SharePoint was created to manage your documents at your company.
If you have a large organization (like a construction company or commercial real estate firm) and you’re managing your documents without a system like SharePoint Online (in Office 365), your documents are probably unorganized, in a variety of systems, and difficult to find.
Storage systems like Dropbox and Google Drive do work very well for some. However, they are far from ideal when your company needs to share files and collaborate efficiently across different departments, or externally with contractors or vendors.
Not having a document management system or the collaboration tools to keep everything organized and secure will end up costing you in the long run. What you need is a document management system that will place your files in a hierarchy. Microsoft Office 365 has a built-in document management system… it’s called SharePoint Online.
Finnerty says that if you get the right SharePoint consultant who knows document management, the information you need is organized and at your fingertips: “This dramatically increases productivity. You can make decisions faster with the right information easily accessible.”
First 5 Reasons To Use SharePoint Document Management (Per Microsoft)
Microsoft says you can do the following with SharePoint:
- Store, organize, and locate documents.
- Ensure the consistency of documents.
- Manage metadata for documents.
- Help protect documents from unauthorized access or use.
- Ensure consistent business processes (workflows) for how documents are handled.
We See 5 More Top Benefits Of SharePoint Document Management:
- Security: If you are managing by email, then chances are good that you’re blasting your company with sensitive information. Management by email is not only cumbersome and ineffective, it’s also not secure. From a security perspective, it’s a lot safer to leave important documents behind a firewall where employees can get it when they need it, instead of sending it through email.
- Single Sign-On: SharePoint is also great at giving you access to all the apps you need with one sign-on. Instead of continuously signing into different systems and software, SharePoint is your single sign-on.
- Version History: Again… if you’re managing by email, there is a better way! Another thing that SharePoint can really help with is version history. Sometimes in corporate environments, a document will be emailed back and forth and it gets difficult to determine which is the most up-to-date version. With SharePoint, you can check out documents, have employees edit them, and then check them back into SharePoint.
- Automation: According to Microsoft, a SharePoint workflow is like an automated flowchart that takes a lot of the labor, guesswork, and randomness out of standard work processes. SharePoint can ensure employees have the appropriate approval to access and edit the document, removing the guesswork from employees.
- Easy Team Collaboration: It’s easy to work on projects when the documents your team needs are in one place. Microsoft even says that SharePoint lets you “Collaborate effortlessly and securely with team members inside and outside your organization, across PCs, Macs, and mobile devices.”
However, SharePoint can be tricky to implement.
We have the experience to help. See how our expert SharePoint consultants and developers can make it a breeze.
Managing Data With SharePoint Will Transform The Way You Do Business
“As I talk with organizations around the world, it is clear they are not coping with the explosion of digital data – and that manifests itself as employees struggle to find and act on the information they need,” Microsft CEO Satya Nadella recently said.
ASK YOURSELF THESE 3 QUESTIONS…
- Are you managing your entire company from a spreadsheet?
- How do you plan to grow your business with those document management tools constantly changing?
- Does your SharePoint work the way you want it to?
If you properly implement SharePoint, it will transform your company’s productivity:
- Employees will be more efficient
- You’ll have better access to your company’s data
- You’ll be able to better report on key metrics.
