WSS and Small Business April 22, 2010, by in Other
WSS (Windows SharePoint Services) is a tool that most small businesses don’t realize is available to them—it is free, and most small businesses already have the hardware in place to run their own WSS portal.
WSS allows for the creation of a central location for business documents, calendars, lists, logs, and files—all accessible via a web browser, from anywhere you can get an Internet connection. It is integrated with Office 2007, and allows users to create powerful business applications without the need to know a programming language.
I recently deployed WSS for a private elementary school. The school could not effectively communicate due to lack of communication tools, a central location for storing digital documents/records, and a centrally accessible school calendar. Most administrative staff worked offsite, so a local network file share was not an option as part of the solution.
In came WSS and the solution was created. WSS allowed tracking of prospective students (admissions), tuition payment tracking, a central calendar, student contact information, a staff directory, administrative document sharing, etc. WSS provided an environment that allowed both offsite and onsite staff to collaborate effectively. Processes that took a week to accomplish via emailing spreadsheets and documents could now be accomplished within hours. WSS also gave the school an authoritative source for all school documents, which used to be stored on individual PCs.
All of these business applications were created with only a few client training hours. The solution still allows the school to continue to create applications without interaction with a WSS expert if new needs arises in the future. (However, the school has occasionally tapped my business process know-how to speed their application development even further.
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