Chapter 1. Introducing SharePoint Products and Technologies

Microsoft SharePoint products and technologies are server applications that facilitate collaboration, provide comprehensive content management, implement business processes, and provide access to information that is essential to organizational goals and processes. They provide an integrated platform to plan, deploy, and manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications.

Some applications appeal to particular groups of users. For example, SAP, Excel, and Lotus 123 are targeted at CFO’s, accountants, and bookkeepers. Powerpoint PowerPoint has always been an essential tool for sales people and professional speakers on many topics.

SharePoint, in contrast, is a set of technologies that has applicability to everyone in an organization. For example: CEOs can use SharePoint KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to see the health of their business or divisions at a glance. Accountants can use Excel services to publish live financial data to a Web page. Knowledge managers and librarians can use SharePoint’s document management features to make information discoverable and accessible, while the legal team can breathe easier knowing that their corporate records management policies are being followed. And finally, the thousands of workers in an organization can use search to find people and information quickly, and to discover valuable relationships and information that they may not have realized existed using the knowledge network and a well-organized portal taxonomy.

This chapter describes Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, provides a high-level feature comparison between the previous 2003 and new 2007 product versions, and helps the reader choose between Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server.