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Common Uses for SharePoint Services

Top Level Sites: Your team members can create a site or workspace for collaboration on Web pages, lists, and document libraries, or they can create a site to manage a new team or project, collaborate on documents, or prepare for meetings. Enabling "Self-Service Site Creation" allows users to create their own top-level site, which eliminates the need for administrators to create one on demand. Users can click a link on the home page and enter information on the signup screen. Windows SharePoint Services will then create the new site with the user as the owner and administrator. For example, sales and marketing managers can create a site to manage all their sales- and marketing-related activities.

Document Workspace Sites: Create a central location where partners, coworkers, and customers can share issues, contacts, announcements, Web links, and calendars. Team members can easily create workspaces for meeting discussions, surveys, documents, task lists, and other collaboration needs that increase individual and departmental productivity.

Meeting Workspace Sites: The most productive approach to workgroup collaboration. Similar to a Document Workspace site, it allows team members to manage meetings and documents by using Web parts, lists, and document libraries. sing Microsoft Outlook 2003, you can send meeting notices and invitations to team members. This will automatically create a Meeting Workspace, or you can create a Meeting Workspace in your SharePoint site by using a browser. You can include a hyperlink to the Workspace site where invitees can obtain additional information. You can also create a Meeting Workspace site for recurring meetings so team members can track the progress of ongoing tasks or projects.

Discussion Boards: Discussion boards provide a forum for topics that interest your team. For example, you can create a discussion board that allows team members to propose and discuss activities. Each discussion board has icons for starting, sorting, filtering, switching views, or changing designs. Another feature (Web Discussion) allows users to attach comments to a specific SharePoint page or document.

Team Surveys: Surveys allow you to poll team members and obtain feedback from anyone with access to the site. You can configure a survey so that users can respond to items such as meetings, vendor service, or product releases, and you can also display the results graphically.

Benefits for SharePoint Users
Windows SharePoint Services provides the following advantages to the individuals and teams who use it:

Better Discoverability: Finding and accessing information across a distributed workplace is a major challenge for which Windows SharePoint Services offers an effective solution. By providing users with a single Web-based team environment and built-in search capabilities, Windows SharePoint Services helps users to find information more effectively than with traditional file shares.

Better Communication: With the built-in alert capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services, users can be notified when changes are made to shared information. Microsoft Office Live Communication Server provides users with the means to communicate instantly, whether by video or audio, and Microsoft Office Live meeting enables users to communicate and collaborate with anyone.

Better Team Processes: The process of document creation and review is made simpler and more effective with built-in document versioning plus check-in and check-out capabilities. Additionally, using Windows Rights Management Services, authors can determine how their documents are distributed and used by others.

Better User Experience: By integrating Web-based team collaboration services into everyday tools such as Microsoft Office, users can quickly and effectively adopt new collaboration tools and services. And by providing Web-browser access, Windows SharePoint Services makes it easy for users to access team information through a single site on demand.

• Tour a SharePoint Site - You and your team can use a SharePoint site for collaborating and sharing information in the form of document and picture libraries; lists such as contacts, tasks, announcements, and events; and discussion boards. You can even use the site to poll team members on their opinions. When you set up your site, you'll already have some libraries and lists in place, so you can hit the ground running.
   
• Coordinating a Meeting in SharePoint - The Meeting Workspace is a Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services Web site that works with Outlook. Team members can go to the site for the most up-to-date information and materials, whether the meeting is still in the planning stages, taking place right now, or has already occurred. And who says you have to do all the work? Team members can collaborate on meeting materials and other aspects of the project if you let them.
   
• Collaborate on Shared Projects - You sometimes collaborate with coworkers by sharing files in email, but this can result in conflicting versions and mistakes. There is a better way. Meeting Workspaces, a feature of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, makes team collaboration easier by keeping your project details neatly housed in one place. Learn how to post meeting notes, make project announcements, and save documents to a document library, too.
   
• Improve Collaboration with a Team Website - Gathering and sharing information across a team is always a challenge. If you set up a team Web site by using Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, your team can share documents, contacts, and calendars. Best of all, the information is accessible only to people who have permissions, so you don't have to worry about whether your documents stay confidential. Get started with an overview of available resources.
   
• Work with Documents in SharePoint Document Libraries - Are you looking for an easy way to store and share the documents related to a project your team is working on? If your team is using a SharePoint site, you can create a document library, where it's easy to keep track of who has modified a document and when. You can work on documents from the Web site or download them to your computer. You can also track status, keep past versions, and check documents in and out. As your team's needs grow, you can create as many libraries, and folders within the libraries, as you require. Document libraries are a great way for you to centralize and organize all the documents for your project.
   
• Share the Work, Share the Credit, in a Document Workspace - If you've ever spent a lot of time commenting on a document only to find out that your comments got lost in the shuffle, you'll be delighted to learn about Document Workspaces. A Document Workspace is a new type of Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services Web site that offers one-stop shopping for document collaboration. On the site, you can find the documents you're supposed to comment on - as well as announcements, assigned tasks, relevant links, and more.
   
• Team Up "Write Now" in a Document Workspace - By sending a Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003, or Microsoft Office Visio® 2003 file as a shared attachment in an e-mail message, you can create a Document Workspace, a Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services Web site that offers one-stop shopping for document collaboration. People on the To line in your message automatically become workspace members. You can work in your local copy of the file and then use the Shared Workspace task pane to update the workspace copy so all members can always access the most recent version. You can also use the task pane to assign new tasks, add new members, and more.
   
• Share Visio Drawings With Co-Workers Who Don't Use Visio - There are a variety of ways that Microsoft® Office Visio® 2003 drawings can be shared with everyone who needs to see them. With Microsoft Office 2003, you can save Visio drawings as Web pages or images, or you can copy the drawings to other Office programs. You can even download the Visio Viewer for easy access to all Visio file types.
   
• Share Your Data With Your Team - These days, information systems have to do more than just store your data. They must make it easy for you and your colleagues to work with information as a team. The ability to collaborate is not a luxury, but a key to business success. If you have Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services, you have powerful tools that allow your group to process and analyze data and to share your accomplishments with other teams. For instance, you can use the new Excel List command to sort, filter, and total your data, and then you can publish your lists using SharePoint Services. Others can update your published data, or they can export it and put it to work in other tools such as Microsoft Office Access 2003.
   
• Managing Teleworkers - To help your teleworking staff stay on track, have them fill out a goal planning worksheet that defines team objectives and milestones. Use Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services to create a centralized team portal where your staff can keep abreast of company news and collaborate on important documents regardless of location. By setting goals ahead of time, you can ensure that your teleworking staff makes a valuable contribution to the team.
   
• Collaborate on a Work-Life Balance - Having the right work/life balance program at your company can make a difference when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent. See how you can use Microsoft Office Word 2003 and Document Workspaces, a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services tool, to create a work/life balance vision that works.