Windows SharePoint Services

So... I have spoken about business planning and now I would like to have a look at one product in particular: SharePoint

Now SharePoint has been a hot topic for a couple of years now and in Perth in particular it’s really starting to get some traction. I am going to go into why I think it is gaining so much momentum over the last little while.

SharePoint comes in two packages: Free and Paid. As you can imagine, you get more int he paid version than the free one, however you have to ask yourself – what does my business need?
That is a conversation more akin to my previous post, however in this post I want to explore the free one: Windows SharePoint Services (WSS).

Now, I say WSS is free and it is IF you buy Microsoft Server 2003 or 2008. If you have this – which most SME’s do, then we are laughing and should get into some features.

First we should look at the intranet side of things:

WSS features as an internal website for your business. This means that you can transfer your operating interface from emailing documents, searching through files and asking accounts how much is in the bank to a homepage built especially for you (because it’s built by you) displaying your information on it, and team sites where you can share ideas, collaborate on documents and store information pertaining to your job role and the team that you work with.

The purpose of the team sites is to help you collaborate and work more closely with one another. People in offices generally want to get on with their job and view internal meetings and reporting to be a waste of time they could be spending on being productive. The team sites concept allows your managers to access information pertaining to your job role to ensure that their department is running smoothly and on target. This data is often live and therefore enables managers to be able to make decisions based on this effectively.

Dashboards

What we are talking about here is dashboards and WSS allows you to feed information into a personal page in a succinct manner so that you can see how you or your department is going at any one time.

Often reliant on SQL reporting services, this functionality enables businesses to run more smoothly, not halted by contact management meetings, team meetings or one-on-ones just to convey this information face0to-face. Your boss gets off your back and you can work more effectively.

This is where SharePoint really comes into it;s own. The collaborative ability of WSS sees that you can upload documents here instead of using up all your server space, check them out to edit – letting everyone know that YOU have the document and then check it back in as a new version, or an approved Major Version.

This collaborative ability sees that you email storage decreases because you don’t have all the files replicated 10 times in your exchange file on the server, you always know who has the document, you can read the latest approved release of the document, you can put security on it to ensure that only the finest work comes out of your department and you can protect it with securities and built in confidentiality so that others in your organisation don’t see it until you are ready.

Search

Everything in WSS is searchable. This means that you don’t have to worry about crappy file sotores anymore. You can upload docs to your team site, and when you need them, just search for them. The search functionality checks the body text of the doc and any meta data that you put against it. So realistically, you never have to search through your file server again.
The best bit about the search functionality is that you can see if anyone has previously done a doc which is close to something you need to create. NO MORE RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL!!! All you have to do is find the work that has been done using Search and tweak the doc to your specs. Your boss will be impressed and the standard of the doc’s will probably be higher – for example you can pick something that has already won some business in the past and use that.

Internet Facing

One of the great advantages of this technology is that (apart from being free) you can make it internet facing so that workers can dial in from home and do some work on the fly – proof a document from the airport, upload an article you read at home, blog when your creative juices are flowing. This freedom to work when it feels right gives a more productive and happier workforce without increasing the stress levels. SharePOint actually takes the stress away because you know where everything is – right next to the search button.

So if you could log on in the morning and see this and know how your day is going to go, don’t you think you’ll be more productive, happier and more able to enjoy your free time?

So I guess that’s the point. Windows SharePoint Services makes work so easy that your life will just be full of weekends. Wouldn’t that make you the happiest little busy bee alive???