Metalogix increases its extension of SharePoint capabilities with the acquisition of Axceler’s SharePoint governance products. As I pointed out in my research document, Putting Together The SharePoint ECM Puzzle, SharePoint’s ECM holes have created opportunity for partners to fill in the missing functionality required by organizations looking to implement an ECM solution. Metalogix focuses its efforts on archiving and storage, and with the Axceler acquisition, it ventures into the administration and governance areas that provide key capabilities to streamline the processes for migration, user administration, and policy compliance.

Our recent ECM survey showed that 46% of respondents indicated that the lack of governance was the single biggest challenge to their ECM implementation. My interactions with Forrester clients indicate that SharePoint implementations may actually suffer a higher percentage of failures due to the lack of governance. Organizations struggle to gain control over their SharePoint implementations, caused by the “SharePoint sprawl,” resulting in the explosion of sites that don’t follow any standards. The combination of Metalogix’s archiving products with Axceler’s governance and policy management products has the potential of providing organizations with a foundation that will help facilitate the implementation of a sustainable governance program. The merging of these two organizations and products will help address three key aspects of governance: archiving of sites, document libraries, and documents; the implementation governance policies; and the enforcement of site level quotas and security access.

Metalogix’s acquisition of Axceler will put pressure on other SharePoint ISV partners to enhance their product offering or make similar acquisitions to provide a suite of infrastructure capabilities that enhances or supplements SharePoint functionality. Creating a controlled, manageable SharePoint environment that follows a governance policy is the key to implementing a successful and sustainable SharePoint solution.