According to Microsoft chief Bill Gates, the company’s SharePoint 2007 platform is “likely come to replace email as the dominant form of corporate communications”

He made the bold statement in an address to over 100 chief executives at Microsoft’s base in Redmond, Washington. 

Gates went on to say that collaborative systems such as Microsoft SharePoint 2007, which allow organisations to share resources over a corporate, web-based intranet are ‘more efficient in allowing companies to delegate responsibility and accountability to a wider range of employees.’

"When we think about information that empowers people, we think about electronic mail," Gates said. That form of communication is inefficient when you get to having to make decisions that include groups. Web-based collaborative software leads to direct empowerment of end-users so it doesn't require the time delay and cost of getting things done," he said.

Also on the agenda were social networking applications, which Microsoft also believe will have a big role to play in the future of corporate communication. Experts have predicted that collaborative platforms such as SharePoint 2007, which have similar functionality to the popular social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook, would become as common in the workplace as the Microsoft Office suite of applications such as word and excel.

Microsoft has a proven track record in electronic corporate communication. Its outlook platform has established itself over the years as the industry standard.

Email usage has been steadily in decline ever since the introduction of social networking. If this trend continues, and if the prediction of experts such as Gates’ are correct, then Microsoft SharePoint looks set to replace does indeed look to become an essential tool for effective business communication.

Business communications specialists Genesis provide SharePoint hosting solutions for thousands of businesses across the UK. To find out more, http://www.genesis.co.uk/sharepoint2007/