A corporate portal is a gateway through which members can access business information and, if set up properly, should be the first place an employee goes to access anything of importance. Portals differ from regular websites in that they are customized specifically around a business process. In SharePoint, a portal may actually consist of numerous websites, with information stored either directly on those sites or in other systems, such as fileshares, business applications, or a regular Internet website. Because making informed business decisions is key to becoming and remaining successful, it’s important that the information you place on a portal is secure, up-to-date, and easily accessible. Because a business’s marketplace may span the globe, an organization also needs to have the information that reflects the needs of employees from multiple specific regions.
As an example, consider a new employee who has just joined an organization. In addition to learning her new job responsibilities, this employee must quickly get up-to-speed on the various company processes and policies. A good portal should provide all the company reference and policy information that the employee needs to review as well as links to all the information systems and websites that employee needs to do her job. Information should be stored in easy-to-browse locations, based on subject or topic. In situations where the location of a document or information is not obvious, the employee should be able to type words into a search box and receive suggestions. The employee should also be able to share information with others. In many ways, a good portal should act as a table of contents for all the information and websites related to an organization or topic.
What Is SharePoint?
SharePoint is an extensible and scalable web-based platform consisting of tools and technologies that collectively form what’s known as SharePoint Products and Technologies. The total package is a platform on which you can build business applications to help you better store, share, and manage digital information within your organization. Because you can build with or without the need for code, the package empowers the average business user to create, deploy, and manage team websites, without depending on skilled resources, such as systems administrators or developers. Using lists, libraries, and Web Parts, you can transform team websites into business applications built specifically around making your organization’s business processes more efficient.
SharePoint Products and Technologies has two major offerings:
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is a free offering available to Windows Server 2003 and Small Business Server 2003. It contains the core functionality needed for document management and collaboration, such as document libraries and lists.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is a newer version of SharePoint Portal Server 2003. It offers the same features of WSS in addition to the functionality required for Enterprise Content Management as well as Excel and Forms Services, Business Data Catalog, and Business Intelligence. SharePoint also features a more robust and customizable search engine as well as special features for displaying information stored in the SharePoint environment in a more customizable and aggregated format than is possible with WSS.
