Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
by John Bissa & Amy Moore
Universal Advisor , 2008 Issue No. 2 

The Building Blocks of Online Collaboration, Content Management, Business Intelligence, and More  

Gartner, Inc. predicts that 80 percent of organizations will be using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) by 2010, but only 40 percent will use it effectively. This is because MOSS, the most successful Microsoft server product ever launched, can be a bit unwieldy. There are subtleties within the product that require a certain level of familiarity and expertise. This means that while MOSS is a great way for many companies to deliver web-based content and collaboration tools to customers and employees, implementing the solution without the benefit of experience may be ill-advised. 

What Is MOSS?

MOSS 2007 is a collection of web-based applications designed to facilitate collaboration, provide content management, implement business processes, and supply access to information essential to organizational goals and processes. 2007 brings the fourth iteration of this product from Microsoft, which originated in 1999. Plante & Moran’s Web Development team has implemented several competing products, and we’ve found that MOSS 2007 can a be good fit for many of our clients.  

What Are Its Capabilities?

MOSS includes the following capabilities:

• Collaboration. This includes wikis, blogs, calendars, e-mail integration, discussion boards, surveys, document collaboration, and real-time presence indication, among other features.
• Portal. Although this includes a variety of technical features such as content syndication and audience targeting, it also provides privacy and security, a site directory, and “my site” capabilities, which give users the ability to personalize information “for me,” “by me,” and “about me.”
• Search. This simple, easy-to-use tool includes a people search, knowledge network, and business data search. Search algorithms ensure relevant searches and search results are rendered more clearly — all while meeting the security your organization demands.
• Content management. This allows businesses to manage documents, e-mail messages, videos, web pages, and more. Businesses can administer this diverse content, streamline business processes, and efficiently manage multiple websites.
• Business process and forms. MOSS contains built-in workflow templates to automate approval, review, and archiving processes. You can also create, maintain, and analyze custom workflows, which streamline collaborative processes.
• Business intelligence. This infrastructure makes it easy to access the necessary information to make the best business decisions.

And that’s just the beginning. Broadly speaking, MOSS has an offering for most web-based applications a business may need, with the exception of e-commerce. 

How Does MOSS Help Businesses?

If organizations had to build all of this functionality from scratch, it would be expensive — perhaps prohibitively so. MOSS compiles all of these tools into one product, making this functionality accessible for organizations that may otherwise be unable to afford it.

We recently helped Southfield, Mich.-based Airfoil Public Relations rebuild its intranet using MOSS. “We were using a very basic folder system, which had gotten large and out of control,” says Aaron Petras, Operations Manager with Airfoil. “MOSS has allowed us to separate our team sites based on practice area and delineate down by client. This has been helpful because each team now has its own site to share documents and post announcements and discussions. In addition, the business intelligence component is very useful; it’s helped us better present data to our senior managers.” 

Don’t Go It Alone

While it’s true that much of MOSS is an “out-of-the-box” solution, it’s easy for organizations to get into trouble when trying to implement it themselves. Certain nuances within the product require more sophisticated knowledge and capabilities. For example, it’s challenging to secure the privacy correctly, multiple “my sites” may result in lack of proper management, and the search function may not reach as broadly as it should.

Plante & Moran’s Web Development team has significant experience guiding organizations through the MOSS implementation process. For more information on how MOSS can benefit your organization, feel free to give us a call.