SharePoint is dead – long live SharePoint

Christian Buckley (MVP) together with others MVPs from the SharePoint and Office365 community joined the #CollabTalk tweetjam on December 30.

The focus was to discuss the future of SharePoint. Developers from the Microsoft product group also joined the jam.

Focus questions of the SharePoint #CollabTalk tweetjam

You find my personal summary of the tweets in italic.

1. Is SharePoint still relevant?
   Summary: Yes, SharePoint as a technology is still relevant, but in the future it will be more part of an overall collaboration story (Office365) for Microsoft. The brand “SharePoint” will become less important.
2. How important is SharePoint’s hybrid support and on prem roadmap to your customers?
   Summary: Hybrid support for SharePoint is important to the customers. Microsoft needs to be much more transparent about vision, roadmap and functionalities for hybrid scenarios.
3. What kind of impact is Office365 having on you and your customers?
   Summary: Customers take Office365 into consideration. Exchange and Lync are currently more relevant (easier to implement) than SharePoint. Adaption / deployment rates are still low, not only in Europe. Security is still an issue. Move to Office365 will happen faster in SMB than in larger Enterprises.
4. What does the removal of Office365 features mean for the future?
   Summary: The feature reduction is not going over well. Transparency and communication of the roadmap needs to be much better.
5. What 3 features (available or forthcoming) will have the biggest impact on SharePoint in 2015?
   Summary (no clear favorites): Azure AD Integration, better mobile UI and hybrid support, Office 365 API, One Drive for Business, just to name a few ….
6. What are your predictions for SharePoint as a platform in 2015 and beyond?
   Summary: SharePoint (may be within Office365) will become more and more the integration platform for Enterprise business and productivity.
7. If you could give one piece of advice to Microsoft re: SharePoint, what would it be?
   Summary: Better roadmap and communication for new features. and my favorite tweet: “While you push innovators to cloud, devices + services, don’t forget mainstream customers who got you here” via @resing

Read the whole summary with the tweets at https://storify.com/buckleyplanet/predictions-for-sharepoint-and-office-365-in-2015