Minimum configuration to get ride of 'Server farm configuration not complete' message in SharePoint 2007

Setup SharePoint for the 1st time today and was annoyed to see the following message staring at me with no clear idea of what I was expected to do to get rid of it.

! Server farm configuration not complete !

So. My obvious question was what needs to be configured to get ride of this message. It wasn’t until I had completed the following from Central Administration that the message disappeared.

1. Clicked  on Shared Services Administration and added configured my Shared Services Providers
   1. This required me to create an associated Web Application (if your web application list is empty after creating a new one, see This Post about a potential fix.)
2. Configuring and starting the services below from the Central Administration –> Operations -> Topology and Services -> Services on Server screen
1. Office SharePoint Server Search
2. Windows SharePoint Services Help Search
3. Setup Outgoing Email Settings from the Central Administration –> Operations -> Topology and Services –> Outgoing e-mail settings

After configuring the above items, the message went away.