Source: SharePoint Challenge Results

Mainsoft attended the SharePoint Technology Conference in Boston last week. Instead of running a traditional booth, they invited the SharePoint pros in attendance to see how difficult some tasks in SharePoint actually are. Such as uploading email and documents.

Based on capturing data on 103 SharePoint professionals, Mainsoft found:

“– It takes an average 61 seconds to upload an email on SharePoint, and 50 seconds to upload a document on SharePoint and attach a document link into email.

– Surprisingly, people needed more time to access SharePoint 2010 versus Office SharePoint Server 2007, perhaps because they were unfamiliar with the new interface.

– Using harmon.ie for SharePoint, an Outlook sidebar from Mainsoft, people completed the same tasks in 11 seconds, which was five to six times faster than using a browser.

– In total, participants saved 61 minutes accessing SharePoint using harmon.ie versus using the browser.“

Remember, these were SharePoint professionals, not “real users.” Mainsoft also recorded videos with a few of the challenge participants.

Two observations:
– Value depends on frequency. If these tasks are something that “real users” are doing frequently, add-on tools like Mainsoft harmon.ie are a no brainer. Usability is definitely one aspect of user adoption.
– Mainsoft is joining an already healthy sub-strata of the SharePoint ecosystem focused on improving access between Outlook and SharePoint. Other vendors include Colligo Networks and Scinaptic.