| Organizations today are constantly looking for ways to reduce operational costs for managing important information. Clearly, with the advent of the Internet, it is now easier than ever to publish and locate important information. However, many corporate knowledge workers still struggle daily to find the right document within their own intranet or document library system. Finding the right document has always been a challenge. However, it is not just about finding a document. Knowledge that exists within a document can be used to implement standard business processes. Users need to be able to access documents, track changes, manage approvals , classify documents, and keep documents private to a specific group until they are ready to be shared with a broader audience. Users also struggle to collaborate when creating documents. The technology required to let ad hoc groups collaborate often requires the complex integration of a Web server, a file server, and other sophisticated technologies. Many document management products exist on the market today. These tools can be used to solve a number of specific business problems. However, these products are not used by too many companies because the products cost too much, deployment costs are high, learning the products introduces great challenges, and often the products require a separate post-implementation management infrastructure. Understanding the SharePoint Search Engine In order to understand how to make documents easy to find, it is important to realize the importance of the search engine within SharePoint Portal Server. Once you understand the search engine, you can then plan for linking metadata within the document profiles of each of your documents.  To learn more document profiles, see "Document Profiles," p. 26. You can use categories to help you find the right documents. SharePoint was designed so that end users could do the same function several different ways. To learn more about Categories, see "Creating Categories," p. 299. Categories can be used for the visual end users that prefer to browse down through the workspace to find exactly what they are looking for. One of the best practices in the early stages of the planning process is to interview your end user community within the various business units. Plan and design SharePoint Portal Server categories according to the way your end users need to work. TIP Create a questionnaire for your end users and involve them in the planning process. This is very important and will ensure that they understand how categories and metadata can be used to make sure their information is easy to find. This will also help end users to embrace the portal after it is made available to your reader's community.
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