PIM and SharePoint
Microsoft SharePoint is a useful platform for a company intranet. It is not a project information management (PIM) solution. Many Newforma customers use BOTH SharePoint and Newforma Project Center as complementary solutions.
As an intranet platform, SharePoint provides file repositories – libraries – for company policies, procedures, forms and other reference documents. SharePoint can also help organize and present company news, project stories, technical information, building performance data, and sustainability best practices, among other information. SharePoint lends itself to the management of static information.
PIM, on the other hand, is the solution of choice to manage dynamically changing information, which includes all project information filed in active and archived project folders, as well as processes to manage action items, RFIs, submittals, BIM design review, document quality control, file transfers and more.
While SharePoint has the virtue of being highly customizable, the barriers to developing proprietary PIM functionality are high. They include the costs of the prerequisite enterprise server license and initial programming, and the ongoing expenses of keeping a customized application current with underlying technology changes and new product releases from Microsoft.
For a fuller discussion of SharePoint and PIM, download this position paper, and read the blog posts and Newforma customer statements on this page.
NEWFORMA BLOG
SharePoint and Newforma Project Center: managing information, curating knowledge
A conversation with LMN Architects Director of Information Technology Tim Rice, AIA.
Part 1: What’s the difference?
Part 2: Why not use SharePoint to manage project information?
Regarding Newforma Search and SharePoint libraries
The Newforma Search function provides its comprehensive results by indexing the information on your network. However, Newforma Project Center Server does not index SharePoint libraries. Instead, when users of Newforma Project Center use its Search function to look for information in a SharePoint library, the software merely queries the SharePoint search index and delivers matches in the search results.