The top 10 benefits of using Microsoft SharePoint

As a small London-based business or nonprofit organisation with limited resources, you might spend most of your time at work using outdated legacy systems. However, if you want to improve your systems and make tasks, communication, document management, and content production easier for your team, moving forward with premium software like Microsoft Sharepoint is the best strategy.

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You don't have to be tech-savvy to reap the benefits of SharePoint. The tool allows authorised employees to easily make websites for sharing documents, content collaborations, organising business data, and more. Anyone in your company with authorisation to the resource can add, edit, share, and review information to boost productivity, efficiency, and revenue potential.

Microsoft SharePoint has a user-friendly interface similar to Google Drive or Microsoft 365. With such a multi-faceted data-sharing and storage solution, your small business can grow to new heights. Even Fortune 500 companies like Viacom embrace this software for their teams.

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If you're still curious about all the features and benefits of SharePoint, continue reading.

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What is SharePoint and its purpose?

Many London businesses have remote, hybrid, and in-office business models, so it's not uncommon for employees to be separated from their teams. Because staff members are not always around their colleagues, sharing critical business information, documents, and resources becomes more complicated. However, Microsoft SharePoint takes the guesswork out of corporate communications.

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The software lets authorised workers access, review, share, and edit documents in a centralised location. You and your team can maintain productivity levels regardless of where you are as long as you have a functional web browser.

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Though SharePoint functions like Google Docs, it has more advanced tools, resources, and business solutions. Use the multi-faceted tool as a blog site, file repository, or content management system. Microsoft also offers the software in various forms for convenience, including SharePoint Online within Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Server.

By incorporating SharePoint into your daily operations, you can take advantage of several features, including:

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• Integration with other Microsoft apps
• Indexing and searching
• Check-in and check-out options for documents
• File versioning
• Designed web interface

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With these features, you can use SharePoint for various purposes to suit your business's needs. Every enterprise with SharePoint gets the default 1 TB of storage plus 10 GB of additional storage per licensed user. You can increase storage anytime, so there's no limit to how much information you can save on the platform.

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10 primary SharePoint benefits

The advantages of Microsoft SharePoint are plentiful for small businesses in Soho, Knightsbridge, Brixton, and other communities throughout London. From simplifying daily business operations to encouraging better communication between staff, there isn't much Microsoft SharePoint can't do. Below are some ways your enterprise can thrive with the use of SharePoint.

1. Better data management

Each day, workers are flooded with data, whether it's from emails, meetings, business reports, or other sources. Studies show that the average worker spends about 2.6 hours each shift reading, responding, and drafting about 120 messages, which is roughly 28% of their typical workday. Organising and working through that much information can be challenging and reduce productivity.

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SharePoint can simplify data management for employers, managers, and subordinate staff. Authorised users can quickly access pertinent data without sifting through a seemingly endless barrage of information. With SharePoint Online and its cloud-based storage solutions, workers can get the information they need from anywhere in the world.

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The best aspect of this benefit of SharePoint is that you don't need to remove your business's current practices to utilise SharePoint data management. The software seamlessly integrates with the following:

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• Microsoft Exchange Service
• Outlook
• Excel
• Word
• Powerpoint
• CRM software
• ERP software
• Microsoft Unified Communications

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2. Streamlined business operations

A thriving business requires effective workflows to handle daily activities, such as:

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• Getting feedback from customers and staff
• Tracking consumer issues
• Managing projects
• Submitting documents or projects for approval

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Your business can quickly get overwhelmed with managing standard functions if you have no processes in place. However, Microsoft SharePoint has integrated workflows for various purposes and processes that allow for automation. Workers can use the predesigned workflows in web browsers, client applications, and more to maintain a consistent user experience without requiring additional work.

3. Exceptional built-in functionality

The benefits of SharePoint Online and other SharePoint platforms include flexibility. The software runs as an intranet or an internal company website with numerous functions. Through SharePoint, you can schedule projects, share information, find customer contact information, and more.

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Your business administrators can also use SharePoint to assign different authorisation tiers to employees. That feature ensures that only specific people can do particular tasks or access specific information. Other ways to use SharePoint include social networking, data management, document sharing, and business information storage, making the platform perfect for daily business operations.

4. Improved cyber security and regulatory compliance

Cyber security is critical for any business. Criminals and hackers constantly find ways to exploit system and network vulnerabilities to access a business's sensitive data. Because companies collect and store information like customer names, addresses, credit card information, and other private data, enterprises must follow strict regulatory guidelines to protect consumer data.

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As a small business, you might not have the same resources as larger London companies with in-house tech departments. As a result, your cyber security could be lacking. Unfortunately, data breaches can bankrupt small businesses and ruin their reputations because consumers will no longer trust them to protect their private information.

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As part of standard regulatory guidelines, only authorised workers should have access to confidential consumer and employee data. With Sharepoint, you can designate specific security settings for certain employees to ensure that your company complies with cyber security regulations at every point. The software lets you easily create storage and auditing policies to safely handle expired business records.

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If your small business doesn't have many strict regulatory compliance requirements, you might wonder if cyber security measures are necessary. They are essential no matter what because a disgruntled or inept employee, hacker, or other threat actors could jeopardise your enterprise's sensitive data. With SharePoint, you can set data access controls and different security settings like:

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• Requiring workers to check out documents to edit them
• Viewing all document revisions for approval
• Returning documents to their pre-revised state with one click

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SharePoint's enhanced security features also include workflow upgrades, optimised shareability, regulatory compliance audits, and enhanced authentication.

5. Optimised content management

Creating unique blogs is an excellent way to gain attention from your targeted audience online and set your business as an industry authority. A successful content strategy involves more than writing and publishing content online. You and your blog writers or social media team must create the content, make edits, and gather feedback.

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Relying on multiple folders on your computer or hardcopies isn't the best content management technique. Those methods are inefficient and don't let you know who read the document, when someone reviewed it, or whether the version you see is the most recent.

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The benefits of SharePoint include unmatched content management. Your content creation team can immediately write blogs, get approval in seconds, and schedule the content to go live on your business's SharePoint intranet or other sites online. With SharePoint, you will see how many times someone looked at or edited the document, and you can ensure that the published version is of the highest quality.

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Do you struggle to produce content for your business? If so, SharePoint has an impressive template library. You can use the templates to see how your original content will look with various translations, which can help you reach out to more viewers who prefer different types of content.

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6. Enhanced team collaboration and communication

A business's success relies largely on cooperation and communication between colleagues. Even 20 to 100 employees in a London business can help it grow and thrive by working together on projects, managing their daily tasks effectively, and brainstorming ideas to generate business.

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Colleagues often communicate and collaborate through documents. Unfortunately, document sharing on legacy systems makes it hard to keep track of edits and revisions, preventing colleagues from working together efficiently.

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If your team needs help collaborating on projects, arm them with SharePoint's tools, like version controls. Version controls enable edit tracking, so authorised users can see when someone edits the document and who does it. The program also prevents duplicate work by only allowing one employee at a time to access files.

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These controls and the ability to see updates in real-time and share files with team members makes it easy for your staff to collaborate on tasks.

7. Increased company productivity

Though you and your team might spend every moment during a shift working on a business-related task, it doesn't mean everyone is being productive. Productivity involves performance and efficiency, not a state of busyness. People waste precious time searching for information in archives or legacy systems like outdated software with multiple folders or physical file cabinets with paperwork.

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Because SharePoint consolidates information, you and your team can find information quickly. For instance, you can organise your Microsoft SharePoint site to have the virtual folders, subfolders, and data your employees need. That way, if someone needs a single document, they can quickly locate it with a few button clicks.

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The ability to quickly access information and documents frees up time that your workers can use to focus on other essential tasks. This SharePoint feature is also great if you have to make a fast business decision and can't waste time looking for paperwork or information.

8. Convenient skill set identification for team members

As your company grows, you might have difficulty remembering which employees have specific skill sets. For instance, one person may be knowledgeable about content creation and social media management, while another is better at data organisation.

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SharePoint makes it easier to keep track of employees and their abilities, responsibilities, and knowledge. However, you can use the platform to assign skill sets to workers and quickly locate them when necessary.

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9. Customisable features

SharePoint's default features are highly beneficial for any small business. However, your specific business needs may warrant different features and functions to streamline operations. In that case, you can tailor SharePoint's features to your needs to get the most from the software.

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Team members with access to your enterprise's SharePoint site can create custom features within all of SharePoint's components. It's also possible to customise the application's interface with drag-and-drop functions to showcase your company's logo, branding, and language to help facilitate a sense of company pride and togetherness.

10. Reduced need for technical knowledge

It may seem daunting to incorporate a system like Microsoft SharePoint into your daily operations as a small business owner. You might assume you need deep technical knowledge to use the application and experience the benefits of SharePoint, but that's untrue.

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You don't have to know how to code to ensure that your London-based business thrives within its industry. Microsoft SharePoint is user-friendly and includes many essential features and functions that are simple to use. The platform handles the technical aspect of jobs like building a company website with ease.

Embracing SharePoint Online benefits to grow your small business

With over 75% of Fortune 500 companies using Microsoft SharePoint Online, it's no wonder that the resource has many benefits. However, your small business in or around London can also take advantage of this premium document and collaboration control tool.

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Use SharePoint to streamline your operations and encourage effective collaborations with your staff. The design of this intuitive software makes successful corporate teamwork easier in-house without requiring a tech team. However, if you need help exploring the benefits of SharePoint or have other IT needs, our managed IT services in London can help.

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