It is available as a free component of Windows Server 2003 and provides a scalable, manageable platform for collaboration and the development of Web-based business applications. Furthermore, enables organizations and businesses of all sizes to increase the efficiency of their processes and improve team productivity.  With tools for collaboration that help people stay connected across organizational and geographic boundaries, Windows SharePoint Services gives people access to the documents and information they need.

Windows FTP subaccount and MS SharePoint user were made child resources of Windows System account parent resource to decrease the number of licenses and this way to minimize windows hosting expenditures. SharePoint access and FTP subaccount for the same user will be obtained with only one Windows license.

Developers can create team workspaces, coordinate calendars, organize documents, and receive important notifications and updates through communication features including announcements and alerts, as well as the new templates for creating blogs and wikis. Surely it is going to improve team productivity with its easy to use collaborative tools.

Windows Share Point services also provides (From the Microsoft Tech Net):

  1. The ability to view revisions to documents and restore to previous versions, and the control to set document- and item-level security, Windows SharePoint Services thus provides an easy way to manage documents and also help to ensure the integrity of the content
  2. Get users up to speed quickly by including enhanced views and menus that simplify navigation.
  3. Deploy solutions tailored to your business processes
  4. Build a collaboration environment quickly and easily as deployment settings can be flexibly changed, less pre-planning time is required and companies can get started even faster.
  5. It provides advanced administrative controls for increasing the security of information resources while decreasing cost and complexity associated with
    site provisioning, site management, and support thus, reducing the complexity of securing business information
  6. You can set permissions as deep down as the document or item level, and site managers, teams, and other work groups can initiate self-service collaborative workspaces and tasks within these preset parameters thus it provides sophisticated controls for securing company resources
  7. It takes file sharing to a new level with robust storage capabilities by supplying workspaces with document storage and retrieval features, including check-in/check-out functionality, version history, custom metadata, and customizable views
  8. You can easily Manage server farms, servers, and sites using the Microsoft. NET Framework and can easily scale your collaboration solution to meet business needs
  9. It will give a common framework for document management and collaboration, which will Provide a cost-effective foundation for building Web-based applications