To give a quick context to the rest of this article, SharePoint is an offering from Microsoft and is a document management as well as collaboration tool. It is used for internal purposes within an organization and is an intranet and content management system that helps bring an organization cohesively together. It is made up of several multi-functional technologies that are closely integrated with Office 365 and comes along with document management capabilities. In fact Microsoft research shows that SharePoint is being used by close to 78% of Fortune 500 companies. This makes it a force to reckon with and something to consider for your company as well.
Now why has SharePoint become such an integral part of several organizations? Well for starters, it is an effective as well as flexible system of content management and goes above and beyond the basic abilities of file storage. Here are some of the reasons why it should be your company’s content management system and how it streamlines your document management systems:
Removes the Need for Document Collaboration via Email:
SharePoint is basically a document collaboration tool. Users of the system will just have to store and share their files from a document library and these can be updated by all those involved at any given time.
Gears you towards a paperless office:
With digitally stored documents, you can retrieve them easily using metadata as a search factor. This increases productivity.
Set Alerts:
With the alerts system, you can have any document you want send you an alert each time it is updated, keeping you on top of things.
Shareable Snapshots Make Reviews Easier:
SharePoint offers shareable snapshots of all related documents. These can be put together based on metadata tagging, thus making it easier to have all the information you need on hand.
Easily Searchable Folder Hierarchies:
SharePoint uses a mix of both worlds, folder hierarchy as well as metadata fields to help organize and tag your documents. This way you have multiple views as well as hierarchical segregation of the same content. These can be based on document category as well as key dates, authors and also keywords.
Easy to Understand Version Control:
SharePoint allows an easy understanding of the various versions of the document, capturing at every stage the changes made and the author making the changes. It organizes this systematically allowing you to retrieve versions of documents at any stage before any change.
Security and Visibility of Content Flexible:
SharePoint Documents can be as visible or as secure as the settings that are assigned to the folder. While one set of documents may be openly accessible to all required, certain other documents will have restricted visibility.
Content Management Control on SharePoint:
The levels of customization that SharePoint offers allows for your organization to manipulate it to suit requirements. With the right implementation, document management will become a prime asset of your business.
Exploring SharePoint from a Return on Investment (ROI) Perspective
Obviously before the implementation of any system in an organization, one will look at the various way in which in helps with the bottom line, or in other words the ROI. Here’s a look at the difference it can make:
- Centralized control dashboard allows for easy management and operations. This is applicable to all projects simultaneously and in real time. This allows for quick decision making and therefore better conversions.
- The customizable features ensure that all standard tools may be tweaked to deal with the specific requirements of a project, without having to start from scratch and lose valuable time. In businesses, time is effectively money.
- Easy collaboration and communication is the key to the success of any project and of course the team working together on it. SharePoint’s range of creative collaboration tools ensure that everyone is on the same page and issues are anticipated or dealt with quickly.
- Consolidation of various applications such as intranet, extranet as well as document management, etc. into a single package ensures that a company makes a one-time investment for all these applications at one go. Since it easily merges with other Microsoft products like Office and MS Exchange Server, the advantages are higher.
- With complete data protection ensured, since all content is placed in the cloud and access allowed only where granted, the security of information is high.
- Ease of use allows for SharePoint to be utilized effectively across the board. This makes updating as well as responding easier. In fact, the user friendliness of the system makes things simple even for a rookie.
For more: 6 reasons why SharePoint is good for your business
As with any company if your objective is to increase your productivity, have an efficient document management system in place and ensure overall collaboration, SharePoint should be an investment to think of. And Suyati Technologies can help you bring in and implement SharePoint in the best way possible for your organization. Get in touch with Suyati today!
