INTRODUCTION TO SHAREPOINT
An exceptionally easy to use solution for solving collaboration and information sharing problems that exist in many businesses with a point and click, web based solution.
SharePoint goes hand in hand with Microsoft Office to provide mechanisms for sharing Microsoft Office and other documents through web pages together with announcements, task lists, contact lists and much more. Many offices have tried to address this through conventional web sites written by web designers but these lack the dynamic capabilities of SharePoint.
Start with SharePoint for free!
SharePoint forms part of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 / 2008 and is integrated with Microsoft Office. It is simply downloaded from Microsoft and configured. SharePoint 2010 has just been released to coincide with the launch of Office 2010.
Prior to Office 2010 / SharePoint 2010, SharePoint was essentially split into two versions – the free to use Windows SharePoint Services v3.0 (WSS3.0) and the paid for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) for which various licensing options existed. With SharePoint 2010 this has been renamed – the free version is SharePoint Foundation 2010 and the paid for versions are named SharePoint Server 2010.
For many small to medium businesses starting with WSS or SharePoint Foundation will be a great starting point and will solve many issues allowing greater efficiencies to be achieved.
SQL Database Powered
SharePoint is powered by an SQL database – the free versions of SharePoint can happily use Ms SQL Express – the free to use version – it has some limitations but will certainly get you started. As a SharePoint site expands so it may be desirable to upgrade in order to gain use of additional features and performance.
Application Solution Template Gallery
As well as the standard built in templates Microsoft offer 40 free application template downloads to suit a whole range of business and work place requirements. Click here to view the list. These can be extended and modified to suit specific requirements. Third party vendors also offer templates and additional components to enhance SharePoint. We have found tools like Bamboo Solutions Bulk List Importer to be valuable when acquiring data that may already have existed in spreadsheets or other data sources into the system.
Alerts, Approvals and Workflows
The dynamic nature of SharePoint is elegantly illustrated by some of it’s useful in‑built features and integration with Microsoft Exchange for email. The alert facility enables users to automatically be made aware of changes or additions to data in a list by email. This can be on an individual event basis or rolled up as a summary of changes in a period. Approvals can be added to items such as documents in a document library so you can require that documents cannot be added and published in a library without going through a process of approval by designated approvers. Inherent with this can be version control whereby the system will retain previous versions of a document providing the history of changes and prior versions, whilst only the published version is available to regular users.
A further enabling technology which binds these and other functions together are Workflows where you can define a series of actions and have these initiated either automatically in response to actions taken – such as a new item being added to a list, or on demand workflow initiated manually by a user.
SharePoint Implementation Services
The exceptional flexibility of SharePoint means that for any organisation looking at it from the outside it is inevitable that as many questions are raised as answers offered. We usually begin with a general demonstration of SharePoint concepts and features and from these it usually becomes readily apparent to the prospective user just how SharePoint can be used to benefit their business.
From that point onwards we begin with an implementation plan addressing both the technical installation requirements and the design and implementation of specific functionality to suit the business. A program of user training to introduce the general concepts of navigation and adding and maintaining data then leads to a roll out of the SharePoint solution.
Contact us to arrange a general SharePoint demonstration and to discuss your particular requirements with us.
