But sharepoint isn't about automating processes in the sense that most of us think of it. The process isn't captured by sharepoint, but if you “follow the process” then sharepoint can be a good repository of information for the process. Sharepoint processes rely way to much on word-of-mouth to explain what you're supposed to do in the process.

And while Sharepoint may be cheaper than “custom” – that doesn't mean that it is necessarily cheaper than ActionBase or Lombardi or some of the opensource solutions or SaaS solutions out there.

In the spectrum from pure control to pure chaos, Sharepoint is one notch to the left of pure chaos. An ERP tool is one notch to the right of pure control. Most BPM tools are somewhere in the middle – and I think that's where most organizations should be targeting their process efforts -agile, flexible, but without a total loss of control or governance when needed.

Scott

Sharepoint business processes can be implemented in little time and quickly solve a specific problem. For example, a PM has a large project and wants to automate project related processes.

For Mid/Small Markets-
Mid-market and small companies can use the SharePoint framework to develop People Driven processes that span the enterprise. Way cheaper than developing custom.