Wisdom InfoTech Windows SharePoint Services COLLABORATION TOOL FOR PROJECT TEAMS August 2007 ROBERT MOSES Principal Consultant Wisdom InfoTech 18650 W. Corporate Drive Suite 120 Brookfield WI 53045 Phone: 262-792-0200 Fax: 262-792-0202 E-mail: info@wisdominfotech.com This White Paper is for informational purposes only. WISDOM INFOTECH MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.
TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... 3 WINDOWS SHAREPOINT SERVICES... 3 THE PROBLEM... 4 WHY SHAREPOINT?... 4 PROJECT CO-ORDINATION TOOL... 4 SHAREPOINT VERSIONS... 5 SHAREPOINT RESOURCES... 6 CONCLUSION... 8 REFERENCES... 9 Page 2 of 10
Executive Summary SharePoint is a powerful web-based project collaboration tool which allows users to create, manage and build team, document or project sub-sites and make them available throughout the organization. There are also basic project management tools such as scheduling, task tracking, and action item tracking. These are easily customized and integrate with all Microsoft Office products including Outlook. Take file sharing to a new level Share many kinds of information Users get the authority, flexibility and customization they need Easy administration via your Web Browser Complete integration with Microsoft Office 2003 Windows SharePoint Services Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), or Windows SharePoint, is a free add-on (value-add) to Windows Server 2003 made available by Microsoft, which offers basic web portal and intranet functionality. It includes portal pages called web part pages made up of web parts (developed in ASP.NET), team, document, and project sub-sites, version-controlled document storage, and indexed search functionality. It is made up of an ASP.NET web site hosted on Internet Information Services 6.0, using a SQL Server or MSDE database back-end to store data. WSS also forms the basis for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS), Microsoft Office Project Server, and Microsoft Team Foundation Server. MOSS is the enterprise version of WSS, and is not free like WSS is. Connect people, process, and information Collaboration Portals Enterprise Search Enterprise Content Management Business Process and Forms Business Intelligence The abbreviated term SharePoint can be used to describe both the underlying base services (Windows SharePoint Services or WSS) and the additional portal software (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server or MOSS) which can lead to confusion. In addition, Microsoft Office has referred to a collection of products that run on desktop PCs which can use WSS for document management and collaboration without MOSS. Page 3 of 10
The Problem With the burgeoning explosion of digital data and the ease of sharing it, the problem of data storage becomes ever more acute. Even with the significant declines in costs, the growth of stored data is threatening to outpace the capacities of current storage technologies. Employees are creating digital files such as emails so quickly that the amount of such data was growing at 60% a year. At Chevron Corp, employees were spending as much as 3 days searching for information to do their jobs, often seriously impacting productivity, the company found. Chevron estimates it has amassed 1,250 terabytes of corporate office data such as emails, word processing documents, spreadsheets, drawings, photos and video files. (Wall Street Journal, 5/8/2007, Pg B4) Rather then merely continuously expanding storage capacity, and exacerbating employee s document search problems, companies are looking at comprehensive document management tools to make the mounds of information more searchable and accessible for employees. Enter tools such as Microsoft s SharePoint Services. SharePoint will maintain a single copy of a current document in one source accessible to all who have been given rights to the library or to a defined set of documents within the library. SharePoint will also maintain a version history of each document with regression options to restore past versions. Why SharePoint? Window s SharePoint address many problems common in today s business world: Ease-of-use Users do not have the time or desire to master a complex application. SharePoint is fairly intuitive to use for most business users depending on how the administrator has labeled the libraries and lists. Geography & Time zones Many companies are now global, with work times that only partially overlap through collaborative libraries, lists and forums, SharePoint makes time zones and geography irrelevant. Sharing resources, ideas and issues becomes as easy as email. All the latest progress, thoughts, changes and decisions are posted and available 24x7. Version Control Multiple editors can lead to version problems. Documents must be checked out to make changes. While other users can view the document, only the checked out version can be saved back to the library. Issue Tracking Having a single list for issues makes tracking easy. The status of issues can be tracked through proper setup in libraries and lists by requiring a status update and perhaps a comment upon check in for documents or merely updating the list status field with comments for the specific issue. Project Co-ordination Tool While promoted as an all-encompassing project coordination tool, Windows SharePoint s greatest strength is perhaps its document management capabilities. Easy to use with a moderate Page 4 of 10
ability in HTML and website design, SharePoint is rapidly becoming a fixture in mid to large size organizations where document sharing is a necessary part of doing business. Instead of sending a copy of a document to many recipients, a link can be sent instead and approved readers can read the document or check it out for changes. Access rights are configurable with basic reader and limited contributor rights most common in industry. Documents must be checked out before changes can be saved back to the library and a version note screen pops up encouraging some reference on the change just made. Companies such as Chevron Corp, Credit Suisse Group, Target Corp and others are making the tool a major component of their document management policies. With common web parts like Risk and Issue lists, Change control histories, discussion boards (message boards), image and document libraries, with version tracking and the ability to pull up previous versions make the tool appealing to many larger organizations where document proliferation consumes significant resources on servers. The research firm, IDC estimated in a recent study that information being created, captured and replicated in digital form is growing at 57% per year. Given that most recipients of documents store a copy of documents they receive, often on LAN resources, the proliferation problem rapidly becomes a serious concern to IT managers, not to mention the version control issues this behavior presents. Chevron s data-overhaul plan was developed in October 2006 after the company melded two other projects to improve its technology infrastructure. Other companies are also well along in developing their own data management procedures. Easy to use, SharePoint has many other features beyond document control. This includes customized personal views, task tracking, action item monitoring, dashboard libraries, notification of changes to documents/libraries, issue and change log services, meeting & agenda management, form control (integrating with Microsoft s own Infopath), and much more. Excel spreadsheets can be posted on a website for viewing & changes instead of downloading it. Training libraries of presentation videos, slide shows complete with pre-read material and other reference support are popular uses of SharePoint. Target Corporation uses SharePoint extensively to manage documents and track projects using Project Coordinators as site administrators and incorporating Clarity for a complete, concept-to-baseline, highly-detailed project management system. Given the habits of office workers world wide to save everything to their own computers or LAN directories, half the battle might be to convince them to change their paradigm to share resources in a communal, team-oriented environment. This might mean some delays waiting for a document to be checked back in, but it brings order where uncertainty was once the rule. Making the tracking of documents transparent and enforcing version control eliminates the anarchy that results from multiple copies of documents floating around the company. SharePoint Versions The first version, called SharePoint Team Services (usually abbreviated to STS), was released at the same time as Office XP and was available as part of Microsoft FrontPage. STS could run on Windows 2000 Server or Windows XP. The only things it had in common with SharePoint Portal Server 2001 were some common graphical images and styles. By making the basic version of SharePoint a free add-on, Microsoft has succeeded in laying the foundation for document Page 5 of 10
control and demonstrating the advantages of investing in this technology while positioning their product for this newly recognized need. SharePoint is an example of smart product positioning for future growth. WSS 2.0 was marketed as an upgrade to STS, but was in fact a completely redesigned application. The difference is that STS stored documents in ordinary file storage, while keeping document metadata in a database. Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 on the other hand, stores both the document and the metadata in a database, and supports basic document versioning for items in Document Libraries. This versioning capability was not present in STS. Service Pack 2 for WSS added support for SQL Server 2005 and the use of the.net Framework 2.0. WSS 3.0 was released on November 16, 2006 as part of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite and Windows Server "Longhorn". Its new features include: mobility, RSS, wiki and weblog support, non-microsoft browser support, and much improved navigation. WSS 3.0 is built on the.net Framework 3.0 and the Windows Workflow Foundation component of the.net Framework 3.0 (formerly called WinFX). By the beginning of 2007 WSS 3.0 was made available to the public and ended support for Windows 2000. SharePoint Resources SharePoint Resources comprise tools that individuals and organizations can use to expand their knowledge, solve problems or improve the SharePoint user experience. The most widely available resources are web parts, SharePoint-oriented blogs, online publications, directories & SharePoint trade shows. Microsoft provides 40 non-free SharePoint Templates and there are additional templates available through a SharePoint templates project on Codeplex. SharePoint itself is a component of the Microsoft product family and can be divided into two main products lines: 1. Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a basic offering of SharePoint and is available for free from Microsoft. It has been widely adopted in the worldwide business community because of its inherent ability to facilitate collaboration between various business stakeholders including partners, customers & suppliers. WSS enables users to create work sites which can be made available across the entire organization. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the enterprise version of SharePoint (minimum 5 license purchase) and was designed as an upgrade to WSS. SPS 2003 is a web portal that enables users to connect users, teams and information across business processes. SharePoint Portal Server 2003 relies on Windows SharePoint Services to provide basic Web hosting and document storage functions, but extends it with additional functions for navigation, search, application integration, and personalization. SharePoint Server 2007 includes many new features, such as RSS, wiki, weblog, and much improved site navigation. Prior to the 2007 version, Office SharePoint Server was referred to as Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, but has been rebranded to clarify versions. Page 6 of 10
SharePoint uses two limited HTML editors to manipulate websites. Rich Text Editor for less tech savvy users and a basic source code editor for more advanced editing of the HTML code. The use of HTML editors such as FrontPage is not recommended in the new 2007 version due to the problems it presents in migrating customized sites to upgraded versions of the application. Many custom features added in these tools can cause problems when SharePoint is upgraded or system changes occur. A wide range of libraries, lists, forms, etc can be utilized within SharePoint. Forms in SharePoint can be directly controlled by Microsoft Infopath for submission and follow-up access. Configuration of author/creator and document modifiers can be tracked for change control. Many list configuration options exist for multiple choice menus, Y/N boxes, lookup from other sources (including Outlook), dates, grouping, indexing, auto-numbering, currency (with over 100 world currencies) and calculated fields are available within the tool. Alerts (notifications to users) can be set up by a user for notification of changes made to a document, library or list on an immediate basis or with a daily or weekly summary of changed files. SharePoint s settings allow rather extensive control over the site, its users and the resources (documents, forms, lists, photos, etc). Users with Administrative rights can access extensive control panels to manipulate various aspects of the SharePoint site, including: - Look & Feel (themes, title bars, quick launch or tab menus & tree views) - User and group access permissions including sending targeted emails - Galleries of sites, web parts, templates and workflows - Site Administration including RSS feeds, usage statistics, scope and regional settings, user alerts, visibility settings, and more - Site Collection Administration including setting search scopes & keywords, recycle bin configuration, directory management, audit logs, and more specific usage statistics Branding a client s site is very easy requiring only moderate HTML knowledge. Migrations to updated versions has proven relatively trouble free at sites like Target Corp where even links buried inside documents in the libraries has been updated by the migration process. Templates are easy to save and retrieve for configuring additional sites using company standard formats including libraries and even content with in the libraries. Several standard templates are included with the product and more are available from user sites. SharePoint user groups are common and solutions are often shared among the SharePoint administrator community. Security trimming available since Version 3, allows strong control of user views within every site. Web parts can be configured to be viewed only by specified groups defined within the User management tool. Access can be assigned in very specific circumstances such as read only access to a document in the library can be given to a non-member of the site via Outlook. SharePoint integrates well with many other Microsoft applications including Outlook, Infopath, Visio, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access and more. Infopath provides form control from opening to depositing into libraries only accessible by approved users. Outlook provides easily Page 7 of 10
configurable contact of specific users and updating of calendars, lists and more. Customized surveys or polls can be built to obtain feedback from users. SharePoint also controls Administration of sites by allowing only one administrator to edit pages at one time. Creation of customized menus with graphics is possible within Banner web parts to create custom menus. Sites can be built as basic web pages, web parts or a workspace dedicated to an event (social, sporting or professional), information sharing (wiki), discussion, meetings, decision board, and more. The use of web parts simplifies the setup and configuration of SharePoint with minimal knowledge of HTML. Web parts can consist of an announcement panel, team member list (with an indicator for whether they are on or offline), custom menu panel, RSS feed (like weather, news or sales updates), and many more limited only by your administrator s imagination. The availability of a large set of configuration tools and customization makes it a powerful tool for advanced site administrators. A recent search of job boards showed a strong demand for both SharePoint system and site administrators with rates often topping $60/hour for experienced administrators. Knowledge of HTML, SQL and XML are very useful for advanced administration of SharePoint but not necessary for simple applications such as document management. Conclusion Microsoft s SharePoint collaboration tool is rapidly growing in popularity as a document management and project tracking tool. Mid-large size companies concerned by the explosive growth of data and resulting confusion in document control are applying the tool in a reworking of office and document management procedures. With SharePoint s single source libraries and lists providing centralized document management and communication paths to bring order to what once resembled more anarchy then order, employee cooperation and productivity can be expected to improve dramatically. The obvious benefit of precise, fast data access provides data managers with an increased control they used to only dream of. Page 8 of 10
References 1. White paper, sign in required Scaling to Extremely Large Lists and Performant Access Methods This could have been called "working with HUGE lists" as it uses lists with other 150k items. What's so cool about this paper is it details, with tangible results and graphs, the effectiveness of various query methods available to us in the SharePoint environment. It also shows how incredibly performant the PortalSiteMapProvider object really is within MOSS. 2. Wikipedia - SharePoint Page 9 of 10
A sample SharePoint site Page 10 of 10