I use Microsoft SharePoint as a repository for documents and for sharing documents for co-editing and co-creation. It's a good way to get collaboration across a wide range of people and expertise within our company to make sure we address all concerns during creation instead of spending meetings to come to consensus afterward.
Pros
Controlled access
Shared content
Shared creation
Cons
Ease of defining access controls
Reporting on access/edit of documents and/or folders
Likelihood to Recommend
For a well thought out share location, this is a good solution, but for a quick and dirty just need to share a couple documents with 2 people, and the project is done in a week, then Microsoft SharePoint is too cumbersome to make sure the right controls are in place to protect your data.
VU
Verified User
Director in Engineering (Internet company, 10,001+ employees)
Used across the whole organisation as a source of truth for documentation, knowledge and collaboration. We use SharePoint as a central hub for processes.
Pros
Document collaboration - people can add and edit at the same time, meaning less time wasted and no need to email versions.
Integration into Microsoft teams e.g. you can open a PowerPoint straight from SharePoint into Team and documents can be shared and stored.
Links to all the MS Apps for easy navigation.
Cons
Some of the online versions of applications don't work as well as the desktop apps e.g. format of documents look weird, not as many options, limited copying, etc.
The UI/UX is quite clunky if you're not used to it.
Likelihood to Recommend
A great option to use as a central collaboration hub Well suited for organisations with a clear structure/looking to implement one for documentation/knowledge UX/UI can be confusing, so getting initial buy-in within an org can be challenging and may take longer than expected
VU
Verified User
Manager in Customer Service (Computer Software company, 201-500 employees)
Microsoft SharePoint is primarily used for collaboration, Intranets, and in some cases for Extranets and public-facing web sites as well.
Currently, in our organization, we use SharePoint Online which is part of Microsoft 365 and we have implemented company's Intranet portal using SharePoint.
Pros
Collaboration.
Content Management.
Intranets.
Security.
Document Management.
Cons
Too many good features to choose from.
Developer Story has room for improvement.
Does not have a good relational database store that can scale. However, it is excellent for document management and collaboration.
Likelihood to Recommend
Well Suited: Collaboration Intranets Document Management
Less Appropriate: Public-facing websites and e-commerce sites
Currently the entire organization has access to use the software, in the same way the introduction and migration to MS SharePoint from local servers has been gradual, mostly due to people's resistance to something new and unknown. In my department specifically if there has been a greater acceptance, integration and discovery by constant learning by some team members who are not exploiting all the advantages of the software yet.
Pros
Permission management: This is super relevant and wonderful for controlling what your audience can see and do, for example, when you need someone to constantly see changes to a "living document" but not have the ability to intervene in the process.
Contact groups: I find it super good since not necessarily the site administrators are the only ones who can manage the group, you can make any member of the group can manage the rest of the members without this being involved in other site settings. Also when granting permissions, distributing documents, announcements, tasks, it is very easy to do it by group of contacts than one by one.
Version history: We know that we are exposed to errors and accidents, so having the previous versions of a document, being able to see who has modified and having the possibility of restoring any of those versions can save the day. I always feel that I am protected and that is why I always promote working in the cloud.
Integration with other MS tools: The workflows that connect outlook, sharepoint, onedrive, among others, where you can manage multiple actions for all these tools seems wonderful to me, it allows a super necessary and simple expansion to be able to automate tasks that used to be performed manually on a daily basis, it certainly contributes to efficiency.
Cons
Modern view / classic view: I really appreciate the minimalist change that has been made with many of the menus in the latest versions of sharepoint, but most of the time it complicates me and generates many more clicks (much more time) wanting to do one This action can be done by changing to the classic view from the ribbon, for example, managing permissions for a site, being able to manage sharepoint groups.
A little more advanced configurations, without becoming complex that depend a lot on the IT department.
Descriptions of some options or settings can become confusing, complicated and you simply are not able to know if it is what you are looking for or not, the language to the user is sometimes understood only through trial and error.
Likelihood to Recommend
It is the appropriate tool for document repositories that have many people as public, also for documents where a work team of any size can work simultaneously and the document's membership remains joint (unlike Onedrive). Also to keep the versions of the documents secured at each change. Regarding the distribution and organization of documents, it is perfect to segment by libraries, teams, among others, the documents according to the required audience.
SharePoint is the storage and shared area for all documents, spreadsheets, etc. used by the entire company. This provides a safe location that others can get to as well. We do have a separate SharePoint folder for each department as well which provides an area for each specific department without cluttering the lives of the other departments/teams.
Pros
Sharing documents.
Providing revision history.
Safe repository.
Collaboration between users.
Live collaboration keeping all in-sync.
Cons
Users can get confused if they are editing a local copy or the SharePoint copy.
If a document gets out of sync, you have to realize it, then find the revision history. Makes sense, but still can be hard for some users.
SharePoint feels heavy at times.
Likelihood to Recommend
MS SharePoint is well suited when you don't want someone's hard drive crash to slow down business. Keeping all files safe and backed up is the only way to do business. Also, when you want several people to open a document over a phone meeting, and have everyone see each other's comments and edits, SharePoint makes that possible.
VU
Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology (Computer Software company, 1-10 employees)
We utilize SharePoint across the organization for collaboration, file storage, and custom apps. Teams use SharePoint sites as their landing page to advertise their services and points of contact. Many teams utilize forms and SharePoint workflow to intake work and/or initiate & track business processes. Teams, departments, groups, and projects also utilize file storage and sharing capabilities for collaborative efforts and information sharing.
Pros
SharePoint is a great file storage tool for collaborating and sharing documents.
SharePoint allows business users to create collaborative efforts without having to have vast technical knowledge.
SharePoint allows for the easy creation of dynamic portals that can pull information from numerous sources and present in numerous formats.
Cons
The native SharePoint permissions model could be made to be simpler.
Development techniques to extend base SharePoint functionality could be simpler and more examples would be nice too.
More rendering options and controls are always welcome.
Likelihood to Recommend
SharePoint is great for creating simple dynamic web portals for team, project, and even cross-organizational collaborations. It allows average business users to create useful forms, lists, libraries, and portals for collaborations. I recommend an SP site for every project, effort, and team - they are lightweight and easy to create and maintain (and delete if desired).
VU
Verified User
Program Manager in Information Technology (Telecommunications company, 10,001+ employees)
MS SharePoint is being used by our whole organization inside different projects to share documents inside of a team to have access to them and the ability to edit the files online. It has a desktop application as well as an online one and a mobile app to use on the go. Although all of them are a little bit laggy.
Pros
Integrates with MS Office and other MS tools.
There is cloud-based storage.
It has online editing of MS files.
Cons
Sometimes it is not easy to predict where to search for some specific settings.
It can be laggy and every day there is a sync issue so you have to refresh all the online files.
Not cheap to buy.
Likelihood to Recommend
MS SharePoint acts as an extra storage device to store all documents. It is good for big organizations and teams. Being cloud-based, it makes it possible to access SharePoint from anywhere with internet access. Also, it is easy to share files between your team and give them reading or editing access.
VU
Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology (Computer Software company, 201-500 employees)
SharePoint is utilized across the organization and team. We use it for simple document storage, obviously, but there is so much more it can do. Tagging your documentation with metadata is incredibly useful. It makes finding these documents later much easier and allows for better ways to present documents to the users.
Pros
Good search capabilities.
Sharing documents with external users.
Document storage, hands down. Online access and storing a synced copy on a hard drive as well.
Cons
The user interface could be improved and made more attractive.
The public website creation documentation is not that clear.
There is the potential for save-conflicts if multiple people edit a document while offline.
Likelihood to Recommend
Very robust, so not much maintenance is needed if used with built in functionality. Some third party solutions add much more capabilities to out of the box SharePoint for not much of an increase of the price. Very good security, if a little complicated with later editions. Security is handled for you, online access is obviously easy. But even offline syncing of documents to a local machine is possible. And adding metadata tagging on top of this will really make things hum.
MS SharePoint is a way to manage shared documents for a project. We use it to manage the necessary information for a project so that anyone in the company can go to the SharePoint page to get whatever relevant information they need. This is useful for the engineering and marketing teams to have access to information on all of the projects that we are working on and for projects that have been completed.
Pros
Shared access to structured web pages.
Ability to manage documents.
Customization.
Cons
To utilize it to the fullest, you need to learn a lot about how SharePoint works.
It can be a bit sluggish if not optimized.
Navigation can also be difficult if not optimized.
Likelihood to Recommend
MS SharePoint is useful if your company has an employee who knows everything about SharePoint and can customize it to fit the business needs. It provides businesses a way of having an online accessible platform for their employees without having to create one from scratch. However, it takes a lot of effort to really learn everything about SharePoint, so if your company does not have the resources to dedicate to managing SharePoint or does not have a clear vision on how to utilize it, then it can start to become a detriment.
Microsoft SharePoint is used throughout the company. All sectors have their own workspaces where they share documents, programs, files, etc., and also spaces where information is shared with other sectors, for which various access, reading or writing permits are applied based on each need. Each user also decides if they want to have the information synchronized on their device with a copy of the information or only have access to it in the cloud.
Pros
One of the key points of this cloud content platform is the security and granularity that can be given by user and by folder or file.
It handles file versioning very well, this allows you to easily return to an earlier version of the document and recover information that may have been lost.
The possibility of synchronizing information or just having access in the cloud is essential to not occupy local space on each device.
Cons
The searches within the web are not very friendly, definitely, this is a point of improvement.
If you decide to synchronize the files on the device, this slows it down and generates high internet consumption.
It would be ideal to be able to incorporate encryption handling each company the keys.
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft Share Point is very useful as an enterprise content platform. It allows you to store all types of files and share them with whoever you want, giving them the corresponding permission. For the management of projects, it is essential to have such a platform, to be able to document everything that happens in the life cycle of the same and that the entire team has access to this.
