewide,” pointing to its wide acceptance beyond ad hoc departmental deployments and into the masses of business users.

For anyone with even a passing interest in SharePoint, the survey is available for free download here: global360.com/download/sharepoint-survey.

Further, if you’re looking to gain deep and unbiased insight into SharePoint—the good, the bad and the ugly, you owe it to yourself to attend the SharePoint Symposium, which will take place in Washington, D.C., Nov. 17 and 18. You’ll find more information about the event at sharepointsymposium.com/2010.