In the autumn/fall of 2006 when WSS 3.0; MOSS 2007; and Project Server 2007 had been available as public beta versions for a long time and were close to final release, I had a meeting with a Finnish customer who said they were planning to implement Project Server 2003.

As I knew about all the problems involved with synchronizing (and keeping synchronized) Project Server 2003 with WSS 2.0 (which it used for web access), I - rather too clearly perhaps - indicated that I thought this was mad and that they should instead implement Project Server 2007 where there were no such problems.

It was obvious from the reply that they thought I was mad to propose implementing a product that hadn't been out for several years.

Maybe that's the reason when just as we are waiting for beta versions of the next versions of SharePoint (although Steve Ballmer is on record as saying that the next version of Office will not appear in 2009, that oughtn't to be a reason for the beta versions not to be out this year - it's certainly necessary if they are going for a 2010 release date), I'm hearing of a sudden increased interest in Finnish companies in implementing MOSS 2007.

(It's always MOSS 2007, but I bet most if not all of what most companies do with it in the first couple of years could equally well be done with WSS 3.0.)

It's about time. I've been envious of my colleagues in say Germany where SharePoint usage has been booming for a long time.

There's only one (major) fly in the ointment. Will the present economic climate (and Finnish export industries - which is most of them - are suffering just like everyone else) mean that such major investments are put off for a couple of years?

If they are what's the betting that they decide on implementing MOSS 2007 at a time when it is known that the next version of MOSS will be out in a couple of months?

Much later: no one spotted that it's WSS 2.0 that Project server 2003 used not WSS 3.0. Shame on you all. I'm claiming a typing error for the mistake (now corrected).