Can Sharepoint be used to allow users to submit ideas and suggestions? My company is looking at signing up for Ideascale.com, but our IT guy says Sharepoint offers the same thing?

Hi, There are so many features in sharepoint you can utilize to do the same. Its now your choice to select the one that suits your needs. From your description I think Discussion board will be fine for you. If you want to know more about it you can refer this link: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/create-a-discussion-board-HA010086728.aspx There are other functionalities also to server your purpose. If you can elaborate about your requirement I will suggest you a suitable one to use. I hope this will help you out. Thanks, Rahul Rashu

I appreciate your quick reply. This is exactly what I need for my company: 1.) The ability for users to ANONYMOUSLY suggest ideas 2.) The ideas can then be VOTED on. I need something beyond just a traditional BBS/discussion forum. Thoughts?

Annonymous access is wider than the forums and if it's for a public facing site could have some potentially expensive licensing costs attached. SO, first, you'll need to let us know if this idea is internal or external. In regards to ideas being voted on, content rating isn't applicable on this version of SharePoint. It IS included in SharePoint 2010 (Note to Mike: mentioned to inform the user of alternative options, not as a deliberate off-topic). You could try this http://spforums.codeplex.com/, it may have a rating feature but I've never used it.Steven Andrews | SharePoint Professional | http://www.twitter.com/backpackerd00d | https://baron72.wordpress.com/

So sharepoint DOES NOT have the same type of format as Ideascale, as far as, submitting ideas, voting on ideas, best ideas to top, etc. That is, Sharepoint would address this need by allowing you to create a FORUM and then post anonymously to it?