What is Microsoft SharePoint? What are its features and benefits?
SharePoint features and benefits
Microsoft SharePoint is a document management and collaboration platform
that helps a company manage archives, documents, reports, and other content that
is vital to its business processes. SharePoint's enterprise content management
capabilities are helpful to organizations in all industries and in any
department within an organization. SharePoint is configured using a web
browser. It provides most of its capabilities via a web user interface (UI) and
web applications. SharePoint is used to manipulate content and site structure,
create and delete sites, enable and disable product features, configure basic
workflows and manage analytics.
SharePoint is a collection of various products, technologies, solutions,
applications, programs. It provides multiple meaningful solutions to different
business use cases across the organization and its stakeholders. SharePoint
2019 is the latest version of the application. SharePoint is part of the Office
365 suite, where it is known as SharePoint Online. Microsoft also offers an
on-premises version for organizations that prefer to keep their data in-house
for compliance or security reasons.
SharePoint Portal 2001 came from the now-discontinued FrontPage, along
with Office Server Extension and Team Pages. The inception was with an
objective of collaboration with the discontinued Frontpage, Server Extension,
and Team Pages. SharePoint initially was focused on top-down portals, search,
document management. With the combinations of search, indexing, query language
Microsoft Index server, and WSS Windows SharePoint Services SharePoint 2003
evolved. SharePoint 2007 has publishing features and web content management
with an integrated version. SharePoint 2010 focused on making it a feature-rich
business solution that included document management, records management,
Microsoft Office integration, global metadata, social networking, reporting,
taxonomy, and web content management. It was then named as SharePoint
Foundation. Service architecture was introduced for the sharing of services and
permitted more flexible scaling. BPOS was replaced with Office 365. Microsoft
extended the capabilities and released SharePoint 2013. Microsoft released
SharePoint Online based on SharePoint Server 2013. Microsoft’s cloud-first
initiative bought more incremental enhancements to Office 365 and SharePoint.
SharePoint server 2016, with the combined capabilities of Office 365 and
SharePoint Online got introduced as an on-premises SharePoint platform.
Integrations were made simple with Office 365 services such as yammer, OneDrive
for Business, tools to optimize the way people work, introducing comprehensive
solutions to engage and connect people to their relevant information, and a proper
mobile version was introduced. Microsoft took advantage of the cloud and with
the combined capabilities of SharePoint on-premises and SharePoint online
introduced SharePoint Hybrid. Microsoft introduced its much-awaited modern
version of SharePoint Server 2019, basing on the capabilities of both
on-premises and cloud put together. SharePoint Server 2019 brings modern
experience, with a more exceptional ability to share and access information,
data, and content regardless of device, place, and time, without compromising on
security, compliance, and collaboration.
Organizations use SharePoint for various business purposes depending on
their business use cases. SharePoint is used by hospitals and health care,
pharma, staffing and recruiting, financial services, construction,
manufacturing, production, telecom, management consulting, higher education,
government administration, and non-profit organizations, and many more. Imagine
those emails that pile up every now and then and documents stored in racks. It is more than difficult to respond or keep
a track of them. SharePoint with its
powerful document management system enables individuals, and teams to securely
store, streamline, organize, share, collaborate, and archive their documents,
information, and content seamlessly and access on any device or any location
anytime.
Features of Microsoft SharePoint
Business intelligence (BI). SharePoint 2019 is integrated
with Microsoft Power BI, providing access to BI
Compliance. SharePoint's In-Place Hold Policy
Center and Compliance Policy Center let a company's central administration
build and apply policies. Users can delete documents from OneDrive for
Business sites.
Document library accessibility. SharePoint provides page landmarks for
easy navigation, keyboard shortcuts for various tasks, updates on upload
progress, improved callout readings, and updates for help documentation.
Expanded file names. Support is available for file names
with special characters, leading with dots and longer than 128 characters.
Folder sharing. Users can see who is sharing a folder
and can invite participants and approve or deny access requests.
Better integration with Office 365
tools and services, including Microsoft Sway.
Information rights management. Digital rights management
capabilities protect sensitive information and intellectual property from
unauthorized access.
Large file support. There is no limit on file size.
However, Microsoft recommends a 10 GB maximum. There is a 250 GB maximum file
upload limit.
MinRole. Administrators can install only
the roles they want on SharePoint servers.
Mobile experience. A touch-friendly mobile interface has
been added, giving users a more modern experience. It's easy to switch from
mobile view to PC view.
Navigation UI. SharePoint includes megamenus
that render and display on desktop and mobile versions of the platform to
enhance site navigation. Developers can natively deliver shortcuts to webpages
in SharePoint.
Project server. Project managers can request resources
from other resource managers and use a heat map function to see where resources spend time. They
can also create multiple timelines. The project server has improved backup and
restoration capabilities.
Project Syntex. SharePoint integrates with
Microsoft intelligent search to help employees locate relevant metadata in
emails, presentations, and other Office services. Syntex uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate
content processing and turn
content into knowledge.
Security. SharePoint 2019 includes
coauthoring and autosave features for encrypted documents, information barriers, and automatic expiration of external access.
Site page pinning. Users can pin sites to follow them when
on-premises or through Office 365.
Team sites. These are locations where teams
can work on projects and share information from anywhere. A team site includes
a group of related webpages, as well as a default document library for files,
lists for data management, and web parts that are customizable.
Yammer. The Yammer social networking platform has customizable social feeds that let
employees interact in the SharePoint environment.
Benefits of Microsoft SharePoint
Improved Data Management
Research shows that the average worker
spends 28% of the workday reading and responding to emails in his inbox.
That’s roughly 2.6 hours and 120 messages per employee per day. This data alone
reveals that today’s workforce is inundated with data at every checkpoint. If
it isn’t email, it’s customer support requests, meeting minutes, marketing
reports and more.To this end, it can be an overwhelming effort to try and
organize it all. Sure, you can create an elaborate file system on your desktop
to keep track of your work-related documents, but what happens when an off-site
worker needs to access one of the files? Your company’s data pertains to
different projects, belongs to other teams, and is submitted in different
formats and sizes.Trying to keep track of everything is challenging for even
the strongest leaders. This is where SharePoint can help. In an instant, users
can take control of the exact data points they need without sifting through
tons of documents they don’t need. If you’re using cloud-based SharePoint
Online, they can do so from anywhere, anytime. The best part? You don’t have to
abandon your existing best practices to leverage this new form of data
management.Your SharePoint solution integrates with the Microsoft Office Suite,
including Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook as well as Microsoft
Unified Communications and Microsoft Exchange Server. Users can also access
line-of-business systems, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM.At the same time,
configurable back-end connections allow them to create personalized views and
interactions with those systems. It’s data management made easy.
Simplified Business Functions
Think about the workflows you have in
place to manage your day-to-day business activities. How does your business
handle initiating, managing and reporting on standard functions? Some of the
most common activities include:
Routing a document or item for approval
Collecting feedback
Collecting signatures
Tracking an issue, project or task
Routing a document for publication
SharePoint includes various
out-of-the-box workflows designed to automate these processes and more.
Employees can integrate them with familiar client applications, email programs,
and web browsers for a simple and consistent user experience.
Regulatory Compliance and Cyber
Security
From the healthcare sector to the legal
and financial fields, there are many industries in which professionals must
adhere to strict regulatory requirements and guidelines. Many of the conditions they must
follow focus on effective document control. Specifically, there should be
measures in place to ensure that only authorized users can access confidential
employee and client data. SharePoint allows users to specify security settings
that comply with their specific compliance regulations at every checkpoint. You
can also set storage and auditing policies and actions to take when business
records expire. This helps your organization maintain compliance, all while
controlling and managing business-critical information effectively.Even if your
business doesn’t revolve around tight compliance measures, it’s still important
to place controls on data access within your company. In addition, you can also set
other security settings that require your employees to check out documents
before editing, view all revisions made to a document and even return a
document to its original state with one click.
Optimized Content Management
Many business users work behind the
scenes from blog writers to media specialists to optimize your company’s
content strategy. A successful one requires timely approvals, edits, and
feedback from your staff. You’ll likely fall short if you’re relying on a
network of disparate folders to deliver robust content management. It can be
challenging to discern who’s touched the document, how many times it’s been
reviewed, and if the version you’re looking at is even the most recent. Investing
in SharePoint gives you immediate answers to these questions and more. Users
can create and submit content for approval in seconds. Suppose you pre-schedule
your content to go live on your SharePoint intranet or internet sites at a
particular time. In that case, you never have to wonder if your post or article
has undergone the required review stages beforehand. SharePoint is up to this
task if you’re a global company with multilingual content management needs. The
software includes document library templates that help you navigate between an
original document and its multiple translations with ease.
Unparalleled Collaboration
Even if you only employ a handful of
people, these team members all must understand how to communicate and
collaborate. If they don’t have access to resources that facilitate this aim,
it’s too easy for discord and disarray to emerge. This is especially the case
with document control. Person A might create a document and expect Person B to
review it. However, while Person B has the document open, Person A remembers a
few changes he wanted to make and opens it back up before resaving it. Suddenly,
neither person knows which version is the most accurate, as neither document is
complete. SharePoint features version controls that track every edit made to a
copy, the time it occurred, and the person responsible. Moreover, only one
person can access the file simultaneously to prevent duplicate work. Co-workers
can share files and updates in real time, improving their collaborative
efforts.
Increased Productivity
As a business leader, how many hours
per week do you think you spend digging through the archives to find a file?
Whether searching inside a filing cabinet or clicking through an endless sea of
folders, it can be mind-numbing and frustrating to devote time during the busy
workday to a wild goose chase. Searching for what you need is as simple as a
few clicks when all your documents are consolidated onto the SharePoint
platform. Don’t send your employees down the rabbit hole looking for a single
form. You can organize each MS SharePoint site to include only the folders and
subfolders you need.This way, you can go straight to the source when time is
running out and you have to make a quick business decision. While this is a
helpful feature for business managers, it’s equally advantageous to your
employees. When they are not spinning their wheels looking for the data they
need, they can devote more time to their core responsibilities.
Centralized Administration
If you’re at the helm of your company’s
SharePoint solution, there might be a few times when you need to adjust the
configuration. With such a vast platform, you might expect this process to be
incworxcsignificant pain. However, SharePoint comes equipped with a central
administration console that makes this process a breeze. Authorized
administrators can make all changes in a centralized location rather than
clicking around to multiple pages. On the console, you’re able to access,
monitor, and update the following data:
Conclusion:
Regardless of the time, place, and
device, SharePoint can be easily accessed. SharePoint server 2019 is a platform
that enables and empowers people to transform the way work. SharePoint ensures the existing IT
investments, structured processes, and compliance are taken enough care of.
SharePoint provides modern experience, information, integrated platform,
collaborative environment, and procedures that meet the needs of businesses. SharePoint helps people and businesses to optimize the way they do
their work, improve them to be agile, and drive high-value innovations, and growth.
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