Why This White Paper

As with any evolving product, there are false ceilings set due to people’s experiences with previous versions. The initial core features/capabilities for SharePoint were targeted to provide out-of-the-box features that made the product easy to use and administer for team sites and portals. The product was extensible from the beginning, but it was not architected for the mainstream developer. This focus has changed over the years and there are very compelling reasons that product companies should consider SharePoint in their technology roadmaps.

The ability to leverage the rich features of SharePoint technologies is reason enough to consider SharePoint as a web development platform. Another key reason to consider either building on top of SharePoint or having a connection strategy with SharePoint is market opportunities that come from being associated with this popular platform (over 100 million licenses of SharePoint have been sold). The purpose of this white paper is to address the perceived limitations that typically cause product companies to discount SharePoint when determining a technology roadmap for their products.

This white paper will dive into some of the features of the platform, including how a company could build a better product faster and take advantage of the rapid adoption and increased market interest in SharePoint as a platform. Also described in this paper are the Connect, Extend, and Build On strategies and the advantages of each approach.