Contents
Overview 1
Common Obstacles to Implementing an
Effective Document Management Solution 2
Introduction to SharePoint Portal Server 11
Using SharePoint Portal Server as an
Effective Document Management Solution 14
Review 28

Module 1: Introduction
to SharePoint Portal
Server
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property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any

Describe the major features of SharePoint Portal Server and describe the
characteristics of SharePoint Portal Server workspaces and a digital
dashboard.

Demonstrate how SharePoint Portal Server can be used to improve the
document management capabilities of an organization.

Materials and Preparation
This section provides the materials and preparation tasks that you need to teach
this module.
Required Materials
To teach this module, you need the following materials:
• Microsoft PowerPoint
®
file 2095a_01.ppt

Preparation Tasks
To prepare for this module, you should:
• Read all of the materials for this module.

Presentation:
90 Minutes
iv Module 1: Introduction to SharePoint Portal Server Module Strategy
Use the following strategy to present this module:

Common Obstacles to Implementing an Effective Document Management
Solution

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Every organization has valuable knowledge, about its customers, products,
processes and competitors, locked away in people’s minds, on paper, and in
electronic form. Knowledge management is the process of organizing this
knowledge and making it available to the employees who make the day-to-day
decisions that ultimately determine the success or failure of a business.
To make this happen, knowledge management requires effective search and
document management systems so that employees can quickly and easily find
and manage information. Document management is using technology to enable
people to create, share, and collaborate on documents.
After completing this module, you will be able to:

Describe the common obstacles to implementing an effective document
management solution.

Describe the major features of Microsoft
®
SharePoint
™
Portal Server and
describe the characteristics of SharePoint Portal Server workspaces and a
digital dashboard.


Enabling Collaboration

Providing Update Notifications

Implementing Approval Processes

Ensuring Document Security

Providing Scalability

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There are a number of obstacles that are commonly encountered when
attempting to implement an effective document management solution. For
example, document organization can pose a problem such that employees may
find large and complex information sources, such as multiple file shares,
difficult to use because they seldom include a consistent organizational
framework. Further, employees can have difficulty collaborating with others on
documents, controlling access to documents, and making documents available
to others in their organization. Employees also often have difficulty
accommodating different document approval processes, keeping track of
document updates, controlling access to documents, and ensuring that
documents are not lost or overwritten. When a company’s knowledge base


Access documents

Collaborate

Provide update notifications

Approvals

Ensure security

Provide scalability

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Document organization and storage provides a critical framework for the
development of an effective document management solution. Documents must
be organized and stored in a way that facilitates easy access to that information.
Methods for Organizing and Storing Documents
The methods used to establish storage locations can differ from one group to
another within an organization, introducing unwanted complexity.
Using Metadata
Document organization refers to the location of files and any metadata that is

Effects of Poor Document Organization
Poor document organization can make it difficult to:

Access documents. Poor document organization can make it difficult to find
information.

Collaborate. Poor document organization can also affect the ability to
effectively collaborate on the creation of a document. For example, if a
document is created by a team of workers and it is stored on a server as well
as on local stores, it can be difficult to determine which version of the
document is the most current, who made the changes, and so on.

Provide update notifications. Inefficiencies can result if a document is
updated but other people in an organization are not informed that it was
updated.

Approvals. Inaccuracies can result if a document is not adequately reviewed.

Ensure security. Other aspects of document management can also be
affected by poorly designed document organization structure, including
document access, approvals, security, and scalability.

Provide scalability. If documents are not organized properly, users in other
departments may have difficulty finding the documents.

As difficult as these issues are in an existing document management system,
they become significantly more difficult when the number of documents
suddenly increases, such as when two organizations merge, a corporate division
is reorganized, or a small solution gets scaled to the entire corporate
environment. Even the addition of new documents to an existing document


Inadequate information or information overload. Searches often result in
too little or too much information. When there is too much information,
users experience information overload since important information is often
obscured by the volume of information.

Too many informational sources. Users must often look though different
forms, file formats, and storage locations because information is often
located on file servers, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) pages on Web
servers, or e-mail on messaging servers.

Single data source. Searching is generally performed on one data source at a
time which makes finding content even more difficult.

Outdated information. Finding the most current information, including
updates to important documents, is often difficult.

Slow response time. When working with a large numbers of files, response
time for search results can be long.

Topic Objective
To describe the document
management problems of
finding documents.
Lead-in
Let’s examine some of the
typical problems
encountered when trying to
find a document.
6 Module 1: Introduction to SharePoint Portal Server

Barriers to Effective Collaboration
Although collaboration on a document is generally a good practice, there are a
number of barriers to collaboration:

Lack of document version control. When more than one person is working
on the same document, it is difficult to blend all those different versions into
a single document.

Inability to discuss document changes. If people cannot gather in the same
room to collaborate on creating or revising a document, they are not able
capture the possibilities of the collaborative process. Similarly, if they are
not able to capture their thoughts about the document in a collaborative
application, the same problem can result.

Inability to track previous document versions. This can lead to duplication
of efforts or the deletion of needed documents.

Lack of document version history. When a group or team works together on
a document, it is important to be able to note changes that were made, and
make comments. Fortunately, Microsoft
®
Word has a number of features for
keeping track of changes and comments. Previous versions of a document
often must be accessed when critical information is lost or if a previous
version is later deemed to be best.

Topic Objective
To describe the document
management problems of
collaboration.

Notification Issues
Keeping track of changes in a document that a team is working on is part of the
collaboration issue previously described. In addition, it is important to know
when a document has been updated, deleted, moved, or has just become
available for the first time.
Notifying a user of changes in a document should occur quickly, and the
information should be easily accessible. Ways to address this problem often
include a subscription to some document management system, with
notifications being sent through e-mail, or placed on a personalized Web site. In
keeping track of changes in resource documents, an effective document
management system must track all of the documents you use, both on your local
intranet as well as the Internet.
Topic Objective
To describe the document
management problems of
providing update
notifications.
Lead-in
Let’s examine some of the
issues surrounding
notifications in a document
management solution.
8 Module 1: Introduction to SharePoint Portal Server Implementing Approval Processes
Author
One Approver
Many Approvers
?

What is the process for indicating approval, such as sending e-mail
notification?

How does a serial approval process move the document from one approver
to another?

What happens to the document after approval?

How do you accommodate a variety of approval scenarios, including
approval by an individual approver, approval by a single member of a group
of approvers, or approval by a series of approvers?

Topic Objective
To describe the document
management problems
associated with approval
processes.
Lead-in
Let’s examine some of the
problems you might
encounter in implementing
an approval process.
Module 1: Introduction to SharePoint Portal Server 9 Ensuring Document Security
Read-only
Access
Deny
Access

management problems that
involve security issues.
Lead-in
Let’s examine some of the
security issues that you
might encounter in a
document management
solution.