SharePoint MOSS vs other CMS
Job of the week
Featured threads
- How relevant do links need to be? 14 replies
- Tracking Online Response to Marketing/Communications Activities 8 replies
- Behavioural targeting software 4 replies
- Penalty avoidance on English-speaking foreign sites 5 replies
- 3 way linking - good or bad? 21 replies
Most viewed threads in last month
Most active threads in last month
- Best Practice SEO Guide Jan 2012 2 replies
- Social networks for business: to be or not to be… 0 replies
- Acceretle 0 replies
- ZNAP 0 replies
- internet marketing consulting service 0 replies

Online Communications Officer at Brit Insurance
04 June 2009 15:03pm
Does anyone know of any freely available information which compares SharePoint MOSS to other CMS? A Google search reveals a whole world of opinions but we're looking for something official, to be used in a business case. We're facing probably a familiar story around IT puchasing SharePoint, without figuring out whether it's the best tool from a Marketing point of view.
Founder / Director / Co-founder at easyBacklog / Aqueduct / Econsultancy
04 June 2009 15:48pm
Hi there
Firstly, Sharepoint is not really a CMS. It has CMS features which were brought in from the now redundant MS CMS Server, but Sharepoint is not just a CMS, it's collaboration platform, a document management platform, provides enterprise search, built to integrate with your Microsoft network and is really designed as an Intranet platform.
Are you looking to use Sharepoint as CMS to drive internally focussed sites (i.e. an Intranet) or are you looking to use Sharepoint for public facing content? If the latter, you will struggle to find any decent case studies to support its use.
Regards,
Matthew O'Riordan
Aqueduct
www.aqueduct.co.uk
Online Communications Officer at Brit Insurance
04 June 2009 16:23pm
Totally in agreement with you there, it's a round peg in a square hole as far as we are concerned. However, as we're being more or less forced down this route, we're looking for support which would prove our point - that it's not the tool for the job. We're looking for a tool for an intranet, a public site and an extranet.
Technical Project Manager (MBA, MBCS, CITP, CEng) at Naxtech.com
04 June 2009 22:07pm
hhmm.. intranet, extranet and public site....
May I suggest Lotes Domino then (or perhaps even Websphere Portal). I have not used its latest versions but based on what you are saying it certainly sounds like the perfect solution. I'd highly recommend it. (see: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/domino/) It is more a more corporate-style solution that MOSS and has been around for ages (ie. a mature product).
On the MOSS side of things...to use MOSS on the internet/extranet/intranel you'd also need to buy the license for the relevant connector which is quite expensive...at least a dozen times more expensive than the MOSS license itself (last time I looked anyway!).
It all comes down to your exact needs really and your priorities, but I hope the above help.
regards,
Denis
www.naxtech.com
CEO at Netcel
05 June 2009 10:02am
I totally agree with Matthew. SharePoint is a good tool but is not right for all sites. There is a misconception that it is a silver bullet when it comes to CMS. While SharePoint has its strengths, we have found through bitter experience that is also has a lot of weaknesses. It's worth trying to find SharePoint websites (there are not that many, relatively speaking) and talking to the site editors about their experiences with the product.
My company, Netcel, specialises in deploying solutions based on three CMS products. We will consider the site objectives and requirements of our clients and then suggest what we believe is the most appropriate CMS to meet our clients' requirements. The three we specialise in are SharePoint, EPiServer CMS and RedDot CMS.
You need to do the same - detail your site objectives, requirements and expected site functionality, then invite a number of CMS vendors to demonstrate their product so that you can produce a short-list of CMS products that look like they will meet your needs. SharePoint is clearly just one of the possibilities.
Kind regards
Tim
www.netcel.com
Director at Codehouse
08 June 2009 10:01am
Agree with Matt and Tim also. Gather objectives and requirements and find/choose what fits.
Given the SharePoint/MOSS route from your IT department then there are plenty of .NET WCMS to choose from. Some play nice with SharePoint/MOSS which might ease the internal sales task.
Try Sitecore's resources page - very Sitecore centric info, but valid points none-the-less.
Give me a bell if you want the implementor's/integrator's point of view.
Matt
www.codehousegroup.com
09 June 2009 14:53pm
Spending absurd sums of money on enterprise-level software is so 2000. For the sake of your designers, developers and end users, please avoid MOSS like the plague.
http://friendlybit.com/css/sharepoint-2007-from-an-interface-developers-view/
Microsoft has always been the slowest runner on the field when it comes to adhering to established web standards, and from my experience with MOSS, it really is something they should be utterly ashamed of.
Save your company's cash and get ExpressionEngine instead.
Owner at B R Dalby Consulting
09 June 2009 23:40pm
You might want to take a look at availability and prices of MOSS consultants also. IMHO it would be realistic to factor some of that into total time/cost of business case before you make decision.
Ben
Founder / Director / Co-founder at easyBacklog / Aqueduct / Econsultancy
10 June 2009 08:29am
Ben, that is a very good point.
Total Cost of Ownership varies immensely across systems and this varies both in the initial set up costs versus license costs as well as ongoing maintenance and support.
Our experience is that MOSS consultants who have experience and are good are not easy to find and pretty expensive. The other issue we have had is that MOSS is a very large system so you're unlikely to find one person who has experience across all the services i.e. consultants normally have expertise in one area such as front end, admin, search etc.
Matthew O'Riordan
www.aqueduct.co.uk
Internet Marketing Executive at Cygnet Infotech
19 June 2010 10:42am
Yes I do one of such softwares which is cms driven website buider designed using sharepoint technology. This software has been developed by cygnet infotech ltd a pioneer into software development.