>> I'd be hard-pressed to identify a competitor to all SharePoint has to offer (workflow, document management, check-out/in, integration with instant messenger,

>> I'd be hard-pressed to identify a competitor to all SharePoint has to offer (workflow, document management, check-out/in, integration with instant messenger, etc.). << Er... Lotus Notes has been around for about 25 years, and has all that, and a lot more -- the fine-grained security you ask for, and replication, Java/VB integration and runs on about 6 different platforms including Windows. Even a small company of two people can have it up and running for a couple of hundred bucks. IBM's marketing is atrocious, but Notes is an incredibly secure and flexible product.