AIIM research shows SharePoint for Content Management adoption is top strategic priority for many, yet less than 30% are truly aware of what SharePoint 2016 offers

SharePoint 2016 has the potential to continue to be an underused piece of software for many enterprises

Surprisingly, organisations continue to invest in software they fail to fully leverage

Silver Spring, Md., August 02, 2016 – With Microsoft hoping that the new release of SharePoint 2016 will remedy SharePoint usage issues by adding more features, new research by independent information management analysts, AIIM, reveal that only 43% of respondents are somewhat aware of what SharePoint 2016 offers, and 29% indicate they have no awareness at all.

With more than 200 million SharePoint users worldwide according to Microsoft, the software enables users to collaborate on files, storing and synchronising group work files, and on document management. Yet, the AIIM study ‘The Impact of SharePoint – 2016’ – completed by 274 respondents, reveals that “SharePoint 2016 has the potential to continue to be an underused piece of software for many enterprises”, warned Bob Larrivee, Vice President and Chief Analyst, AIIM.

“Using SharePoint has always meant a change in the way we work, and given that SharePoint has been with us for many years, it is disheartening to find that many organisations are still saying that their SharePoint project has stalled or failed due to either inadequate user training (67% of respondents) or bad user experience (66% of respondents),” continued Larrivee.

Yet on the flip side, 26% of respondents indicated that they plan to increase spending on SharePoint add-on products, with a further 27% looking to increase spending to integrate with other repositories, so it is clear that SharePoint is delivering value for some organisations.

For those who are planning for SharePoint 2016, indications are that they see this as following the SharePoint upgrade path (14%) or the Microsoft roadmap (11%) with 15% seeing a move to SharePoint 2016 as part of their strategic platform vision in building their information management ecosystem.

Microsoft’s direction for SharePoint 2016 is supported by market trends and does appear to be the platform of choice for ECM solutions, with 35% of AIIM’s respondents indicating that SharePoint adoption as the primary ECM system is a top priority.

Internal training on SharePoint is top a priority for 58% of respondents while 50% plan to update and enforce their Information Governance (IG) policies.

“This should be reassuring for Microsoft and we hope SharePoint can further empower people and organisations,” concluded Larrivee. “It is a platform that can offer a lot to any organisation and the people that work within it. The right training and user support is essential for it to deliver even more value than it is now.”

The survey was taken using a web-based tool by 274 individual members of the AIIM community between June 2nd, 2016, and July 1st, 2016. Invitations to take the survey were sent via e-mail to a selection of the 180,000 AIIM community members. The executive summary report can be downloaded here.

About AIIM
AIIM has been an advocate and supporter of information professionals for 70 years. The association’s mission is to ensure that information professionals understand the current and future challenges of managing information assets in an era of social, mobile, cloud and big data. Founded in 1943, AIIM builds on a strong heritage of research and member service. Today, AIIM is a global, non-profit organisation that provides independent research, education and certification programs to information professionals. AIIM represents the entire information management community, with programs and content for practitioners, technology suppliers, integrators and consultants.

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