MOSS Stands for “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server”.  It is an extension of Windows SharePoint Services (WSS 3.0) that allows all information to be organized and stored in a central location. Its main strengths are that it enables an organization’s information to be organized and aggregated in one central, web-based application. MOSS integrates closely with applications in the Microsoft Office suite and adds various features such as hierarchical organization of content areas, enhanced navigation, Single Sign On, personalization features, indexed search, the Business Data Catalog, in-browser rendering and, in certain cases, editing of Microsoft Office documents.

The latest version, MOSS 2007, improves over its predecessor, SPS 2003, in integrating with Microsoft Office applications, enterprise content management (with the integration of Microsoft Content Management Server into MOSS), Enterprise Search, web content management, more specialized document management, records management, Web 2.0 collaboration functionality like blogs and wikis, delivery of information stored in SharePoint via RSS, and the ability to take content and lists offline with Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Access.

Following are the variuos features of SharePoint/MOSS 2007:

1. Portal

SharePoint/MOSS 2007 offers a bunch of Portal components which allows us to design, deploy and manage enterprise intranet portals, corporate Internet presence web sites and divisional portal sites. These components also make it easier than ever to connect people across the organization that have skills, knowledge and experience while simplifying the way they work together. Some of the portal components includes Site Definitions, Personal Sites, Social Networking web parts, Colleagues and Memberships web parts, SharePoint Sites and Documents Roll-up web parts, Lists and Libraries, OOTB web parts, pluggable Single Sign-on architecture, LDAP Pluggable Authentication Provider, User Management, Master Pages and Page Layouts, etc.   

2. Collaboration

SharePoint/MOSS 2007 helps organizations to get more done by providing a platform for sharing information and working together in teams, communities and people-driven processes. Various features includes document workspaces to streamline the document creation process, blogs and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to broadcast information, wikis to capture community knowledge, surveys and discussions to encourage dialogue, workflows to drive out process variations, shared calendars, alerts and notifications to coordinate teamwork, instant messaging and Outlook integration, etc.

3. Enterprise Search

Search in SharePoint/MOSS 2007 is significantly enhanced to provide a consistent and familiar search experience, increased relevance of search results, functions to search for people and expertise, ability to index and search data in line-of-business applications, and improved manageability and extensibility. Various features includes Search Indexing, Search Scopes, Free Text Search, Criteria Based Search, Ability to customize using Object Model, People and Expertise Searching, Content relevance algorithms, Business Data Search using BDC (Business Data Catalog), etc.

4. Office 2007 Integration

SharePoint/MOSS 2007 integrates closely with Microsoft Office applications. It can render Microsoft Office documents in web pages. In addition, with the proper server side infrastructure, it can allow the documents to be edited from within the browser as well. For other document types in a document library, Microsoft Office applications can directly edit the document in the document library. This feature is available for Microsoft Excel and Microsoft InfoPath. Microsoft Office Outlook can also be used for accessing and synchronizing SharePoint document libraries. Some of the Office 2007 Integration features are listed below:

  • 2-way synchronization of Outlook Calendar and SharePoint Calendar.
  • Overlaying a SharePoint Calendar on top of user's Outlook 2007 Calendar.
  • SharePoint Task-Assignment Synchronization into user's Outlook Task List.
  • Offline Synchronization of SharePoint Documents.
  • Viewing SharePoint RSS feeds through Microsoft Office Outlook.
  • Display of Meta-data values for a given document type in the Office Ribbon as a user is editing a document from a document library.

5. MySite

SharePoint/MOSS 2007 provides OOTB My Sites which is basically Personal Sites for Users. The use of My Sites allows users to build and employ a virtual environment from which they can share information, interact in a social community and connect with people who have the skills they need.

6. Business Intellegence

SharePoint/MOSS 2007 provides easy-to-use facilities to access and analyze information through its business intelligence tools. Business Intelligence has been improved across the board with web-based dashboards on the macro level, server-based Excel Services and Excel Web Services API's, line of business application and data repository integration, and more sophisticated abilities to monitor key performance indicators. Some of the Business Intelligence tools are discussed below:

  • Report Center
    The Report Center site provides a central location for business-intelligence-related information. It contains special document libraries for storing reports, lists, and connections to external data sources.
  • Business Data Catalog (BDC)
    Business Data Catalog provides an easy way to integrate business data from back-end server applications, such as SAP or Siebel, within Office SharePoint Server 2007 without writing any code. BDC also allows programmatic reuse of critical line-of-business (LOB) data within SharePoint application. 
  • Excel Services
    MOSS 2007 allows web and programmatic access to Office Excel workbooks through Excel Services. Excel Services enables to store an Excel workbook on a MOSS server and then publish any part of that workbook on a Web page. Users need only a browser to view and interact with the live data. The workbook is published on the Web page by using the Excel Web Access (EWA) Web Part.
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
    A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a visual cue that communicates the amount of progress made towards a goal. KPIs are valuable for teams, managers, and businesses to evaluate quickly the progress made against measurable goals.
  • Dashboards
    Dashboards are tools that are used to communicate status and to drive action. An Office SharePoint Server 2007 dashboard is a Web page template that allows you to assemble and display information from disparate sources such as reports, charts, metrics, and key performance indicators.

7. Content Management

The content management features in SharePoint 2007 fall into 3 categories:

  • Document Management
    SharePoint/MOSS 2007 provides robust out-of-box features for effective document management across the enterprise. The Business Document Workflow features allow for document review, approval, signature collection, issue tracking as well as custom routing for each scenario. Check in and Check out features, combined with versioning and alerts, allow users to manage multiple collaborative changes to their documents at any level.
    The Document Center provides centralized storage, control and administration of an organization’s most critical documents. Document libraries allow for further management of documents, which do not meet these criteria, at any level within the site structure. 
  • Records Management
    Policy and Auditing features of SharePoint 2007 include Content-Type and policy-based retention and expiration schedules, auditing and reporting against policy based actions, labeling and bar-coding support and integration with Windows Rights Management Services.
    The Records Repository is the core of the records management function of SharePoint 2007. It includes a records vault to ensure integrity of the documents stored within the repository, configurable information management policies and document Hold capabilities that allow managers to suspend changes to records during litigation.
  • Web Content Management
    SharePoint/MOSS 2007 offers the complete integration of the Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 functionality. SharePoint then extends this functionality with the collaboration, portal, search, document management and records management features to provide a complete web content management solution.