Alfresco: A+ in Positioning as the SharePoint Alternative
Frequent readers will know I'm a pretty tough grader, but I have to give Alfresco an A+ for the positioning and strategy around (if not the naming of) today's launch of Alfresco Labs Beta 3.
They're drowning in coverage -- press this link to see a list. And the positioning and strategy is simply superb. Why?
- By positioning as the Microsoft SharePoint alternative they get to dismiss the entire existing enterprise content management (ECM) category, including their most direct and threatening competitors (e.g., EMC / Documentum, OpenText , Interwoven).
- The SharePoint threat to the existing category is real enough, and the existing vendors wounded, confused, or over-engineered enough, to make that dismissal credible.
- Alfresco then gets to have an elevator pitch that boils down to: everyone knows SharePoint is going to eat the ECM category, and most people like neither SharePoint nor Microsoft, so wouldn't you like to have an alternative?
It's beautiful in it simplicity, logic, and credible dismissal of what I'd guess is their top short-term enemy. Most vendors try to dismiss the current competition in their pitches, but it's not credible. They either say "we have no competition" (yawn) or "we welcome competition from the 87-foot giant because it's going to validate our space" (in which you may likely end up roadkill).
I'm not sure I've ever seen a startup so elegantly, effectively, and credibly dismiss a $1B+ competitor. What's better is that the strategy backs the messaging. By effectively offering an alternative SharePoint backend, they are able to swap out the plumbing and eliminate the need for underlying Microsoft infrastructure, such as SQL Server and Windows itself.
Great strategy. Great messaging. Great execution.
Well done John, John, and Ian!
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