WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 are feature-rich collaboration tools from Microsoft. Built on the .NET framework, progressive businesses today rely on either or both products to communicate, collaborate, and share critical business information to make decisions off up to date data.
The basic difference between the two solutions is the cost. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) ships bundled with your Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. This convenience enables organizations to implement WSS quickly and setup an internal companyweb. Creating sites and spaces is easy and once implemented, it requires little or no assistance from an organization’s IT team to build upon.
With an additional software investment, MOSS 2007allows organizations to take the basics of WSS v3.0 and grow. Additional features can be created function on top of WSS, using its core framework to extend the collaborative solution in a way that is scales well to larger companies, enterprise deployments, and extranet portal environments.
Here are a few differences between the two as you consider which solution is proper to your business:
- Because MOSS 2007 sits on top to help manage WSS 3.0, a site template called "Site Directory" is made available to centrally manage your content and its presentation. This template tracks links to internal or external sites, displays site maps and site navigation lists, and facilitates full text searching throughout the site collection.
- Increased user security by leveraging an organization’s pre-existing Active Directory schema is another key benefit. This added security benefit allows selective information to be visible only to the user, visible to his/her superiors, visible to colleagues, etc. With this added control, target audiences can be setup for pages, sites, lists, libraries, or SharePoint sections called web parts.
- MOSS 2007 provides an easy to use interface for managing navigation options, portal hierarchy information, and more. In general, managing sites, site hierarchies, and hierarchical site content is made easier and the dynamic architecture of the site collection is rolled up and can be readily managed and manipulated to your specification.
- MOSS 2007 comes with site templates and site definitions not available to WSS 3.0 sites. Publishing, Document Center, Search Center, Report Center, and Site Directory are valuable tools only available in MOSS 2007.
- MOSS 2007 uses an improved relevance algorithm for its full text search engine, and is able to include and search on content from multiple sites within an enterprise, including non-SharePoint web sites, file folders, Lotus environments, and databases.
- MOSS 2007 allows user to extend SharePoint data by integrating business data from other sources such as web Services or SQL databases through the Business Data Catalog. This will allow you to do things like display ERP data within MOSS or create a rolled-up environment of business information from various sources to cross reference data for analytical purposes.
- Enhanced workflow functionality is an additional benefit to MOSS 2007. Out of the box workflows such as feedback collection or document review are now available. In addition, by taking advantage of Microsoft’s Windows Workflow Foundation, custom workflows can be created using a custom workflow designer like Microsoft SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio to create tailored workflows to automate business processes with respect to the steps in your business process.
- Excel Services is another MOSS-only feature that uses a Shared Services facility, to create a Microsoft Office Excel Server. What’s displayed are the ontents of an Excel spreadsheets within SharePoint, and the ability to selectively allow editing of secure regions including formulas and macros. Excel-friendly businesses have found this feature to be the most compelling reason to use MOSS 2007 since decision making is tied directly to this means of business intelligence.
