Why Sharepoint 2010 Is Better Than Sharepoint 2007

Microsoft SharePoint development has been here since 2001 and is certainly one of the best pieces of software of its type. However, it wasn't until the SharePoint 2007 (known as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or MOSS 2007) release that businesses really started to harness the power of online collaboration. The latest version of Sharepoint goes further than ever before and provides businesses with fantastic 'out of the box' solutions.

So what are the changes in the 2010 version?? In fact those three years have brought a lot of changes. In this piece we discuss why the 2010 version is so much better and the piece of software that everyone was hoping the 2007 version would be!

Social Networking Capability

Much has changed since 2010 and the phenomenon of social media is one of those things. The latest Sharepoint has moved with the times in this area and blogging, tagging and activity fields are included within Mysites, the social networking part of Sharepoint 2010.

Wiki and blog integration in MOSS 2007 wasn't great and was widely panned by experts for not being user friendly. The new version has seen the user friendly aspects dramatically improve.

The new version has functionality similar to Facebook which all of us know how to use, a stark contrast with Sharepoint 2007 in which ineraction with other users was poor. The use of keyword tagging has made documents much easier to find and has been applauded by critics.

SharePoint 2010 is even following in Twitters footsteps by adding micro blogging and activity feeds into the service.

Connecting with line-of-business data

If you want Sharepoint to connect to company software systems it is now a much easier task than in previous versions. Microsoft has made significant improvements to integrate more business data in SharePoint 2010 by using its BCS (Business Connectivity Services) suite.

A recent Forrester paper cited that the BCS helps make SharePoint 2010 the "connective tissue that bridges line-of-business systems and knowledge worker systems". The previous iteration of BCS, called BDC (Business Data Catalog), could bring only line-of-business data into SharePoint. BCS will provide both read and write access between business software development and SharePoint 2010.