What is a Sharepoint Intranet

Many of us have wondered why it is so easy to find information on the Internet, yet it is so hard finding information within our own organization!

The goal of an Intranet is to provide the easy access to information that we find on the Internet.

In its basic form, an Intranet uses Internet technology to provide information that only your organization can see.

Microsoft recently launched Windows Sharepoint Services as a no-cost addition to Windows 2003 Server.

Windows Sharepoint Services allows you to quickly develop a practical Intranet site that makes it easy to find and share information.

It uses the concept of "Lists" - lists that hold upcoming events, action items, contacts, shared reference documents and the like.

Before systems like Sharepoint Services were invented, this was hard or expensive to do. We know of organizations that have people working full-time to keep their old-fashioned systems going and up to date.

With Sharepoint Services you can get all the benefits of an Intranet without all the hard work. If you can use Microsoft Word, then you can build an Intranet.

Click on the small graphic below to show the default intranet site using Sharepoint Services.

See how professional it looks? That's without changing a thing!

In this series of articles we will see how easy it is to tailor this Intranet site to meet your needs.

Building Great Intranets with Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services

Microsoft's Windows Sharepoint Services allows all of us to build great intranet and extranet sites.

Whether you are a small business, a marketing company or a large pharmaceutical, we will show you why Windows Sharepoint Services is a great tool for you.

OK, now maybe you're thinking "Here comes another site about technology".

But it's Not!!

if you read on, you see don't need to be a rocket-scientist to get great results.

So why is this site here? Well, only a few years ago it was almost impossible for you or I to build intranet sites like this. Now Microsoft has come along with Windows Sharepoint Services and delivers a professional solution in one box!
You get

• Document Management built-in
• Shared Electronic calendars
• Tools for building a picture library
• Survey tools baked into the system.
• Collaboration areas to meet and work on shared projects

And the great thing is there's no coding! All of what we will do in the following tutorials happens in your browser. Over the next few pages you'll see why this great tool will change intranet design forever.
Later through the site we'll take you on a journey - a few tutorials on building your collaborative intranet.

So, you've read this far - lets get started!