Fueling ISV Success with Sharepoint Integration

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1 3SHARP TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS BRIEF Fueling ISV Success with Sharepoint Integration Promote Widespread User Adoption of Your App It s counterintuitive, but for most software publishers some of the biggest client challenges occur after the sale has been made. It s great to land a product at an enterprise account. However, that s only the beginning of a process that can lead either to a long-term relationship or a disappointing, brief engagement. Given that software products are purchased by client teams that include both IT and business stakeholders, client success depends on costeffective deployment as well as friction-free, widespread adoption. The client s employees need to see the product as an essential element of their work processes. If the product is not viewed as a must have it can become vulnerable to cancellation. How can software publishers improve their chances of making the client relationship stick? Integration with Microsoft SharePoint Server can be a significant driver of business advantage for software publishers. By making their products a seamless, intuitive part of the world s most popular intranet interface, publishers can cement that kind of sticky relationship that results in sustainable revenue over the long term.

2 How do software publishers define success? Most involve an expanding portfolio of long-term client engagements. The longer the relationship goes, the more the client buys. New clients sign on as revenue from existing clients increases. The publisher earns more and more over time. In practical terms, this kind of success scenario typically begins with a limited deployment, perhaps seat licenses of one product module for a subset of the client s employees. Then, after being totally wowed, the client increases the number of seats until everyone in the whole client firm is using it. Licenses for more modules follow and revenue typically grows apace. Early client success translates into referrals to new accounts. Drivers of ISV Success Employees must consider the publisher s product an essential part of their work lives... Getting to success can be a perplexing challenge for executives who run software businesses. While sales and marketing are typically the main focus areas for fostering growth, the reality is that some of the hardest, most crucial work needed for long-term results occurs after the sale is made. Getting a software sales contract over the finish line is of course a huge achievement, often representing months of work and a major investment of resources. Yet, all of that effort will likely not produce the desired effect if end users do not embrace the product. The client s employees must enthusiastically embrace a software product in order for its publisher to grow. While the IT department may make the purchase decision in collaboration with line of business (LOB) managers, it is employee acceptance and use that will ultimately decide the product s fate. Experience shows that software products that do not get broad adoption do not frequently survive on the client side. Employees must consider the publisher s product an essential part of their work lives in order for it to gain those all-important seat expansions and add-on sales. Ideally, the publisher s product will graduate from nice to have to must have and become a permanent part of the IT department s mandate. Challenges to ISV Success Unfortunately, many obstacles threaten the realization of long-term client revenue growth goals. For example, the training required for employee adoption is rarely completed successfully. Though training is almost always part of new product implementation with the client, the reality is that not all employees will get trained. Training lapses can occur as a result of scheduling conflicts or tension between regular work priorities and employees taking the time to learn a new application. After the initial training period is over, it may be difficult, or even impossible to get any stragglers trained. On-demand online training can help alleviate this problem, but in addition to the cost of producing it, the underlying challenge remains the same. A lot of employees are simply too busy to learn the new software. It s a conundrum for software publishers: while the publisher and the IT manager who just signed the PO are champions of the software, for many employees the product might be viewed as a distraction or even a waste of time. Getting employees to adopt new software on a broad basis is a bit like trying to be heard in a crowded room. It s easy to get lost in the bustle of day-to-day work. SHAREPOINT MIGRATION 2

3 Browser-based Web access to software simplifies deployment and provisioning. A big factor in this struggle for awareness and relevance is the constant personnel churn that occurs in almost all organizations. The employee pool that s there on day one of a software installation will start adding and losing members immediately. Within a few months, there may be quite a few people who should have learned the product who don t even know that it exists and can t understand what benefits it offers or why they should take the time to learn it. When managers shift jobs, things can get even worse. If a publisher s executive sponsor gets transferred before the product reaches critical mass with employees, it is vulnerable to cancellation. Businesses perennially ask their IT departments, Why are you spending so much? What have you done for us lately? In this common scenario, IT managers start looking for cuts. Under-used software products are prime targets for elimination. If an IT manager can stop paying 18 percent maintenance on a product that seems to be sitting on the shelf, the publisher s prospects aren t going to look good. Even if the business is pleased with the IT department and isn t subjecting them to a budget grilling, the IT department itself may find itself interested in buying a new solution and start looking for expenses to trim to make way for the new thing. The Double-Edged Nature of the Cloud The emergence of cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings holds some potential to ease the employee adoption problem. Browser-based Web access to software simplifies deployment and provisioning. End users do not have to wait for IT installation and support. Training is generally online and on-demand, making it easier to get started with the product. Browser-based software is simpler to learn than products with proprietary client interfaces. In some cases, a SaaS solution will be ordered directly by employees in what is sometimes known as shadow IT. Shadow IT, a process that bypasses the IT department, shows the give and take nature of the cloud for software publishers. There are many fewer barriers to client acquisition, because the IT buyer is not involved. If the product catches on, it s a viral win. In a successful Shadow IT scenario, as the SaaS solution grows in popularity, IT is asked to support it organization-wide. At the same time, enterprises legitimately want control over how and where their data is stored and used. When a Shadow IT initiative starts using a SaaS solution, there is the potential for tension as IT asks, in effect, What data are we putting in the cloud? Who owns it, how is it protected, and how is it being used? IT may feel responsible, or even pressure, for reining in the Shadow IT efforts. The ease of entry created by the cloud can also work in reverse. When there are too many standalone SaaS products in the employee s life, things can get confusing and frustrating. SaaS applications typically don t work well with one another. As new, potentially better options become available, the old SaaS solution can get cancelled. The subscription approach to cloud pricing also reduces the barrier to exit. If there s no upfront investment in software license and installation to write off, cancelling the subscription is not a stressful decision. SHAREPOINT MIGRATION 3

4 The Potential of SharePoint Integration The cloud adds to the pressure on software publishers to get relevant and be embraced as quickly as possible by end users. Integration with Microsoft SharePoint can be a big help in solving this challenge. Though not a magic bullet, SharePoint integration offers publishers the opportunity to be a part of the world s most popular intranet and collaboration platform. Usability and control are the two main benefits for integrating software with SharePoint. Microsoft SharePoint, which was originally a free, do-it-yourself website and document list making add-on for the Windows Server product, has matured into a full suite of collaboration tools used by an estimated ,000,000 corporate end users. 1 SharePoint is also the collaborative foundation of Microsoft Office 365 Web-based personal productivity tools. It is a portal, a collaboration tool, a document repository, a search engine, and perhaps most important of all, a software development platform. 700,000 SharePoint developers 2 have built numerous third party ISV applications run on top of SharePoint, integrating their functionality with SharePoint s onboard search and collaboration features. Given its massive installed base, SharePoint is becoming the default intranet standard for many of world s IT departments. SharePoint is essentially the unifying pane of glass through which a majority of information workers get their tasks done. Usability and control are the two main benefits for integrating software with SharePoint. When a publisher s product is integrated with SharePoint, the client s employees can locate and interact with the products in a familiar environment. From a usability perspective, SharePoint integration has the advantage of unifying old or disparate user interfaces and presenting them simply in Share- Point portals. Extraneous detail can be stripped away. Instead of wondering where an application is, employees can discover the functionality they need in an interface they are already using. SharePoint integration has the potential to create a virtuous circle for the employee, the client and the publisher. The employee gains (hopefully positive) experience with the software. The client does not have to worry as much about adoption, because the product is built into the standard intranet portal. The publisher gains traction with the employees for its product. The enterprise gains better control over its portfolio of software products when it integrates them with SharePoint. The client can insure that only appropriate users can use each piece of software, and only in ways that the enterprise deems appropriate. As a solution to the Shadow IT problem, integrating a SaaS application with SharePoint gives employees the application they want, but enables the enterprise to have efficient control over what features are exposed, who has the authorization to use them, and so forth. 1 and SHAREPOINT MIGRATION 4

5 Integrating into the Employee s Workday and the Client s Business Surfacing a software product through SharePoint promises to integrate the product into the dayto-day workflows of employees. For example, if a publisher creates a video portal that enables uploading, storing, searching for, playing and commenting on videos, SharePoint can potentially simplify the job of getting the employees to embrace the offering. Instead of asking employees to exit whatever they are doing and open the video portal, when it s integrated with SharePoint, the video portal is part of the familiar SharePoint user experience. In a simple integration, the video portal might be available as a Web Part (portlet) that enables the end user to access your functionality without leaving SharePoint. Software that is integrated into SharePoint can become a seamless part of complex workflows. SharePoint integration can go much deeper than the simple Web Part, however. Software that is integrated into SharePoint can become a seamless part of complex workflows. For example, a manufacturing operation might control its processes using multiple pieces of software that were developed at different times. Each has its own interface. While experts may want to use this software, other employees might just want visibility into the process or basic controls. If the target software has an API, it is possible to build both viewers and controls into SharePoint to allow many others, subject to all the manufacturer s security policies, to view the data or control the process. In 3Sharp s experience, following an 80/20 rule of surfacing the 20 percent of a complex software platform s most frequently used functionality will satisfy 80 percent of the user base. This approach reduces the training burden because 80 percent of the user base is accessing the application through SharePoint s intuitive, modern user interface. The 20 percent that is integrated becomes part of SharePoint s native search, workflow management, document management, file lists, and so forth. As such, it easily becomes part of the employee s work life. SharePoint s flexible software integration options benefit the client s IT department. A software product integrated with SharePoint can be delivered with either SharePoint or the publisher s product in the cloud, on-premise, or a hybrid. This level of flexibility makes it easy to discuss SharePoint integration with clients regardless of where they are headed with their cloud strategy. This includes the possibility that they are unclear about what they plan to do in the cloud. It doesn t matter. When a software publisher has SharePoint integration, it can accommodate current cloud strategy and evolve if the client migrates its applications to the cloud. SHAREPOINT MIGRATION 5

6 Business Advantages in the SharePoint Integration Scenario SharePoint integration contributes to making software products a little stickier on the client side. SharePoint integration can be an effective way of engaging with software clients. This stickiness helps publishers achieve their goal of a long-term, expanding licensing relationship: Reduced training requirements as the product surfaces within familiar SharePoint functionality and interface. As part of the SharePoint experience, provisioning and vulnerability to staff churn is reduced. It s always there and everyone can see and use it, regardless of when they joined the team or how infrequently they may use the application. As part of the end user s regular workflow, the product becomes more essential, more on track to must have status. If the product is SaaS-based, SharePoint integration will make it easier to demonstrate value to end users and make it less vulnerable to cancellation. As the publisher proves itself with its first product on SharePoint, it will be in a good position to introduce upgrades and extensions that also fit into the familiar SharePoint user experience. Making it Happen SharePoint integration can be an effective way of engaging with software clients. It provides the client s employees with a familiar, intuitive way of accessing a software publisher s product. Instead of being deployed on a standalone basis, the product can be integrated into existing workflows and day-to-day digital workspaces. This facilitates employee adoption and frequent use of the product, which should lead to increased business for the publisher with the client over time. Integrating a software product with SharePoint is not a push-button process, however. It requires competencies on the SharePoint platform and familiarity with the broader Microsoft ecosystem. Choosing the right partner for integration can make a big difference in the quality of the outcome. 3Sharp has a proven history of success integrating numerous software publishers products with SharePoint. We have the experience and people to make a software publisher s vision of longterm client success through SharePoint integration a reality. SHAREPOINT MIGRATION 6

7 About 3Sharp 3Sharp delivers solutions that work. We are a software consulting company focused on using Microsoft technology to solve your technology issues. Tightly linked to Microsoft s SharePoint development team, our Office and SharePoint experts save you development time and ensure the technology you receive is absolutely dependable. When it comes to customizing SharePoint and Microsoft Office, your success is our goal. From beginning to end, our experienced Microsoft consultants will thoroughly understand your unique requirements and develop expert solutions to address them. Learn more: Phone Fax info@3sharp.com Address NE 95th Street, Suite 210, Redmond, WA Website