Originally posted @ NothingButSharePoint.com -Title and some typos are edited in this version.

This article is for any SharePointer looking for business opportunities. It’s not for developers looking for code or power users looking for tips.

A few days ago I participated, as an attendee, in the O’Reilly TOC (tools of change for publishing) Conference. I had high hopes of hearing the word SharePoint somewhere but I didn’t.

I heard many other words including workflows, content management, xml, search, and rights management. But the most common word was “App” and the second most popular was “e-book”.

During TOC I witnessed many striking events happenings and I would like to share them with you. After that I will try to bind my observations all together and end up with what I see as an opportunity.

Scenario

The majority of attendees were not IT Pros, but were book publishers, writers, editors and even graphic arts professionals. It is important to say that the conference is technology oriented orientated. The age range was vast but surprisingly there were a significant number of people over 60.

1. During the presentations and keynotes the primary note taking tool was the iPad. Then notebooks (Macs more than Windows based) and smart phones of all kinds (less WP7). The older generation of attendees used iPads. Very few people were taking notes on paper.
2. The usage of Twitter was outstanding and very helpful. The tweets were running fast and contributing to some kind sort of collective note taking.
3. There were attendees representing very small and focused publishing companies. Many of them trying to find out how to survive the huge transformation of their businesses: from the printed book to a couple of new paradigms: the interactive Apps (Mobile devices) and the E-books (Kindle, Nook).
4. There were attendees representing huge publishers that were astonished by the challenges their industry faces. Immense organizations slow to adapt but trying to keep relevant. Their most visible challenge can be described with a question: How do we offer value to writers if technology allows them to achieve similar results without us?
5. The publishing industry that used to be something between writers, editors and publishers has become more complex and now requires many more skills including graphic arts, interactive design, SEO, social networking, online marketing.
6. The market requests experience instead of  and does not value more information.
7. Royalties and subscription schemes are the preferred monetization strategies. No flat fees.

The main problem seems to be an economic issue; although the writer is the center of the business, there are so many more professionals involved in the production and distribution of the book. How do they maintain a good level of income for each one?

Contrast

A few weeks ago I attended a conference about the famous Cloud. This time, the conference was organized by Oracle. Most attendees were IT Pros from big corporations and financial organizations.

1. Most note taking was pen & paper with a few PCs using Windows XP .
2. There was no The conference had no Twitter handle and I saw only a few tweets about the conference “ I’m at xxx place” (irrelevant).
3. Apps? they were talking about private clouds for corporate use (intranets).
4. IT Pros were disconnected from businesses decision making. The most common worry I could find was a silent fear of losing their job.

Conclusion

It appears that the business world is mutating to a new self. An environment where the small business is empowered by technology and the enterprise is threatened by its resistance to change. Where the common challenge is to integrate multiple skills and technologies.

That means that product managers must adapt their deadlines in order to integrate processes where multiple professional need to participate in a synergetic process. It also means that using multiple platforms is going to be the rule. And that is something that applies directly to single band advocates (Microsoft, Google, Apple).

I also believe that the most important tech leaders will have to adopt the same modus operandi. For example: Why doesn’t Microsoft have a version of IE for Mac? Or why doesn’t Apple have a version of iPhoto for PC?

Opportunity for SharePointers

If you’ve read this far, you probably know what the opportunity is. Big and slow corporations changing direction, small entrepreneurs empowered and everybody trying to find a technological solution for facing the challenges of a global market looking for great experiences.

There are a huge number of publishers who are going to use WordPress as their engine for managing editorial workflows and content. Some are going to Drupal and some even to Joomla. Isn’t this the place for SharePoint to compete?

If publishers are going through this, then it is also happening to designers, consultants, opinion leaders, and probably to everyone. Would you say, today, that the Web isn’t for everyone? (1)

The mobile world is opening a new way of using the Web. SharePoint can support that.

(1) Years ago IT PROs had to convince companies to embrace the web. 

The customer is always right. Therefore I must think that for some customers a Web site is a source of problems.

I’m having a customer that is willing to change their hosting provider to another one that uses very old technology and holds a lot of security issues. What’s the rationale? 

That hosting provider doesn’t offer any authentication method, is static HTML and is inexpensive. That means that less interactivity with the customer’s employees equals less possible problems. And of course less time lost, less training, etc.

That would go against most of my believes, but in this case I’m not the customer!

If my customer is right then I must try to understand how to better listen to his/her needs. My conclusions are:

1. For some, the Web is an online brochure. In that case should be inexpensive to have and should look good.
2. For some, the priority is not to use the best out of the technology. It is important to “be there”.
3. Having a customer that doesn’t need to have a great interactive Web site is not bad. Actually can be very profitable to keep static pages with less related expenses like licensing, maintenance, support, infrastructure.

The paradigm to break is:

I want to offer my customers the best service I can provide. That includes my experience and my believes of what is better for them.

Providing the better service for my customer is to understand what they need, even if they don’t know how to express it.

It is not a philosophical competition on who is right. I should not even try to convince the customer that what I’m offering is better if they can’t understand or agree with what it would take for them to run my advise successfully.

A Scenario with negative outcome:

• I convince the customer to use a great CMS.
• The customer doesn’t place a process for editorial work.
• The site even powered by the CMS looks static on the Web.
• Conclusion: The CMS was expensive and the results the same as a non editable Web site.

In order to understand what is the most important for my customer’s Web sites I will ask:

1. Dou you have someone responsible for the Web site maintenance?
2. Are you thinking to integrate your new Web site with existing offline processes?
3. Do you have some concrete and specific result you expect from your site? If yes, is it aligned with your organizational vision?

It’s better to show what you know by letting your customer decide what is good for them while using your knowledge and principles to make that decision worthwhile. 

Image: Creative Commons - Josef Stuefer

Today I published B4Contact’s new site. It is an important change for me and I wanted to share it with you.

B4Contact started working for the Slovenian market at the end of the year 2003. Since then a group of young and enthusiastic persons pushed B4Contact to achieve wonderful results. From Piflar multimedia portal, Prazniki.net Christmas competition to the Open Windows campaign for SharePoint as a school Web site.

In a few days B4Contact will get 7 years old. And many things have changed for good.

B4Contact’s strategy was based on the construction of a strong team capable of providing great products and services. The words we used: “leadership” and  ”creativity”. That strategy worked good for a few years.

The current strategy is focused on results and it is based on a simple set of concepts:

• To create great products and provide great services we need to work with the best. The way we are achieving this is by establishing strategic partnerships.
• The company is focused on increasing profits not on increasing revenue. The intention is to decrease expenses, increase effectiveness, increase customer satisfaction.
• Our partners and company members must know what is the value they can offer to the project. Not the other way around.
• New products and services must be based on innovation.
• Risk management is essential for any new project.

B4Contact values remain the same. I wish B4Contact to help me build a legacy that will add to the society.