Description of Application Templates
for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

To provide a better understanding of how the Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 can add value to your business, the templates have been mapped to common business areas within an organization. These groupings help put into context how the application templates can applied to specific processes or sets of tasks, whether within business groups or for certain job functions, to enable team collaboration and enhance productivity.

Business Management/Finance

Business Management and Finance groups can often work with a variety of different business applications and systems. The application templates in this group help pull some of that work together into one common system. For example, the application templates for managing disputed invoices and expense reports can help bring two separate finance processes together in a common SharePoint site. For business management, working with a compliance process or performance reporting can be enhanced with an application template.

  • The Board of Directors application template provides a single location for an external group of members to store and locate common documents such as quarterly reviews, shareholder meeting notes and annual strategy documents. The template also tracks tasks, issues and calendar items so board members have a single location to view information relevant to them.
  • The Business Performance Reporting application template helps organization managers track the satisfaction of customers through a combination of surveys and discussions. Surveys can be sent via Office InfoPath 2007 which are then consolidated by the template to give an overall response to a series of questions.
  • The Compliance Process Support Site application template helps both teams and executive sponsors to manage compliance implementation endeavors. The site allows users to specify control tasks required to meet regulation requirements as well capture compliance issues as they arise. The application template contains document libraries used by team members to store related files as well as a calendar to track key audit dates.
  • The Disputed Invoice Management application template helps accounts payable departments track open invoices including the potential savings associated with paying the invoice early. The site includes useful templates for analyzing the reasons invoices are being disputed as well as tracking who to contact for more information.
  • The Expense Reimbursement and Approval application template helps manage elements of the expense approval process, saving time for approvers. Employees can enter expense information into the application template. Approvers can then review the information and manage the payment approval. Users monitor the status of their reimbursement request through a filtered view listing their outstanding requests.
  • The Request for Proposal application template helps manage the process of creating and releasing an initial RFP, collecting submissions of proposals and formally accepting the selected proposal from amongst those submitted. The site also helps simplify the process of notifying individuals about the status of the RFP and submitted proposals.

Human Resources

The Human Resources team can benefit from a variety of application templates designed to simplify complex organizational processes and help control the flow of information. Templates in this group work well when used directly by HR team members, though many can also be shared with the entire organization to provide self-service access to benefits and other information. Application templates that provide a single source for schedules and data can also help coordinate the hiring process and absence/vacation planning management.

  • The Absence Request and Vacation Schedule Management application template helps employees manage requests for out of office days. Team members post days they will be unavailable and can use the system to assign their responsibilities to others during those days. The application template helps team leaders manage requests for vacation and provides dashboards showing which users are signed up for a set of responsibilities.
  • The Employee Activities Site application template helps manage the creation and attendance of events for employees. Activity owners use the site to review proposals for new activities and create event calendar items. Employees use the site to sign up as well as track which activities they've attended in the past.
  • The Employee Self-Service Benefits application template provides tools for an organization to inform employees about available benefits as well as enabling them to enroll for each benefit.
  • The Employee Training Scheduling and Materials application template helps instructors and employees manage courses and related materials. Instructors can use the site to add new courses and organize course materials. Employees use the site to schedule attendance at a course, track courses they've attended and to provide feedback.
  • The Job Requisition and Interview Management application template demonstrates the power of collaboration by helping a recruiter streamline the process of filling job openings within a company. The template helps the recruiter manage requisitions, capture referrals and resumes and coordinate interviews. The application template enables people to input their candidate feedback centrally and track hire / no hire recommendations.

Operations/IT

Application templates focused on the Operations and IT groups can be used to help keep day-to-day business operations running smoothly and assist with managing projects. Templates in this group cover a broad range of operations solutions, from organizing and coordinating customer service and support teams to assisting with managing inventory, physical assets, and room and equipment reservations. IT teams can use the templates to manage bug reports and help desk requests.

  • The Bug Database application template helps development teams collect and track information about bugs in their code. The template allows bugs to be logged with information such as reproduction steps, category, comments, priority, and severity of the bug. Bug categories can specify category owners so users can quickly determine the appropriate bug owners.
  • The Call Center application template helps teams manage the process of handling customer service requests. The application template helps teams manage service requests from issue identification to cause analysis and resolution. Role-based dashboards display relevant information for each service request and a knowledge base can help track related documents and items previously used to solve past call center issues. Management focused dashboards track performance with metrics such as average resolution time and service request performance history.
  • The Help Desk application template helps teams manage the process of handling service requests. Team members use the application template to identify a service request, manage identification of the root cause, and track solution status. The application template provides role-based dashboards displaying information relevant to customer service representatives and managers, including performance history.
  • The Inventory Tracking application template helps organizations track elements associated with inventory. The application template helps managers track inventory levels by capturing manual input of updated inventory information. Users are notified when each part reaches the reorder quantity and helps these users manage customer and supplier information such as historical inventory levels.
  • The IT Team Workspace application template helps teams manage the development, deployment, and support of software projects. The application template allows users to update information on projects, tasks, issues, milestones, and bugs. It also includes help desk functionality, making it easy for team members to guide service requests from initiation to resolution. Role based dashboards provide relevant information to team members, such as unassigned tasks and performance history.
  • The Lending Library application template helps people manage the physical assets in an organization's library. The application template tracks general properties about the physical assets and which user has currently checked out the asset. It also provides a librarian dashboard to help identify currently available and overdue assets. Automated e-mail notifications can be sent to borrowers who have an overdue item.
  • The Physical Asset Tracking and Management application template helps teams manage requests and tracking of physical assets. An asset manager approves asset requests and manages the properties of the assets in the system, such as location, condition, manufacturer, model, current owner, and estimated value.
  • The Room and Equipment Reservations application template helps teams manage the utilization of shared meeting rooms and equipment. The application template enables team members to identify times when specific rooms and/or equipment are available and place a reservation for a specified time.

Project Tracking/Product Management

These templates were created to help keep the flow of information moving and assist with the tracking and managing of one or many projects. Project Tracking and Product Management teams can benefit from the application templates in this group by being able to capture and share team knowledge while keeping members all on the same page.

  • The Budgeting and Tracking Multiple Projects application template helps project teams track and budget multiple, interrelated sets of activities. The template provides project management tools such as project creation, assignment of new tasks, Gantt Charts and common status designators. It helps team members consolidate the status of multiple projects into a single view, tracking progress against a set project budget and timeline.
  • The Change Request Management application template helps users track risks associated with a design change. Team members can submit a change request, notifying stakeholders of the risks involved with the change. The application template allows a team member to approve or reject the request.
  • The Discussion Database application template provides a location where team members can create and reply to discussion topics. Discussions are organized by categories, which are created by a site manager, and can be linked to Office Outlook 2007 via an RSS feed.
  • The Document Library and Review application template helps people manage the review cycle common to processes like new product specification, publication, knowledge management, and project plan development. It combines the functionality of a version-tracking document library with a threaded discussion list to provide a feedback and revision system. This template is intended for teams that need a central location for document review, discussion, revision control, and approval.
  • The Knowledge Base application template helps teams manage the information that is resident within their organization. The template enables team members to upload existing documents or create new ones using Web-based content creation tools. Items are tagged with relevant identifying information so that others can more easily find the documents and learn from the collective knowledge in their organization. The template can be utilized in a 'top down' approach, where a centralized knowledge department 'pushes down' relevant content to the rest of the business or a 'bottom up' approach, where knowledge is captured and shared by all users as a normal part of doing business.
  • The Project Tracking Workspace application template helps small team projects manage project information in a single location. The application template provides a place where a team can list and view project issues and tasks. Functionality is provided to help drive project status reporting, including assignment of new tasks, Gantt Charts, and common status designators.
  • The Team Work Site application template provides a place where project teams can upload background documents, track scheduled calendar events and submit action items that result from team meetings. The site also tracks the creation and purpose of 'sub-teams' as well as enables discussion of topics created by members of the team.
  • The Timecard Management application template helps teams track hours spent working on various projects. The site enables team members to 'punch in' on a particular project and 'punch out' when they cease work. The system automatically generates the time worked by project, and can show managers who is working on a particular project, total hours versus budgeted time and the details of who worked on a each project entered into the site.

Sales/Marketing

Sales and Marketing teams perform often need to be kept up-to-date on the latest information and competitive knowledge to perform. The application templates in this group were created specifically to help those teams stay on top with scenarios that help manage sales leads and contacts, organize competitive analysis, and assist with marketing campaigns and new product planning.

  • The Competitive Analysis Site application template helps teams organize information about competitors and their products. The site provides useful Microsoft Office 2007 documents to perform SWOT and other useful competitive analysis techniques. Links to industry, company and product news can also be included to provide a single location for all competitive information.
  • The Contacts Management application template helps teams manage contact information that needs to be shared among team members. The application template allows teams to enter contact information through a Web-based interface or through Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. When used in conjunction with Office Outlook 2007, team members can 'subscribe' to receive updated contract information whenever other users make changes to a contact.
  • The Integrated Marketing Campaign Tracking application template helps marketing managers track the implementation and success of outbound marketing activities. The template allows a manager to create marketing activities and track the results of those activities, such as responses generated and sales completed. The template contains multiple methods of analyzing the success of the campaigns including automated calculations and Office Excel 2007 templates for more detailed analyses.
  • The Product and Marketing Requirements Planning application template enables teams to manage the process of collecting and documenting requirements for new products. The site provides several Microsoft Office 2007 templates providing useful techniques for Marketing, Product and Steering committee actions as well as a template for meeting notes and financial information.
  • The Sales Lead Pipeline application template helps teams manage the sales pipeline by tracking leads, opportunities, contacts, and accounts. Through role-based dashboards, team members can track sales information, assign open opportunities and gain visibility into the status of overall leads entered into the application template.

Specialized/Verticals

The templates in this group relate to more specialized tasks or specific industry verticals, though some may crossover into other business areas. Use these templates if your organization is involved in one of the industries listed or has a specific business need for which the template can provide a solution.

  • The Case Management for Government Agencies application template helps case managers track the status and tasks required to complete their work. When a case is created, standard tasks and documents are created which are modified based on the work each case manager has completed.
  • The Classroom Management application template helps instructors and students organize and store information related to a particular class. The site includes document libraries to store assignments and lecture notes as well as calendars and announcement capability to enable communication from instructor to students.
  • The Clinical Trial Initiation and Management application template helps teams manage the process of tracking clinical trial protocols, objective setting, subject selection and budget activities. The site provides useful Office Word 2007 templates as well as the capability to create, track and assign tasks and issues related to a particular clinical trial.
  • The Equity Research application template helps teams collaborate on researching stocks and other equities. It provides a central location for teams to store documents, post links, track news, and hold discussions related to the equities tracked by the site.
  • The Event Planning application template helps teams organize events efficiently through the use of online registration, schedules, communication, and feedback. Role-based dashboards offer specific information for various event members such as speaker, guest, staff, vendor, delegate, and attendee home pages.
  • The Manufacturing Process Management application template helps teams to model and track manufacturing processes as well as tasks and issues that arise in the upkeep of these processes.
  • The New Store Opening application template helps a team manage the opening of new store locations or re-modeling of existing store location. The site provides a single location to manage tasks, issues, and documents for all store opening processes, enabling end users to view relevant information and providing project managers insight across the entire project.
  • The Sports League application template helps an intra-company league administrator manage a baseball league. The site tracks team information, players, captains and scheduled team activities such as games, practices and social events. Team members can enter in game results and perform analysis at a team, game or individual player level. The site also enables discussions between league members through a League Discussion board.