SharePoint Templates for Business Processes

Thirty-one new application templates for Windows SharePoint Services will help companies build custom sites that target specific business processes or sets of tasks.

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a free add-on for Windows Server 2003 that makes it easier to create and customize team sites—specialized Web sites for team and project information that are built with modular ASP.NET-based Web components called Web Parts. WSS uses templates—files containing preconfigured arrangements of Web parts designed for a particular usage scenario—as a starting point for creating the actual customized sites, and customers can then use FrontPage 2003 to further modify their sites to meet their specific requirements.

Unlike the generic templates that come with WSS (such as meeting workspaces and document workspaces), the new application templates are the first from Microsoft that target specific business processes or sets of related tasks, such as the following:

• Absence and vacation scheduling