7.6. Other Applications

There are a lot more Microsoft applications that work closely with SharePoint 2007, but they deserve their own book, so I will only mention them briefly here:

• MS Office PerformancePoint Server 2007: This is the new version of MS Business Scorecard Manager. Its objective is to offer a platform for building web sites that displays information related to Business Intelligence, such as business scorecards, analytics, and planning. This product runs on top of SharePoint 2007 and can be integrated with the other SharePoint web pages. For more information about this product, see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/performancepoint/FX101680481033.aspx.

• MS Office Project 2007: This is a suite of programs that helps users with anything from very simple projects to planning extremely large and complex projects. This product also utilizes SharePoint as its foundation for storing data. For more information about this product, see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/FX100487771033.aspx.

• MS Office Visio 2007: This is the perfect tool for creating drawings and flowcharts to visualize complex processes, systems, or information systems. You can create flowcharts that are displayed on a SharePoint page; for example, to visualize a process. The user then clicks on the process step to be performed, and the correct site, library or list opens. For more information about this product, see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/FX100487861033.aspx.

I hope this chapter has convinced you that SharePoint is not just another nice application; it is the application that Microsoft is using to make almost all of its products work together in a very smooth and seamless way.