The beast, called Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 is a collaboration tool providing the following capabilities. The tool falls under the broad category of information management software.

File/document sharing
Project scheduling
Basic business intelligence built on Excel analytics tools
Searching
Content management
Calendar management
Intranet sites
.Net based workflow applications for Office-compatible documents such as expense reports

SharePoint integrates with Active Directory to provide security and access control. 2007 version includes searching capabilities across sites and workspaces easing administration and enhancing security. It has an office like interface.

Previous versions were Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 (came with Windows Server 2003) and SharePoint Portal Server 2003. SharePoint 2003 only allowed search within site or workspace. SharePoint portal server allowed managing SharePoint sites from a central location. SharePoint 2007 still has SharePoint Services components (version 3.0) included with Windows Server 2007. New features in version 3.0 are email and directory integration, alerts, RSS publishing and templates for building blogs. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 replaces SharePoint Portal Server. It provides enterprise class user administration, policy-based access and security management build on AD capabilities.

A phased deployment approach can start with sites and workspaces, using cross-site search and integrating with AD for access controls. SharePoint requires Microsoft Office, Exchange and AD.

Terminologies:
Workspaces: Shared project portals to store documents, contacts, calendars and chat-like discussions for workgroup use.

Business data catalogs: Information repositories