Colliers clients do not have access to the Our People portal, says Sita, but they still have access to the Colliers external site, www.colliers.com, where they can at least access the information in the Our People section. The Our People section itself and Profile Pages are for employees only.

Nevertheless, giving clients access to some SharePoint sites is becoming more common, says Sita.

"We've created external connectors and specific portals for clients within SharePoint to let them view their personal dashboards, share documents and start discussion threads with Colliers employees."

For now, clients get a special URL to log into Colliers SharePoint sites. But the firm is redeveloping its website so that clients can log in from the site and go straight to a SharePoint portal.

After this upgrade, "the new site will be fully integrated with SharePoint," says Sita.