What is SharePoint?

SharePoint service is a group web site solution that is designed to considerably improve the way you manage business information and activities. It will allow you to create web portals to communicate information such as bulletins, events and collaboration by sharing calendars, schedules, contacts, and manage company documents without having to worry about the operation, management and support of your Windows SharePoint environment. This solution will allow you to offer users improved security, remote communications services and increase overall communications with internal and external customers.

What is SharePoint Portal service?

With the SharePoint Portal service, users can easily create, manage, build and personalize their own web sites and make them available throughout your organization. This service lets you organize all aspects of information sharing, from finding documents to collaborating with version control and workflow. With the SharePoint Portal service, you can manage all the content, editing and publishing of documents in one cost-effective and convenient online environment.

What are the benefits of SharePoint?

Increased productivity. Your team can work and communicate better and more rapidly, by accessing the Northwestel Hosted Windows SharePoint portal wherever and whenever it is most convenient. 

Ease of use. Your employees can coordinate site content and user activity very easily. The Northwestel Hosted Windows SharePoint service environment is designed for easy and flexible execution, administration, and development.

Scalability. The Northwestel Hosted Windows SharePoint service lets you work on a single-computer to multiple computers. Add on new computers easily or remove for upgrades.

Daily back-ups. Each Northwestel Hosted Windows SharePoint site can be individually backed up and restored if needed. This reduces the cost of restoring an entire database if only a small amount of data needs editing.

SharePoint Custom. You can create a unified online presence for your company by personalizing your SharePoint portal address. You also have the option of using the default address, “http://mysitename.sharepoint.bell.ca”.

Does a SharePoint Web site include search functionality?

Yes. The SharePoint Team provides a powerful text-based search feature that helps you find documents and information fast.

If I invite users to join a Windows SharePoint Services Site, is the site secure?

SharePoint-based Web sites can be password-protected to restrict access to registered users, who are invited to join via e-mail. In addition, the site administrator can restrict certain members' roles by assigning different permission levels to view post and edit.

How long does it take to set up the initial team Web site?

It only takes a few minutes to create a complete Web site. Preformatted forms let you and your team members contribute to the site by filling out lists. Standard forms include announcements, events, contacts, tasks, surveys, discussions and links.

Does this site support ecommerce and email capability?

No. For ecommerce based Web sites, we encourage you to sign up for Northwestel Web Hosting and take advantage of the product features to enhance your productivity.

What are the advantages of a hosted SharePoint vs. one that is on an in-house server?

• No hardware investment, no software to download - ready to start from the word go.
• No IT resources - anyone who has used a Web program like Hotmail can use it.
• Quick and easy operation – upgrade or add-on to the service as your company grows.

What is included with the service?

As a subscriber to SharePoint you will receive 50 MB of SharePoint and 25-user account space (more space and users can be added as required).

What requirements do I need to use SharePoint?

Computer and processor. PC with an Intel Pentium III-compatible 700-MHz processor (or greater)

Browser.  Internet Explorer 5.x (or greater) and Netscape Navigator 6.0 or later.

What software do I need to customize my site?

Unless you're going to setup up your own Microsoft SharePoint Server, there is no other software needed.  Although, if you plan to do any site customization outside of what the SharePoint interface is capable of, you may need MS FrontPage 2003.

What security processes are in place?

Technical security measures, such as Cisco Pix, provide firewall protection, intrusion detection, and web-publishing rules.  Our software assurance team tests and deploys software updates in order to maintain the highest level of security and software reliability.  Software hot-fixes and service packs are tested and deployed based on their priority and level of risk. Security related hot-fixes are rapidly deployed into the environment to address current threats.  A comprehensive software validation activity ensures software stability through regression testing prior to deployment.

Finally, Microsoft Gold Certified operations ensure that the proper change management and configuration management procedures are always followed.

My Web site looks wrong and some features are not working.

Web sites based on Northwestel Hosted Windows Sharepoint Services work best with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or Netscape Navigator 6.0 or later, installed on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 2000 or later. If you are using another Web browser or operating system, some pages may not display properly and some features may not work.