Communication and collaboration are at the forefront of driving success. Since remote working, induced by the pandemic, has become the now-common hybrid working world, businesses have discovered that engagement and employee experience hinge on well-structured and modern internal communications.

With a number of digital solutions on offer to answer your productivity and workplace connection needs, it can be difficult to pinpoint which is right for your organisation. To accompany the launch of our new eBook, Maximise collaboration and productivity with SharePoint, we’re taking a look at why Microsoft SharePoint has become a market leader for businesses the world over and will discuss how to use SharePoint for collaboration and revolutionise the way you work.

 

Collaboration, communication and productivity: watchwords for modern success

Every business is different and has unique needs. But what every organisation has in common, from the smallest local company to an international corporation, is the need for all its people to perform their best. The better your people perform, the better equipped you are to maximise revenue and ensure client satisfaction.

With research showing that up to 30% of business revenue can be lost through inefficient processes and with more than quarter of employee time wasted due to outdated technologies, organisations simply cannot afford to overlook the importance of optimising their workplace setup for their employees.

Although it’s often ignored in the blur of fast-paced corporate life, the best way to ensure this is by giving your people the right tools to guarantee success. With hybrid working an established part of modern life, making sure that your teams can easily communicate and collaborate is a business-critical need.

Microsoft SharePoint is a comprehensive solution for organisations to create, manage and share information and applications within a secure and structured environment. SharePoint offers a wide range of features and capabilities that are designed to enhance teamwork, communication and information management across an entire organisation.

As a user-friendly platform for sharing updates and announcements, a SharePoint intranet provides a central hub of communication, reducing the need to search through emails and multiple platforms for important news and information.

According to Microsoft, more than have made SharePoint their chosen solution for intranets and content management. With SharePoint, collaboration features aimed at creating more efficient workflows and improving customisation and automation are at your fingertips, providing the perfect environment to empower your people.

 

SharePoint collaboration features

SharePoint offers a raft of tools which turn project-sharing and document management from a frustrating challenge into a simple fact of everyday work.

One of the greatest benefits of SharePoint is its tools for real-time collaboration, enabling users to track changes to documents over time, revert to previous versions and maintain a clear audit trail throughout a document’s life.

Beyond this, the benefits of SharePoint extend to every aspect of an organisation’s operations. As our eBook outlines, some of the most popular SharePoint collaboration features cover the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Here are a few that could interest you.

Document management

SharePoint provides a central repository for storing documents, files and other content. Integrating seamlessly with your M365 tenant, SharePoint brings to life the collaborative potential of your people in a real way, saving time and driving productivity with its engaging real-time features.

Team sites and portals

SharePoint allows organisations to create team sites and communication portals. These serve as dedicated spaces for teams, departments or project contributors to collaborate, share information and manage specific content in a controlled environment.

Customisation and development

One of the greatest benefits of SharePoint is the ability to customise your experience, allowing organisations to build custom solutions and develop apps and integrations tailored to their own needs. This can range from simple SharePoint lists to complex applications built in the Power Platform.

Search and discovery

When considering how to use SharePoint for collaboration, one of its hidden strengths isn’t actually a collaborative tool at all. The robust search capabilities which SharePoint provides helps users find the information they need efficiently, meaning you can get back to focusing on what’s important quickly. With meta-tagging and categorisation for content, this SharePoint feature goes a long way to streamlining and optimising your workday.

For more SharePoint collaboration features and detailed use cases, you can check out our eBook.

 

How to use SharePoint for collaboration anytime, anyplace, anywhere

The modern requirement for a constant flow of communication relies on your people being able to access their data whenever they need. No longer tethered to a desk, the ability to pick up a piece of work outside of traditional working hours or at a convenient time means that data must be constantly accessible to users from multiple devices.

With document library functionality and the ability to manage permissions and access across entire organisations right down to specific documents, you can ensure that the right people always have access to the right projects to allow for constant, secure collaboration.

 

Advanced SharePoint collaboration features for a future-proof workforce

Beyond being a shared location for document storage, SharePoint acts as the hub for all your shared activity. It’s the platform that provides the innovation that can transform how your organisation succeeds in staying ahead of the competition.

Two advanced features of SharePoint are forms and sites. With more expansive explanations for both in our eBook, here’s an introduction to both of these tools.

SharePoint forms

A frequent question for businesses is how to use SharePoint for collaboration involving multiple data entry sets. SharePoint Forms are user-friendly interfaces which allow you to input and submit data to collect information, facilitate data entry and automate processes within a SharePoint environment.

Forms are designed to simplify data entry and reporting, and ensure consistency in the information being collected.

SharePoint sites and subsites

In SharePoint, sites and subsites are fundamental organisational tools that allow you to structure and manage content, collaboration and information. They provide a hierarchical framework for organising all the resources within a SharePoint environment.

In simple terms, a SharePoint site is the highest level of organisation, serving as the container for everything that comes below it, whether content, applications or collaboration tools. Subsites lie within other sites, creating the top-down structure that allows for the hierarchical governance that is so important in document and information management.

 

Microsoft Syntex: how to use SharePoint for collaboration with AI

It’s the hot topic of the moment and no conversation about productivity and efficiency is complete without a mention of artificial intelligence.

With the introduction of Microsoft Syntex – Microsoft’s AI processing software – SharePoint becomes an AI-infused information management system.

By leveraging AI and machine learning capabilities, SharePoint and Syntex can automate content processing, reducing the time needed for manual intervention.

By engaging with Sytex, your SharePoint solution can:

• Extract data from content
• Classify documents
• Automate processing workflows
• Carry out intelligent search and discovery across documents
• Integrate with Power Automate and Power Apps

By utilising the power of Microsoft Syntex, the benefits of SharePoint extend to intelligent content management and streamlined, automated business processes.

 

What makes a good intranet?

The importance of a reliable and well-structured internet cannot be underestimated. For so long the underdeveloped aspect of many organisations’ digital toolbox, a modern intranet underpins everything from effective community building between colleagues to ensuring a flow of constant information.

But what makes a good intranet goes beyond a simple box ticking exercise. A truly modern and effective intranet should cater to the specific needs of your people, providing innovative solutions for information management and internal communication.

SharePoint answers these needs with solutions that have been developed for class-leading results. With SharePoint, you can create an intranet which integrates flawlessly with your Microsoft suite, providing for document management and collaboration which streamlines your workflow and clears bottlenecks which have traditionally been weaknesses in many organisations.

With the ability to personalise for each user based on role, activity and preferences, and with a granular set of permissions and security settings, a SharePoint intranet will turn an outdated and underused tool into a future-proof solution which is a key part of your communication strategy.

Offering a unified platform for communication, collaboration and information sharing across your entire organisation, SharePoint takes all the ingredients of what makes a good intranet and creates an engaging, simple to use solution which harnesses the power of the Microsoft ecosystem specifically for your people.

 

Future-proofing your organisation: how to use SharePoint for collaboration and long-term success

SharePoint excels at streamlining collaboration, optimising information management and elevating productivity. It’s simplicity and versatility make it a solution that is attractive and engaging and its powerful solutions embody a modern approach to communication and teamwork.

Whether you want to know what makes a good intranet or how to answer your broad internal communication needs, you can download your copy of our eBook for a more in-depth look at the benefits of SharePoint today.

 

Ready to take your SharePoint journey to the next level?

Our eBook can give you expert advice on what the next steps in your SharePoint journey may look like and how to elevate your workforce with a modern collaboration and productivity solution.