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Many business leaders wonder if "going to the office" will ever be the same as before the internet. As we speak, new tools and processes continue to be developed to help with this migration. Microsoft SharePoint is often at the top of that list. Many organizations have seen the importance of digital collaboration proliferate.
Microsoft SharePoint, also known as the Content Services Platform (CSP), plays a crucial role in this transformation. It provides a wide variety of solutions, including:
- Data storage.
- Document management.
- Tools for team collaboration.
- Project management tools.
- And much more!
SharePoint is an attractive choice for many organizations as a CSP. SharePoint has been a multi-year Gartner Magic Quadrant recipient and is used by more than 400,000 organizations. It also has over 100 million monthly active commercial users.
What is Microsoft SharePoint?
Microsoft SharePoint allows businesses to collaborate remotely using a website-based platform. It is highly customizable and can be customized for any business. SharePoint is used by over 200,000 organizations and nearly 190 million people worldwide as their content management and collaboration platform.
SharePoint can refer to any one or more SharePoint technologies, products, or services, such as SharePoint Online, SharePoint Server in Microsoft 365, and SharePoint Designer 2013. OneDrive sync is also available.
- OneDrive Sync: OneDrive Sync is a desktop program that syncs documents to your computer offline from a OneDrive site, team site or OneDrive for school or work.
- SharePoint Server: Businesses can use SharePoint Server either on-premises or with an Office 365 Enterprise subscription. This allows them to take advantage of the latest capabilities, such as PowerApps integration and Power BI, MS Flow, modern website pages, web parts, authoring, and MS Flow.
- SharePoint Online: SharePoint Online is SharePoint's cloud-based version. SharePoint Online integrates with many cloud apps. It can be used with Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft 365 licenses.
- SharePoint Developer 2013: This free program, released in 2013 SharePoint Designer 2013, creates robust workflow-enabled solutions. It also edits external content types to provide an external data solution based on Business Connectivity Services.
- SharePoint in Microsoft 365: This cloud-based service is hosted and managed by Microsoft. This service allows businesses to subscribe to a Microsoft 365 plan or the standalone SharePoint Online service to replace the need to implement SharePoint Service on-premises.
Benefits of Building a Business Website with SharePoint
SharePoint's adaptability is one of its key strengths. Two organizations can use it differently and still produce the expected results. Users can use it according to their specific business requirements and business needs.
SharePoint allows you to create an intranet that works like any other website. It's a central collaboration system that gives admin access to stakeholders and enables them to edit or share documents. Users can also develop subsites to serve different departments.
Central Storage
SharePoint's greatest asset is its ability to store many files in one place. It should take little time to find what you're looking for, as long as your organization structure is solid.
This is dependent on your behavior and habits. SharePoint works excellently as a central storage solution if you are disciplined in how you and your team use it.
Intrinsic Multi-Purpose Functionalities
The SharePoint development company offers the most significant benefits, such as flexibility, long-term commitment, quality-assured services, etc. SharePoint is a privileged collaborative platform used as a CMS, DMS, and Intranet. It helps fulfill your company's internal needs, such as scheduling, enterprise search, information & file sharing, and corporate website.
SharePoint offers many other functions, including file management, document sharing, and information management. It also allows for the efficient organization of daily business operations. Administrators can also assign different permission levels depending on the user's status.
Collaboration & Information Management
SharePoint makes it easy to organize information and make it available instantly for users whenever they need it. SharePoint's streamlined information flow and cloud storage are the most significant benefits. Users can access any information they need whenever they want.
Employees will be more productive if they are kept informed. They can meet deadlines, understand the shared business goals strategy, make informed decisions and contribute generously to the organization. File sharing is easy with just a few clicks. SharePoint's exceptional mobility makes it more valuable in the IT industry.
Enhanced Security
SharePoint's security features are some of the best that this platform has to offer. SharePoint's multi-layered security system significantly reduces the risk of data theft and unauthorized entry. Some essential security features are workflow upgrades and authentication enhancements. Data integrity is maintained as the shareability and accessibility of information are optimized. You can also define other editing and access permissions and security configurations at individual and document levels.
SharePoint promises to protect your sensitive data by allowing you to set security settings at different levels to manage shareability, storage, and auditing. This will help you meet industry regulations regarding data security.
Scalable and Customizable
SharePoint is highly scalable and can easily be used by organizations with 150 employees up to 20,000 employees and beyond.
Unlike other intranet products, SharePoint can be customized to provide your business's functionality. It is supported and accepted.
SharePoint is flexible and can adapt to changing business environments as a company grows. The platform can be enriched with different web parts, mobile apps, or workflows. Many of these don't require website development and can easily be created by experienced users.
It is essential to ensure that your SharePoint site architecture can be scaled and adaptable as your company grows.
SharePoint is Continuously Evolving
Many users used to dread working with SharePoint on-premise, particularly 3-5 years ago. It could have been faster, more convenient, and easier to use. Although some users still have concerns about their SharePoint installation, things have improved.
The platform has seen tremendous growth in recent years. SharePoint Modern Experience makes the platform more user-friendly, quicker, mobile-responsive, and in line with how users use the web. Users can handle slow page loads or unreasonable limits. SharePoint can now be integrated with other Office 365 services like Teams and MS Flow to make it an integral part of the digital workplace.
Optimized Content Delivery
Many business people work behind the scenes to improve your company's content strategy, from bloggers to media specialists. Your staff must give feedback and approve your content. You're likely to fail if you rely on various folders to provide robust content control. It can be hard to tell who has touched the document, how often it has been reviewed, and if the current version is the best.
SharePoint gives you immediate answers to these and many other questions. In seconds, users can create content and submit it for approval. You can schedule your content to go live on the intranet or your internet sites at a specific time. This means you don't have to worry about whether your article or post has been through all the review stages. Multinational companies with multilingual content can also use SharePoint.
Folders are Replaced with Metadata
Metadata, if you don't already know it, is about adding information to document tracking purposes. Metadata functions similarly to folders, but there is a significant difference: you can create multiple metadata fields.
Let's look at Metadata instead of folders. You might have a folder hierarchy for each project and department in your file-sharing. The problem is that multiple departments may manage different projects. It becomes challenging to consolidate all files related to these projects into one location.
Let's now see how Metadata can help us solve this problem. All you have to do in SharePoint is create one column per department and one per project. You can now filter and sort files using either one or both of the columns. Although it may seem difficult initially, it will become straightforward once you get used to it. Metadata can be used to locate files immediately.
How is SharePoint Improving a Business Workplace?
Your organization can use Microsoft SharePoint to improve workplace performance, including those listed below.
Real-Time Collaboration
SharePoint allows real-time collaboration between departments and staff in one environment. This is especially helpful for remote workers as it allows for communication at all times. Staff can know targets and other important metrics to help them make better decisions, get buy-in, and increase performance. This creates a culture that encourages creativity and collaboration.
Streamlines the Collection of Critical Business Information
SharePoint innovative forms make it easy to collect stakeholder data using a simple browser interface. You can choose to have the forms customized with basic functionality, such as collecting business owner data, or more complicated with crucial functionality that will help your business.
Full Cloud Enablement
You can use SharePoint Online or choose SharePoint on-premise for online migration in the same way as an end-user. Cutting-edge technology can help you increase productivity and efficiency, which is crucial in today's highly competitive market.
Automating Monotonous Tasks
Microsoft SharePoint was designed to manage daily tasks, meetings, targets, and other information. You can easily create and integrate workflows that simplify your work processes with little effort.
Providing an Integrated Environment
SharePoint is a central location for sharing, meeting, and working. Using the various authorization levels, you can ensure that SharePoint is accessible only to the appropriate personnel.
Connecting Staff with Relevant Company Data
Enterprise Search is a feature that allows organizations to increase company-wide communication via the SharePoint intranet. It includes business data and employee details, which can be extremely useful in organizing people, projects, and information.
Helps to Fulfill Regulatory Requirements
SharePoint allows you to secure sensitive corporate data and implement audit policies that comply with compliance requirements. Your organization will be in the best position to minimize potential lawsuit risk.
Types of Websites That Can Be Built Using SharePoint
With SharePoint, users can create various types of websites depending on the needs and services of the business. SharePoint offers two kinds of website development services to businesses, i.e., communication sites and team websites. Every website has its own set of defined templates with pre-populated content, web parts, and pages that can be customized per the business objectives. The features and functionality of the site template depend entirely on the version of SharePoint you are using.
How to Create a SharePoint Website?
Sign in to Office 365 to get started. Before you can create a site, there are a few things that you need to do.
Choose the Site Architecture
- You have a clear view of the future environment for your site. You must determine the structure that will be most useful for finding and usability. This is what you will need to know:
- Which websites do you want (project pages, department pages, portals that store policies)?
- Who (internal or external users) will have access?
- Is it going to be one repository for all company documents?
Build SharePoint sites that break down into different collections based on how much data is collected and what goals are achieved. One collection is the default. This may be sufficient for small organizations. Larger companies with strict hierarchies, many departments, and a high content volume should consider separating their internal sites into multiple collections to improve administration, security, and performance.
Decide On Your Site Components
SharePoint allows you to choose from many modules that can be included with your site. Only a few of the options are as follows:
- Library: To save your documents and other information
- Tasks: Helpful in assigning responsibilities to people and tracking their progress
- Announcements: To post important information or news to all teams or the entire organization
- Calendar: To create and manage the calendar, meetings, or events
- Notes: Helpful in providing additional information about events or key activities
- Contacts: Keeps email addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information for employees
Determine Text Layout
The layout is a personal choice. However, it is essential for usability. It is important to remember that the goal of layout design is to make it easy for end-users. Select any template from the drop-down menu: one column, one with sidebars, and two or three columns. A header template is trendy because it can provide essential information about the project, basic characteristics, images, or graphics.
Choose Your Site Type and Options
Most people use Team sites for collaboration and Communication sites for information broadcasting.
You have many configuration options for each site type. Communication Sites, for example, can choose from a Topical, Showcase, or Blank design.
Blank allows you to design and format your website with total flexibility. If the site will have a lot of images and text, Topical is used. On the other hand, Showcase is used for visual information (e.g., a product display page).
Give Your Site a Title and Add a Site Description
SharePoint will verify that your chosen title is available and then generate an email site using that title. Next, enter a description box that gives a brief overview of the site's purpose.
Set Privacy Options
You can choose between private (for members of a team or group only) and public (for anyone in the larger organization).
Add Members
Enter the email addresses and names of the people you wish to join the site. Click Finish, and you are done!
Cost of Building a Website with SharePoint
The SharePoint implementation cost can vary greatly-a typical small- to medium-sized company deployment costs between $10,000 and $150,000. However, large organizations usually pay more. It is a good idea to plan what you want from your intranet and then talk to a SharePoint consultant about how to get it done. They can help you organize the work and provide an efficient way to build your platform.
The Key Takeaway
You now understand how to set up a SharePoint website and how much SharePoint costs. These are just the basics. Advanced customization and time-consuming steps may be required to make your site even more impressive. You must choose the correct API set to set up a SharePoint site.
Migration to SharePoint is more complex than it seems. Cyber Infrastructure Inc. is one of the top SharePoint consulting companies with decades of experience developing custom software solutions using Microsoft SharePoint and its extensions. It is confident in the ability to create a SharePoint site. Our SharePoint specialists have a deep understanding of the platform and years of experience designing, developing, configuring, administering, and deploying new SharePoint applications. This includes team sites, portal solutions, and custom lists.
