MOSS 2007 templates for knowledge managers

August, 2008

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) offers knowledge managers several pre-packaged Web site models (templates) to manage an organization's intellectual assets. Out of the box, MOSS comes with 21 templates, and you can download others free of charge. In this article, we'll describe the different kinds of templates, look at eight templates with knowledge management potential, and discuss deployment issues.

What's a template?
To understand templates, it's useful to think of SharePoint as a commercial office building. The Windows operating system supplies the structure and utilities - water, sewer, electricity, telecommunications, and security. Templates supply the interior facilities and services. They consist of mixed and matched software components that provide SharePoint workspaces (e.g. virtual meeting rooms), tools (e.g. document repositories), and services (e.g. search, email).

One group of templates is designed for common business functions (e.g. team collaboration, business performance reporting, inventory tracking). A second group is oriented toward employee roles (e.g. sales manager, HR manager, administrative assistant), and a third group is geared toward specific industries (e.g. law, retail, and pharmaceuticals). All can be customized.

In addition to the SharePoint site templates (the subject of this article), there are also Microsoft Office templates that authors can use to create consistent documents. Some of the site templates include special document templates appropriate for that specific application.

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