Existing solutions to connect SharePoint with external LOB data (e.g. the Business Data Catalog available for SharePoint Enterprise Edition only, not for WSS) and other 3rd party products connect data mostly using SharePoint Web Parts. That has in some cases limitations. Setup and search are more complicated, no views with all that known features (grouping), calculated fields, lookups etc. are available.

But custom SharePoint lists can be connected directly with external data in the list settings dialog using the Business Data List Connector (BDLC) found here:

http://www.layer2.de/en/products/Pages/SharePoint-Business-Data-List-Connector.aspx

Setup is very simple: You have to enter the data source connection string, the select statement and primary key(s) - if any. Thats it.

The list structure is created automatically, you can modify it later on as usual in SharePoint. All (readonly) list features are available without any restrictions: viws, filter, grouping etc. Updates can be made manually very fast or in in background (changed data only, one way only) using a timer job.

The best (for me): You can use list notifications and workflows to take business actions, if single external data records are changed.

Fig.: Very simple setup of the BDLC list connection

Just check it out!

Cheers, Frank