Are you using an outdated system to share and organise your files?
Good document management can aid productivity and efficiency but is too often overlooked.
If everyone in your organisation can easily locate files and edit them together in real time imagine the time saved. No more emailing documents backwards and forwards, or concern about whether youโre working on the latest version.
With a large percentage of businesses now employing at least some remote working the ability to easily share and collaborate is even more important.
Microsoft SharePoint is designed to allow employees to open, share, review and edit documents from any location that has an internet connection. This will allow your office staff and remote personnel to freely communicate simply using a web browser.
At first glance, this software sounds very similar to something like Google Drive. However SharePoint has many more features designed specifically for business.
An Introduction to SharePoint
On the one hand, SharePoint is a shared file repository, but it can also work as an intranet, a blogging platform/message board, and a content management system.
There are two SharePoint templates; the Team Site and the Communication Site.
The Team Site is used for collaboration between a group of people. A Team Site could be set up for each Department in a business, or for a specific project.
The Communication Site, as the name suggests, is designed for broadcasting information to a wider group of people. You would design your company intranet through as a Communication Site. You can share files in a communication site, for example company policies, they would generally be edited by only a few people and most viewers would have read-only access.
Business Benefits of Microsoft SharePoint
Improved Productivity
How much time do you waste every day searching through folders to try and find a document you need? Multiple that time by every person in your organisation and youโll immediately see that a large amount of time can be saved with an organised file system.
SharePoint allows you to centralise your files, meaning itโs much easier to find the documents you want. Each Team site only has the specific folders they need. This makes it quicker to cut through the noise to the files they want to work with.
Better Collaboration
Regardless of the size of your team itโs vital that they communicate and collaborate effectively. With the potential for team members to be working away form the office at least part of the time you need a proper, effective system.
Documents can easily be shared and edited in SharePoint. This can even take place in real time, with several people working on the same document at the same time.
SharePoint has version control built in. Team Members know that they are working on the latest version of any given document.
Simple to use and fully customisable
One of the business benefits of Microsoft SharePoint is that you donโt need to be a software developer or programmer to use it. In fact itโs pretty simple to set up, configure and administer. SharePoint comes with equipped with a central console that make admin fairly easy.
With it being a Microsoft product there is also a tremendous amount of help available online. And of course you can work with organisations like ours who are experts in cloud solutions like Microsoft 365 and take all of the concerns away from you.
Complying with regulations
Many industries have to deal with strict regulations and guidelines. The healthcare, financial and legal sectors for example are heavily regulated. Regulations often demand effective document control, with a focus on ensuring that only authorised users have access to confidential data.
With SharePoint you are able to change your security settings and configuration in order to comply with the standards set for your industry.
You can also create auditing and storage policies, along with defining the process for when business records reach their expiration dates. Naturally, this helps you comply with regulations much more effectively, while protecting and managing business-critical data.
Security
SharePoint has enterprise-level security features to keep your documents safe. Microsoft has an entire website devoted to security and compliance. Hosting operations through a single, integrated platform also reduces your vulnerability to holes, leaks, and attacks across multiple systems.
Additionally, you can also protect your organization by monitoring user behaviour, to ensure all employees and contractors comply with your internal usage policies.
Getting Started With SharePoint
Whilst SharePoint is relatively easy to use we do recommend taking advice before starting a project to migrate data to it. There are specialist tools available to assist with data migration and the planning stage is the MOST important. At the very least ask for some help with this stage.
The good news? We can help! For an initial chat, with absolutely no obligation simply book a slot in our diary – https://calendly.com/angus-yourit/book-a-call
