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SharePoint
Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Server
Increasingly critical business information resides in scattered islands across the entire organization. Local Hard Drives, Network Shares, E-Mail, and Remote Systems all may have pieces of the information. Who has the most current copy? How can you collaborate and work as a team on important documents like contracts or bids? Most of all, how can you do all this without worrying about the location where you are trying to access the information? All these problems are daunting enough within one company's network, but today we need to work together closely with our partners, customers, and vendors. Web technologies seem like the ideal platform to be able to share information this way, but how can we tame this information beast without becoming a programmer or investing in the creation and maintenance of a sophisticated intranet or extranet?
The Answer is one of Microsoft’s best kept secrets, Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Server…
Windows Sharepoint Services
If you own Microsoft Windows Server 2003, or Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, you already have everything you need to begin using Sharepoint Technology. Microsoft has included the core version of Sharepoint, called Windows Sharepoint Services, with all copies of Windows Server 2003. Sharepoint is a framework to allow users with little or no Web design experience to develop intranet or extranet web sites on an as-needed basis. Just imagine - with a few clicks your next large project, meeting, bid, or internal team can have their own secure web site. These web sites can have calendars, task lists, image galleries, threaded discussion lists, and even document libraries with full version control and check in / check out capabilities.
In addition, because Sharepoint technology is fully integrated with the Office 2003 System, you have full access to all this information within all the parts of the Office 2003 family like Word, Excel, and Outlook. More importantly, you can have access to all this from anywhere you can access the Web. Imagine being able to access the latest copy of that proposal or document from home or a client site quickly and easily.
Lastly, Sharepoint is an expandable framework meaning that “Web Parts” can be added to display all sorts of information. You can choose from dozens of pre-written web parts for common software and systems, or engage our solutions development team to create a “Web Part” to include information from your mission critical systems.
Business Benefits
- Easy Remote Access to Data from Anywhere
- Share Data with Customers and Partners Securely
- Full Integration for Information Access at your Fingertips
- End the “Who Has the Latest Version” Confusion on Critical Documents
- Easily Share and Collaborate on Information
- Create Intranet and Extranet Web Sites Without Knowing Anything About Programming or Web Design
So What’s the Catch?
First off, Sharepoint is more like a tool than a product. This means that once it is installed we have found that clients need some assistance in determining how to apply it to their particular business problems. If an organization is going to get the most out of it, this planning and training step is a critical part of the process. Also, customers often want to work with InLine’s solution development team to create themes, templates, and other components to enforce a consistent look and feel on all sites that are created.
Microsoft also offers a commercial version of Sharepoint, called Microsoft Sharepoint Portal Server. This product can be installed at anytime on top of Windows Sharepoint Services and extends its basic functionality in key areas for heavy Sharepoint users.
