Microsoft has delivered a 'release candidate' version of SharePoint Portal Server, which integrates portals with the company's Office and Windows software.

The product, previously codenamed Tahoe, is similar to Exchange 2000 and is based on Microsoft's Web Storage System repository technology. Available for download now, the version will be the only release candidate before the final version is launched later this year.

SharePoint allows users to search across multiple repositories for corporate and web-based information and documents, as well as perform document management functions such as version tracking and approval routing.

Jeff Teper, general manager of the SharePoint Portal Server business unit at Microsoft, said companies need to ensure that the valuable corporate knowledge stored in documents, web servers, file servers and emails is readily available to employees.

"SharePoint Portal Server is a flexible, off-the-shelf solution that can search and index the most important enterprise content sources across an organisation and make the information available to anyone in the company via a familiar user interface," he said.

The Server also allows customers to search and index information stored in websites based on SharePoint Team Services, which allows small teams and ad hoc groups to manage activities and work together .

In addition, the product can be customised and extended by adding reusable components that can contain any kind of web-based information, such as collaborative tools in Microsoft Office, Exchange Server and SQL Server.

Integration features in the upcoming releases of FrontPage and Office are also expected to allow users to customise their sites and incorporate information from Office applications.