During the pandemic, companies have come up with innovative ways for employees to work away from the office. Even as in-person work begins to resume, 2020 has reframed how we think about connectivity and collaboration.

The glass-is-half-full aspect of this is that businesses have found that the policies they implemented last year have yielded greater productivity and efficiency in their daily operations.

SharePoint, a Microsoft cloud-based service, is one such innovation. Although it has been around for almost 20 years, it made a big splash last year as an integrated workspace portal.

In today’s “computer talk,” we will go over the different functions of SharePoint and the advantages it offers. Keep reading to find out if it can help improve your business’s productivity.

Computer Talk: SharePoint

Before we delve into the advantages of SharePoint in this “computer talk,” it is worth looking at a brief history of the platform’s evolution.

History of SharePoint

SharePoint has been around since 2001 when it launched as a document management and storage portal. Updates in 2003 and 2007 included web content management and publishing features.

Versions released in 2010 and 2013 reflected increased social media integration. These also included the release of OneDrive, a desktop application that syncs with the program.

In 2016, Microsoft expanded SharePoint’s cloud sharing capabilities. They also added advanced search options throughout the interface.

In the most recent (2019) version, Microsoft did updates to the SharePoint mobile app. They also made improvements to “Teams” and “Groups” functionality.

SharePoint Basics

There are two big advantages to SharePoint. The program offers secure storage in a single location and greater opportunity for collaboration. SharePoint allows you to create intranet pages and libraries to house documents. You can create workflows, lists, and forms.

SharePoint has extensive search features. These allow you to find documents, programs, or individuals throughout your organization’s portal. It integrates Microsoft Office’s programs, including Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Everything syncs to the cloud, so your data is both secure and shareable. SharePoint also allows you to store documents for legal or historical reasons.

SharePoint Integration Capabilities

The ability of every member of your team to remain connected is a pivotal asset for any company. To insist in this regard, SharePoint offers features like the “check out” option. This allows a user to make changes to documents and keeps others from doing updates in real-time.

There also is the capability to have automatic notifications whenever someone alters a file. This helps everyone on your team know who is working on what.

You can access SharePoint through almost any web browser. But the OneDrive desktop application and mobile app afford more user-friendly connectivity.

The platform allows you to show news and updates for your team, including visuals. You can send daily messages to particular groups or set up a weekly message from your CEO.

You can tailor the updates option to your liking. And you can customize content for specific teams. It can be a forum for groups to talk about computer issues or for departments to upload updates for the entire organization.

Sharepoint document management is intuitive and straightforward to maintain. It is simple to customize to your particular business and users.

Leverage the Advantages of Sharepoint

Now that you have any idea of the many functions and advantages of SharePoint, you can decide if it is right for your business. We hope this “computer talk” was helpful to you. Be sure to check out our other tech posts that cover topics from programming and computer forensics to gaming and online marketing.