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For example, an office meeting might result in the need for a group of workers to co-write some
confidential material. With SharePoint it is reasonably straightforward:
From the user’s perspective, the SharePoint workspace they access has the familiarity of a web
site; but it is a site to which it is easy to upload documents, or on which you can edit documents
already there. Once the document is finished and approved it may be placed in a document
library housed in one of the SQL databases SharePoint uses. This may contain thousands of
other documents. A user can access these items via SharePoint. It acts as a web interface
between that user and the SQL databases and search capabilities.
There are two main aspects to SharePoint, or, to give it its full title, ‘Microsoft SharePoint
Products and Technologies’.
WSS is a free, downloadable part of Windows Server 2003. It provides the fundamental engine
for creating shared workspaces and may well be sufficient for many (smaller) firms. It can be
used on its own, i.e. without the other main element of SharePoint, which is discussed next.
Both the free WSS and the purchased SPS use SQL databases which store content, metadata
and configuration information. For larger environments, SQL Server will need to be deployed,
and licensed. However in a single-server SharePoint deployment, MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server
2000 Desktop Engine) alone can be used. MSDE is a free download.
The operating system required to run SharePoint is Windows Server 2003. Not every firm will
be using this at present and one may question whether it is worth upgrading merely to be able
to use SharePoint. Maybe not, but remember that the official ‘end-of-life’ for Windows 2000 was
30 June 2005. This means that Microsoft has moved it out of mainstream support into
‘extended’ support. Therefore it would be wise (for security reasons if nothing else) to upgrade
servers to Windows 2003. Once upgraded, there is little reason not to investigate SharePoint.
Producing the classifications for a taxonomy is at present quite a rudimentary process. But
Microsoft, with its vast resources of finance and talent, may well purchase, develop or otherwise
‘acquire’ more sophisticated techniques in the near future. This speculation is particularly
compelling given the company’s current targeting of the ‘information worker’ for its products.
At present, to produce a taxonomy within SPS, you create ‘areas’ (i.e. categories and
subcategories), as appropriate, to reflect the work types of your firm. These you populate with
actual documents, as well as links to other content sources such as web sites and file shares.
Sufficient items should be added to each area to cover as many aspects of that area as
possible. Areas are then used to create a training set, which is used by the ‘Topic Assistant’ to
suggest appropriate areas for other items.
One can see from this description that the user, rather than IT specialists, is in control of
configuring as well as using this part of the product. A major design aim of SPS is to enable
ordinary users to create their own, ad hoc, collaborative spaces (to facilitate meetings, manage
projects and create documents) without relying on IT support. It provides pre-defined templates
for Web sites, plus a ‘self-service’ site creation feature. Thus the user should be able to get on
with using and benefiting from the product, rather than waiting for IT help.
Which size of firm is SharePoint for? Answer – every one. This is not a flippant response
because while the product is scalable for deployment in a server farm it is also designed for use
in a single server environment. Thus it may well be deemed suitable for firms of all sizes. An
example of a small firm using SharePoint comes from the US. Frazer, Ryan, Goldberg, Arnold
& Gittler “ … deployed several Windows SharePoint Services team workspace intranet sites,
including a large shared document library, …” (see Testimonials section below).
Given this situation, even those firms that view SharePoint as insufficiently sophisticated for
their work may find an incentive (or indeed need) to implement it. In other words, future
requirements of certain third-party products that firms rely on may compel them to use
SharePoint. Indeed one observer believes that SharePoint “may become something of a de
facto standard".
Microsoft is also starting to release freely downloadable applications for (the free) WSS, to
make it faster to deploy for specific business processes. For example, it provides a program
called ‘Legal Document Review Workflow Management’.
One of the many business management areas into which Microsoft is attempting to extend its
reach is ‘Business Intelligence’ (BI); this is defined in many ways, e.g. “having easy access to
critical company data”. One aspect of Microsoft’s approach to BI is a new server-based system
for managing Excel spreadsheets. Client access will be through Office 12, the next version of
Microsoft’s Office suite, while the server-based ‘Excel Services’ abilities will come as part of a
future version of the company's SharePoint technology.
Thus, rather than ‘What is it’, the future question might be rather, ‘Whatever it is, can we afford
to do without it?’
Alastair Morrison works in IT at Strathclyde University, Glasgow. In 2002 he was awarded, with
distinction, the University’s internationally renowned LLM in IT and Telecommunications Law.
Since then he has been developing and publishing his views on IT in legal practice, with a
particular focus on the smaller firm, which he feels receives little attention.
Back to Contents.
Microsoft’s SharePoint - what is it and what can it do for you?
A more extensive version of this article, with many references and links to further material, can
be downloaded from here or (full web address)
www.venables.co.uk/n0601sharepoint.doc.
by Alastair Morrison
Introduction
SharePoint is special software, running on a PC server, which provides a web-based method
of collaboratively working on documents. In a sense it might be regarded as a web server, as
it runs on Microsoft’s IIS product (plus SQL databases) but one which is specialised in that it
provides easier control over what users may do on it and easier use of documents in the
databases that it sets up.Windows SharePoint Services (WSS)
This is the core of SharePoint. It provides document sharing facilities and is much more
sophisticated than previous Microsoft efforts in this area; for example, the public folders aspect
of the Exchange Server groupware product. (Public folders are greatly used as a collaboration
mechanism in many organisations but, as Microsoft is now concentrating its information sharing
efforts on SharePoint, their future is uncertain.) Document libraries created with it support
routing and approval functions, checking in and out, and reversion to previous versions. Thus
WSS can be used as a dealroom, an extranet type facility for external collaboration or an
intranet service for internal firm matters.SharePoint Portal Server (SPS)
SPS, as the name suggests, is more of a portal and allows greater customisation and scalability
than WSS alone. (For those of you still struggling with the portal concept, see Delia’s own
article from July/August 2003 -
Developing a Portal for your Law Firm).
SPS runs on top of WSS, which provides all the underlying basic functions SPS needs. SPS is not free. It builds
upon the collaborative working aspect of WSS and may be regarded as a document and
knowledge management tool on account of its additional (to WSS) search and categorisation
capabilities.
(Full web address Developing a Portal for your Law Firm)
Hardware requirements for WSS and SPS
To give some sort of indication of what is needed, a possible ‘minimum’ and ‘recommended’
configuration are given below. Nowadays the minimum specification can easily be found on an
‘entry level’ desktop or laptop, and indeed there is no reason not to ‘try out’ SharePoint on non
server hardware. However, as noted, it requires the Windows Server 2003 operating system,
which (while it can be installed on a desktop PC) is designed to run on server hardware.
Therefore one would be advised to run a live SharePoint service on server hardware certified
as such.Setting up and managing SharePoint
As you might expect with any reasonably sophisticated piece of software (e.g. email system or
web server), getting SharePoint ‘up and running’, i.e. installing the software and initially
configuring it, will require a degree of IT expertise. However, day-to-day administration, use and
configuration should not need great IT skill since most activities are wizard based (point and
click).
What can SharePoint do for your firm?
Several of the law firm functions for which SharePoint can be used have been mentioned
above. Collaborative working with third parties by using WSS as an extranet (virtual dealroom)
is one possibility. SPS offers the potential for document management, through its ability to
search across a variety of sources, internal and external (e.g. web sites, email repositories and
SQL Server databases). There is even the prospect of knowledge management, by using SPS’
native support for taxonomies.Impact of SharePoint
As discussed above, SharePoint can provide a document management facility. However, it is
also a platform on and for which other software producers are increasingly building their
products. In the legal sphere specifically, one has only to read the legal IT press, or attend law
technology exhibitions, to know that producers of certain non-Microsoft products, widely used
in law firms, are increasingly developing those products to integrate with and exploit SharePoint
(as a means to further enhance said products). e.g. Interwoven, Workshare. Testimonials
Here are some examples of law firms using SharePoint.
This concerns the use of SPS by Clarke Willmott, a UK firm.
The article notes Freshfields use of WSS as a starting point for developing its enterprise portal.
A US firm, Appleby, Spurling & Kempe, is using SPS for accessing information that resides in multiple systems.
A case study of a small firm - Frazer, Ryan, Goldberg, Arnold & Gittler - which employed WSS, plus SQL Server,
to create a 15 GB searchable document library.SharePoint for law firms
Microsoft is ever anxious to push its products into more business sectors, law being one of
these, as it advances from its consumer and corporate desktop strongholds. Firms should make
the most of the tools and assistance which are on offer as a consequence. For example, to
assist a firm’s deployment of SharePoint, Microsoft provides downloadable web site templates,
for small, medium and large firms, as well as corporate legal departments.What does the future hold for SharePoint?
Microsoft no doubt has many plans for it but I will relate just one. It is particularly noteworthy in
light of the exhortations of legal commentators in recent years for firms to run themselves more
as businesses, and the changes to the legal services market presaged by Clementi’s review
and the looming ‘Tesco’ laws.
Email alastair.morrison@strath.ac.uk.