Are your Business Documents working against you?
Streamlined and a well organised document management can increase productivity and efficiency but is too often overlooked.
If all your team can quickly & easily locate files, edit them together in real time imagine the time saved. No more emailing documents backwards and forwards, or concern about whether you’re working on the latest version.
With the ever-increasing number of businesses employing remote working the ability to easily share and collaborate is even more important.
Microsoft SharePoint was created to enable employees to open, share, review and edit documents from any location, allowing your team and remote workers to easily communicate using a web browser.
This software might sound like Google Drive, but SharePoint has many more features designed specifically for business.
What is SharePoint?
SharePoint is a shared file repository, but it can also work as an intranet, a blogging platform/message board, and a content management system.
Consisting of two main areas, Team Site and Communication Site.
Team Site is used for collaboration between Teams of people, it can be set up for each Department in a Company, or for specific projects.
Communication Site is designed for communicating information to a wider group. You would design your company intranet as a Communication Site. You can share files in a communication site, for instance company policies would traditionally be edited by only a few people and most viewers would have read-only access.
Business Benefits of Microsoft SharePoint
Improved Productivity
Do you waste time every day searching through folders to try and find a document you need? Times that by every person in your Company and you will straight away see a massive time saving with an organised file system.
SharePoint allows you to centralise your files, making it much easier to find the documents you want. Each Team site only has certain folders they require. This makes it quicker to get to the files they need to work with.
Better Collaboration
Regardless of the size of your team it’s vital that they communicate and collaborate effectively. With the potential for team members to be working away from the office at least part of the time you need a proper, effective system.
Documents can easily be shared and edited in SharePoint. This can even take place in real time, with several people working on the same document at the same time.
SharePoint has version control built in. Team Members know that they are working on the latest version of any given document.
Simple to use and fully customisable.
One of the business benefits of Microsoft SharePoint is that you don’t need to be a software developer or programmer to use it. In fact, it’s simple to set up, configure and administer. SharePoint comes with equipped with a central console that make admin easy.
With it being a Microsoft product there is lots of help available online , and of course you can work with organisations like GP Computers who are experts in Cloud Solutions like Microsoft and take all of the stress away from you .
Complying with regulations
Many industries must deal with strict regulations and guidelines. The healthcare, financial and legal sectors for example are heavily regulated. Regulations often demand effective document control, with a focus on ensuring that only authorised users have access to confidential data.
With SharePoint you can change your security settings and configuration to comply with the standards set for your industry.
You can also create auditing and storage policies, along with defining the process for when business records reach their expiration dates. This helps you comply with regulations much more effectively, while protecting and managing business-critical data.
Security
SharePoint has enterprise-level security features to keep your documents safe. Microsoft has an entire website devoted to security and compliance. Hosting operations through a single, integrated platform also reduces your vulnerability to holes, leaks, and attacks across multiple systems.
You can also protect your Company by monitoring staff behaviour, to ensure all employees and contractors comply with your internal usage policies.
Getting Started with SharePoint
Whilst SharePoint is relatively easy to use GP Computers recommend taking advice before starting a project to migrate data to it. There are specialist tools available to assist with data migration and the planning stage is the MOST important. At the very least ask for some help with this stage by contacting us.
