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Implementing a SharePoint Solution

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PCQ Bureau
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Most organizations these days have a good network setup that consists of

Internet access and a file share where the users dump their work. However, you

can really increase a lot of productivity and value to the users and efficiency

of the organization by implementing a SharePoint solution in the network.

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What is SharePoint?



To put it simply, SharePoint is a portal solution that lets users

collaborate and work in an organized manner while maintaining corporate

standards all across. SharePoint currently is available in two versions:

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0: This is the “free” version of

SharePoint that you can install on a Windows Server in your network. It contains

all the main features required for a basic intranet solution.

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Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007: This is the paid

product that comes in a Standard and Enterprise flavour. It builds upon the

foundation of WSS to provide even more functionality like CMS, Records, BI and

many more. This is required by high end enterprises who wish to utilize and

customize even more.

In either case the intranet portal part remains the same. Note that in the

upcoming version of the SharePoint release the two products are now named

SharePoint Foundation Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010. We'll be delving

into these when they near the final release.

Implementation Strategy



One of the important things about SharePoint is that you must plan your

implementation in advance of actually going ahead and installing the product.

Typically in a small to medium organization, you'd need to have the following

servers (at a minimum):

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Windows Server ADS: The active directory server will provide user

authentication and central administration of the network. This will also provide

a single sign-on to the SharePoint portal based on the user's network login.

SQL Server: This will be useful for slightly larger installation of

SharePoint where the number of users and amount of data is expected to be very

large. WSS also works with the free SQL Express that it installs automatically

for smaller installs.

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SharePoint: This can be either WSS or MOSS. For MOSS installs you will

also need to plan out scalability and other aspects.

Once the implementation tiers are planned out, you also need to have a solid

strategy in place for the SharePoint structure as well. SharePoint allows the

organization to have an entire hierarchy of items that can be put together to

form a really cohesive environment for your users. Here is an explanation of

some of these items:

Sites: These are the basic hierarchy level in sharePoint. You can

create sites and sub-sites to any level. For instance you can have sub-sites

arranged by department — like /HR, /Finance, /Admin etc. you can

have further breakdowns in terms of projects or specific items as well within

any level.

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Libraries: These are equivalent to folders on the file system. You can

store any kind of file in these organized by folders or different columns. The

power of SharePoint comes when you utilize content types to provide default

templates for a library and columns to prompt user for additional meta-data

whenever a file is added to a library.

Lists: SharePoint comes with a number of default lists. However, you

can go ahead and create a number of custom lists as well.

Workflows: This allows automatic process flows starting on an event.

For instance you can start an approval process the moment a new expense report

is filed.

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The important thing while planning a SharePoint installation is setup the

hierarchy right in the first place itself. You will need to decide on what the

top level sites are and how the users navigate to specific items within them.

You will also need to collate and setup the content type templates for all the

different standard libraries. For instance, a library that stores corporate

presentations can have a default content type of PPTX which has the company logo

already watermarked. A library that stores Expense Reports can have an XLSX

content type with the correct type of report format that the user only needs to

fill in.

A sample of a site structure given the above requirements would be something

like this (where the IT subsite has been expanded to show more libraries and

sub-sites under it:

The next thing is to make sure you have mapped each user to the appropriate

sites and libraries. Since permissions can be granted granularly to each item

type, you can very nicely control who can view, add, edit or delete items. All

of the above can be done by creating a spread sheet that maps out the hierarchy

as well as the permissions at each level and then implementing that.

You will also need to have a coherent backup strategy. Make sure that the

SharePoint data as well as configuration is backed up regularly and an off-site

or off-server backup is also taken and tested on a test SharePoint setup in your

organization. You might also want to change usage report processing on or off

depending on whether you wish to store this information.

Once all this planning is done comes the time for actual implementation of

the same. For future planning you might want to also think about integration

with other services such as Exchange, Business Intelligence and using SharePoint

as a CMS platform.

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