I. Introduction

In the current competitive market the Knowledge Workers and people are always demanding for better and better ways to communicate and collaborate. Microsoft and may other innovative companies have come up with various tools and products for collaboration. These products are going to replace the current working style and working environments for the Knowledge Workers. This document would be providing a brief introduction about the role which Share Point Portal Server is going to play in coming future.

II. E-mail the Killer App

Electronic Mail was the first and may be the only REAL killer application of the Internet. E-mail revolutionized the way we communicate and interact, the way we work together, exchange information and keep in touch. E-mail entered quickly in almost all areas of professional and private life and fundamentally changed the basic rules of the global village. E-mail communication works like the 'good old' letter or newspaper, and that is one of the reasons why it spread so quickly.

Following are the some of the many problems identified by this traditional system of collaboration and communication.

    1. Though I am using Outlook Express I have to always play around with the size of the attachments.
    2. And Fortunately or un-Fortunately, If I go On-Site then I have to always carry my Laptop with me just for mails and Documents and getting back the work which can not be transfer via mails .
    1. Once I was questioned by my Supervisor as he was not updated with one of the Issue in our project. Do you know why? - My supervisor was not marked CC for the mails which were exchanged between me and the client in context of that problem.

    2. There was a part of the discussion which was not supposed to go to client unfortunately went to the client because of the mail was marked to client also.

    3. I have to always scroll down the chain of mail for understanding the complete picture of the situation.

    4. Some times I get fed up with creating folders in my mail box and dropping the mails in to correct folders.

    5. I am using out look express and always downloading my mails on to my local machine. So I have to always make sure that my mails have been backed up properly on a regular basis.

We can have many more such Questions and Answers.

What is the base problem in all of the Q And A which is listed above?

Answer is simple. Why are we using E-Mails?

Electronic Mail was the first and maybe the only REAL killer application of the Internet. E-mail revolutionized the way we communicate and interact, the way we work together, exchange information and keep in touch. E-mail entered quickly in almost all areas of professional and private life and fundamentally changed the basic rules of the global village. E-mail communication works like the 'good old' letter or newspaper, and that is one of the reasons why it spread so quickly.

The basic concepts in which the E-mail works is

Figure 1:- Functional Architecture of E-mail

The Solution

So wouldn't it be nice that instead of Pull and Push of the Information - if the contributes pushed information at a central and the associated persons are getting it any time any where.



Figure 2:- Alternative solution to E-mail

Microsoft has answer for the above concept "Share Point Server".

III. What is Share Point Portal Server 2003?

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 integrates information from various systems into one secure solution through single sign-on and enterprise application integration capabilities. It provides flexible deployment and management tools, and facilitates end-to-end collaboration through data aggregation, organization, and searching. SharePoint Portal Server 2003 also enables users to quickly find relevant information through customization and personalization of portal content and layout as well as through audience targeting. Audience targeting aims information and updates to individuals based on their organizational role, team membership, interest, security group, or any other membership criteria that can be defined using notifications or Web Parts.

IV. Uses and Features of SPS 2003

Following are few of the drops from the ocean of uses of SPS 2003.

V. Existing Integration with Other MS Technologies

Following are the gist explaining about SPS 2003 is already integrated with majority of the Microsoft extensively used technologies.

VI. WebParts - A new Era of Web Programming.

Web parts are the components which can be created using .Net Framework and deployed on SPS. The WebParts are plug and Play kind of components so that user can place them wherever he wants. The WebPart exposes a complete new area of programming.

Following are the few of the examples which will enrich the current behavior of SPS.

Figure 3:- What is New WebPart

Figure 4:- Data Abstraction Web Part

Figure 5:- Newspaper Web Part

VII. SPS in a Corporate

Looking at all of the above points and discussion we can arrive at a cockpit level view of the architecture diagram of Content Management System integrated with Business Systems which are already playing an important role in your corporate.

Figure 6:- Architecture for - Role of SPS in a Corporate