Case Study
Microsoft Integration

Being a Microsoft product itself, SharePoint is highly integrated with Microsoft Office. Although you can use Office 98 and newer, Microsoft office 2003 has some great integration features. 

Microsoft Outlook
The first thumbnail to the left (Outlook Integration) shows an example of Microsoft Outlook's email, task list and calendar all within a SharePoint site.

Microsoft Excel
The second thumbnail to the left (Excel Integration) shows and example of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet within a SharePoint site that has all the Excel functionality right within an internet browser.

Microsoft Word
The third thumbnail to the left (Word Integration) shows the task pane that accompanies a Microsoft Word document stored in a Document Library of a SharePoint site. Within the task pane each user has the ability to see other members of the site, send on or all of them an email, view any tasks associated with the document, view other documents related to this one as well as any associated links.

Microsoft Access
The fourth thumbnail to the left (Access Integration) shows a data sheet view of a Document Library and an example of the built in functionality between Microsoft Access and SharePoint.