All business teams, whether they work remotely, are all in the office or a combination of the two, want to work together and get the job done efficiently. Microsoft SharePoint helps make that happen.

SharePoint is used across all verticals including science, education, law, government, finance, computers, electronics, and technology. Both very small and very large companies benefit from its versatility and features.

If you’re subscribing to one of Microsoft 365’s (previously known as Office 365) business plans, you already have access. SharePoint is Microsoft’s document management and collaboration tool. Users, wherever they are, can connect to SharePoint through their own browser and access the services and data. SharePoint streamlines the process of tracking workflow and documents. But that is not all that the platform offers.

SharePoint’s Key Features

SharePoint has a variety of benefits including:

Collaboration.

Yes you can use SharePoint for file storage but it goes much further than that and includes the ability to create workflows, see document history, track file access and much more.

Organisation.

SharePoint greets users with a screen that shows:

• • what they interact with most frequently;
  • sites that they are following;
  • featured links;
  • a search bar

Having recent activity and access to important links and relevant sites as the entry point to the platform helps keep your staff productive.

Within SharePoint sites, you can also create lists to collect items. This might be announcements, contacts, links or even task list.

Integration.

SharePoint works with Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and more. A team might create a shared notebook to keep information in one place and evolve as projects do.

Search.

Advanced search capabilities make it easy to look across a site library. Users can even search content in all SharePoint sites they can access. Avoid decentralization where assets are spread over employee PCs or different department siloes.

Version control.

Don’t worry about emailing documents to various team members for input. A SharePoint document becomes the single source for the one, current document.

Data insights.

Keeping all business data in one place makes it easier to review and determine what is being used or who is accessing what to identify trends. Site admins, owners, and members can track number of views, popular items, how many times people interact with the site and much more.

Create community.

SharePoint websites are a centralized location for teams to find what they need. Human resources might set up a site with its updates and important forms. Marketing can share their materials and Admin can share common documents. This allows everyone to quickly find the information they need.

Share news.

Keep teams engaged and informed using the News feature. Users can post updates, or share reports and documents in the newsfeed section of the website.

Mobility.

Users can upload files and access them from anywhere. SharePoint works with most browsers including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers. There is even a mobile app to let people remain connected from their mobile devices.

Why SharePoint?

SharePoint bundles many features together in the one platform suiting different industries. Businesses can replace inefficient, paper-based processes with a centralized, online repository of documents. This can help with accountability and limit business bottlenecks.

SharePoint helps you build personal, team, project, customer, and / or vendor-facing websites. You can avoid unwieldy email threads or confusing conference calls by chatting online and tracking edits directly in SharePoint.

You can also automate business processes. SharePoint allows you to create intelligent workflows for simple tasks. For example, you can streamline processes, with SharePoint automatically sending files for approval. Once done, you can then be notified that the review is complete.

Success with SharePoint

As with the majority of processes you will need to establish an implementation strategy, and train employee to understand SharePoint’s value. Know that businesses lacking IT resources can struggle to correctly implement SharePoint, customise features and build automated workflows.

At DP Computing, our IT experts can determine the SharePoint service model that’s best for you. We can help integrate SharePoint and add customisations where they can help you. Contact us today to find out how SharePoint can benefit your business!