Hi,
My company uses Smartsite (Dutch product) as a Content Management System for both Internet and Intranet. This is a pretty good CMS but we want to move to an Enterprise Portal. The decision is based on extra functionality which needs to be developed (like E-Mail marketing, Single Sign-On for our e-services (developed as .NET applications), better integration with Outlook, a new Document Management System etc.). The point is: for managing unstructured content (information) we are happy with Smartsite!
Moving to SharePoint (the most logical step because we use .NET for our software development, Microsoft products for ERP and CRM, MSSQL as main database platform etc.) I can think of the following scenarios:
1. Revolutionary change to Microsoft products: We drop Smartsite and we go for Microsoft CMS. This intagrates with Sharepoint via the connector and we develop the extra functionality in .NET
2. Keep Smartsite for a while and try to build a WebPart for it (based probably on database integration or a GUI integration)
3. Keep Smartsite for CMS and try to integrate via Webservices (Smartsite has a SOAP interface). This means that we need to upgrade out Smartsite licence (extra costs)
4. Keep Smartsite as the main infrastructure for our Internet/Intranet. Develop the new functionality in SharePoint. Integrate on User Interface level (at list at look and feel level). Maintain two infrastructures until moving the content to a Microsoft product.
5. Keep investing in Smartsite and wait for better out-of-the-box functionality from Microsoft products
6. ? any other ideas
Please give me some tips over:
- how difficult is to develop a webpart (is this well documented?)
- how much development work is in a SharePoint implementation (custom development vs. configuring Out-of-the-box functionality)
- which scenario do you think I should follow.
Political aspects:
- in general, budget constrains
- Smartsite is popular by the end users and was introduced only 2 years ago
- Good management support
Thank you in advance,
Florin
My company uses Smartsite (Dutch product) as a Content Management System for both Internet and Intranet. This is a pretty good CMS but we want to move to an Enterprise Portal. The decision is based on extra functionality which needs to be developed (like E-Mail marketing, Single Sign-On for our e-services (developed as .NET applications), better integration with Outlook, a new Document Management System etc.). The point is: for managing unstructured content (information) we are happy with Smartsite!
Moving to SharePoint (the most logical step because we use .NET for our software development, Microsoft products for ERP and CRM, MSSQL as main database platform etc.) I can think of the following scenarios:
1. Revolutionary change to Microsoft products: We drop Smartsite and we go for Microsoft CMS. This intagrates with Sharepoint via the connector and we develop the extra functionality in .NET
2. Keep Smartsite for a while and try to build a WebPart for it (based probably on database integration or a GUI integration)
3. Keep Smartsite for CMS and try to integrate via Webservices (Smartsite has a SOAP interface). This means that we need to upgrade out Smartsite licence (extra costs)
4. Keep Smartsite as the main infrastructure for our Internet/Intranet. Develop the new functionality in SharePoint. Integrate on User Interface level (at list at look and feel level). Maintain two infrastructures until moving the content to a Microsoft product.
5. Keep investing in Smartsite and wait for better out-of-the-box functionality from Microsoft products
6. ? any other ideas
Please give me some tips over:
- how difficult is to develop a webpart (is this well documented?)
- how much development work is in a SharePoint implementation (custom development vs. configuring Out-of-the-box functionality)
- which scenario do you think I should follow.
Political aspects:
- in general, budget constrains
- Smartsite is popular by the end users and was introduced only 2 years ago
- Good management support
Thank you in advance,
Florin