The Magical World of Sharepoint - A Brief Overview
Starting at Microsoft has introduced me to an amazing technology - Sharepoint. Although I'm slightly late on the uptake (Sharepoint has been around in various forms since since 2001 and has been hugely successful for Microsoft), I'm sure there are still many partners who are unaware if the benefits Sharepoint can bring to their business, and just as many who have deployed Sharepoint, but aren't using it to it's full capability.
So what can Sharepoint do? Or maybe a better question is, what can't it do? In official marketing terms, Sharepoint is a collaboration,portal, document management, enterprise search, business intelligence and business process tool. (phew!)
Watch this space for future posts on each of these areas...
Sharepoint comes in three main 'flavours': Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 (WSS), Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) Standard CAL and MOSS Enterprise CAL.
There are also additional server products, for example Office Forms Server and Microsoft Search Server 2008, which can also be incorporated to further increase the functionality of Sharepoint.
Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) is the backbone to Sharepoint. It's an enabling technology, that is included (for no additional cost!) with Windows Server 2003 and 2008. WSS provides the ability for workers to easily and effectively collaborate using team sites, giving them access to the information they need to make informed, smart decisions.
Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) utilises WSS technology, but extends the functionality to include additional features, such as out-of-the-box workflows and enterprise-level search (Standard CAL) and Business Data Catalogue and Excel Services (Enterprise CAL).
There will be many more Sharepoint-based posts on this blog in the months to come, especially focused around Enterprise Content Management, so stay tuned to learn more.
If you can't possibly wait that long, then why not check out some of these links:
Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0
Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007
There's also plenty of great Sharepoint training tools out there. One particularly useful one I've come across is: