Microsoft SharePoint improves collaboration

Windows SharePoint Services provides your business with an intranet.  An Intranet is a website that is only accessible to authorised users winthin a network. A company intranet typically contains shared business documents such as contracts, product and price lists, budgets,and marketing materials. Intranets can increase employee productivity by giving individuals the ability to store and easily access files, applications, or internal information. Intranets are a powerful way for employees to work together. Windows Small Business Server 2008, comes with a built-in intranet that can help you:

• Improve team productivity with easy-to-use collaborative tools

Connect your staff with the information and resources they need. Your staff can create team workspaces, coordinate calendars, organise documents, and receive important notifications and updates through communication features including announcements and alerts, as well as the new templates for creating blogs and wikis.

• Easily manage documents and help ensure integrity of content

With enhanced document management capabilities including the option to activate required document checkout before editing, the ability to view revisions to documents and restore to previous versions, and the control to set document- and item-level security, Windows SharePoint Services can help ensure the integrity of documents stored on team sites.

• Get staff up to speed quickly

User interface improvements in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 include enhanced views and menus that simplify navigation within and among SharePoint sites. Integration with familiar productivity tools, including programs in the Microsoft Office system, makes it easy for your staff to get up to speed quickly. For example, your staff can create workspaces, post and edit documents, and view and update calendars on SharePoint sites, all while working within Microsoft Office system files and programs.

• Deploy solutions tailored to your business processes

While standard workspaces in Windows SharePoint Services are easy to implement, if your business needs a more customised deployment  - this can be done quickly with application templates for addressing specific business processes or sets of tasks.

• Take file sharing to a new level with robust storage capabilities

Windows SharePoint Services supplies workspaces with document storage and retrieval features, including check-in/check-out functionality, version history, custom metadata, and customisable views. New features in Windows SharePoint Services include enhanced recycle bin functionality for easier recovery of content and improved backup and restoration.

Should your business requirements grow you can use integration with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to expand these capabilities further to offer enterprise-wide functionality for records management, search, workflows, portals, personalised sites, and more.