MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT

Microsoft SharePoint is a Web application platform developed by Microsoft. SharePoint can be used to provide intranet portals, document & file management, collaboration, social networks, extranets, websites, enterprise search, and business intelligence. By default, SharePoint has a Microsoft Office-like interface, and it is closely integrated with the Office suite.

Here are six of the ways businesses use SharePoint to keep everyone in the loop and on the same page:

Intranet

This is the internally facing site everyone in your company can sign in to and find news, announcements, scheduled tasks, and access to a variety of information. SharePoint also provides tools for setting up employee social networking platforms and company wikis. A company’s intranet serves as a kind of meeting room and planning seminar that everyone in the company visits and attends throughout their workdays.

Documents

SharePoint gives businesses a shared space to store documents so they’re not locked away on any one person’s hard drive. Documents stored on SharePoint can be accessed by anyone in the company—unless the administrator has limited access to a smaller group. This means that you won’t have to travel to multiple offices or wait for multiple emails to get all the files you need for a task. SharePoint also allows you and your coworkers to work simultaneously on a single document, saving previous versions, and tracking updates. So you avoid having to create several different versions of the document by emailing it to all the people whose input you need.

Collaboration

It’s easy for everyone to stay up-to-date and coordinate their efforts on projects when you’re talking about a dozen or so people working out of the same office building. SharePoint is designed to extend this ease of interaction beyond small groups in single locations. You can sign in to SharePoint from any desktop or mobile device, and you can use it to have constant access to information on project statuses, client histories, the locations and schedules of coworkers, and anything else related to the project.

Extranet

SharePoint can be used to set up a site that you share with outside businesses you’re partnering with. Whether the other business is part of your supply chain or simply someone you’re contracting with for a project, you can provide them with access to all the information they may need from your company while giving them a place to upload all the information you may need about theirs.

Websites

You can use SharePoint to build and manage a publicly facing site as well. As a website Content Management System (CMS), SharePoint allows you to sign in and make changes to your pages. You can update information, add text or graphics, and create new pages.