What is Microsoft Sharepoint?
Microsoft Sharepoint is a web-based platform that allows multiple people to store, share, and collaborate on documents. Users upload content to the secure, online library that is immediately synchronized with all users that are given access. One of its biggest selling points is that Sharepoint is fully operational on personal computers and mobile devices. (This makes it a smart choice for hybrid, freelance, or remote working environments) SharePoint is available for anyone that purchases a Microsoft 365 plan.
Pros of using Microsoft SharePoint
Mobility – As long as you have an internet connection, you can log into SharePoint and access all the documents and information you need on any device. And it functions just like when you’re in the office.
Management and Personalization – Unlike a traditional shared drive on a network, SharePoint gives you the option to create and assign roles to certain users; along with specified responsibilities, processes, and permissions. This gives management ultimate and personalized control on how data within your business are seen, used, shared, and stored.
Document sharing – SharePoint allows you to share individual files or whole folders and sections with other users, even if they aren’t a part of your organization. This is ideal for service-based businesses that need to communicate and transfer files between clients. Only your employees have access to your entire SharePoint library.
Collaboration – With an Office 365 subscription, you have access to the world’s most popular workplace tools and productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. And with SharePoint, all of these tools become collaborative. Microsoft Teams can further enable teamwork, especially in work-from-home scenarios. We’ll touch base on the Microsoft 365 suite and all of its wonderful functions and benefits in a later blog.
File organization – SharePoint offers many ways to organize your files that you can’t do on regular shared network drives. From creating libraries to designing a front page that you can customize to suit your business brand. Its intuitive interface categorizes, filters, and sorts documents so the files you need are always just a click away.
Project management – By using a SharePoint project site, you can centralize your project information, attach certain team members to projects, document and assign tasks, keep track of project-related events, and make reporting easier. SharePoint does the job of multiple productivity and management apps all in one.
Security – SharePoint requires the setup of multi-factor authentication (MFA) – a method of verifying your identity before logging in. For example, after entering your email and password, you would also need to approve the login on your phone. Even if someone got the password for your account, they still would not be able to get in and access your data.
An added layer of security is how you can set various permissions for users in SharePoint, as previously mentioned. A group of users can be read-only, while another group can edit, but not move files and folders. Another option is having an owner group where users can have full control of the SharePoint library.
Cons of traditional network shared drives
Limited security features – A shared drive is one of the most insecure document management solutions. Its only security measure is restricting access to certain files and folders. But security access permissions are not the best way of ensuring your files are secure – some experts even consider them completely inefficient.
Basic search capabilities – As a shared drive grows, it gets cluttered and can become exceedingly difficult for users to navigate and find files with the limited search functions provided.
Duplicate and misplaced files – In a shared drive, it’s easy for someone to accidentally move a file and misplace it. This compounds the weak search function which can make it hard to locate a lost file. Since there is no way to change drive permissions, missing files can become a big headache if important files are moved.
Only accessible within the office – Shared drives are limited because they can only be accessed when you’re working in the office. If you’re working from home and don’t have a secure enterprise VPN (Virtual Private Network), you won’t have access to any of the files on a shared drive.
Nutech uses Sharepoint
At Nutech Digital, our whole organization uses Microsoft Office 365, including Sharepoint. We strongly stand by its effectiveness and convenience. We believe it is perfect for teams of all sizes because of how versatile its uses are, smaller businesses use it for storage and data management, but a larger corporation might utilize it to build a complete internal intranet— an employee portal website of sorts. If your team needs a collaborative and secure system to handle all your important files and documents, contact us! Not only can we set it up, but we can also teach you how to use Microsoft Sharepoint and reap all of its benefits.