In Microsoft SharePoint, organizations have a powerful multipurpose tool. It serves primarily as an Intranet, allowing organizations to establish workflows and connect their various departments on a single shared network. SharePoint also stores important documents on a single repository for users to access as per need. While usage of SharePoint in most cases is more advanced, the aforementioned functions of SharePoint intranet are enough to qualify it as a crucial software.
Internal communication and access to documents depends on SharePoint’s performance. Therefore, it is of great importance that the software run error-free and without the risk of unexpected downtime. If users encounter any hitches, these will negatively affect most of their day-to-day operations.
This e-book explores some core functions of SharePoint, and how it works so well for your organization, while also covering crucial maintenance tips to keep your SharePoint intranet up and running.
SharePoint sites are similar to creating folders on any shared network and are just as easy to create. They can be created up to 10 different ways, including the “Create” option in the SharePoint Admin Portal. Other methods to create a SharePoint site include adding a new group on Microsoft365, adding a user or creating a new team on MS Teams, and also creating a “shared library” on OneDrive. All these actions automatically create a SharePoint site on your organization’s intranet.
The primary advantage of SharePoint site is that it can be accessed by users anywhere through an internet browser. Along with the SharePoint site, users have access to all documents stored within it. They also have the ability to interact with other users and share documents with them. It is also a handy organizer for files of any nature.
SharePoint sites are a little too easy to create. This can lead to an actual problem. Along with a SharePoint Online license, organizations get a limited amount of storage (4TB).
Often, sites are created for temporary purposes and later abandoned. Over time, several abandoned sites occupy a significant chunk of the storage leading to performance degradation and worse user experience as a result.
Therefore, management of SharePoint sites through regular audits is necessary. Sites that are no longer required should be closed and removed properly at planned intervals rather than letting them accrue long enough to become a problem.
Organizations may prefer a locally-hosted server as opposed to the cloud-based SharePoint Online. There are clear advantages that these organizations site. Firstly, a self-hosted server authorizes more control over SharePoint, including setting up the architecture as well as customizing it to a great extent to suit the required tasks of the organization.
For large organizations that use SharePoint to host sensitive data, a local server is preferred because it is easier to manage and safeguard.
Organizations are still finding the right solution for hosting their data on the cloud. They also need to protect it against breaches to a satisfactory degree.
However, the preference for SharePoint servers raises the issue of carefully setting up and maintaining a self-hosted server. At the least, it requires additional resources who can configure SharePoint servers, with further specialists required to customize it to the organization’s preferences. This is an important consideration while choosing between SharePoint Servers and SharePoint Online.
SharePoint has a good reputation for being a valuable Content Management software. It performs 4 basic functions in the content management domain that have rightfully earned it this glowing reputation.
As we already know, SharePoint acts as a central repository that intuitively sorts your content by file type, size, date of creation or modification, or any other specified criteria you set. SharePoint’s Document Manager is capable of maintaining several versions of a document for auditing and security purposes.
Due to its site type navigation, web content management comes naturally to SharePoint users. They can use it to directly share content to external sources for collaboration, or public access. It also allows for storing sensitive material with restricted access for extra security and helps fulfill certain compliance requirements.
This makes SharePoint an effective tool for both enterprise content management as well as external content management.
The caveat lies in streamlining a storage protocol that the entire organization follows diligently. If users take an ad hoc approach towards storing data on multiple sites and within separate folders, things unravel very quickly and content management becomes quite a bother.
Intercommunication can be set up in one of two ways to create a holistic intranet. Since SharePoint is extremely useful for content management and workflow management purposes, users can use it as an all-purpose intranet if organizations intend.
The first method is to create a Team site, which has the basic functionality of using Teams through a browser. This is the easiest way to set up regular communication between employees. Data import is easy to set up and users are already familiar with the features. So, this makes it adaptable for an organization already using SharePoint.
Alternatively, users can set up a Microsoft365 Communication site in a similar method. It offers a different mode of communication which is less interactive and more practical. Users can share data, documents, and analytics in a compelling format with other users via Microsoft365. Organizations that work extensively with numbers and data and need to communicate tedious reports favor this approach. This is because Microsoft 365 format makes the data reader-friendly.
Each of these methods requires an expert technician to configure and sync with SharePoint’s organizational data. Users must carefully set up admin and user access to avoid security breaches and to ensure that organizational data remains safe.