As a rule of thumb, SharePoint implementations need approaching in a carefully considered way. SharePoint 2007, (Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS)), offers a broad array of solutions.

To properly understand and implement what you need from SharePoint organisations and their project manager/sponsor should step back and take a look at the big picture. The key question, as always, is “What business problem do we aim to solve? Therefore what does this platform need to deliver, from a business perspective?” This process helps organisations clarify their goals and how these goals will add true business value.
A key activity is to work with IT staff and executive teams to agree where SharePoint can add tangible, measurable value:

• Can it replace other existing systems?
• Are there software licensing costs associated with disparate legacy systems that can be saved through the implementation of SharePoint? 
• What technologies is the organisation utilising for Enterprise Content Management, web-based collaboration and the company Intranet?
  Can these technologies be replaced by SharePoint at less cost and with better results?
  From this a SharePoint “Business-Value Case” or “Road Map” can be developed.

This review should include consideration of competitive technologies. Prior to the current release there was often a good case for alternatives like Documentum. However today, with MOSS2007 one has to wonder why an organisation would spend £1 million+ per year to license and maintain a Documentum or LiveLink environment that is user-unfriendly, hard to customise, and significantly more expensive than a SharePoint Enterprise Content Management solution? After two years, the organisation would have spent £2 million on Documentum or LiveLink, but just still £250,000 on a SharePoint ECM solution. That is real business value and cost savings within your organisation.
In the past Microsoft did not offer an enterprise class ECM and these costly “blue chip” solutions were all that was readily available. SharePoint 2007 has changed that landscape completely.

SharePoint 2007 delivers a level of ease and functionality (specifically with regard to adding custom workflows and automating business processes) that are not approached by other solutions. Supplement these functionalities with the potential business value of utilising an external security model to your SharePoint 2007 implementation - to open the platform to partners, customers, vendors, or employees from other business units – and organisations start seeing some real ROI. SharePoint 2007 provides one software platform, one support skill set, a physical hardware model, backup and disaster recovery solution, and governed “look and feel” that can replace so many costly and disparate solutions that it quickly makes real business sense and can actually add to your organisation’s bottom line.