Question on MS SharePoint

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Posted by Ken
Aug 17, 2015 at 03:43 PM

We have been slowly moving to SharePoint online at work, albeit to a highly restricted environment as they want a somewhat “uniform” environment across departments. And, we have been having basic train on SharePoint over the past month or two, but mostly focusing on the basics. In a recent demonstration, it became clear to me that my manager’s other work unit was initially using a spread sheet to track projects as they moved from stage to stage (and employee to employee) in a review/approval process. I believe they may have recently converted this spreadsheet to a SharePoint list, but that still seemed somewhat short of what so many software companies are offering teams that do this type of work. And then I began to wonder, does SharePoint offer a similar module that allows items/tasks to be easily assigned and tracked so progress can easily be followed for a number of items, or did Microsoft completely miss the market for this type of software? Programs like Asana, Trello, and their many competitors seems to be fighting for this market, and it seems funny that Microsoft does not really seem to have a horse in this race. Any thoughts or clarification would be greatly appreciated?

—Ken

Posted by Franz Grieser
Aug 17, 2015 at 03:53 PM

Hi Ken.

Well, I am not a Sharepoint expert. But the last time I took a look at Sharepoint (December 2014), it did not have what you describe:

...“does SharePoint offer a similar module that allows items/tasks to be easily assigned and tracked so progress can easily be followed for a number of items, or did Microsoft completely miss the market for this type of software? Programs like Asana, Trello, and their many competitors seems to be fighting for this market, and it seems funny that Microsoft does not really seem to have a horse in this race.”

I guess that is the reason why they bought Wunderlist - to “webify” MS Project and make it easier to use.

Posted by Ken
Aug 17, 2015 at 04:47 PM

Franz Grieser wrote:
>I guess that is the reason why they bought Wunderlist - to “webify” MS
>Project and make it easier to use.

I am not sure that Wunderlist will fully get them into the game, but it is probably a good start. I tried the program when it first came out for the iPad and never used it because it seemed quite lacking in comparison to many other programs. I see that it has come a long ways since then, so I am hoping that they can work with it and possibly leverage off of their existing Office products as well. Microsoft today reminds me a lot of companies like IBM and Xerox in the 60’s and 70’s. They often seem to have an excess of talent and good ideas or products that are often never implemented, or if they are, only in a half-hearted manner. It takes a lot of resources to be able to let that much brain power and that many innovative ideas slip through the cracks without it greatly impacting the bottom line.

—Ken

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