Leveraging cloud solutions can help businesses enhance communication and collaboration – in turn improving their overall productivity.
Modern businesses leverage technology to make their operations as efficient as possible – and this can be done in many ways, depending on what technology is used, and what an organisation is trying to improve. One good example is how SharePoint Online is commonly used to improve collaboration and communication in an organisation. We discussed this with TechQuarters, a London-based MSP that has worked as a SharePoint provider for more than 10 years. According to them, SharePoint Online as a platform offers the right functionality and customisability to be a powerful resource for modern business.
What is SharePoint Online?
Most people think of SharePoint as a cloud storage service. This is only part of what it is capable of. True, many businesses use it as a means of storing important company files safely and securely, but its functionality offers much more than just that. Below is a breakdown of how information is organised on the platform:
Sites – These are the largest containers of information on SharePoint. A site is like a virtual space on the SharePoint platform.
Pages – A page is what can be found within SharePoint sites. Sites can have multiple pages, and they are the main way in which content is displayed within a site.
Web Parts – In pages, one can add web parts. This are essentially widgets for different types of content. Web parts allow organisations to create pages for different types of information and work.
SharePoint Communication
The way that businesses can leverage SharePoint to improve communications in the organisation is based on a specific type of site which can be created: A Communication Site. These sites are designed for sharing information – they normally have lots of participants, as well as a small number of admins who are responsible for create, uploading, and sharing content on the site. Businesses typically use them as a means of sharing news, either internally or to their customers.
Communication Site Templates
SharePoint has a few different site templates for this type of site. According to TechQuarters, who have been SharePoint consultants for years, these templates make it easier for businesses to start using sites the way they need. Examples of communication site templates include:
Topic Sites – These are typically used for sharing news and events.
Showcase – These are typically used for sharing photos, images, or other visual content regarding a product or event.
Publish Enabled – Also known as a ‘publishing site’, these are typically used by businesses for publishing content to a public-facing web page, where customers can view it.
SharePoint Collaboration
For collaboration, businesses can use different category of site (i.e. collaboration sites). These different to communication sites in a few ways. For example, they normally have fewer members; and all members have read and write permissions, because these sites are for teams and work groups to use. There are two main types of collaboration site that businesses can use…
Team Sites – These sites are the main type used by individuals who want to be able to communicate and collaborate with their colleagues / team members.
Hub Sites – These sites collect multiple sites into a single space. They enable organisations to create a space which contains all the content and resources needed for a specific goal.
SharePoint Integrations
One of the best things about SharePoint is how it integrates with other apps as part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. We spoke to TechQuarters about this who, as providers of managed IT services London companies have been reliant on since 2010, have had a lot of experience using the platform in tandem with other M365 products. Below are some of the best integrations…
Microsoft Teams – When a team is created in Microsoft Teams, a corresponding collaboration site is created and linked to it in SharePoint Online.
OneDrive for Business –As the primary personal cloud storage solution in M365, OneDrive works very well with SharePoint Online. It allows users to share files from their OneDrive into SharePoint Sites.
