Microsoft SharePoint has been around for over two decades and is thoroughly established as a platform for collaboration between colleagues in a variety of business contexts.
Of course just because a service is widely used, that does not mean that it is infallible. To that end, here are a few reasons why SharePoint might not be your best choice for fuelling collaborative efforts and managing projects within your organization.
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SharePoint performance starts to degrade after 100,000 items
One of the main limitations of SharePoint online is that it is not especially well equipped to handle very large volumes of files.
Performance will take a serious hit if you exceed the 100,000 items mark, even if the technical limit of the service is three times greater than this. And when every second counts as a project deadline looms, you could really struggle to justify your continued use of this particular Microsoft product.
Pricing can be a sticking point
While there is no doubt that SharePoint is pretty flexible when it comes to costs, in part because of how much customization is available to those that use it, it is equally true that the expense of creating a setup that is tailored to the needs of your company can be prohibitive.
Coupled with the potential for the time to actually implement such a solution potentially dragging on for weeks or even months, it may be both more cost-effective and efficient for businesses to look to rival platforms instead.
Technical complexity excludes non-expert users
The aforementioned flexibility of SharePoint may be a blessing in the hands of someone who is technically knowledgeable enough to exploit it effectively, but can be a curse if the user in question is not familiar with how to wrangle it to the full extent of its potential.
For businesses that have expansive IT departments and lots of skilled staff to fall back upon, this is obviously not a problem, but for those with more limited resources at their disposal, the complexity of SharePoint could be a real bugbear.
Of course you could outsource aspects of the implementation and management of this platform to a third party agency, although this is only going to push the cost higher, and leave you at the mercy of whichever external company you choose to work with if issues arise.
Social features are lacking
The rise of rival collaborative platforms has increased user expectations with regard to the social aspects of deploying this type of software, which in turn means that the more fragmented and old-fashioned capabilities of SharePoint in this context can be a deal breaker for anyone who has experience of its competitors.
For a more cohesive approach to commenting on different files and projects, more businesses are turning to alternatives to SharePoint. Whether you follow suit is entirely your decision, but you should definitely take the time to check out the competing platforms to see whether jumping ship from SharePoint makes sense for you.