Sharepoint Services-- can someone shed light on what its all about

[colezpapa]

Can someone explain what Sharepoint Technology is all about.
What does it do well, and what does it not do that well.
Currently, we store PDF docs in a public mail folder...
I would like to re-do them in InfoPath. But what does Sharepoint do? Do I need a dedicated server?
Thanks for the info.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Basically, SharePoint is a collaboration platform.

I'm not too sure regarding the SharePoint Services, but Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is essentially a web plaform for sharing.

For example, we have one main intranet site, with a search engine on the home page. This search will not only index the website, but also file shares on multiple servers.

Under the main intranet site, we have a departmental sub-site. For example, as a web development company, we charge clients by the days spent on development and design. So under the technology services website we have forms/lists that developers record their timesheets in. This is linked to the SQL 2005 databse backend and we run Crystal Reports off it to invoice the customer.

Our customer service team have fully customised their site to track projects including all relevant documentation. We're planning on opening this sub-site out as an Extranet to our customer so they can view all of their documentation online.

All company documents are stored on SharePoint, with the search providing instant access to whatever documentation is required.
Also, with integration to the Windows Server System, products like Exchange 2007, Live Communications Server, Windows Vista and Office 2007 really make SharePoint the centre of our business.

It's full of buzzwords, but the best way to describe it is:

A fully web-enabled, sharing, collaboration and development platform for enabling communications across teams, departments, sites and even businesses.

Personally, I can't recommend it enough. Really great product, although it is very expensive. Then again for what you get it's reasonable value for money as long as you use all the features! (From quotas, to custom POS integration, personal MySites's, SQL integration with business intelligence and fully blown CMS)

Very, cool!

InfoPath is much easier, with most of the database and connectivity issues already sorted. I would always recommend a dedicated server for SharePoint - although it does depend on how many users will be accessing it.

Good Luck.




Steve.

"They have the internet on computers now!" - Homer Simpson

 

[qwertyjjj]

WSS does document collaboration very well...the same as MOSS.
MOSS does a whole host of other things including:
Business intelligence, business forms, content management, extended search functionality, portal sites & social networking.
However, I believe both platforms allow you to do some of your own development to extend certain capabilities.

 

[colezpapa]

Thank you for the information. It helped alot.