In this Member Q&A article, eight people describe how new Sharepoint Web sites are created in their organizations. The question was initiated by a Society member who is working with her company's information technology department on two library projects in Windows Sharepoint Services — one to manage electronic licenses and another to create a library Knowledgebase of research completed for clients. The librarians currently give their specifications to an IT person, who then creates the site. Instead, library staff would like to design the sites themselves, creating the lists and document libraries.

Background
Sharepoint is a Microsoft software product consisting of two components: Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) and Sharepoint Portal Services (SPS). WSS, a free add-on to the Windows operating system, is designed to help teams and work groups create a temporary collaboration workspace on the Web.

In the WSS workspace, the team administrator can upload documents for reviewing, create spreadsheet-like lists of items such as people and products, set up electronic discussions, and authorize team members to access the site. WSS is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office, so users can upload documents to the team site without leaving Word or Excel. Moreover, any changes that they make to Office documents will be immediately reflected on the Web.

Because the basics of WSS are easy to learn, even for non-technical staff, a business unit can have a new Web site up and running in a couple of days instead of a couple of months.

SPS is an extra-cost product that allows enterprise administrators to aggregate and search WSS team sites from a single screen and set up permanent departmental Web sites with a consistent "look and feel."

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Microsoft Sharepoint leverages the capabilities of the Windows operating system and Office desktop suite. For example, you can save a Word, Excel, or Access file directly to a collaboration workspace. Changes made to the original will automatically be reflected on the workspace copy. The basic product, Windows Sharepoint Services, is a free download that lets teams create a Web-based workspace. Sharepoint Portal Services, an extra-cost product, allows enterprise administrators to aggregate and search workspaces from a single screen.

Like other collaboration systems, Windows Sharepoint Services represents more of a partnership between IT and business units rather than the traditional vendor/client relationship. For business units, this means greater flexibility in site design and fewer delays in creating new sites. For IT, it means less time spent on developing Web applications while still maintaining control over critical infrastructure issues such as architecture and security.

Responses
We received eight responses to this Member Q&A:

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Created on July 29, 2006 l Updated on July 29, 2006