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Idaho Transportation
Department

Office of Communications
P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707
208.334.8005
Fax: 208.334.8563

 


ITD moves toward new way of sharing information

The Office of Communication (OC,) with the assistance of Enterprise Technology Services (ETS), launched a project to migrate information from the department’s Intranet into Microsoft Office SharePoint Services (MOSS). The expectation is that MOSS eventually will replace the current Intranet structure. 

What is SharePoint?
SharePoint is an enterprise information portal, from Microsoft, that can be configured to run Intranet, Extranet and Internet sites. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows people, teams and expertise to connect and collaborate.

A SharePoint enterprise portal is composed of both SharePoint Portal and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), with SharePoint being built upon WSS.  Small teams, projects and companies typically use WSS. SharePoint Server is designed for individuals, teams and projects of a medium to large company-wide enterprise portal.

Why should we use SharePoint?

  • As companies grow so do the number and size of their files. It can become difficult to manage and keep track of the multiplying documents and their locations.  SharePoint is a solution that allows users to store and share files in a central site.  
  • Sharing work files through e-mail is a cumbersome process. SharePoint eliminates the difficulty by allowing files to be stored in one location and extending easy access to all team members
  • Information exchange traditionally has remained in the hands of a few key decision makers within organizations.
  • Today’s work occurs over multiple locations, whether it is in a different department, office location, or different county. SharePoint enables teams and individuals to connect and collaborate regardless of where they are located.  
  • Surveys indicate that employees can spend up to 20 to 30 percent of their day searching for data and information.  SharePoint can eliminate that drain on productivity by providing the robust search functionality needed to locate information and expertise buried in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands of files.
  • It’s difficult and time consuming to create and maintain sites. SharePoint allows anyone to create sites for use within their organization’s Intranet, as needed, whether they are departmental sites, document libraries, meeting sites, survey sites or discussion boards. 

Some of the benefits to SharePoint are:

  • The business areas will be able to maintain their own information rather than have to wait on the Communications Office or ETS to post materials
  • Ability to set up individual alerts on information that is accessed or changed
  • A single point that users can set up and maintain to access critical data
  • Synchronization of network information to a laptop in case of emergency – the data will be as current as the last time it was connected to the network
  • Future integration with data warehouse reporting

Where can I see SharePoint it action?

Published 8-21-09