Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007 Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) about
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
General Information
Q. What is Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007?
A. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is an
integrated suite of easy-to-use server applications that improves
organisational effectiveness by:
Managing content comprehensively, to derive increased business
value from information assets.
Accelerating internal and external shared business
processes.
Efficiently finding and accessing information to drive
better-informed decisions.
Sharing business information with greater confidence within and
outside organisational boundaries.
Providing IT with a single, integrated, extensible platform to
manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications across the
organisation.
Q. What is Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
technology?
A. Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services is the technology in
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 that people can use to collaborate in
browser-based workspaces while it provides a manageable
infrastructure and extensible application platform for process
efficiency gains. Windows SharePoint Services is a platform for
collaboration applications that is easy to adopt and use through
integration with everyday and familiar tools such as the Microsoft
Office system. Users can publish, store, share, and keep track of
information workflow and documents. Organisations can
cost-effectively tailor application templates to specific sets of
tasks and processes.
Q. How does the new Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 differ
from Windows SharePoint Services technology?
A. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 builds
on the Windows SharePoint Services platform to help organisations
integrate business processes and applications through a full set of
collaboration and personalisation features for information workers.
With Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007,
companies can aggregate, search, share, and target content in a
more efficient way.
Q. How does Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 build
on Windows SharePoint Services?
A. Windows SharePoint Services provides a platform foundation to
collaboration applications, offering a common framework for
document management and a common repository for storing documents
of all types. Additionally, it provides common administration and
deployment tools. Finally, it builds on and exposes key Windows
Server services like Windows Workflow Services (WWS) and Windows
Rights Management Services. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
delivers highly scalable collaboration solutions with flexible
deployment and management tools. It connects sites, people, and
business processes-facilitating knowledge sharing and smart
organisations. It also extends the capabilities of Windows
SharePoint Services by providing organisational and management
tools for SharePoint sites, and by making it possible for teams to
publish information to the entire organisation.
Q. Who is Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
designed for?
A. Microsoft
Office SharePoint Server 2007 can be used by information
workers and IT administrators.
Q. What are the main benefits of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007?
A. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
provides a single integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet,
and Internet applications across the enterprise.
Business users gain greater control over the storage, security,
distribution, and management of their electronic content, with
tools that are easy to use and tightly integrated into familiar,
everyday applications.
Organisations can accelerate shared business processes with
customers and partners across organisational boundaries using Forms
Services-driven solutions.
Information workers can find information and people efficiently
and easily through the facilitated information-sharing
functionality and simplified content publishing. In addition,
access to back-end data is achieved easily through a browser, and
views into this data can be personalised.
Administrators have powerful tools at their fingertips that ease
deployment, management, and system administration, so they can
spend more time on strategic tasks. Using
the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
out-of-the-box workflows frees IT staff from having to write
server-side code.
Q. How do I get Windows SharePoint Services?
A. Windows SharePoint Services, a component of Microsoft Windows
Server 2003, is currently in version 2 Service Pack 2 (SP2), and is
also offered as a free download. Windows SharePoint Services also
comes as part of the recently released Windows Server 2003 R2
media. Windows SharePoint Services (version 3) is now available in
beta.
Pricing, Licensing, and Ordering
Q. When will Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 be
available?
A. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is
available now.
Q. How much does Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
cost?
A. Costing depends on the type of license agreement you require.
Below is a starting point.
Pricing (based on Select Level A… Select A is the entry point for
MS Select Agreements)
Server - £2,652.83
Standard Client Access License (CAL) - £55.57
Enterprise Client Access License (CAL) - add £44.66 = £100.23
External connector License - £24,853 - £40000 for SPLA.
If you would like to use SPS 2003, there are downgrade rights on
the server and CAL licenses.
Standard CAL Features
- Content Management- Out-of-the-box workflows initiate, track,
and report common business activities such as document review and
approval, issue tracking, and signature collection.
- Records Management- Record Repository provides for the
collecting, managing, and disposing of corporate records in a
consistent and uniform manner based on the company's policies.
- Portal Site Management- Site Manager tools help personalize,
deploy, and maintain portals using drag-drop capability.
- Search- Extensible and customizable search of enterprise
content and people.
Enterprise CAL Features
- Report Center- Broadly share business data through personal or
shared dashboards that include Excel controls and key performance
indicators.
- Business Data Catalog- Discover more information through the
ability to index business data and access it through your portal
and search.
- Excel Services- Secure, manage and control spreadsheets through
a web browser. Integrate Excel as a part of your business
intelligence infrastructure.
- Forms Server- Enable the storage and organization of rich,
dynamic server-based forms to gather, share, reuse, and manage
information.
Q. What if some users need Enterprise features and others do
not?
A. Once the Enterprise features
of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 are
enabled, every client accessing Enterprise functionality on that
server, or servers in a farm, is required to have an Enterprise CAL
in addition to their Standard client access.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Integration
with the Microsoft Office System
Q. How does Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
integrate with the Microsoft Office system of products and
technologies?
A. Tight integration with familiar client applications such as
Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Outlook, and browsers gives employees
a simple, consistent user experience. It also provides greater
visibility into everyday business activities.
System Requirements and Service
Pack/Upgrade
Q. What are the system requirements for
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007?
A. Minimum Software Requirements
A computer running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Standard,
Enterprise, Datacenter, or Web Edition) with Service Pack 1(SP1),
Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation Runtime Components Beta 2.2
(Build 3807.7), and Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
The computer must be configured as a Web server running
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) in IIS 6.0 worker
process isolation mode.
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007requires
connectivity to a SQL database (either SQL 2000 SP3, or SQL
2005).
Minimum Hardware Requirements
Dual-processor computer with processor clock speeds of 2.5
gigahertz (Ghz) or higher.
Minimum of 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM; however, 2-4 GB of RAM is
recommended for improved performance.
Please note your hardware is matched to your number of users and
expected usage.
Q. If I
have Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003
or Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001, can I upgrade to
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007?
A. You can upgrade only if you have
Microsoft Office
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 with SP2.