Business executives seek transformational tools that can make them – and their organizations – more productive; or more successful, so to speak. Office 365 is a productivity tool that is continuously evolving and expanding. It is Microsoft’s vision to turn O265 into a one-stop, online productivity hub. The O365 productivity suite also comes with SharePoint Online – an application that offers a cloud environment to businesses of all sizes. This article discusses how you can communicate and collaborate more effectively via SharePoint.
Initially, when SharePoint was launched, it was a document management application but with time it transformed into an app for record management, web content, and web portals. Though, we know for a fact that SharePoint has many advantages, it has evolved over the years by offering robust collaboration and content management. You can easily store, organize and share any kind of information using SharePoint. It can be the most secure place for your data and you can manage it just by using a web browser like Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and more.
Recently the entire SharePoint platform was moved to the cloud which is also an integral part of the Office 365 suite. In comparison to the on-premise installments. SharePoint Online offers more portability and flexibility. Also, this platform is widely adopted by people around the world. Nowadays, a lot of data is generated either in terms of business or in the case of customers. Companies need to securely store these data and they have run out of physical storage space. That’s why every business is now planning to move onto the cloud or has already made the move. It’s easily accessible and it’s very secure. This is one of the reasons why SharePoint Online has now become one of the fastest-growing commercial products.
Why Should You Consider Migrating to SharePoint Online?
SharePoint development companies offer their cloud-based services for intranet, public-facing sites, and more sites on this one-stop-shop platform with team-based solutions. There are many benefits to moving your business to SharePoint Online. Some of them are mentioned below:
Improvements To OneDrive for Business
As you have a My Documents folder on your computer, similarly, the cloud also has a My Documents folder named OneDrive. It is a powerful place where you can easily create and collaborate on documents. You can also share these files with other users no matter if they are internal or external to receive feedback, suggestions, or just simply get an expert on the document.
Whenever you want to publish a document on the SharePoint team site, features in OneDrive for Business allow you to move or copy your document to the site so that your content can get greater consumption. You can also sync all the files using the Sync client feature on SharePoint websites and OneDrive for Business. The newly released OneDrive application offers a very mobile-friendly experience to the users.
Features That You don’t Get with On-Premise Installation
- Microsoft Graph – To get valuable insights from huge chunks of data.
- Delve – Discover the most interesting and relevant information and organize it properly.
- Flow – A workflow management tool.
- Power Apps – Use SharePoint lists and other data related to office 365 data to build applications.
Instant Access
If you are using SharePoint Online then you can have access to all the latest and the best features of the SharePoint platform as soon as they are released. The biggest advantage of having the Online version is that you get your hands on all the new updates and security patches before it comes on the on-premise tool versions. Apart from that, all kinds of major or minor updates are directly handled by Microsoft itself, so you don’t have to put in much of an effort here.
Controlling the Costs
Most of the organizations in the world want to implement collaboration solutions and related functions into their workforce in such a way that it does not increase the overall infrastructure cost. SharePoint Online is licensed based and it is just the right tool to help you manage your costs. If you make some arrangements with Microsoft representatives then you can get the license for a limited time to perform your role in the organization. These licenses are not expensive so they will reduce your costs.
The Best Security
When it comes to new technology, the first and foremost thing that businesses worry about is security, and the same is true with cloud technologies. Can we trust them? And are they reliable? Such questions would arise and they have to be answered satisfactorily, especially when you are migrating all your sensitive business data to the cloud.
The best thing about Microsoft is that they never disclose the location of their physical data centers for cloud solutions. Moreover, they also add some layers of physical security so that data can not be mined for any marketing or advertising purposes. Microsoft also has multiple levels of backups for your data on the cloud. You can’t get better security than this in the entire world.
Hazard-Free Maintenance
On-premise storage space and the data centers require regular maintenance. Now think how much of the operational cost it might be consuming from your budget? Sometimes when we look into the alternative option or a new approach, we tend to get overwhelmed with the challenges so much that we often overlook its benefits while making important decisions. The same is true in the case of businesses migrating to the cloud. The experts on cloud migration are already working relentlessly to overcome the challenges for your convenience, so why worry so much about it? Just keep in mind that if you use SharePoint Online then your operation costs will decrease. And migrating to the cloud will also save your time spent on system up-gradation and backups.
Effortless Updates
As we already discussed, using SharePoint Online will give you the privileges of getting the best and new features of the platform instantly after their launch. But the biggest advantage here is that the SharePoint platform is always the one to get its hand on new capabilities and security patches compared to the on-premise installations. Apart from that, you have spent some time and resources on the upgrade and update of the system and while it’s updating, you have to stop all your operations. You don’t have to face any such problems using SharePoint Online because Microsoft itself manages all the updates so it won’t require any effort from your side. And all the updates are done in the background so it won’t affect your operations either.
Managing External User Access Is Easy
In the on-premise versions, managing the user access that is outside your domain is a very challenging task. On the other hand, the login process on the cloud was also very lengthy which created a lot of complexities and confusion for the users. Recently, Microsoft made some changes in SharePoint Online which makes it easier to manage the external user access without any domain.
Businesses use the service management portal from SharePoint cloud migration which enables them to share files or a piece of information. This is what the businesses used to collaborate with their clients on any particular project, giving the clients a right to regularly monitor the progress of the project and raise tickets if necessary.
The ‘Hybrid’ Benefits
Do not for a moment get delusion that this is an either and or situation where you have to select any one option among on-premise installation and SharePoint cloud platforms. You can keep your On-premise deployment system and derive the benefits of the cloud at the same time. This is called Hybrid Deployment. If you have any serious concerns about cloud technologies regarding its security and more then you can try out the cloud for less sensitive business information using the hybrid model. Just store your highly confidential data in the on-premise version and transfer the rest of your data to the cloud including everyday collaborations and more. It is not compulsory to spend your time and resources after the “rip and replace” approach.
Go Modern, Go Mobile
With the businesses, the work approach is also modernized rapidly. The concept of remote or mobile working was there for a time now but has got a worldwide implementation due to the recent pandemic of Covid-19. Here the companies allow their employees to work in mobile environments and control their productivity virtually. SharePoint Online comes in handy in such situations as it enables you to access all the files, and documents either on your web or on mobile applications. You won’t be left behind from attending any important meeting, presentation, analytics, not even an email/ you can work from wherever you go. It’s a big shout-out to productivity.
Conclusion
Migrating to the SharePoint Online platform can be the biggest project with a lot of added benefits. It will completely change the way your business collaborates with other businesses or clients. But the most important thing is to make the right decision depending upon your current business requirements and make the best out of it. I hope you have enjoyed reading this article. If you like to know more or have any suggestions or insights then feel free to share them in the comments sections below.
