Top 5 Ways to Improve Business Productivity using Microsoft SharePoint

For organizations that have been riding the digital transformation wave to grow and ultimately serve their customers better, they’ve definitely come across a multitude of business tools that each claim to be the secret ingredient to success.

Growth on the client-side exerts more pressure on the internal teams at these organizations to perform at a higher level in order to maintain or even improve the quality of their service. One stand-out digital solution addressing productivity bottlenecks is Microsoft SharePoint.

SharePoint development from ExeQut includes creating and configuring SharePoint websites, finding solutions to enhance business activity and customizing sites based on the client's requirements.

What is Microsoft SharePoint?

While some people may know this web-based platform as a document management and storage system, it’s a solution that is highly flexible and rich in functionality that different organizations can uniquely harness to improve productivity when workers are collaborating. 

Being such a diverse tool, Microsoft SharePoint can be intimidating. Therefore we have created a list of the top 11 Vital Tips to help you get started on a more effective work style.

Let’s now take a look at some of the top ways businesses can boost productivity using Microsoft SharePoint development & services.

Document Management and Collaboration

Microsoft SharePoint enables users to store and share documents in a more organized manner. The platform comes with functions geared towards standard legal and information management requirements. This means that a user can visualize the journey of a document related to a specific project and ensure that coworkers can access it, learn and contribute to it where necessary.

The platform allows managers to track the activity surrounding particular documents and other resources better to understand a team’s progress on a specific project, discovering any flaws in their approach.

Business leaders can also quickly react by sharing instructions on top priority tasks and other changes to be instituted when working on a document. Organizations like The UPS Store, National Australia Bank, CitiBank and Citrix have gone beyond merely sharing instructions and used SharePoint for training employees. If you need to get your employees all on the same page, you can get started with our 11 Vital Tips to Set the Stage for SharePoint Success:

Integrations with Microsoft Office and Windows facilitates real-time editing with rights management by multiple participants, which can increase efficiency due to the more nuanced contributions that can arise when various coworkers are all present for a collective task.

Such features help to save time that workers would spend individually querying a corporate file server, attaining the required permissions for certain documents and subsequently updating teammates about the changes contributed.

Customization

From search options to content structure, themes, security, navigation and integrations, Microsoft SharePoint allows users to configure numerous product features to their liking. Customization can be done in a number of ways, including the use of web parts, which are reusable widgets that add functionality to a page, extensions such as new workflow actions, etc.

Organizations can also use the Client Object Model, referencing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in different environments to provide access to various SharePoint development capabilities for authenticated users. The App Model also enables SharePoint users to utilize web-based applications hosted by SharePoint or their respective providers.

Through the SharePoint Framework, users can rely on typescript language to modify the user interface and overall experience. One of the ways customization can improve productivity is through the addition of elements that shorten the number of steps needed to complete basic actions like retrieving information related to an object within a document.

Users with the necessary permission can also upload sandboxed plugins which are governable on many levels and are ideal for multi-cloud situations.

Site Unification

As an organization expands, it might create more specialized sites to properly categorize different pieces of information. Some of these may be accessible to the general public (as is the case with the storefronts for Kroger, Proctor and Gamble, Viacom and Chrysler), while others may be internal. At some point, SharePoint developers may need to access disparate sites to get information that is related.

When employees have the ability to access all work-related sites within one environment, they can process and solve customer complaints much faster. When business leaders converge these sites, it becomes easier to share content databases, especially if they are related to the same web application.

Employees are also able to circumvent any typical location- and IP-related restrictions that come with some intranet sites and access information from anywhere, which simplifies remote and hybrid work models.

Multipurpose Functionality

Microsoft SharePoint developers allow for creating a company portal with simplified administration features to govern portal creation, authoring on the site, and content management. There are also other portal-related features for running diagnostics, implementing public and private Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), theming corporate sites with the company brand, etc.

SharePoint development also offers workflow features where users can utilize mini-application presets to bring more cohesion and automation into the different steps required to produce a specific deliverable. These can range from signature collections to document reviews, feedback and approvals, with SharePoint enabling users to track the progress level of these routines.

This platform also enables users to create alerts for any changes to lists, folders, files, libraries and other items. The multipurpose nature of Microsoft SharePoint helps users to do more within the same environment and not get bogged down by conventional manual approaches to performing support tasks. But in order to achieve its full potential, you need to have your end goal in mind, the process steps to get you there, and the pieces of the puzzle prepared to build it. These 11 vital steps should help you set the stage for success.

Integration With Other Apps

There are many business processes that some organizations gradually get used to handling within certain applications. When they eventually adopt tools with centralization features such as Microsoft SharePoint, there might be some worries about these individual tools not being able to work together.

This would create a situation where there’s a lot of manual entry of data and repetition of mundane tasks, which lowers team productivity. However, Microsoft SharePoint can effortlessly integrate with various digital transformation tools such as the Microsoft Office 365 Suite, Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship management systems, MS Unified Communications, MS Exchange Server, etc.

There are many ways in which Microsoft SharePoint development can help to improve business productivity. For instance, the user interface can be redesigned to emulate the organization’s branding, which can lead to increased employee engagement.

You can learn more about branding SharePoint sites and SharePoint development here.

SharePoint also takes content management to the next level. You can create content and schedule its release on various websites, choosing which internal and external parties get to see it. Furthermore, SharePoint allows you to convert documents into different formats, be it PDF, Word document, etc., erasing any worries about compatibility on disparate devices, applications and operating systems.

All-in-all, SharePoint development from ExeQut offers businesses a chance to take advantage of centralization, task automation and interoperability. With all the important resources in one place and every concerned party having the appropriate security clearance, workers can spend less time on the managerial tasks and more time collaborating on the next urgent work product.

Ultimately, SharePoint’s ability to converge numerous employees’ efforts in one place, while also combining the resources and functionality needed for increased individual and collective efficiency is likely to continuously lengthen the lists of organizations using it.