We find a lot of people have heard of Microsoft SharePoint, but are rather in the dark as to what it actually does.
If you looked on the Microsoft web site - you might find it didn't help much!
So here is a very brief overview.
More about Versions and Features
More about Document Searching
SharePoint is the key Microsoft application for sharing information via your internet browser.
All it really does, is to store and display lists: list of documents, lists of HTML pages, list of URL links, lists of events. That's all SharePoint is. But add a few mechanisms to your general list manager, and you can start to do an awful lot. Here are the key things:
Layout. SharePoint allows you to choose the layout and appearance of the list, and with that you have an application that can act as an intranet for sharing information. For example, you can have a page with a list of company events down one side, and a list of technical tips and images on the other.
Change Control. SharePoint can keep track of list item changes. For example, you can control who can add or update list items, can keep previous versions, and add some workflow to changes. For instance you can have SharePoint email you if an item is changed. This works if the list items are letters, spreadsheets, or scanned document images. This is the basis of SharePoint document management, but the same mechnisms are very useful for non documents as well.
Execute Items. SharePoint can execute the items in the list. So, if SharePoint recognises the type of file, it will try to execute that file in an appropriate way. For example, if the item is an HTML page, SharePoint will display it as a web page. If it is a URL link, SharePoint will follow that link.
Define who can do what. In SharePoint you can define groups of users, and decide who can have what access to each list and process. So for example, you can decide who can check out and change your company policy documents, and who can just view them.
There are a lot of other details, but that is the basic structure of SharePoint.
As an example, here is the home page of the Spark SharePoint intranet.
This home area is visible to all staff, and holds general information information about events, company policies, how to get to our utility sites etc.
Then there is a sub-area for the development department. This holds information our development standard documents, a WIKI for technical knowledge, and an area for files for our specifications and scoping study documents.
All this infomation is constantly being updated, but all the documents are under version and workflow control. For example, only the technical management staff can update the development standards. We can see who updated them, and when, and all previous versions are saved.
Project specification changes are controlled by an approval process, so that a department head must approve changes before they are sent to a client.
There are a lot more details, but these are the SharePoint basics.
There are different versions of SharePoint, and we are often asked about the differences. For a summary, see SharePoint Versions and Features.