What is Microsoft SharePoint?

Question

I have heard that Microsoft SharePoint was used by many companies. Could someone tell me briefly what is SharePoint and why is it popular?

Answer 1

What is SharePoint?

The latest version of Microsoft SharePoint software is really two different products:

1. Windows SharePoint Services is a free download for Windows Server. In the latest version, known as WSS v3, collaborative web sites templates include basic blog and wiki services along with list templates for Image Libraries, Document Libraries, Contact lists, Calendars, Tasks and much more.
2. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or MOSS for short is built on Windows SharePoint Services. As a member of the Office Server product platform, it leverages the Microsoft Office client software to provide content on the web. Integration with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access and InfoPath provide rich web content from familiar content creation tools.

Why is it so popular

File Sharing SharePoint originally became popular because it was an easy way to share documents on the web. Many organizations that adopted SharePoint in the 2003 versions capitalized on the ability to upload documents to Document Libaries and share those documents with others.
Company Extranets One great example of this web based sharing, is a company extranet where users are not all in one location or authentication domain. Using form based authentication, accounts can be created for people across physical and company boundaries. By allowing one place for shared documents around a task rather than a corporate entity, SharePoint goes way beyond the common file share.
Content Management There are plenty of other Content Management Systems, but MOSS incorporated the functionality of the previously name Microsoft Content Management System which itself often cost more than MOSS alone.
Search Search is greatly improved in SharePoint 2007 technologies. Search results are security trimmed, relevant and performant unlike the previous 2003 version. Bad search in SharePoint 2003 products lead to a lot of dissatisfaction with the product.

Answer 2

what is sharepoint

Sharepoint is really two different technologies: Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS). WSS is free and it comes with Windows Server 2003. MOSS isn't free.

WSS provides lots of out of the box functionality for managing documents and projects online. It manages documents in "document libraries." These are folders with permissions and different views of your documents. Projects, tasks, issues, or any tabular data, is managed in lists. Lists are similar to document libraries. They have permissions and views as well. It provides some simple search as well.

MOSS provides a better search (it's supposed to at least). It also has more publishing capabilities (WSS doesn't). And you have more control over page layouts. It's meant more for internet style sites while WSS is more for intranet sites.

and why is it popular?

WSS is popular partly because its free and partly because it just does so much out of the box. You can solve many common office requests with WSS. Stuff like issue trackers, project management and document management are trivial in WSS. That said, its a jack of all trades - good at many, master of none.

MOSS is probably less popular because its not free and having used it for a year, I don't see as much value in it as WSS. Search isn't that great. It does do a good job of creating a company directory.

Answer 3

I've been working with SharePoint since v.1 and I could tell you that SharePoint is a:

• Document management server
• Web content management server
• Portal solution
• Search engine
• List-based repository
• Collaboration site
• Replacement for file shares
• etc etc...

...but if I have to summarize in one sentence what SharePoint is I would say:

Sharepoint is Microsoft's Web OS.

That's real the secret of its success. Many people imagined the Web OS as something like these. A Web OS is not something that is meant to look like a desktop OS. A Web OS should be a WEB PLATFORM in which all sort of applications can be built on and users are able to collaborate with.

Think of SharePoint as the 2.0-era version of Windows :-)

Answer 4

Previous answers describe what sharepoint is, but don't do a good job describing why it's popular. Yes, it gives you all that neat doc-management stuff out of the box. Yes, it integrates tightly with Office.

The OOB features are 1/10th of the whole story. Sharepoint exposes a comprehensive .Net object model that lets you customize the thing to your hearts content. People are coding amazing things with MOSS 2007. With the object model, you can build and customize sites via code, in response to external events. You can write custom "web-parts" (controls hosted on special pages) that consume both internal (sharepoint) and external data.

Check out Sharepoint Blogs to see what people are doing with it.

Answer 5

Very good points so far but I'll try my best to add something. :)

SharePoint is not just 2 technologies. It is a set of products and technologies brought together by Microsoft into one immense product that comes in 2 flavors. The 2 flavors are Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS). MOSS does come in standard and enterprise.

[Some of the technologies used in SharePoint: Windows Workflow Foundation, ASP.NET, Web Parts, XML (included XPath, XSLT, etc), SQL, Web Services - to name a few I can think of off the top of my head]

No matter the version you choose, SharePoint allows for web-based capabilities to allow users to create, organize, distribute, and maintain information. Because of this, the most common uses for SharePoint sites are intranets and project/team sites.

SharePoint also has incredible possibilities as an application platform. Looking at the web part and workflow pieces alone you can begin to realize the potential. For example, automation of authorization processes within an organization can quickly be developed without any code using SharePoint Designer. (FYI: more complex workflows would require Visual Studio but many simple workflows can be designed using the point and click functionality of SharePoint Designer)

While MOSS only extends upon the WSS, it does add a large amount of functionality that can be very important and useful to a business. Some of the more important features available in MOSS and not in WSS are: records management, document retention and auditing policies, browser based forms (InfoPath forms without installing InfoPath on client machine), and some of the business intelligence capabilities. Amazingly we're seeing interest in the social networking features of MOSS too. (easy to read list of features not in WSS that MOSS has)

Why is SharePoint used? I was doing some research not to long ago on this exact subject and I found a research study that cited 5 key benefits:

1. Ease of information access
2. Streamlined internal communication
3. Increased end-user productivity
4. Optimized document management practices
5. IT time savings

Sorry if that turned into a bit of a ramble.

Answer 6

It's a collaboration website. All of the members on a team can update a single calendar and upload shared documents to a single repository.

Answer 7

I think in this case Wikipedia have it right

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is the basic part of Microsoft SharePoint, offering collaboration and document management functionality by means of web portals, by providing a centralized repository for shared documents, as well as browser-based management and administration of them. It allows creation of Document libraries, which are collections of files that can be shared for collaborative editing. SharePoint provides access control and revision control for documents in a library.

In a nutshell Sharepoint is all about corporative management and collaboration features. Your company have a Windows 2003 server? Here you go. WSS 3.0 is here up and running.

Answer 8

SharePoint is the reason I'm considering taking advantage of a suicide booth.

In all seriousness, the rest of the answers are spot on. The differences between WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 commonly trip people up ("why pay for MOSS when WSS is free?" for example). SharePoint is a very complex and rich product that is integrated into other Microsoft applications, like Project Server 2007 and Team Foundation Server.

Why should you care about it? It depends. There are quite a few opportunities out there for experienced SharePoint developers and administrators. It can very quickly become the singular focus of your career if you decide to put a lot of effort into learning it.

Answer 9

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) is a combination of two previous products, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Content Management System.

It has a large number of features out of the box that are very desirable for any single system, including hosting files with customisable metadata. Page and file publishing that is enabled for end users, excellent search... the list goes on.

Essentially it is designed to enhance and organisations collaboration activities across the entire enterprise, leveraging the organistations existing Office application to create an enterprise system.

Answer 10

Sharepoint, MS OFFICE proxy circa 2003...

remember when you emailed a copy of that word doc out to the whole company, that's what sharepoint is for, but apparently you missed the introductory gotomeeting training course.