Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 - Overview

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 is a versatile technology that organisations and business units of all sizes can use to increase the efficiency of business processes and improve team productivity.

With tools for collaboration that help people stay connected across organisational and geographic boundaries, WSS 3.0 gives people access to information they need. It also provides a foundation platform for building Web-based business applications that can flex and scale easily to meet the changing and growing needs of your business.

Robust administrative controls for managing storage and Web infrastructure give IT departments a cost-effective way to implement and manage a high-performance collaboration environment. With a familiar, Web-based interface and close integration with everyday tools including the Microsoft Office system, Windows SharePoint Services is easy to use and can be deployed rapidly.

While SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 is a freely downloadable add-on for users of Windows Server 2003, the question is: what about implementation? SBS can help by providing low-cost, SharePoint Services Fast Track Packages that enable rapid implementation and ensure that you extract maximum business benefit from the software.

SBS can also, if required, help you through the process of upgrading to the more feature-rich MOSS 2007 environment.

Upgrading from WSS 3.0 to MOSS 2007

MOSS 2007 utilises the core WSS framework, and extends it in such a way that is beneficial to larger companies, enterprise deployments, and portal developments. Additional features and enhancements include:

Business Data Catalogue/Business Data Search - possibly one of the most important features of MOSS 2007, this allows you to extend SharePoint data by integrating Business Data from external sources such as Web Services or Relational Databases. This enables you to do things such as display SAP data within a SharePoint portal.

Document Workflow - a powerful feature whereby users can use “included in the box" workflows such as collecting feedback and performing a review of a document, or create workflows around specific types of documents such as whitepapers, magazine articles, etc.

Enterprise search - The MOSS 2007 search engine is a powerful enterprise search engine with a relevance algorithm and is able to crawl content from multiple sites within an enterprise, as well as non-SharePoint web sites.

Knowledge Network/People Search - MOSS 2007 provides an enhanced "people search" tool that can be used to mine hidden relationship data and show people related to knowledge.

My Site – MOSS 2007 provides the ability for individual users of a portal to create their own "My Site", which is essentially a home page/landing page designed to provide a starting point through which to access content that each user owns and content that might be relevant to them.