SharePoint and you: It's a brave new world, baby!
Imagine if there was no more time wasted trying to get X, Y and Z together at one time, or (and the boss will like this one) money wasted on endless conference calls, meeting rooms, transport and accommodation for large scale get-togethers. Think about that big project you're working on that needs input from ten different departments — imagine if you didn't have to call, e-mail and generally hound everyone involved to get the tiniest piece of information from them. There's no need to dream of a world without the hell that is organising meetings and co-ordinating projects — online collaboration is the answer to your prayers.
So, what is online collaboration?
Try to imagine an office without walls — and no we don't mean having your colleagues sit at their desks amongst the lush British countryside, with the traditional summer rain dampening their keyboards. Your physical walls will still be there, but collaboration software like Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services can help you create a space where you can share information and work on documents with your colleagues without any barriers. No matter where you are, whether you have time in your schedule to meet up or not, you can work on that important document together, without leaving your desks. Now that's collaboration!
Basically collaboration software lets you collect and work on all the ideas and documents you need, without meeting face to face. You can share calendars, spreadsheets, presentations with whoever you like in your team, company, or beyond if need be.
Take Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. (SharePoint — even the name shouts collaboration!) A SharePoint site is basically a Web site where you and your collaborators can work on one single project or a series of projects. You can post announcements, share links, upload and work on documents, and coordinate schedules. The options are endless; it all depends on what you want to do and how you want to do it.
SharePoint has tons of different features to help your company work more effectively, but there are a few that will definitely appeal to you, the busy PA.
Meeting workspaces
A Meeting Workspace is a type of SharePoint Web site that acts as a central spot for all the information you need for those non-face-to-face meetings. You can publish agendas, documents you plan to discuss, meeting notes, and results - anything that relates to an upcoming or past meeting. When you send a meeting request, just include a hyperlink that goes to the workspace and everyone you have invited can access the information.
Document workspace
A Document Workspace is another type of SharePoint site, but instead of keeping track of meeting information, it's a virtual place where you and your colleagues can actually collaborate on presentations, documents, spreadsheets, and drawings without actually meeting each other. And the great things, is that you can choose how to collaborate. You can:
- Send a shared attachment via e-mail. Just create a new piece of mail, add the document as an attachment, and work with the settings in the Attachment Options task pane.
- Use the Create button in the Shared Workspace task pane to create a Document Workspace in Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, or Microsoft Office Visio 2003. Then add the names of the people who have access to the files and decide if you want to send them an invitation or not.
- Create a private Document Workspace for a document that is already published in a document library.
- Create a Document Workspace site in a Web browser.
So instead of having to send versions of the files back and forth through e-mail, call or meet to discuss, each person can work on the files on their local machine, and by using the Shared Workspace task pane, can make changes to the files, get updates, and check task lists. Basically everyone will always have access to the most recent version of the project you are working on — and you don't even need to be in the same office/building/country.
So, if you've ever struggled to get the ten most elusive people in your organisation together in one room, or if you've sat through a painfully unproductive meeting when you could be doing something far better with your time, online collaboration is going to seem pretty appealing. Plus, it means that, Christmas party aside, you never need to meet up with those colleagues that you just can't stand
