FormKiQ vs SharePoint: Which Is the Right Choice for Your Organization?

Making the Right Choice for Document Management

As the CTO of FormKiQ, I've spent countless hours discussing document management solutions with organizations of all sizes. Some of our customers and prospects use SharePoint and mention possibly integrating that system with FormKiQ using our Document Gateway (our module for deep integration with Microsoft products and systems), while others have stayed far away from SharePoint as a whole.

But I often am left with a question, when talking to customers and when reading reddit threads and viewing forums around document management, where stock answers often consist of "just use SharePoint", but without much nuance.

When should an organization stick entirely with SharePoint, when should an org keep to more cloud-native solutions like FormKiQ, and when does it make sense to integrate the two together for an even greater whole?

Two Different Philosophies

In my journey from working with traditional document management systems to the design and growth of FormKiQ, I've seen firsthand how different approaches to document management can significantly impact an organization's success. SharePoint represents the comprehensive, established enterprise approach, while FormKiQ embodies the modern, API-first philosophy. Both have their place, and understanding these philosophies is crucial to making the right choice.

When SharePoint Makes Sense

Let me be clear – SharePoint is an excellent solution for many organizations. Despite being the only person in the world with a FormKiQ coffee mug (this will be changing soon), I often find myself bringing up SharePoint to companies that are deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem. When you're fully invested in the platform, the tight integration can often make sense.

SharePoint is particularly effective when:

• Your organization is heavily invested in Microsoft 365 and Teams
• You need comprehensive out-of-the-box compliance features
• Internal collaboration is your primary focus
• You want a full-featured intranet solution immediately

I remember one organization I'd spoken with, in the health care industry in the Mid-Atlantic US, who'd been thinking about FormKiQ as an option. They had existing workflows that included SharePoint, and had integrated it with other systems, including specialized applications that took significant investment to connect together. They had a heavy emphasis on internal collaboration within MS Office applications, and used MS Teams for their main communication channels.

I gave them all of the great reasons to consider FormKiQ, like our flexible workflows and easy integration through our API, but I also mentioned the idea of extending their use of SharePoint. Ultimately, it made more sense for them to continue along that path, rather than having to rework much of their existing system, no matter how easy the implementation could be. It just made sense for their needs.

Why We Built FormKiQ Differently

When we created FormKiQ, we deliberately took a different approach. We saw a gap in the market for a document management solution that prioritized developer experience and modern integration capabilities. We built FormKiQ to be the solution my cofounder and I had wished we had, back when we were implementing customer-facing applications that needed robust document management features.

FormKiQ is the optimal choice when:

• You're building customer-facing applications that need document management capabilities
• Your team values API-first architecture and modern development practices
• You need flexible, scalable integration with various systems
• Performance and low latency are critical requirements

One of our clients, a fast-growing insurance company, chose FormKiQ specifically because they needed to embed document management capabilities into their existing application without the overhead of traditional solutions. They were able to integrate FormKiQ in weeks rather than months, and their developers particularly appreciated our API-first approach.

Performance Considerations

Let's talk about performance – something I'm particularly passionate about, as poor performance is one of the leading causes of an application becoming unusable over time.

During FormKiQ's development, we made conscious decisions to prioritize performance and scalability. SharePoint's comprehensive feature set comes with inherent overhead, which makes sense, given the combination of a broad capability set and the architectural options that were available at its conception.

FormKiQ's cloud-native and hyperscale-ready architecture means you can scale exactly what you need, when you need it. We were fortunate to have access to newer technologies when we started building the foundation of FormKiQ. But our newer solution also hasn't had the same amount of time to create the deep feature set and rich ecosystem that SharePoint has. It can take some upfront work to get some advanced features added to FormKiQ.

Luckily, adding new and flexible functionality is something our design is perfect for.

Making the Right Choice

If you are looking to decide between FormKiQ and SharePoint or an integrated combined solution, I would encourage you to consider these key questions:

1. Are you primarily focused on internal collaboration or external integration?
2. How important is developer experience to your team?
3. Do you need extensive compliance features out of the box, or are you willing to work with a vendor to build out specific features that aren't yet available?
4. What's your tolerance for system overhead?

My Honest Take

As FormKiQ's CTO and sole mugholder, you might expect me to push our solution in every situation. But anyone who has worked to sell, implement, and support a software solution knows that the wrong choice for a potential customer is a recipe for disaster.

SharePoint remains the go-to choice for organizations deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem that need comprehensive internal collaboration tools. FormKiQ, on the other hand, is the better choice for teams building modern, customer-facing applications that need flexible, high-performance document management capabilities.

I've seen SharePoint implementations that work well for organizations that fully utilize its ecosystem. And obviously I've watched FormKiQ transform the development experience for teams building modern applications. The key is understanding your specific needs and choosing the tool that best aligns with your technical requirements and workflow.

Looking Forward

The document management landscape continues to evolve, and both SharePoint and FormKiQ will adapt to meet new challenges. At FormKiQ, we're constantly innovating to improve our API-first approach while maintaining our focus on developer experience and performance, and adding more features for compliance and process improvement. Meanwhile, SharePoint continues to enhance its extensive feature set and its already-rich Microsoft ecosystem integration.

If you would like to have this conversation with us in relation to your organization, please contact us.