How to use SharePoint to manage projects: Microsoft SharePoint is a versatile platform for various business solutions like intranets, content management, and more.
Microsoft SharePoint is one of the most popular solution platforms in the world. It empowers organizations to develop many different business solutions in a single platform such as intranets, public portals, enterprise search systems, content management systems, workflow solutions, business intelligence, and more.
What is Sharepoint?
SharePoint is an easy-to-use, integrated suite of collaborative tools and functions developed by Microsoft that primarily focuses on collaboration, content management, and document sharing within an organization. In its latest version, Microsoft has added even more innovative features to transform the way knowledge workers collaborate and manage projects in the enterprise.
How can SharePoint help you?
It offers a wide range of features and capabilities that can help improve communication, streamline workflows, and enhance overall productivity.
Here’s how SharePoint can help you:
Document Management: SharePoint provides a centralized repository for storing, organizing, and sharing documents. It supports versioning, check-in/check-out functionality, and access controls, ensuring that users have access to the most up-to-date information while maintaining document integrity.
Collaboration: SharePoint enables teams to collaborate on documents and projects in real time. Multiple users can edit documents simultaneously, leave comments, and track changes, fostering a more efficient and collaborative work environment.
Team Sites and Portals: You can create dedicated team sites and portals for different departments, projects, or teams. These sites can include document libraries, calendars, discussion boards, task lists, and more, tailored to the specific needs of each group.
Workflow Automation: SharePoint allows you to design and automate workflows to streamline business processes. This can include approval workflows, content routing, and notifications, which help reduce manual tasks and improve efficiency.
Search and Discovery: The search capabilities of SharePoint make it easy to find documents, files, and information across the organization. Users can search using keywords, metadata, and filters, ensuring that critical information is readily accessible.
Integration with Microsoft 365: SharePoint seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft 365 tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. This integration enhances productivity by allowing users to edit and collaborate on documents directly within the SharePoint environment.
Security and Access Control: SharePoint provides robust security features, allowing administrators to control access to documents and sites based on user roles and permissions. This ensures that sensitive information remains protected.
Customization: SharePoint is highly customizable. You can design and customize the look and feel of your sites and portals to match your organization’s branding. Additionally, you can create custom lists, libraries, and web parts to cater to specific business needs.
Business Intelligence: SharePoint integrates with Power BI, Microsoft’s business intelligence tool, enabling you to create interactive reports and dashboards that provide insights into your data.
Mobile Accessibility: SharePoint is accessible from various devices, including smartphones and tablets. This enables remote and on-the-go access to documents and collaboration tools.
Content Publishing: SharePoint can be used for creating and publishing public-facing websites. It’s particularly useful for managing content-rich sites that require frequent updates and collaboration.
Compliance and Records Management: SharePoint offers features that aid in compliance with regulatory standards and records management policies. It allows you to define retention schedules, apply data loss prevention policies, and manage compliance-related tasks.
The real key to SharePoint is to utilize the core features of the product to the highest degree. Businesses need to build a program around the product and have a good information/site architecture that supports the collaboration goals, while at the same time ensuring data security. You can also read our newly updated article on Data Security titled: Data security: 4 ways to secure your critical data
What prevents SharePoint’s success in the workplace?
Unfortunately, many organizations are not using SharePoint to its full potential. This is mainly due to a lack of awareness and expertise. Often businesses resort to using additional software solutions to handle functionalities that are already available in SharePoint. Thus, it is important to have skilled, experienced resources at all levels when implementing a solution as complex and powerful as SharePoint. What are some of the biggest issues preventing SharePoint’s success in the workplace?
- Lack of expertise
- Lack of vision and strategy
- Poor user adoption
- Lack of governance
Companies first need to understand their current and future collaboration requirements based on their business needs to be able to match SharePoint’s capabilities to these needs. This will ensure the deployment will remain business-focused at all times. You can reach out to Kalles Group’s team on how to maximize the use of Microsoft Sharepoint in managing your projects.
Explore the power of SharePoint 2023 in Microsoft 365 for enhanced organization
SharePoint remains a cornerstone for streamlined collaboration, project management, and information sharing. Its capabilities extend to documents, contacts, tasks, and customizable lists, resembling Excel sheets. Unifying information under common tags empowers users to create cohesive pages around specific subjects. The spotlight shines on SharePoint 2023’s robust search functionality, now seamlessly integrated after Microsoft’s acquisition of FAST Search. Over 70% of Fortune 500 companies leverage SharePoint for diverse needs like portal development, collaboration, search optimization, business intelligence, social collaboration, record management, and eDiscovery. SharePoint Server 2023 introduces novel features and potentials that resonate with both intranet and internet portal architects, designers, and developers. The versatility in hosting, whether on-premises within a private SharePoint farm or on the cloud via Office 365, accentuates SharePoint’s adaptability. Additionally, the cost-effectiveness of licensing internet sites through SharePoint Server licenses underscores its financial appeal. As more organizations embrace SharePoint in conjunction with Office 365, it’s the opportune time to harness its full potential through apps, add-ons, and extensions.
Managing projects has gotten better with Sharepoint
Whether working on a team or as an individual, SharePoint helps to better organize people, projects, and information and makes it easy to connect with experts to find answers. Designers and web developers are able to create new experiences using familiar tools. SharePoint also provides powerful controls that help IT departments control costs, reduce risks, and manage time.
SharePoint is a scalable technology solution for your business
The success of a great company intranet lies in a scalable technology solution that supports the business needs of an organization. A successful intranet is only possible if both the business and technology departments are aware of the capabilities of the technology and how it helps meet business objectives in an organization. How do you plan to build a knowledge-sharing culture and unleash the full potential of SharePoint within your organization?
Read our exploits in helping our clients maximize the use of Sharepoint in managing projects:
Building and enhancing customer security
Implementing Sharepoint employee onboarding
Customizing SharePoint to improve communications
Platform modernization and engineering for a large organization