Microsoft Announces Windows SharePoint Services

REDMOND, Wash., March 3, 2003 — Microsoft Corp. today announced it is changing the name of its popular team collaboration technology, SharePoint (TM) Team Services, to Windows®
SharePoint Services and making it available to Windows Server 2003 customers mid-2003. The change reflects Microsoft’s commitment to provide strategic platform services that are designed specifically to improve information worker productivity.

“Windows SharePoint Services is a powerful collaboration platform enabled with Windows Server 2003,”
said Bill Veghte, corporate vice president of the Windows Server Group at Microsoft.
“In today’s world, basic file sharing isn’t enough. Windows SharePoint Services is the next-generation platform for file sharing and team collaboration. It redefines the way teams work together and share information, increasing the productivity of your entire company.”

Windows SharePoint Services is a Web-based team collaboration environment built on a highly reliable and manageable platform. It gives anyone with a Web browser the ability to create and access virtual workspaces for managing documents, discussions, lists, surveys and other important contextual information such as team member status and presence. Windows SharePoint Services provides an out-of-the-box solution for team collaboration, and because it is built on the Microsoft®
.NET Framework, it provides a robust component-based platform for several applications. New functionality can be added to any Windows SharePoint Services site using server-side ASP.NET controls called Web Parts, a capability that makes Windows SharePoint Services the perfect platform for server applications such as SharePoint Portal Server. Windows SharePoint Services sites are accessible via a set of Web services, allowing the sites to connect directly with end-user productivity tools such as Microsoft Office.

“Windows SharePoint Services collaboration technology is an integral part of the information worker infrastructure and it’s one that we’re excited to be using in our products,”
said Joe Eschbach, corporate vice president of the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft.
“In the upcoming release of Office, we’ve made a commitment to integrating platform technologies like Windows SharePoint Services to take the power of collaboration and deliver it into the tools that information workers use most. Together, Windows SharePoint Services and Office will deliver revolutionary team capabilities that will streamline ad-hoc collaboration, making it easy for information workers to take advantage of the power of team collaboration every day.”

Multiple Microsoft products, including the next version of Office, code-named
“Office 11,” the InfoPath (TM) information-gathering program, the OneNote (TM) note-taking program, the FrontPage®
Web site creation and management tool, and SharePoint Portal Server, can take advantage of the benefits of Windows SharePoint Services. In particular, Windows SharePoint Services integration with
“Office 11”
allows users to collaborate more successfully on an ad hoc basis. For example, the check-in/check-out feature of the new Document Workspace lets several information workers work on the same document without overwriting each other’s changes, allows them to receive real-time notices of changes and enables them to be connected directly to other editors via Windows Messenger. The Document Workspace connects to a Windows SharePoint Services Web site, on which people have access to shared task lists, calendars, discussion strings and new Meeting Workspaces. As a result, information workers spend less time dealing with the complexities of communication and collaboration technologies and more time working together.

Furthermore, SharePoint Portal Server will take advantage of the Windows SharePoint Services platform to deliver cross-site search capability and line-of-business application integration. SharePoint Portal Server also will take Windows SharePoint Services sites a step further, enabling creation of portal pages for people, information and organizations. SharePoint Portal Server also extends the capabilities of Windows SharePoint Services by providing organization and management tools for SharePoint sites, and by enabling teams to publish information captured in their SharePoint sites to the entire organization. In this way, the combination of Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server technology facilitates smart organizations. Finally, corporate developers and ISVs can build on these exciting new team site capabilities to deliver new levels of productivity and help their customers do more with less.

About Microsoft

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, Windows, InfoPath, OneNote 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.

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