SharePoint is a service offered by Microsoft and available in Office 365 subscriptions. Like many people, you might be wondering: what is SharePoint Online? And above all, what are its advantages? This article will offer you the introduction and benefits of this wonderful online gadget to make use of it for the improvement of your data management in your online business.
Table of Contents
What Is Sharepoint Online?
SharePoint Online, integrated into the Office 365 Portal, is a collaborative platform that allows you to create sites for dynamic teams, exchanges or sites dedicated to a project, a division or a company department. On these sites, authorized users will be able to store, share and organize work documents with their colleagues or external partners. Very practical at a time when remote work or online working continues to grow.
The Benefits Of Sharepoint Online
1: Cloud-Based Service
Unlike SharePoint Server, this service is hosted on the Microsoft Cloud. No physical server or internal resource is needed to use it.
2: Collaboration
SharePoint Online is focused on collaborative actions and project management. Your collaborators as well as the external partners involved will be able to centralize all their documents/files on a workspace designed for their common project.
3: Efficiency
In addition to the fact that collaborative work is easier, sites are created by users according to their rights. They manage the content, organization and interface in a very intuitive way. A collaborator will be more efficient with a tool that he masters all the more if he is the investigator.
4: Accessibility
This Cloud service is by definition not attached to any hardware. Your employees will therefore have access to their interface from any device (smartphone, tablet, computer) and at any time.
5: Security
Microsoft deploys increased security measures on each of its services. SharePoint is no exception. Access to the documents stored there is subject to control. So does sharing, whether internal to your company or intended for external partners.
6: Organization
SharePoint Online allows you to create team or communication sites. Each of these sites has its URL address and is attached to a “parent” site. The tree structure of your site collection will therefore be perfectly readable.
7: Synchronization
You can link SharePoint to your other Microsoft. You will therefore be able to consult your emails and calendar from your interface, duplicate your backups using Microsoft OneDrive and modify your documents directly online using the Office suite.
Features Of Sharepoint
- Portal: the tool offers an unprecedented web infrastructure for creating intranet, extranet and internet sites.
- Documents: facilitating the management of company documents and files. All documents are brought together in one place, employees have access to useful information such as customer data, prices, offers, etc.
- Projects: All users have the opportunity to participate in a regulated and compliant content management lifecycle. SharePoint helps improve user experience, processes and policies.
- Searches: users can search for content, information, business data and people who could be useful to them on an integrated platform.
- Process and workflow: automation of procedures and work processes.
- Integration and reports: users access structured/unstructured data to create intuitive reports (Excel, Access, Visio…).
Specifics Of The Sharepoint Online Version
Some features are indeed specific to the SharePoint Online version.
Site (s)
- Teams and intranet sites (several standard SharePoint templates);
- Extranet sites: 50 partner access licenses are available in the license, beyond that additional licenses must be ordered;
- A simple customizable website with the company logo and to choose from pre-established templates.
Communities
- Personal sites with private storage space and a standardized page for defining their personal information;
- Wikis and blogs;
- Tags that allow users to tag standardized tags or comments.
Contents
- Ability to edit in the browser using Office Web Apps.
Research
- Contextual and phonetic search with the SharePoint search engine;
- Search for people and their expertise, in the presence of personal sites.
Composites
- Deploy solutions developed specifically with the sandbox mechanism, without the need for prior validation from Microsoft;
- Access Services (data obtained through the browser);
- Forms Services (corporate forms);
- Deployment of advanced workflows;
Overview of the Possibilities of the SharePoint site
- Manage projects with the Gantt chart;
- Use site templates for collaboration or meeting management;
- Work offline;
- Use wikis and blogs;
- Create processes, forms and workflows;
- Generate advanced reports;
- Integrate data from other applications (ERP, Compta, CRM, etc.).
Do you need additional information? Al Rafay Consulting (ARC) is always ready to guide us through this online platform and also about all SharePoint real estate solutions. We have a team of highly skilled professionals who can help you get all the benefits out of all the online features of SharePoint Online.
ARC can meet all your needs for an online solution for your business. SharePoint Online will certainly meet your expectations in terms of mobility, accessibility and data security and ARC will make sure of it that you get all of these benefits.
