Today I found one of the hidden gems in SharePoint. (yes, I realize this sounds like playing a game 😉 )
I was looking around to create a test site, and tried the “Group Work Site”.
This gave me a quite cool site with a Group Calendar and the usual tasks, links, shared documents and Team Discussions.
But in the lists, I also found 2 new lists: Phone Call Memo and Circulations!!
Phone Call Memo
Imagine you are in meeting or at the coffee machine talking about the big fish you caught last weekend when your phone on the desk rings. Normally your coworker (or secretary) will pick up and tell the caller you are in meeting. Perhaps they will write something down on paper or send you an email about who called and what it was for.
This list in SharePoint contains all fields to put such a memo on SharePoint: Call from, recipients, confidential (yes/no), Message, …
So now your coworker or private Moneypenny can fill in an item in this list. Views in this list are: my unresolved memos, my memos, memos from me, ..
IMHO: looks quite cool, but nowadays most people have an answering machine (via the awesome Exchange 2010 / Lync function or on the machine itself) or a callback option on their phones..
Circulation
You have a document and you want a group of people to confirm they have read the document. Normally you make some kind of approval workflow and let the users fill in their name or click the approve button.
(start talking in Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarckson voice) Not anymore !!
Now in SharePoint, you have the amazing 600hp “Circulation list”.
You can create a new item in this list, where you state your information and who the recipients are to confirm they have read the info.
Next, everyone who is on the list can now simply confirm they have read the item.
Easy as pie..
IMHO: I am probably never going to use this type of list. Probably useful for some, with good workarounds via the default approval workflow..