Microsoft SharePoint was established in 2001 as a document management and storage system. But now SharePoint offers you much more than that. Last year, Gartner named SharePoint a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms . Already for the third year in a row. More than 100 million active users are leveraging the benefits of Microsoft SharePoint for mission- critical processes.
Not for nothing, because an intranet in SharePoint stimulates smarter collaboration, improves internal communication and increases involvement within your organization. Here are the top seven benefits of SharePoint services.
1. A scalable intranet in the Cloud
One of the biggest advantages of SharePoint is that it is available in the cloud . You can access the intranet via your desktop, tablet, smartphone or laptop regardless of your location. This makes it attractive and easy to use SharePoint according to your preference.
The cloud is also scalable, for example in storage capacity. You are not tied to the server capacity of your organization. In addition, you save costs immediately, because you do not have to maintain server parks and you spend less time implementing updates or certain functionalities. SharePoint Online is always up-to-date and the latest functionalities are available first.
2. Collaborate smarter with SharePoint
SharePoint is an open and social platform , which makes it easy to create and share documents. Via the intranet you have access to team sites, information, people and projects to carry out your work effectively and efficiently. You can easily work with multiple colleagues on the same document.
In a live feed you can see at a glance who is working in the document at the same time as you. By refreshing the file , you will immediately see their changes. This prevents multiple versions of the same file and saves you time and miscommunication.
3. One integral platform
One of the other benefits of SharePoint is that you get a consistent experience of the platform as it is seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Teams , the Microsoft Office Suite and ERP, CRM or other back office systems. You have access to everything you need in terms of information via one portal.
A major advantage of an integrated platform instead of separate solutions is that you can apply your information and archiving policy centrally to the entire environment . All information is stored in the Microsoft cloud , and not fragmented over separate applications. This makes your information management a lot easier. Think of automatic classification of documents based on sensitive information , automatic setting of retention periods and monitoring for audits .
Also, because many users are familiar with Microsoft Office, the adoption process of additional Microsoft solutions is faster. Thanks to the uniform experience, you can quickly use SharePoint as an intranet for your daily work.
4. Working securely with SharePoint
Sensitive company information and personal data require optimum protection. Also to protect your integrity and reputation. Previous advanced security measures have been integrated into SharePoint , for example to prevent data leaks and unauthorized access. Without limiting the possibilities of sharing information.
You manage access and editing rights down to the file level, and security updates are processed automatically. Data storage in the cloud is much more reliable and secure than on-premise.
5. Personalize SharePoint without code
One of the advantages of SharePoint is that you can set up the intranet according to your wishes and needs without the involvement of a developer. You can do this, for example, with the available templates to automate various work processes for recurring tasks. Or create certain forms to collect necessary information from employees, customers, partners or suppliers online.
This prevents incorrect or duplicate data, because you no longer have to enter data manually. You can therefore personalize and optimize SharePoint for your work without code.
6. Extended search function
Sometimes it can be difficult to find specific information, especially in large intranet sites. The smart search function in SharePoint immediately shows you the documents, people or intranet pages that match or are related to your search. Furthermore, the search function includes a spelling corrector and you can enable notifications for specific search terms. This comprehensive search function is also easy to use via mobile devices with SharePoint services.
7. Intelligent Workplace
From working safely to collaborating with the help of software: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often involved. Interesting functionalities have become available by applying AI in SharePoint. Like the aforementioned search function. In addition to documents, you can now find images based on metadata just as quickly.
Another application of AI is the chatbot where employees can go with their questions about, for example, human resources. The more data and users, the better the functionalities that AI offers on the intranet!
The benefits of SharePoint
The benefits of today’s SharePoint platform can no longer be compared to those of 2001’s SharePoint. The intranet is more secure, intuitive, scalable, integrates with other IT systems and focuses on collaboration and ease of use. Employees are more effective and efficient in their daily work and experience more job satisfaction. Finally , as an organization you have lower costs for managing and maintaining an intranet on SharePoint services.
1. Easily manage external users
Users can share sites, folders and individual documents with external users. All they need is a Microsoft Account linked to a business email address. It is also possible to create a Guest Links, which gives reading or editing rights without logging in. A Guest’s access can be stopped at any time with SharePoint services.
2. Good and Improved Security
With Office 365 & SharePoint online, Microsoft has made security one of the most important priorities. For example, they do not price the location of their data centers and use multiple layers of physical security. They also work with biometric security, motion sensors, continuous video surveillance and armed security at the data centers.
Microsoft uses BitLocker encryption and secures data traffic with SSL over HTTP for their servers. The Information Rights Management option also gives the option to apply further encryptions and regulate access to sensitive data. Of course, Microsoft also has a very extensive backup system of many layers in its data centers. The administrator also has the option to set up multi-level authentication for all their users.
3. Less maintenance required
By switching to SharePoint online, less maintenance is required and therefore lower costs. In the previous versions, a lot of maintenance and management was required for the local SharePoint services environment, this is no longer necessary.
4. No more need for Network Share with OneDrive for Business
OneDrive for Business is a simple cloud storage space for employees. Anyone who has user rights to a Personal Site (formerly called My Sites) can access OneDrive for Business. Each user has 1 TB of personal storage space. This storage space is separate from the total SharePoint Online space.
OneDrive for Business gives employees a personal place where they can sync and share documents. It also gives the opportunity to collaborate with people inside and outside their organization. This online place can be visited from many different devices with SharePoint services.
5. Always the most recent version
In the past, Microsoft released a new version of SharePoint every 4-5 years. So every so often you got a large amount of new functionalities. This was difficult for users to adjust. With SharePoint Online and Office 365 there is a continuous release of new versions, improvements and new features. So you always work with the latest version that has the latest developments.
Especially, because not a lot of new functionality is added at a time, it remains manageable for users. The new versions contain no additional installations and no additional costs.
