ECM - MOSS 2007 Taking a general look

Is it bird? Is it a plane? Well with MOSS 2007 it sometimes feels that way. So the question is what is MOSS 2007? Let's start by quoting from the executive summary from the CMS Watch Report on SharePoint:

However, what remains less clear more than a year after the launch of
SharePoint 2007 is where the product actually fits into the
enterprise. SharePoint is truly a collection of individual components that
interact together to varying degrees, but require extra work to weld into a
cohesive package. And unfortunately not all components of SharePoint are created
equal. In other words, SharePoint is well suited to some requirements, but
certainly not all.

So folks, what is clear is that you need to be careful as to what you use MOSS for and how it is used. Some features work and play well out of the box, while others require development (that's cutting code folks). In addition I would say that MOSS 2007 is primarily a platform of services that may or may not suit what you are trying to achieve within an overall solution.

Now when I say platform of services I mean that what you get is the core services but sometimes it feels like you need to run your own power line from the curb to the house to get all the appliances working.

However, I must say that the set of services that are supplied in MOSS 2007 are feature rich, and on first look there is something for everyone. The overall message however is that prior planning will prevent a poor implementation, especially with SharePoint or MOSS 2007 as it is also known. Plan, Plan and then execute. Do not go direct to setup or base install, you will regret that somewhere down the track.

For a look at the top 10 things to avoid with MOSS 2007 click the link. Note that the first two points are not even technology rated and Setup.exe comes in at number 3. You should ask yourself before you slap that CD into the drive, have I though about why I am doing this and what we are trying to achieve here?

But back to MOSS 2007. Feature, feature, feature. Well to start there is really great

So firstly, it is a platform, and when we say platform that means a rich set of infrastructure services and some front end services out of the box. With any platform there is a degree of development that needs to happen to make the platform useful for your situation. An overview of the functionality provided by MOSS 2007 is as follows: (Diagram courtesy of Microsoft)

As you can see from the "Pizza wheel" there is a wide range of services and functions that are available as part of the platform. Here downunder (that's NZ folks) the main areas that are being implemented are as follows:

• Intranet (Portal) and Internet (WCM from the Content Management piece)
• Document Collaboration
• Forms and Workflow

Of course Search is something that is everywhere. With MOSS 2007 you get the ability to use Search across MOSS Site, and also to extend it to the web and file systems. The Enterprise license also gives you access to add search into line of business applications and bring a rich search experience into the MOSS Portal. With the recent acquisition of FAST there is a wider Search story that Microsoft is able to present and I am looking with interest as to how this unfolds.

Another area that I am keen to see get going in is records management, however this will require some planning as here in New Zealand there is very much a continuum life cycle approach to records management rather than the traditional here it is a document and "bling" now its a record. The life cycle approach is a view that starts from the time of creation of an item and this item is then managed in a "records context". Microsoft in NZ have done some great work to get connected to the government market and has developed a jump start pack for MOSS 2007 and NZ government agencies. There are also partner organisations that are now building Records Management add-ons for MOSS 2007 that are very exciting and will be a big change to the way that customers deploy MOSS 2007.

With the release of a solid records management add on that fits the NZ market MOSS 2007 will move from the Intranet collaboration space to the main stream records and document management fields, this is both exciting and scary. As I have said before when Microsoft decides to enter a market space it does not take long for them to start to dominate and certainly in NZ this is starting to come to pass.