SharePoint is a Microsoft application that delivers a robust collaboration and content management platform. SharePoint is scalable and provides organizations with the ability to manage content, drive business processes, and collaborate.
Many organizations aren’t sure where they should begin and struggle with effectively implementing SharePoint. Generally speaking, organizations lack a clear vision on how they will deploy the technology or don’t understand how to use SharePoint
Before you deploy SharePoint…
Kiefer Consulting has worked with clients to develop a SharePoint deployment and implementation plan that takes many things into consideration. A few of those considerations include;
- Appetite for change
- Capacity for change
- Experience in deploying new technology
- User acceptance
- Motivation to change
- Identifying the benefits to users
User adoption is a critical step in SharePoint implementation. Kiefer is focused on designing SharePoint experiences that meet user requirements, are easy to use, and deliver a quality user experience.
Common SharePoint Applications
SharePoint is super flexible and it can be used to solve for a variety of business challenges.
When our team works with clients, we often share 4 common use cases and encourage the customer to start small. Once our customers understand what SharePoint is capable of, it is important to assess what features and functionality will have the most impact on their business.
Typically, we find that SharePoint is a good solution if an organization finds that there is an opportunity to improve in on the these 4 areas;
- Collaboration and Co-Authoring
- Team Sites
- Intranets
- Workflow Solutions
We published a non-technical White Paper that explores these 4 use cases. Download it here.
Should we use SharePoint Online?
SharePoint Online has surfaced SharePoint for users that may have not had experience with an on-premise installation of SharePoint.
SharePoint Online is a significant component of Office 365. Users may not even realize that when they create a “Team”, or “Group” — Office 365 is working in the background and setting up a SharePoint site to enable collaboration amongst the group.
The Benefits of SharePoint Online
Co-Authoring and Collaboration
There are several benefits to leveraging SharePoint Online. One of those benefits is being able to collaborate and co-author in real-time. Traditionally, several team members would edit documents and one person would be responsible of aggregating changes. This method of collaboration is highly dependent on e-mail and does not allow the collective group to see changes others may have made to the document.
Single Source of Truth
Several versions of a document circulating has the potential to cause problems for your and your team. The idea of the “single source of truth” is one of the many reasons that organizations gravitate to SharePoint.
A policy document stored on an employees hard drive may have been updated and the information in the document is out-of-date and inaccurate.
By storing documents in SharePoint Online, changes are captured and you are working with the latest version of the document.
Version Control
With SharePoint Online, you can roll back to a previous version of the document. If changes are made and there are details in a previously saved version you’d like to review or restore, it’s a simple process to revert to the older version of the document.
We can help you deploy SharePoint
Kiefer has a talented team that understands how to help your organization do more with SharePoint and maximize your investment in Office 365. Contact us to learn more. Your organization may even be eligible to use software assurance vouchers to deploy SharePoint!