How can a managed SharePoint service make your business more efficient?

SharePoint creates a virtual office environment perfect for the small business where it is not possible for all the key people on a project to be in the office at the same time. An example of this would be a group of home workers or a virtual team that where geographically split. With todays traffic problems and expensive travelling costs coupled with higher speed broadband internet connectivity, many more people are choosing to work from home.  SharePoint enables your employees or customers to work together on tasks, projects and documents and to also run business applications using sharePoint as the  platform. To give you a better understanding of how sharePoint works take the following example:

Sue the Project Manager for a high profile project needed a centralised area where she could store important project documentation and implement version control. Sue also required an area where she could post important updates to the project team to keep them up to date regarding new issues, to be alerted when any document updates were made by her project team and to have the ability for her team members to save their design document directly to the centralised area to avoid filling her mailbox up. Sue would also like to view her teams schedules via a team calendar so she knows their where abouts and to synchronise this with her Outlook 2007 mailbox.  Sue decided to talk to her IT service provider and they suggested that she uses a hosted SharePoint Services site and provisioned one  specifically for her project. Sue has never looked back she really loved the fact that when somebody was on holiday or off sick she knew that all their documentation would be available in the centralised location avoiding the need to contact the team member directly. Bill the department boss was so impressed that he started using SharePoint for tracking customer service calls and for logging HR information such as staff sick and holiday days. 

What is SharePoint Services 3.0?

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 provides a secure, scalable, enterprise-level portal environment for team collaboration. Because SharePoint consolidates and organizes information in one place, users can find information quickly and efficiently. Using the internet and regardless of their location, all team members have password-protected access to SharePoint sites and can work together on tasks, projects, documents, and announcements.

What are the Business Benefits of Windows SharePoint Services?

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services V3 provides an integrated suite of easy-to-use server applications that boost business effectiveness and optimize the way that people, content, processes, and business applications interact. Here is a list of ways Windows SharePoint Services V3 can bring the most value to your business:

Improve team productivity with easy-to-use collaborative tools

Windows SharePoint Services V3 connects people with the information and resources they need. Users can create team workspaces, coordinate calendars, organise documents, and receive important notifications and updates through communication features that include announcements and alerts. In addition, new templates are available for creating blogs and wikis, and mobile users can take advantage of convenient offline synchronization capabilities.

Easily manage documents and help ensure integrity of content.

Windows SharePoint Services V3 has enhanced document management capabilities, including the option to activate required document checkout before editing, the ability to view revisions to documents and restore to previous versions, and control over document- and item-level security.

Get users up to speed quickly

User interface improvements in Windows SharePoint Services V3 include enhanced views and menus that simplify navigation within and among SharePoint sites. Integration with familiar productivity tools, including programs in the Microsoft Office system, makes it easy for users to get up to speed quickly. For example, users can create workspaces, post and edit documents, and view and update calendars on SharePoint sites, all while working within Microsoft Office system files and programs. Deploy solutions tailored to your business processes. While standard workspaces in Windows SharePoint Services are easy to implement, organizations seeking a more customized deployment can get started quickly with application templates for addressing specific business processes or sets of tasks.

Build a collaboration environment quickly and easily

Utilising Incontechs Hosted SharePoint Service allows your business to easily deploy a collaborative environment with minimal administrative time and effort, all you need to know is the link to the SharePoint site, it's that easy!

Reduce the complexity of securing business information

Windows SharePoint Services provides advanced administrative controls for increasing the security of information resources, while decreasing cost and complexity associated with site provisioning, site management, and support.

Provide sophisticated controls for securing company resources

Permissions can  now be set as deep down as the document or item level, and site managers, teams, and other workgroups can initiate self-service collaborative workspaces and tasks within these preset parameters.

Take file sharing to a new level with robust storage capabilities

Windows SharePoint Services supplies workspaces with document storage and retrieval features, including check-in/check-out functionality, version history, custom metadata, and customizable views. New features in Windows SharePoint Services include recycle bin functionality for easier content recovery, and improved backup and restoration.

Provide a cost-effective foundation for building Web-based applications

Windows SharePoint Services exposes a common framework for document management and collaboration that can be used to build flexible and scalable Web applications, intranet solutions, and Internet sites that meet the specific needs of the organization

To view a demonstration of Windows SharePoint services please click here