Common Uses of SharePoint
Windows SharePoint Services provide a place for internal and external users to come together, quickly and efficiently share information and collaborate on projects. SharePoint is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office. SharePoint enables your team to be more productive and to get work done.
Collaborating with Workspaces
Windows SharePoint Services offers two main types of workspaces: document workspaces and meeting workspaces.
Document workspaces are ideal for collaboration between a limited number of resources on short-term projects. One or more documents can be uploaded to the site, and different members of the site can check out the documents, edit them, and save them back to the document library, with comments tracked. Tasks can be assigned to different members of the site, and a calendar can be created to track key dates.
Meeting workspace sites are designed to bring all the documents and tasks associated with a meeting together into one place. Five different meeting workspace templates are included with SharePoint, each containing a different set of Web Parts: Basic Meeting Workspace, Blank Meeting Workspace, Decision Meeting Workspace, Social Meeting Workspace, and Multipage Meeting Workspace. The "basic" out-of-the-box meeting workspace template includes agenda items, attendees, and objectives. Meeting workspaces are ideal for preparing for complex meetings or events, such as a company picnic.
Collaborating Using Team or Project Sites
For more permanent document management and collaboration needs, a team site can be created in Windows SharePoint Services that offers more administrative tools and options in terms of the construction of the site. Typically, team sites are created for longer term projects, or for a specific department. With Windows SharePoint Services a top-level site can be created, and then a virtually unlimited number of subsites and workspaces can be created beneath the structure, forming a site collection. A different administrator can be assigned per site collection to distribute the management and administration load and to allow for granular security in each site collection.
The basic template for a team site includes announcements, events, and links on the "main page" with hyperlinks to Shared Documents, Contacts, Tasks, and General Discussion links on the Quick Launch bar. The home page is generally customized with the name of the team or department and a fitting logo or image, and the default Web Parts are tuned to present the right level of information to the average user.
Staying in Touch with Changes Through Alerts
As users realize the benefits of a SharePoint solution, sites can grow quickly with information, users, and applications being added and changed continuously. Instead of having to comb sites and workspaces for modifications on a regular basis, a user can set up alerts so that she is only notified of changes in the information of interest to her.
SharePoint alerts can be set to notify users of changes to documents, sites, lists (announcements, contacts, events, tasks, surveys, and links), individual items in the lists, and document libraries.
