Management at UK based SharePoint Application Developer PointBeyond seem to us to be on the right track for the coming 2012 business environment. While we can’t be certain who actually orchestrated the release of PointBeyond’s “Business Applications Deficit” WhitePaper, we’re none the less pleased with this nice piece of marketing communications.

What’s nice about this piece? Well, they’ve touched several of the mandatory bases that we think should be covered by this type of presentation for the coming year. These bases are:

1. Utilize fact-finding to collaborate and engage with prospects in a manner that will help facilitate decision-making in the otherwise “decision averse” climate that looks to be the coming year
2. Enlist the services of an impartial third party to produce findings that fairly and logically support your position from factual data
3. Frame a call to action within a sensible proposal that serves the prospect as well as, coincidentally, your own objectives

With regard to our point 1, the white paper at hand, “Business Applications Deficit” is precisely a piece of fact finding work that is chock full of the statistics that ought truly to benefit prospects while providing a fascinating foundation for PointBeyond to collaborate and engage with them as they consider how to get out of their collective conundrum. Some of the findings have the requisite shock value to get those discussion juices flowing; for example, consider that this study found that “[o]rganisations are being hampered by their technology. 66% of respondents felt that their technology was constraining their growth and profitability.” wow.

The impartial third party that we’ve noted in our point 2, is, in this case, Redshift Research, a UK based research firm that works on a range of projects with no visible prediliction to IT topics or to PointBridge. Yes, PointBeyond commissioned the work, but the work was undertaken with credible independence. Just consider that Redshift Research found only “39% of respondents use platform based technologies such as Microsoft SharePoint to deliver their applications.”

Finally, the research results summarize a pervasive business condition of backlogged IT projects; less than satisfactory results from IT projects and systems in place; and, finally, prime vendors who are ensconced within the procurement apparatus, but fail to deliver. Juxtaposed to this malaise is a general objective, voiced by a majority of respondents, to see many new IT systems in place and operational over the coming year. The study points to a disconnect between these two conditions and then issues its call to action which, if successful, will be quite beneficial for PointBeyond and its prospects. Well done!

We expect to see the best of breed SharePoint developers avail of this type of communications frequently over the coming year. We will certainly be on the look out for other examples and will be sure to write them up.

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