By Chris Alliegro [bio]
Posted: Apr. 2, 2007                            

The following an excerpt of a Research Report published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. More samples of our content, as well as a list of upcoming articles and reports are also available.

Free! Executive Summary

Overview of the major changes in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007, the latest releases of Microsoft's platforms for team collaboration and corporate portal Web sites

Free! Introduction

The WSS 3.0 team site platform improves features for managing documents; its counterpart for large-scale corporate portals, SharePoint Server 2007, takes on enterprise content management and business intelligence

WSS Improves Document Management, Collaboration

New blogs and wikis combined with better usability could encourage new deployments and upgrades to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, but some new features warrant consideration before they are widely deployed

SharePoint 2007 Tweaks Portals, Administration

Improvements for corporate Web portals and improved administration could convince existing customers to adopt SharePoint Server 2007, but upgrades could be difficult and existing hardware also may need to be upgraded

Platform for Enterprise Content Management

Prebuilt workflows and better document libraries make SharePoint Server 2007 more suitable for managing corporate content compared to previous versions, but solutions could fail if considered burdensome by workers

SharePoint 2007 Expands Business Intelligence

New business intelligence features could drive adoption of SharePoint Server 2007, but the product will need to be set up carefully for these features to be very useful

SharePoint 2007 Improves Enterprise Search

SharePoint Server 2007 offers a cost-effective way to add enterprise search, particularly for large companies that already have significant investments in Microsoft software

Integration with Office Enhanced

A browser suffices for many activities on SharePoint sites, but Office 2007 adds some useful integration points, and some SharePoint features require it

Resources

Links and pointers to additional material about Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007

Appendix: Requirements, Licensing, and Pricing

System requirements, licensing, and pricing for SharePoint products, including Windows SharePoint Services, SharePoint Server, Forms Server, and SharePoint Server for Search

Appendix: Catalog Links SharePoint Server to Business Data

The Business Data Catalog (BDC), a new component of SharePoint Server 2007, acts as a bridge between the Web portal and back-end databases and business applications