SharePoint Foundation 2010 is designed to provide organizations with an infrastructure with which they can build either internal or external websites. Through the use of Internet Information Services (IIS), SharePoint Foundation comes out of the box with a very stable web platform, thereby offering a web environment that is easy to use and secure.
With sites you are able to design websites in a matter of minutes, which could be ideal for:
Project team members who have many recurring meetings throughout the year, for which agendas, meeting minutes, and related project-specific documentation differ from meeting to meeting.
When a specific document exists that requires feedback from a large audience but requires granular security so that only document owners can perform updates.
When an ad hoc meeting is called to discuss a specific topic, and this information must be retained and allow for collaboration throughout a period of time.
When a series of websites need to be created for different departments so that specific content can be disseminated throughout an organization but still remain secure, based on each member’s role.
You might or might not initially know what types of sites that you need or what types of tools and functionality that might be required for each site that you create. Never fear: SharePoint Foundation 2010 comes with several built-in site templates that you can use to get started. Each of these templates come set up with lists, libraries, Web Parts, layouts, and (in some cases) workflows already activated for use. Also, each of these templates are fully functioning sites when you set them up by using the easy setup interface in SharePoint 2010. In a matter of minutes, you can have a new SharePoint site up and running, thus cutting down on the setup time that you would typically need if you had to design and build sites from scratch. At the same time, these sites are fully customizable, as well. If there are a few libraries that you do not need, you can easily delete these libraries. You can also add in any desired functionality.
Table 1-1 lists the templates that come with every copy of SharePoint Foundation 2010. With the new and improved functionality in SharePoint Foundation 2010, these collaboration and meeting templates continue to be ideal for information workers in corporate environments. People use these same templates more than ever to create sites for professional and charitable organizations, schools, social clubs, sports teams, churches, youth groups, and almost any other kind of group that you can think of. This same platform can also be utilized to develop custom applications of any kind.
Table 1-1. Collaboration and Meeting Templates Supplied with SharePoint Foundation 2010
Table 1-1 demonstrates that SharePoint Foundation 2010 comes with several templates that can be used to fit practically every business scenario you might come across. Keep in mind that these are the templates that come with SharePoint Foundation 2010 out-of-the-box. And if you are using SharePoint Server 2010, there are even more templates available for you to use.
These collaboration and meeting templates give you the flexibility to accomplish fast-paced and effective collaboration on documents, meetings, events, projects, discussions, and ideas; they are ideal for maintaining version control on documents, conducting discussions, and tracking tasks, issues, and agendas.
In today’s business environment, using file share drives is quickly becoming a thing of the past. While these were useful for storing files, today’s organizations are finding that they need to have strong content management in place; as such, SharePoint sites are increasingly becoming the tool of choice to meet this demand. With site quotas, file exclusion lists, improved governance, and advanced administration features, SharePoint Foundation 2010 can easily accommodate tens of thousands of users, and thousands of sites within an organization.
With sites, you are able to share and publish content easily. Setting up SharePoint sites is easy (see Chapter 4), and by using the new features found within SharePoint Foundation 2010, anyone can build a site from start to finish in a matter of minutes. Several out-of-the-box features provide instant value to your organization by assisting the site owner with content changes, adding interaction, or applying different design themes.
SharePoint sites are as easy to use as they are to build. This is due in part to the integration of SharePoint 2010 with other technologies (such as Office) that you probably already use in the course of performing your job.
Connecting SharePoint to Office makes saving documents directly to a SharePoint site a breeze. The SharePoint site shows up as a directory location within the Save As dialog; you can select and save documents to the appropriate library, thus avoiding the need to go into a SharePoint site to upload a document once it is finished. You can also access sites and content offline via Microsoft SharePoint Workspace and then synchronize changes by simply reconnecting to the network. Also, with cross-browser support and mobile webpages, anyone can access and share content, in the office or on the go.
With features such as audience targeting, multilingual interface support, and user tagging, a highly customized and personal experience can be created for each person using SharePoint Foundation 2010.