Good advocacy site for Sharepoint?

[anationalacrobat]

This is something that my boss wants to bring in. He's all for it but I'm having trouble getting concrete examples of what it does past the marketing jargon. "You can store documents on here!" Right, just like on the network share. How is this different? "We can automate workflows!" Right, just like people aren't paying attention to them when we do it on paper, this will give them something else to ignore. "And we can use it for a wiki!" Yeah, I looked at the wiki feature built into it. It blows. All of the rest of it is vaguely described features that do little to bring understanding.

At this point in time, we have a copy installed on a test server. We have a few tabs built out, a shared calendar, but most of the "really cool stuff" is not built and I can't get a proper description of what it is they're even supposed to do. About the only thing I do know is that i can embed other applications within the Sharepoint application, essentially running them in an iframe. So our current wiki is running dokuwiki, we'll use that instead of the MOSS wiki. But that's the extend of my knowledge of the system.

What I'm looking for is some place that explains the features and capability of the software, no marketing BS, just a realistic appraisal of what it can and can't do and what people are using it for. I hear it's the best-selling Microsoft product in years but hell, corporate managers buy lots of silly, expensive things.

So, anyone have a link to a site that will make me a believer?

 

[max8699]

Hi
Here is a couple of sites your right not much out there getting away from the sales pitch idea.

http://www.724hosting.com/sharepoint/whatiswss.htm

http://www.creative-sharepoint.com/sharepoint-what-is-sharepoint.asp

http://www.sharepointhq.com/resources/what_is_SP.htm

http://www.mosslady.com/article/6

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/21815/what-does-sharepoint-portal-server-do.html

A couple of places i look after have sharepoint running one site we use it as an Intranet site for the staff and kids to post photo's and docs and to book either the techs or the it room, and they have it hooked upto there internet. The other site use it as there intranet to share docs ( forms, proceedures etc) and to share the calendar. They prefer that way as it's there home page when they open ie.

Regards
Max
Never argue with an idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience

 

[anationalacrobat]

Thanks for the info! I'll check it out.

Based on the hype surrounding Sharepoint, it's supposed to be as revolutionary compared to how we're doing things today as the Outlook/Exchange package is compared to text terminal email like Pine.

My personal opinion about Outlook/Exchange is that it's the best implementation of the idea we've seen so far but that's only because the competition is so weak. There's so much room for improvement.

The thing I'm still trying to wrap my brain around here is that a lot of the Sharepoint features (at least what was demoed in our meeting) seem to be mere duplication of functionality already present in Outlook. Reserve equipment, see calendars, schedule meetings, etc, why do we need this in Sharepoint if we already have it in Exchange? Is the idea that we can use either equally as well and people can choose the interface they like more, the same way that people can either RDP in to work and use their Outlook or use Outlook Web Access instead?

Anyway, I'll check out those links, maybe the answers I seek are there! Thanks a bunch.

 

[FloDiggs]

Part of SharePoint's appeal is the customizability it offers. There are templates you can download that run applications on top of SharePoint. You can see the templates here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/bb407287.aspx

If you have in house development, they can develop custom apps, similar to these, that run on top of SharePoint. This makes development a little faster because the infrastructure for the app is already in place. At least that is how I understand it.

I know what you mean about the Outlook/Exchange like features, but keep in mind that this is a collaboration tool that could be used to link two organizations together. We aren't looking to use these features either. We are more interested in the Wiki to replace our current documentation website. It's really going to stream line our documenation process and remove the current "site administrator", who is a bit of a gate keeper.

I guess the biggest appeal is the flexibility it offers. It can do just about anything if you want to take the time to make it do it.

HTH

 

[FloDiggs]

You should also try

http://www.wssdemo.com.

It show cases a lot of what SharePoint can do and it is actually built on SharePoint.

 

[eman6]

"We can automate workflows!" Right, just like people aren't paying attention to them when we do it on paper, this will give them something else to ignore

It ought to be clear to any company trying to find a tool to help them improve their workflow: No tool in the world can ever force people to do things properly. For those who are willing to do things a better way, though, you can hopefully provide a tool or a facility to use for that purpose.

______________________________________
Eman6
Technical User

 

[traingamer]

I've been thrown headfirst into our department sharepoint site.

Sharepoint seems to be an excellent place for colloboration and communication.

Can I send a copy of a spreadsheet to 50 users? Sure. Can I point the same 50 users to a spot on the network where the spreadsheet is located? Sure (if they have access).
Can I put it in Sharepoint, limit the users who can update it, and let everyone know what version is out there, automatically email a list of users when it is updated and provide an rss feed? YES!

Can I easily set up a sub-site for a meeting where all of the documents, calendars and what not are located in Sharepoint and only appropriate people have access to them, can blog, wiki and update? YES.

Can I set up department news and notices? Yes, that too.

Rarely (very rarely) am I a Microsoft evangelist, but this product has great possibilities. It's individual uses may (or may not) be better than wikis or blogs or intranet sites you already have, but the combination and interaction of those things and its relatively simple use make this a pretty versatile product.

Greg
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. Kierkegaard