Technology Audit: SharePoint Server and SharePoint Server for Search 2007

Abstract
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Search 2007 is a subset of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
offering. This Microsoft search product offers Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, and departments within
enterprises, core search capabilities. The product is able to crawl and index content stored in common data
repositories, such as file shares, Web sites, SharePoint sites, Exchange Server Public Folders, and Lotus Notes
databases. SharePoint Server for Search can also be extended to search other repositories using third party or
custom built connectors, and can also be upgraded to the full Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
product. Nearly half of all labour costs are now allocated to employees performing so-called ‘information work’.
And so with a typical information worker spending up to a quarter of his or her time searching for the right
information to complete a given task, some organisations could be frittering away nearly 10% of their staff
costs. Information generally consists of two types: structured information, stored within databases, enterprise
applications, and line-of-business systems; and unstructured information, stored within content management
systems, e-mail systems, and file shares. It is the goal of today’s enterprise search solutions to bring these two
types of information together in a useful manner, so that information workers can accomplish their tasks more
efficiently and effectively. As a standalone product, SharePoint Server for Search 2007 goes a long way to
achieving this goal; as part of SharePoint Server 2007 it does even better. Microsoft’s optimum solution,
however, requires Windows Live Search Center – a product still in development. When this is delivered, the
user will have just one interface (with multiple entry points) to search across all information repositories:
desktop, Intranet, business applications, and Internet. Unlike pure-play search solutions, Microsoft’s offering
requires full commitment to the Windows-based technology stack in order to reap full business benefit.
Evaluation versions of Microsoft products are available from the company’s Web site.

Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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