One of the not-so-secret secrets of Microsoft’s rocket ride of the 1990s was its understanding that success in commercial software almost always goes hand in hand with a nexus of links to ISVs, channel partners, hardware makers, consulting firms and so on.

The firm is at it again with the release of software developer kits for SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Services 3.0, replete with Microsoft’s usual “how to” wizards, templates and demystification guides.

It’s not surprising to see how well SharePoint is doing at the moment. It integrates with other key Microsoft infrastructure, it’s (relatively) cheap and it lets you do most of the things that you would want to do with an ECM system.

What does it lack? Having spoken to a number of experts for an upcoming article in Information World Review on SharePoint, I would say:

Attention to bespoke features for vertical markets and associated rules and regulations

Clear licence terms and conditions

Control tools that can prevent SharePoint growing everywhere in the organisation at the cost of manageability

Integration with latest Microsoft developer tools

What else is missing in SharePoint and what doesn’t work? I’d like to hear, so drop in a comment or get in touch by email.

Incidentally, lest anybody in the green-font brigade suggest I’m selling ads for Microsoft, let me link to a good post by Matt Asay on Microsoft’s paid-for research into why SharePoint is better value than open-source ECMs. Asay is right. This sort of paranoia does the company no favours.

And finally, a song about over-zealous SharePoint users. Oh yes, things have got to that point.