We have witnessed the recent pandemic Covid-19, and it has clearly shown us how teams must collaborate seamlessly for various business operations and processes. Across the world, businesses adopted the new work-from-home concept, and advanced technologies and tools helped them to collaborate virtually without any hurdles and issues. That is what Microsoft SharePoint is! Do you know that SharePoint is used by more than 200 million professionals across the globe? It is time we discuss SharePoint and some unparalleled benefits of SharePoint in detail to understand why use SharePoint for your business.
In simple terms, SharePoint is a robust, highly flexible, versatile, and secure web-based collaboration and document management system powered by Microsoft. SharePoint uses different applications and tools such as workflow applications, “List” databases, security features, and other web parts to allow business teams to connect and collaborate seamlessly and efficiently.
One of the key specialties of SharePoint is its adaptability. Two organizations might use it differently and still bring expected outcomes. This flexibility is a boon for users as they can use it as per their business needs and specific requirements.
With SharePoint, you can create an intranet that functions like any website. In addition to that, users can also create subsites for different departments. It is a centralized collaboration system that allows the admin to access stakeholders to share and edit documents.
What is the Purpose of SharePoint?
Easy access to critical documents and seamless collaboration among teams is the key to productivity and efficiency when working remotely. That is the primary purpose of SharePoint.
With SharePoint, authorized users can instantly view, edit, or share documents within the system securely. All you need is a web browser and an active internet connection, and you can work efficiently from any corner of the world. Some of the features that you can use are file versioning, integration of SharePoint with other third-party apps, indexing, advanced search option, web interface, and many more.
You can seamlessly manage all your corporate documents and determine the access control for these documents with SharePoint. You can create Intranet websites for internal convenience, automate your tasks, and develop customized applications for your teams to boost productivity and efficiency.
In addition to that, SharePoint is a highly secure platform, and you don’t need to worry from a security point of view.
In this post, we will discuss some of the benefits of SharePoint to make it clear why you should have SharePoint in your organization.
What are the benefits of SharePoint?
Effortless, Real-Time Collaboration
One of the most critical SharePoint benefits is collaboration. We all know how critical it is to work and share documents in real-time for improved workflow, decision-making, and other aspects.
Moreover, when multiple employees are working on the same document, the process becomes a real mess. For example, everyone is editing the document and sending different versions of the document via emails. When you want to update the doc, someone has locked it for editing. The whole process creates chaos.
However, the scene is very different when you are using SharePoint. When you are working on a document within the SharePoint environment, all the changes made by the team members are synced automatically, eliminating the issue of multiple versions.
Furthermore, you can also see an entire version history of the document if you want to check who has made what changes in the document.
The collaboration does not just stop there. You can instantly connect with the other team members at any given time via chat. You can share screens, allowing you real-time collaboration to improve productivity and efficiency.
Centralized Information Center
Most of the time, organizations have their company servers to store data and documents. The real issue is that you can access documents only when you are in the office or connected to your network via a VPN. On the other hand, employees save files on their systems, and you cannot access them.
It is not the case with Microsoft SharePoint. It is one of the most popular advantages of SharePoint in that it has a centralized center for document sharing, document management, project management, and tracking. Anyone who has the control rights can easily access it. You can even access them from any device. You don’t need any special connections or driving to the office to access documents. No matter where you are, you can access documents.
It is a Cloud-based Platform
There are two types of SharePoint versions: On-premises and Online.
Large corporations may opt for an in-house version with their private intranet. On the other hand, small and medium scale businesses will choose the Cloud-based SharePoint Online. Remember, both of these versions work perfectly to suit your business needs and serve the core purposes brilliantly. Both systems work exclusively from an end-user perspective and help you manage your business operations seamlessly.
Better Productivity
Better productivity is one of the most enticing SharePoint advantages. With SharePoint, you can easily streamline and automate processes and business operations. Employees will be able to collaborate in real-time quickly and effortlessly. In addition to that, they would be able to transmit data, track and manage documents, and communicate seamlessly.
Also, working on group projects would be easy as well. Such benefits will surely boost performance and efficiency within the organization.
SharePoint is Highly Customizable
One of the crucial benefits of SharePoint is that it is easy to customize as per your business nature and requirements. Every business has a list of specific requirements. For example, small businesses have different needs than large organizations. That is where customization comes into the picture.
As you make customized changes to your business website, you can change the SharePoint intranet site in terms of design, navigation, content, and features. You can create a personal user interface to make things easy for your employees.
Apart from Microsoft 365, you can integrate SharePoint with other tools such as CRM, ERP, or any other project management software you are using. This customization helps you to improve efficiency and productivity.