Answers to FAQs from analysts, SharePoint customers/partners, and SharePoint sales/marketing folks

Oliver Young, a Forrester analyst for whom I have great respect, recently posted this blog entry about my departure from Microsoft, which raised some questions and concerns regarding Telligent's positioning in the social computing space and with/against SharePoint. Because I've seen and heard similar questions being asked by others, I've reposted my response below for everyone to read. While I'm disappointed that Oliver didn't ping me directly to ask his questions, I hope that by being open and pragmatic about how I intend to help position Telligent will alleviate any concerns much more so than aggravate them.

Oliver, I intend to help Telligent become an even better/bigger partner for SharePoint than less. During the past two weeks that I’ve been officially onboard, we’ve had numerous opportunities brought to us by the Microsoft field, many of which involve Community Server Evolution in conjunction with SharePoint. Both Microsoft and its customers of SharePoint see Telligent as complementary rather than competing.

I believe that Telligent will (continue to) be tremendously successful in the market at the expense of our competitors much more so than SharePoint.

Sure, I know all about SharePoint warts and gaps, but I also know its advantages and immense potential, which is why SharePoint customers (and partners) should look to Telligent as the go-to SharePoint partner for social computing and online community value add.

My departure from Microsoft and SharePoint could not have been more amicable. I’m proud to be able to call *all* of my former Microsoft colleagues .. genuine friends, and I’ve already called on and talked with many of them about customer referrals and partner opportunities. And they know that they can call on me to assist with just about anything related to social computing, online communities, and beyond.

Re: Sam Lawrence, we’ve met in person and shaken hands back in June, but we remain fierce competitors. I respect him, and I hope that he respects me. Competition is good because it pushes our respective companies and collective industry forward more quickly, which ultimately benefits our customers/partners.

If you want to be briefed on Telligent’s product plans and/or platform strategy, please ping me directly at LLiu@Telligent.com. Thanks!

I'm emphasizing that last line as an invitation to *any* relevant analysts out there, who would like to learn more about Telligent. In terms of our current integration points with SharePoint, there's a good overview on the SharePoint Team Blog guest posted by our Director of Program Management, Josh Ledgard. We plan to provide much more SharePoint value add in future versions of Evolution, and we would love to hear from SharePoint customers, who can help us refine and prioritize specific areas of integration and extension.