An important requirement for an efficient collaborative solution is workflow support. Consider that you have updated the dress code policy document in your company. Before you can publish the document to the SharePoint library where all company policies are stored, the dress code policy needs to be approved by several high-level managers.
In the earlier versions of SharePoint, it would have been difficult to notify the people who needed to approve the document because SharePoint did not support workflows. However, MOSS 2007 now integrates Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and provides powerful workflow functionality for collaborative solutions. WF is a programming model, an engine, and a set of tools for creating workflows.
You can integrate MOSS 2007 with built-in document-routing and approval workflows, custom Office SharePoint Designer 2007 workflows, and custom Visual Studio 2005 workflows.
Integrating MOSS 2007 with built-in document-routing and approval workflows allows information workers to use the Web UI of the SharePoint sites to define workflows for documents.
Custom SharePoint Designer 2007 workflows are more complex than the built-in document-routing and approval workflows. These include e-mail notification, task assignment, and metadata manipulation procedures.
Designers and information workers can create custom workflows using SharePoint Designer 2007 workflow wizards. These custom workflows can also be saved in the MOSS 2007 server and reused in other document libraries.
You can also integrate custom Visual Studio 2005 workflows with MOSS 2007 to provide more complex workflow logic and features for collaborative solutions than can be created by using SharePoint Designer 2007. For example, your solution might require a workflow to manage nonlinear machine states for documents or other SharePoint objects.