Everything You Should Know About Microsoft SharePoint

How many separate IT systems are used in your company? How many places does every employee have to register every day? A central portal like Microsoft SharePoint – instead of a multitude of applications – creates an overview and simplifies daily collaboration in the company. We advise you on your business processes in which such a portal makes your and your employees’ daily work easier and faster, and we support you with the introduction of SharePoint and the development of corresponding applications. In this blog post, we have tried to provide you with every small piece of basic non-technical information that you may generally want to learn about SharePoint. So let’s begin.

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is a mobile and intelligent intranet that enables you to share, manage, share, stimulate teamwork, find information quickly and work effectively together in your company. SharePoint is typically used as the central platform for company-wide administration of intranet, extranet and internet applications.

With SharePoint you can quickly share and manage content, know-how and applications. Information can be found quickly using a keyword. This increases the productivity and quality of collaboration in project teams and departments. Information can be found easily and collaboration can be improved. Microsoft SharePoint noticeably increases the productivity and quality of collaboration between project teams and departments!

With Microsoft SharePoint development you can also create team websites with ease. Each website can be adapted to the individual characteristics and requirements of the individual teams. Work with maximum flexibility using a PC, Mac or mobile device. Inform your employees quickly and easily. This can be done, for example, via personalized news on the SharePoint homepage. Microsoft SharePoint is provided from the cloud (SharePoint Online) or On-Premise (SharePoint Server).

Why SharePoint?

Today, 90% of the internal information exchange takes place via email. Facts and data are often lost because the daily flood of mail is difficult to organize and search through – which also takes time. In addition, the number of documents to be managed is growing steadily. New media are becoming increasingly important in project work. You have to be able to access calculations, presentations, reports, wikis, blogs, texts, contracts and many other important documents at any time.

SharePoint brings together typical documents such as Excel files, emails and other file types on a clear collaboration platform that everyone involved can access. Thanks to SharePoint document management, you can concentrate entirely on your collaboration – instead of searching for files.

Thanks to SharePoint Portal solution with its integrated (full-text) search, you and your employees can call up data and information of any kind quickly and easily. All files can be assigned keywords that simplify targeted access.

Advantages of SharePoint

• Easily share information, know-how and resources.
• Facilitate team and department collaboration.
• Make optimal use of in-house knowledge.
• Flexible work via PC, Mac or mobile device.
• Provision on-premise or from the cloud.

 

SharePoint makes it easy to work with a better overview:

• With release-controlled access to statistics, key figures and other reporting data.
• When retrieving any kind of information and documents from the company.
• In learning management (e.g. When managing the e-learning and further training offers for your employees).
• In document management (from working together on documents to managing standardized SharePoint workflows such as invoice approval).
• In help desk processes (from the internal support of the employees, for example through your own IT department to the hotline service for your customers).
• Self-service for employees (for example, by updating their personal data independently, booking business trips independently or submitting vacation applications online).

 

The Practical Functions of SharePoint in Detail

• Share – Work Together In A Network

You and your employees share information inside and outside your organization with just a few clicks. You share documents with others and thus ensure sustainable knowledge transfer. Colleagues stay in touch with each other via smartphones or tablets and also work together on documents on their mobile devices. With functions like in a social network, team members can send ideas to each other, find answers or see together what the other is working on.

• Organize – Keep The Overview

Keep an eye on all your tasks. Set up a team collaborative document workspace with just a few clicks, before you bring together meeting notes, email messages, or workgroup documents in one place. Sync documents to your desktop so you can access them offline. With the SharePoint meeting system , for example , you can conduct your meetings in a planned and systematic manner.

• Discover – Discover Synergy Opportunities

Employees everywhere in the company get in touch with each other and find out about their colleagues’ specialties and knowledge, completed projects or documents on which they have worked. So everyone can benefit from each other’s knowledge. Take advantage of the extensive possibilities of SharePoint collaboration, create fantastic interactive graphics and evaluations and show them to the desired addressee in the SharePoint portal. Target specific content by narrowing down the SharePoint search accordingly. Everyone can be recommended people and documents that can be interesting and relevant for their own work.

• Build – Design Tools Yourself

Expand your SharePoint development with individual apps or products from other software companies as you wish. Create dynamic intranet, extranet and internet pages with effective tools and flexible controls. In addition, SharePoint offers you and your employees the opportunity to define workflows and other processes. For example, approval processes can be defined and then always processed and documented in the agreed form.

• Manage – Show Foresight

Lower your infrastructure costs and expand collaboration opportunities by running SharePoint in the Office 365 cloud. New functions such as archiving, eDiscovery and case management are available in Microsoft Office 365 as well as the Microsoft programs Exchange or Lync.

Enable Collaboration Among Employees

How many separate IT systems are used in your company? How many places does every employee have to register every day? A central portal like Microsoft SharePoint – instead of a multitude of applications – creates an overview and simplifies daily collaboration in the company. We advise you in your considerations, in which business processes such a portal makes your and your employees’ daily work more efficient, easier and faster, and we support you with the introduction of SharePoint and the development of corresponding applications.

Microsoft SharePoint Deployment: The Choice Is Yours!

	Microsoft SharePoint Server (on-premise)	Microsoft SharePoint Online (Office 365)
Connection Of External Users	Infrastructure on your side required	Already included
Backup	You need to make backups	Backup and redundancy ensured by Microsoft
Features	New tools will be available later	Ported online from Microsoft first
Management	Central administration and PowerShell	SharePoint admin center and PowerShell
Modern Collaboration Tools	You are responsible for implementation	Are intensively developed by Microsoft
Scaling	Detection of bottle necks and correction on your side	Scaling is done by Microsoft
Updates	Managed and installed by myself	Managed and installed by Microsoft
Availability	They ensure availability	SLA with 99.9% availability

 

SharePoint Server (On-Premise)

The locally deployed version of Microsoft SharePoint is available in the current version SharePoint Server 2019. The modern SharePoint user interface has been designed to be appealing, flexible and more powerful. Thanks to the responsive design, the user interface is displayed in an optimized, device-independent manner.

With the SharePoint Framework, you can use modern web technologies and tools in your preferred development environment, for example to create powerful apps. You also have access to various Microsoft tools via the gateway: For example, PowerApps, Flow, Forms or Azure Functions.

With the on-premise variant, the entire farm (collection of servers) remains in your hands. Your IT department carries out data storage and administration. The local variant thus enables shorter access times and bandwidth savings when using the intranet.

SharePoint Online (Office 365)

SharePoint Online is Microsoft’s cloud-based service that is integrated with Office 365. The online version is freely scalable between 5 to 5000 users. By providing the service, all innovations are always directly available. Updates are installed by Microsoft, so that there is no effort for your employees. Microsoft also guarantees high availability of the service (99.5%). Furthermore, Microsoft automatically creates backups of the entire SharePoint farm. You can also benefit from a simple extension: You can buy or add more apps in the Microsoft Appstore with just a click.

As with the local version, the renewed, modern and responsive SharePoint user interface is available to you. With the SharePoint Framework, you can use modern web technologies and tools in your preferred development environment, for example to create powerful apps. You also have access to various Microsoft tools via the gateway: For example, PowerApps, Flow, Forms or Azure Functions.

Intelligent Intranet with Microsoft SharePoint

Seamless Collaboration in One System

With SharePoint, you can save, share and edit files, data and resources practically and centrally from anywhere. Dynamic team websites also support productivity and ensure efficient collaboration.

Easy Information Exchange for All Employees

Modern communication channels and simple sharing of resources facilitate the exchange of information in the company. Thanks to the smart intranet based on SharePoint, you can connect employees and create synergies.

Use Knowledge Efficiently & Resources at A Glance

Find the right experts in the company quickly and always stay up-to-date. Thanks to intelligent search, SharePoint quickly delivers relevant information and makes it easier to find websites, files and contacts – and always remains compliant.

Increased Productivity Thanks to Digital Processes

From simple messages to complex business processes – with SharePoint lists, libraries and the Microsoft PowerApps you work in a productive environment. Digital processes, smart forms and individual workflows simplify daily work and automate routine tasks.

Microsoft SharePoint Usage Scenarios

• Collaboration: With Microsoft SharePoint, joint projects and tasks can be managed.
• Social Network: Users can interact with each other via personal websites, team websites, discussion groups and blogs.
• Intranet Portal: Microsoft SharePoint can be used as a portal platform. Similar to the use as a social network, website functions can be used as intranet portals.
• Content Management: Microsoft SharePoint also serves as a content management system via document management functions, content management, user-defined search functions and metadata.
• Business Application: Finally, Microsoft SharePoint can be used as a business application, for example to present marketing content for customers or to organize business processes.

Microsoft SharePoint Deployment Options

• SharePoint On-Premise: The collaboration platform can be installed within a local data center on a physical or virtualized infrastructure.
• SharePoint Online: Microsoft offers SharePoint as a cloud service as part of Office 365. As with other cloud applications, a company pays for SharePoint on a pay-per-use basis.
• On Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS): SharePoint can also be installed and deployed in a third-party virtualized data center. For example, the use of SharePoint via Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS) is possible.
• Hybrid Cloud SharePoint: After all, companies have the option of using both SharePoint Online and additional functions of the SharePoint on-premise version.