5 Things I Like About SharePoint

When I first got started in Information management, and moreover going digital, one of the tools I used was a program called Microsoft SharePoint. If I’m perfectly honest I didn’t choose SharePoint, It was a part of a company portal and I was able to secure a small sub-site within it in which to load all the documents I had been charged with scanning. That being said once I did start using it I found it impeccably easy to use and it was a great tool for file storage where other people need to see files.

Back then I was using SharePoint 2008. and at the time I thought it was a great product. I was able to organize all my files and folders exactly how I wanted them. I was also able to set up a template structure for all the client files that I was scanning. This made it so that I didn’t have to build the file structure over and over and over again. This was a massive time saver because all I had to do when there was a new client folder required all I had to do was cut and paste the template and then rename it. It was great.That, however, was the 2008 version. Now I’ve been working on the 2016 version and It can do so much more than just share files.

1) It’s a dynamic tool – The great thing about SharePoint is that it can be used to store literally ANY data you’re looking to store. From documents and e-mails, pictures and other media, SharePoint has the capacity to store it all. It can be set up in the simplest form which allows you to have multiple folders and subfolder (not unlike a shared drive) or you could have sites and subsites and libraries which allow you to store all your data.

2) It’s cross-platform – Because SharePoint is an online system it can be accessed by any platform. I’ve talked about how awesome Cross Platform programs (Hyperlink) are and SharePoint absolutely gives you that functionality. This means that you don’t necessarily need to be in the office in order to access your information, do the work you need to do, and be efficient. As an added bonus, because SharePoint is cross-platform, you don’t even have to work on your work computer. You have the ability (Company policies allowing) to access SharePoint from your home computer. This means that you do not have to necessarily bring your computer home in order to work there.

3) It’s adaptable – If you don’t like how your information is organized in a particular library, then you can either add metadata to a column, add a different metadata column altogether, or make a different view in that library. Views allow you to see the files that you have in a library in nearly any way you want. Depending on how much metadata or how moan columns you have, you can organize in a multitude of different ways.

4) It’s included in Office 365 – Most people in offices (certainly in the businesses in which I’ve worked) are using the Microsoft office suite of tools in order to do their business. Microsoft has for the past few years had a holistic approach to this so that now you only have to buy one license and you have access to all the programs Microsoft has to offer, which includes SharePoint. This is such an effective tool for using with teams of people because if you set up a SharePoint site for everyone to work and view files on then they all can access the information in one place.

5) It can be SUPER organized – One of the things that I really like about SharePoint is that even if you have hundreds of documents in any particular library, you can still organize them if you have metadata assigned to them. SharePoint has the ability to create different “views” or ways of organizing the information. these views mean that you can sort through the Documents automatically so that you don’t need to look at and only show you the documents you want. This is such a time saver because you only have to set up your views once and then you will be able to set a view that can filter out any unnecessary documents.

SharePoint is a great system, and I really like using it. Like every other system out there, the user experience does, in fact, depending on the user. the one factor which I have skipped over here is that in order for it to be well organized and accessible and for the views to work etc. is that the documents need Metadata. I will be talking next week more about metadata and the importance of it.

Have you ever used SharePoint before? Does Your organization use it? 

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