Stretching WSS as far as it can go

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I'm looking for insights, opinions, experience with this issue.... As a
small business (60 people) needing intranet web collaboration and
eventually multiple extranet sites with clients, it can be a maddening
process to determine & justify whether we need SPS with an external
connector license. Particularly the licensing costs and ongoing IT
maintenance. (We only have 1 IT person).

How realistic is this WSS-only solution to replace Portal
functionality? Has anyone done any of these two in combination, at
least?

1. Intranet with team sites, collaboration, document libraries, tasks
lists etc.: WSS local server(s)
2. Aggregation, Organization, Dashboards, Rolling up Parent lists/Child
lists etc: CorasWorks Suite
3. Search: Google Mini
4. Extranet: WSS hosting service

Honestly, from what I've read on various listserves over the last 6
months, I am not convinced folks are completely satisfied with how SPS
handles 2-4. Or maybe SPS handles them fine, but it's cost prohibitive
for a small company with limited IT like ours. Any thoughts or insights
would be valuable to us! Thanks!
Dawn

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