REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 29, 2002 —
— Microsoft Corp. today announced that SharePoint (TM) products and technologies have experienced overwhelming adoption by companies implementing portal and collaboration solutions. More than 10 million seats of SharePoint Portal Server have been licensed in its first 17 months of availability, and it has been widely adopted by medium- to enterprise-sized organizations. SharePoint Team Services, a customizable, out-of-the-box team Web site for ad-hoc collaboration and information-sharing, has been made available for free to hundreds of millions of users of FrontPage® 2002, Microsoft®
Project 2002 and versions of Office XP that include FrontPage.
“There is a lot of momentum around SharePoint Team Services and SharePoint Portal Server in the marketplace,”
said Mike Gelon, director of information-worker servers and services at Microsoft.
“Customers are looking for a flexible platform that enables collaboration within teams and across corporations, and SharePoint addresses those needs. In addition, SharePoint is supported by a rich partner community of solutions vendors and software developers that have created Web Parts and solutions customers need to customize SharePoint Portal Server for their specific use.”
Over 300 industry partners have produced more than 600 solutions for SharePoint products and technologies. One such partner is G.A. Sullivan, an international IT solutions company that builds solutions for organizations in the financial, healthcare, security and e-business fields interested in using the Internet. For Halliburton Co., an international energy services provider, G.A. Sullivan prepared a customized SharePoint Portal that provides teams and directors with a quick and easy view of the status of each ongoing project and solved their document management dilemma. For AP Technoglass Co., an automotive safety glass manufacturer, G.A. Sullivan used SharePoint Portal Server to create a centralized communication system that improved collaboration and communication between the company, business partners and clients, resulting in less time and money wasted on outdated or incorrect data.
Nucor Corp. is another company with specific information-sharing requirements. Nucor’s ability to share information is critical to its success as the largest steel producer in the United States, with 8,300 employees throughout 23 operating divisions in 10 states. In early 2002, Nucor went live with SharePoint Portal, providing each employee with a single, personalized point of entry into a wealth of company, environmental and employee information. The SharePoint Portal Server deployment has increased worker productivity while providing a strong return on investment (ROI).
“If our SharePoint Portal saves each knowledge worker just three minutes per day, it will pay for itself in two years,”
said Scott Messenger, corporate IT Manager for Nucor.
“Our actual ROI will most likely be much higher because this estimate doesn’t include the operational improvements that will result from each employee’s ability to make better decisions through increased access to information.”
In some cases users need a Web site they can create and contribute to immediately, and SharePoint Team Services meets those information-sharing needs. SharePoint Teams Services is designed for small ad-hoc teams that need a quick and intuitive site to share documents and project-focused work. More important, SharePoint Team Services helps teams create Web sites that are easy to customize and manage.
General Mills, the third largest North American food company, is currently using SharePoint Team Services to help improve the level of collaboration and information sharing within the organization.
“SharePoint Team Services allows functional groups at General Mills to share best practices and reuse engineering knowledge,”
said Jim Wetzel, manager of information technology, control and information systems, engineering of General Mills.
“As a result, the engineering function has been able to accomplish its objectives more efficiently and effectively.”
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, SharePoint and FrontPage are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team for additional assistance.
