Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Research Paper Example

Introduction

This brief essay discusses Office SharePoint® Server 2007, a product of Microsoft, has been praised variously for helping organizations get more work done in less time. This is because SharePoint provides an efficient platform for organisations to share information within and without their work environments, facilitating teams and communities to work together in people-driven processes[1].

Microsoft SharePoint is also known as the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies or just SharePoint. It is simply a software platform launched by Microsoft to facilitate collaboration, sharing and web publishing all under a singular server. Most establishments with high internet traffic operations employ the Office SharePoint Server to man the peak site-traffic sessions in streamlined business processes, effective monitoring and self-reporting[2]. The following section illustrates how SharePoint can be employed in modern business environments to optimize communication and collaboration. The five features listed and justified below are what make Office SharePoint® Server 2007 a perfect solution to modern businesses.

SharePoint in Modern Business Environment

Contemporary business environments require every company and or organization to be connected round the clock[3]. Decisions are made at any time and from numerous locations, emergencies are dealt with on a continuous basis and business information needs to be shared easily and updated constantly[4]. Windows SharePoint effectively creates that collaborative environment necessarily in a highly competitive business environment. Indeed, SharePoint solutions have helped many companies and organisations to optimize productivity and efficiency than at any other time in history.

The capabilities of SharePoint include content management systems, website development software, business portals, search engines, blogs, wikis and numerous other tools essential for business intelligence[5]. Among its core features include information management capabilities for business executives. SharePoint incorporates sites for storing important information like contacts (contact lists), calendars, Web links, issues lists, discussions entries and crucial announcements[6]. This helps businesses in reducing time expenditure and increasing efficiency since the information is in a centralized place for all employees.

The second feature that makes SharePoint an important business platform is its ability to share files. SharePoint has an impressive document storage, retrieval and updating capability for important business records. Sales records for instance, employee expenses records, supplier invoices, order lists etc, can be efficiently stored, monitored, retrieved and   updated from a centralised platform called document libraries[7]. Document libraries are especially important in storing documents for each particular project that needs to be accessed by many employees from assorted locations. Such information can be shared between employees on a singular platform, faster and more conveniently[8].

Debatably, SharePoint’s most impressive feature is its collaboration ability where team members easily create efficient collaborative workspace sites for them to manage, share and complement their team information, such as when the team is handling a collective project like marketing. The collaboration platform enables teams to access ands or post threaded discussions, conduct and analyse surveys, post task lists and many other collaboration features as teammates[9]. The teammates can also post announcement lists, events lists, task lists, discussion boards, meeting sites etc, between themselves. Businesses can therefore attain a highly connected and optimally productive work environment using SharePoint’s collaborative ability[10].

Another key feature of SharePoint is its ability to facilitate teams and individuals customize sites in appearance, functionality, programming and applications to feature the needs and preferences of the group/team. A team can have some members a Web Designer right/Administrator of site groups to facilitate such changes when need be. Such rights enable the administrators to insert, share, modify and or delete pages, add and or remove personal comments, change colours and appearances of the sites, change the theme of the sites, generate, send and or respond to alerts etc[11].

Finally, SharePoint has a capability to work with all other Microsoft Office applications. SharePoint integrates all Office 2003/7/10 programs so that a team can collaborate between members using familiar tools and which they use daily on their PC’s[12]. Such applications compatible and integrated with SharePoint include, Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003, Office Outlook 2003, Microsoft Office Visio® 2003 and Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Access 2003, Office Outlook 2003 etc. This makes the platform so applicable and easy to use for all team members in a company with maximal efficiency and convenience[13].

Conclusion

The brief essay discussed Office SharePoint® Server 2007, which has been praised variously for helping organizations get more work done in less time. Contemporary business environments require every company and or organization to be connected round the clock. Windows SharePoint effectively creates that collaborative environment necessarily in a highly competitive business environment. The capabilities of SharePoint include content management systems, website development software, business portals, search engines, blogs, wikis and numerous other tools essential for business intelligence. Among its core features include information management capabilities for business executives. SharePoint also incorporates sites for storing important information like contacts (contact lists), calendars, Web links, issues lists, discussions entries and crucial announcements. The second feature that makes SharePoint an important business platform is its ability to share files. SharePoint has an impressive document storage, retrieval and updating capability for important business records. SharePoint’s most impressive feature is its collaboration ability where team members easily create efficient collaborative workspace sites for them to manage, share and complement their team information, such as when the team is handling a collective project like marketing. Another key feature of SharePoint is its ability to facilitate teams and individuals customize sites in appearance, functionality, programming and applications to feature the needs and preferences of the group/team. Finally, SharePoint has a capability to work with all other Microsoft Office applications.

References

Kanaracus, Chris: Microsoft Unveils Enterprise Search Products, The New York Times, 5 May 2007, Available online at <http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E180025738A006D9567.html?ref=technology>.

Microsoft Case studies, Football Association: Sports Organisation Streamlines Business with Digital Collaboration Platform, <http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server-2010/Football-Association/Sports-Organisation-Streamlines-Business-with-Digital-Collaboration-Platform/4000007694>(Accessed August 15, 2010).

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

Solutions, Customer Solution: Accenture, News Gator, < http://www.newsgator.com/solutions.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

Support, Introducing the features of a SharePoint site, Microsoft Office Suite, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/technet/introducing-the-features-of-a-sharepoint-site-HA001142598.aspx?redir=0> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

[1] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

[2] Kanaracus, Chris: Microsoft Unveils Enterprise Search Products, The New York Times, 5 May 2007, Available online at <http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E180025738A006D9567.html?ref=technology>.

[3] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

[4] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

[5] Kanaracus, Chris: Microsoft Unveils Enterprise Search Products, The New York Times, 5 May 2007, Available online at <http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E180025738A006D9567.html?ref=technology>.

[6] Microsoft Case studies, Football Association: Sports Organisation Streamlines Business with Digital Collaboration Platform, <http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server-2010/Football-Association/Sports-Organisation-Streamlines-Business-with-Digital-Collaboration-Platform/4000007694>(Accessed August 15, 2010).

[7] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

[8] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

[9] Kanaracus, Chris: Microsoft Unveils Enterprise Search Products, The New York Times, 5 May 2007, Available online at <http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E180025738A006D9567.html?ref=technology>.

[10] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

[11] Microsoft Case studies, Football Association: Sports Organisation Streamlines Business with Digital Collaboration Platform, <http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Sharepoint-Server-2010/Football-Association/Sports-Organisation-Streamlines-Business-with-Digital-Collaboration-Platform/4000007694>(Accessed August 15, 2010).

[12] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).

[13] Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft, <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/default.aspx> (Accessed August 15, 2010).