SharePoint is a powerful content management system that can be customized and leveraged to meet all your sharing, collaboration, document management, and business workflow needs. However, most organizations simply don’t use SharePoint to its fullest capabilities. And if you’re not maximizing the value of your SharePoint license it can be difficult to make the right business case.
Here’s 7 things to consider when creating a business case for a SharePoint deployment:
1. Cloud, On-Premises, or Hybrid Installation
SharePoint can be deployed on-premises, through the cloud with Office 365, or a hybrid of both. Each option comes with benefits that could propel your document management workflow to the next level and help you create a specific SharePoint business case.
An on-premises installation requires significant IT resources to monitor, maintain, and update your SharePoint server environment, but allows for unlimited customization and integration with other business and back-end systems.
A cloud installation can be seen as the more agile and flexible installation choice with a minimal upfront investment. If you’re paying for an Office 365 Enterprise license, you already have the power of SharePoint at your disposal. You’ll be using Microsoft’s robust data centers as opposed to your own physical server farm to manage your data and content.
If you’re looking for a cross between on-premises and cloud, Microsoft offers a hybrid cloud installation. This is something to consider if you need the enhanced security and compliance an on-premises installation offers but also want the flexibility, scalability, and mobility offered by the cloud. Hybrid can also offer a path to the cloud without a costly migration effort.
2. Eliminating EFSS System Redundancy
If you’re paying for an Office 365 Enterprise license and still using other enterprise file synchronization and sharing systems, it’s likely that you’re losing productivity and money. When properly configured, SharePoint and OneDrive for Business can:
- Manage libraries of shared documents
- Allow for parallel user document editing and collaboration between authors
- Enable users to create and share web sites, documents, media assets, lists and wikis within your organization and externally with partners, vendors and customers
- Institute a system for document version control and content publishing
- Develop and distribute site wide news feeds
- Offer customized solutions with add-ins through the Office Store or developer APIs
SharePoint will give you exactly what you want from a document management system. One SharePoint license eliminates the need for multiple EFSS applications.
3. SharePoint as a File Server
SharePoint also gets rid of another headache: file shares. Your SharePoint license lets you say goodbye to mapping folders, subfolders, and sub-sub folders across different drives. You can migrate your existing folder based content hierarchy into OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Team sites with the appropriate permissions so you can easily find your content and develop dedicated libraries and groups to share with user communities.
4. Building a SharePoint Business Case with Easy Office Integration
SharePoint naturally aligns with Office 365 applications. The data and content you generate through Office apps can seamlessly bind to your configured SharePoint system settings. Not only do you have all of your documents in one spot, you also have the tools to edit them in the same portal. This aggregation allows for the creation of new business processes and productive project workflows.
5. Maintenance and Auditing
SharePoint gives site owners access to a robust audit logs and compliance tools. The audit log clearly states how all documents, libraries, and content groups are managed, accessed and edited across all SharePoint users. This provides business managers with a top-level view of organization wide version control. SharePoint helps organizations stay transparent, secure, and compliant by creating a clear path of data augmentation and usage.
6. Segmented Document Searching
SharePoint understands the value of version control. Sometimes you need an unedited first version of a document to make sure the newest version aligns to a business vision. With SharePoint, you can search and retrieve documents by version. Even better, you can assign metadata to documents that clearly define their role, purpose, and level of data sensitivity. The SharePoint business case strengthens once you begin to realize just how much time you’ll save by speeding up your data search and retrieval process.
7. The SharePoint Business Case for Your Mobile Workforce
If you opt for a cloud or hybrid cloud installation of SharePoint, you can give your employees an on-premises functional work experience wherever they may be. Office 365 web apps work wherever there is an internet connection. For workers with dedicated devices, Office 365 applications can be downloaded on multiple devices on the same license. Cloud and hybrid-cloud options greatly reduce (or eliminate) the need for VPNs. And as a workforce changes in size, you simply add or reduce licenses. Mobile application scalability lets remote workers externally share content while giving them the tools they need to access and edit documents on the go.
Your SharePoint Business Case
If you have an out-of-the-box SharePoint solution already deployed, or are considering deploying SharePoint, General Networks can help you extract the most value from your SharePoint license. We can create a customized business case and deployment plan for your needs and goals and work with you in deploying SharePoint as your one-stop content management asset.
Contact us today to get SharePoint working towards your business priorities.
