Microsoft say that SharePoint 2010 and Project 2010 will release in the first half of the calendar year 2010 and all the smart money is on the second quarter of 2010. This will essentially be the fourth major version of the SharePoint platform since the first SharePoint version shipped in 2001. If you would like to see what is in SharePoint 2010 then this ”Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 – What’s Coming” webcast will be of interest to you. The Project 2010 server and desktop release is arguably the best Microsoft Project release in the 25 year history of the product set. To find out more you can view this ”Microsoft Project Desktop 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 – What’s New” webcast.
The next BrightWork release will be a dual release. We will release a version for SharePoint 2007 and also a version for SharePoint 2010. This will be in the second quarter of 2010 - timed to coincide with the SharePoint 2010 and Project 2010 releases. With this strategy we aim to serve those customers who want to go to SharePoint 2010 and Project 2010 immediately and we also aim to also to serve those customers who want to stay with SharePoint 2007 and Project 2007 / 2003 for a while longer. In September 2009 we showed an early beta of pmPoint working on SharePoint 2010 that integrated with Project 2010. [Screenshot Demo]
As before we will ensure that BrightWork is deployable on the “free” version of the SharePoint platform – currently named ‘Windows SharePoint Services’ and being renamed by Microsoft in the 2010 release to ‘Microsoft SharePoint Foundation’. We will also ensure that the BrightWork product set deploys and takes advantage of the paid version of the SharePoint platform, currently called MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) and being renamed by Microsoft in the 2010 release to ‘Microsoft SharePoint Server’.
The 2010 release of pmPoint will use the new Microsoft Project 2010 synchronize-to-Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 feature. Today with pmPoint on SharePoint 2007, BrightWork customers can import and export tasks from Microsoft Project 2007 or 2003, but with this new functionality, pmPoint customers will be able to fully synchronize Project 2010 tasks into pmPoint project sites in SharePoint 2010. These Microsoft Project tasks will be fully available in all pmPoint reports on the single project and cross project dashboards.
“We at Microsoft are very pleased that BrightWork have shown Project 2010 and pmPoint integration working so early in the 2010 release cycle,” said Seth Patton, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Microsoft Project. “We do believe that the ability for customers to see a dashboard of reports in SharePoint that reports across many project sites with data synchronized in from Project Professional 2010 will be very appealing, and will provide a natural stepping stone to the full capabilities of Project Server 2010.”