Why should you use Microsoft SharePoint?

It’s fair to say that the vast majority of businesses - no matter their size -would like to be able to turn every good task an employee does, into a web based solution. And let’s face it, the business world of today demands that you make your business e-compatible. This is where it gets tricky, as not all businesses can afford the huge amounts of money it can sometimes cost to have a custom built enterprise level portal built for them. So, for these situations Microsoft has “SharePoint Server”, making it much easier for business to get access to their very own enterprise-portal.

Here are a few reasons why you and your business should be using Sharepoint Server:

Reduce Development Time and Cost with Out of the Box Portal Services

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 can be deployed right out of the box without any additional development work. Portal services such as search, SharePoint site management, topics and My Sites are available immediately. Web Parts can be created in FrontPage that provide read/write access to Microsoft applications such as Outlook are also available right out of the box, lowering development costs.

Flexible Options Make Deployment Easier

Regardless of the model you wish to adopt for deployment Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 has a deployment model that fits your needs. The portal is built on a scalable, highly distributed architecture that can be deployed on a single box or server farm. You can link Windows SharePoint Services sites, Business Unit portals and the enterprise portal together at any time, enabling knowledge to be shared across the organization.

Create a Complete View of Your Business Access

All the information, documents and applications you use throughout the day through Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Single Sign On and built in Microsoft BizTalk Server and application connector integration enable IT Professionals to integrate existing Line of Business applications into the portal. You can find and reuse timely and relevant information from systems and reports, and quickly locate and access documents, projects, and best practices by searching or browsing — all through the portal. Web Parts enable you to assemble a view of complementary information from multiple sources, so you can view customer information from Customer Relationship Management systems, Outlook, file shares and websites at the same time.

Put Relevant Information at Your Fingertips

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal server 2003 enables you to be more productive by giving you immediate access to up-to-date, relevant information. You can organise all information, documents and applications you access throughout the day in a single view on My Site. Single sign on and personalisation services enable you to not only access applications through the portal; SharePoint Portal Server provides direct access to those sections of the application you are most interested in, without having to remember your password. Audience targeting enables IT to customise an experience for you based on your role, hierarchy or interests, pushing relevant news, links, documents, applications and web services to your portal.

Share Knowledge Across the Organization

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 makes it easy for Business Units, teams and individuals to contribute content to the portal. Business Units can integrate their SharePoint Portal into the enterprise portal, enabling them to share knowledge with other Business Units. Teams can easily make the content in their Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services sites discoverable through the portal through browsing or searching. And users can publish documents and Best Practices to the rest of the organization by adding them to the public view of their personal sites. By integrating with other office products, such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft FrontPage and Microsoft Visual Studio, teams can leverage and share information they already have deep investments in.

Find and Leverage Your Organisation’s Intellectual Capital

SharePoint Portal Server’s industry-leading search technology lets you locate documents, project plans and Best Practices in file shares, websites, Exchange Public Folders, Lotus Notes, Windows SharePoint Services sites and databases instead of re-creating the wheel. Create documents in FrontPage and show reports using a live XML-based data connection. You can find more than just documents and websites; SharePoint Portal Server provides access to the people and teams that contribute knowledge to your organisation. Links take you to My Sites and SharePoint sites so you can investigate other contributions from the experts. Information, documents and sites can also be organised into topics, enabling you to find a wealth of relevant information by browsing.

Find, Aggregate and Provision SharePoint Sites

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 utilizes Windows SharePoint Services sites to create portal pages for people, information, and organisations. The portal becomes a collaborative experience by extending the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services sites, enabling you to organise, manage and provision SharePoint sites from the portal. Teams can also publish information in their sites, sharing their Best Practices with the entire organisation.

Create Self-Service Portals

With its industry-leading search, single sign on technology and built in BizTalk Server and application connector integration, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 enables you to create self-service portals for employees, partners and customers. Employees can access HR systems and sign up for benefits using the same portal they use everyday to access people, teams and knowledge. Because SharePoint Portal Server is so easy to use, you can deploy it as an extranet and enable customers and partners to place and track their own orders or search for support documents, improving customer satisfaction while reducing your support costs. Extend a team web site beyond static pages using FrontPage.

Automate Business Processes

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 helps relevant information find you through Alerts and Audience Targeting. Alerts notify you when any relevant document, SharePoint site, or application has been added or changed. You can even be alerted when a specific expert or team adds new information to the portal. Audience targeting enables IT groups to push relevant information and applications to a group of users with similar job roles, titles, or interests. Audiences can be created from Active Directory, Distribution Lists, hierarchies, or any other criteria that you define.

Speed Adoption with Familiar Interfaces and Tools

New technologies often fail because they are too hard to use and no one has time to attend lengthy training courses. Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 speeds user adoption and lowers training costs by using familiar tools found in Office applications, such as drop down boxes to display editing options, and drag and drop tools to customise the portal content and layout. IT Professionals can create Web Parts that expose information, applications and Web Services by using familiar tools such as Visual Studio.NET and FrontPage.

Newpath WEB has expertise in Microsoft SharePoint development and SharePoint services to help its clients globally. At Newpath WEB, the web development team has a strong understanding of SharePoint Server development.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 7th, 2009 at 8:37 am and is filed under Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.