Datasheet

teams. From these results, the company identified the common issues each team shared and created a
site hierarchy that best represented the organization’s corporate culture and business processes. Because
the organization consisted of only three divisions (Finance, Marketing, and Operations), they opted for
a single collection of sites: a main site for the organization as a whole, and three subsites, one for each
division.
Because each division followed similar processes for most projects, the company could use SharePoint’s
template system to create a single “project” site template that all teams could use to create a collabora-
tive project location. The sites created from this template would then have the following features:
❑ A document library to create, store, and organize any documents related to the project
❑ A contact list to store and organize important contacts involved with the project
❑ A task list to coordinate important tasks for team members involved with the project
❑ An issue tracking list to highlight any potential project concerns
The template was created and then saved in a central site template gallery where each division could use
it to generate a new site for each project.
Because Rossco had invested heavily in the creation of its corporate identity, it was imperative that this
brand be carried over to the intranet and extranet sites. Using a combination of the built-in site themes,
custom style sheets, master pages, and free downloadable application templates, Rossco transformed the
default SharePoint environment into a more familiar, corporate-branded interface.
Moving from Plan to Practice
After defining the organization structure via team sites on the intranet, it was time to for Rossco Tech
Consulting to put their hard work and planning into real-world practice. As teams began to understand
the tools that they now had available, the following practices started to drive more efficient operations
within the organization:
❑ Projects were quickly defined via sites created using the project site template. This allowed
teams to set up a central environment to create, store, and share information about a particular
project with the entire organization in just seconds.
❑ Appointments and important deadlines were created and tracked from a single shared calendar
on the project site that everyone on a team could easily view.
❑ Contact information was added to a central location so that team members could easily contact
one another and other key partners or stakeholders for the project.
❑ Important project documents were moved to the document repository of their respective project
sites where changes became easier to track and security became more manageable.
❑ Users began to create email alerts on the task and issues lists, ensuring that tasks and issues
were dealt with in a timely manner.
As each division began defining its role in important projects, executives realized that they now had
a bird’s eye view of operations within the organization — a discovery which was met with great
enthusiasm.
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Chapter 1: Getting Started with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
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