The challenge: Your communications company just won a contract to develop a Web site for a college. It's a big project that requires various teams to focus on different areas. You'll need to collaborate, not only with each other but also with your clients. How are you going to communicate? Is there an easy way to make a project calendar? Can you post documents for review?

The answer: Set up a Web site for the whole team by using Microsoft SharePoint™ Products and Technologies. Use the Web site to post meeting agendas, review documents, track deadlines, hold online discussions, and more.

If all the teams aren't in the same place, you can hold online meetings with Microsoft Office Live Meeting and stay in touch with enterprise-level instant messaging from Microsoft Office Live Communications Server.

Learn about SharePoint Products and Technologies

• SharePoint Products and Technologies Web site
• SharePoint Products and Technologies Relationships

 Note   Work with your IT professional to set up SharePoint Products and Technologies.

See what you can do with Office collaboration tools

• Demo: Work together in a Meeting Workspace
• Demo: All write now, team up in a Document Workspace
• Demo: Share the work, share the credit in a Document Workspace
• Demo: Learn how Live Meeting can help your team work together
• Create your own SharePoint site for free

Download or order trials of collaboration products

• Create one place for team information: Try Windows SharePoint Services for 30 days
• Organize and search your sites: Try SharePoint Portal Server 2003 for 120 days
• Hold meetings online, across distances: Try Live Meeting for 30 days

Create the site

You want a Web site that can host documents for discussion and review, store meeting agendas and notes, and host a team calendar. If you kick off the project with a large meeting, you can create the Web site directly from the meeting invitation.

• Keep it together with a Meeting Workspace
• Read more about Meeting Workspaces
• Communicate your agendas and ideas with Meeting Workspaces

Create a Document Workspace

The Document Workspace is the place where all of the project documents are stored, and where all the team members can work on them.

• Create a Document Workspace
• Troubleshoot shared workspaces

Build a document library

Now your team can add documents to the workspace and create a library of project information.

• About document libraries
• Troubleshoot SharePoint lists and libraries

Collaborate on documents and share data

Share project ideas, add comments to documents, and track project data. With your team Web site, everyone can actively participate.

• About Web Discussions
• Share Excel lists on a SharePoint site
• Training: Publish Excel 2003 lists to a SharePoint site (requires an Office 2003 program)
• Publish an Excel list to a SharePoint site
• Synchronize an Excel list with the SharePoint site
• About tracked changes and comments
• Read more about tracked changes and markup
• Share process diagrams with coworkers who don't use Visio
• About sharing an Access database on a network (MDB)

Set up a project calendar

• Use Windows SharePoint Services to post a project calendar

Hold meetings online, across the distances

• Top 10 reasons to use Live Meeting

Read about how other companies collaborate

Learn how other companies are using Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office System collaboration tools to manage multi-team projects.

• C&S Sales collaboration study
• Game Face collaboration study