3 Useful Applications For Microsoft SharePoint WSS

3 Useful Things SharePoint WSS can do without Upgrading to MOSS

When most people think of SharePoint, they think of giant intranet sites that multinational companies use to manage content and communicate internally. They think of months of customization and design, complex licensing, and long returns on investment. In short, they think of SharePoint MOSS with all of the bells and whistles.

But there's good news. SharePoint WSS is free. It's fast to set up, and best of all, it's useful. Many small businesses are finding huge value in SharePoint WSS without the development and licensing fees a full MOSS deployment.

Of course, the question is, "What does it do?" The following are 3 useful things to do with SharePoint WSS without endless development or upgrading to MOSS.

SharePoint WSS Document Collaboration

Although some of the more abstract collaboration tools (Wikis, Profiles, Social networking) in Microsoft SharePoint rarely get much traction, the document collaboration tools are usually very popular and useful.

Let's say HR is designing the new employee manual. SharePoint WSS allows the company to create a webpage with bulletined boards and discussion threads about the manuals. HR can survey employees. Check in / Check out keeps different employees from editing the document at the same time, which saves version hassles down the road. Past versions of the documents are also accessible, and as each employee checks the document back in, they can make notes on their changes.

Use Views to make Team Calendars really useful.

Most companies use team calendars and company calendars to list events, deadlines, and meetings in one place. These calendars can even be integrated with Microsoft Outlook. It's one of the most popular features.

Views make calendars really useful because they allow users to filter events by type. Instead of seeing 20 events on the same date that may or may not be pertinent, users can filter events by type to only what they want to see.

If a user just wants to see the availability of the large conference room, and an overlay of the upcoming deadlines and his own availability, views will filter out all of the other appointments.

Resources library

One of the best uses of SharePoint WSS is to create a resource center for employees. Common documents everyone uses can be stored in one place with a familiar web interface and easy searching.

Store client information, reference materials, company information and forms, marketing materials, and anything else the company uses on the site.