Microsoft SharePoint – 7 ways to achieve more

Globalization in the true sense indicates expansion. There is physical and virtual expansion of activities. With the use of internet and mobile devices, work space has also expanded. Work is no longer confined to specific premises; people can work while travelling, work from any part of the world and in collaboration with those partners who are within the premises of a business unit, or anywhere else. When work boundaries have been wiped out, it is essential to maintain perfect communication among the members who are working with each other. When they are all working on the same project from different locations, they must share information and have access to all the latest data continuously. This is where Microsoft SharePoint comes to assistance. It is a browser-based collaboration and document management platform, a content management system that allows groups to set up a centralized, password protected space for document sharing.

SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service that enables business people to share and collaborate with colleagues, partners, and customers. They can access internal sites, documents, and other information from anywhere—at the office, at home, or from a mobile device.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server ( MOSS) is a portal-based platform. It allows collaborative creation, management and sharing documents. It enables users to create portals that include various applications and blogs. They can be accessed through a web browser.

Working with Microsoft SharePoint

The business people sign into the corporate account and open Microsoft 365. They get links to Newsfeed, One Drive, and sites in the app launcher navigation. They are the entry points that lead to SharePoint.

Newsfeed: Newsfeed allows you to start and maintain a conversation with your colleagues. A public newsfeed works like a micro blog and anyone who sees it can react to it. People can follow your post. Followers see you in the ‘following’ view, while others can see you only in the ‘everyone’ view.  You can opt for the Team Site instead of public view if you prefer to limit yourself to a small group of people. You can add features like tags, links and videos to your posts. The people who are in the conversation only can reply to posts. You can keep some conversations locked so that anyone cannot reply to them although they can be viewed.

One Drive: Documents and other files can be safely stored on One Drive. They can be kept private or shared with colleagues. They can be accessed from mobile devices as well. They are stored on cloud and can be easily shared and synced. They can be instantly updated and several people can work on the same files simultaneously.

Sites: This enables you to find and access sites that you are following quickly and easily. The great advantage is that you can create your own special SharePoint online Team Site. All the team members can work on projects from different locations. The site includes files and documents, and data that can be customized to your needs. With the creation of a team site, an Office 365 group is created automatically and all team members get added to it. Hence, there is no need to create a separate e-mail distribution list.

7 ways to achieve more with Microsoft SharePoint

1. Company website – A Living website: Keeping a company website updated is a difficult task. The key to website content is with programmers. Hence, the company has to depend upon them for revising and updating the website. Content creation is a matter of expertise and the programmers have to get the content approved. With Microsoft SharePoint Server, there is no need to depend upon programmers and no need of knowledge of HTML. Within minutes, changes can be made, announcements and notices circulated and secure content managed by setting up an internal approval system.
2. Eco-friendly, paperless, professional communication: The current trend is to reduce paper work. Manual processing and management is being automated to the maximum possible extent. Companies often spend huge amounts on installing Business Process managements systems and further customizing them. With Microsoft SharePoint the workflow can be maintained smoothly without any kind of programming.
   Professional automated work is possible and a lot of time and money is saved.
3. Enterprise Search feature – When some important document is required and cannot be found quickly, everyone in the company becomes frantic searching at all possible locations and files. The experience is frustrating and fruitless. With enterprise search feature in Microsoft SharePoint, it is possible to create tags and meta tags with the help of which it is simple and fast to search through documents among the entire saved data.
4. Unifying documents – Contracts, proposals, presentations are constantly revised and modified by employees as and when required. One person is not likely to know about changes made by some other. No one seems to know which the latest version is. In SharePoint, one can maintain a centralized repository. Anyone can store and access any documents provided they have the rights and privileges. One can work on a document without knowledge of someone else working on the same at some other location.
5. Effective communication – Interaction with vendors, partners and clients becomes effective and productive with Microsoft SharePoint. Updates regarding changes in policies, prices can be shared among concerned people without asking for them, without sending mails.
6. Intranet – In most companies, data is generated, archived and managed within departments. For growth and expansion of business, it has t be circulated on a wider scale. Collaboration across departments can speed up important procedures. This is possible only with SharePoint.
7. Connecting apps – With a single sign-in feature that comes with SharePoint Business Connectivity Services, one can access all data from various apps and PCs at one place and save a lot of time gathering it just before an important meeting. External data can be accessed without multiple authentications.

Microsoft SharePoint has changed the concept of communication and interaction in business. Working with a business partner like Zerone HiTech has further advantages. You need not appoint any expert consultant for implementation of SharePoint. Zerone HiTech is a reliable and affordable third party option that provides complete support from end to end. With Microsoft SharePoint you can get valuable business insights and improve communication across business points.