Ideally, all office collaboration would take place in a single room. That way, team members could share and edit their work without any delay or confusion. Unfortunately, many of today’s businesses are spread out over cities and even countries, making it difficult for employees to work together and complete projects. And unless you count your favorite mall’s food court, there aren’t many places where local and international stations can sit at the same table.
Your solution? Microsoft SharePoint. SharePoint is a Microsoft solution that allows your entire office to collaborate and complete projects from a single platform. It’s like having a global network share one computer, just with more elbow room. Here are some of the cool ways SharePoint can help your business.
• Document Management
Sadly, the shared drives of many business’ servers resemble those closets you see in movies, the ones with random clutter that spill out and bury anyone unlucky enough to open the door. It’s all too easy to misplace or rename files when there are no controls over how important documents are shared. Before long, you end up with a confusing and ultimately useless drive full of shared work. However, Microsoft SharePoint gives you the tools to create special web sites for projects or departments allowing team members to easily add, edit, and manage group files. Use of these intranet portals can be limited so only relevant groups or departments have access to pertinent files.
• Team Collaboration
It’s hard enough for team members to interact when they’re separated by one floor. But what if the members of your team live in separate countries? SharePoint gives you the ability to establish Document Workspaces, where team members can edit each other’s contributions or chat in an offline discussion board. With SharePoint, conference calls and confusing mass e-mails are a thing of the past.
• Business Automation
SharePoint has the power to create intelligent workflows to perform many menial tasks without your help, allowing you to focus on the more fun parts of your job. For example, you can use a workflow to overhaul your document approval process. After you designate a few simple workflow commands, SharePoint will automatically send the file and an e-mail to approvers notifying them of their task. Once the approvers sign off on the file, SharePoint will send a notification e-mail back to you. It is a neat process, especially since you were getting some quality putting practice in your office the entire time.
Are you interested in making Microsoft SharePoint a part of your business? Onsearch Interactive Solutions can help! Like SharePoint, we are in the business of giving you the technological tools you need to grow your business and strengthen your communication, both with your customers and your employees. To learn more about SharePoint and the other exciting features of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS), be sure to check out our earlier post here and contact us to see how OIS can increase your productivity with SharePoint.
Do you have a team project nightmare SharePoint could have helped you avoid? EMail me at [email protected] as Fusion have all the skills needed to make sure your Microsoft Sharepoint project is a success!
