Microsoft SharePoint makes it easier for people to work together. Using SharePoint, your people can set up websites to share information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions. The capabilities of SharePoint work together to help your company quickly respond to changing business needs. Using SharePoint, your people can share ideas and expertise, create custom solutions for specific needs, and find the right business information to make better decisions. For IT, SharePoint helps you cut training and maintenance costs, save time and effort and focus on higher business priorities
– Microsoft.



SharePoint as a platform offers many great building blocks for making collaboration and management more regulated across all departments of a business. In this article I focus specifically on the benefits of SharePoint when used internally, as an Intranet. 

The Benefits

Information is easily documented:
By using SharePoint wikis you can document valuable information about how the business operates and maintain all of this information in one, easily accessible place.  

Meeting times can be reduced:
By creating discussion boards you can reduce the amount of time spent in meetings. Also, all the discussed information is documented and searchable for future reference.  

Workflows are developed:
You can develop workflows around all processes taking place in the business. When a process is executed correctly you can replicate the same result, saving time. It is easy to track the flow of information and responsibilities making work flows consistent and focused.

Collaboration between employees is enhanced:
People can work together and share information in a more collaborative way meaning productivity is increased. 

Information can be accessed faster:
Users can easily access content, documents and information by simply conducting a search. SharePoint 2013’s search tool enables users to find information faster so it saves time and is a focused way of conducting a search. 

Content management is more controllable:
All content is easily organised and controlled making updates, repurposing or deleting easy and hassle free. 

Admin costs are lowered:
Admin costs are lowered as less man hours are spent on repetitive administration tasks. Say, for instance, an employee wants to take leave. SharePoint will send the request to management where a final decision will be made based on the information visible through the intranet. 

Keeping employees up to date is effortless:
The intranet can be used as a “notice board” to display any relevant company news and updates. All this information can be easily accessed so that no one is left out of the loop.

Engaging with staff is easy:
Staff Surveys can easily be distributed and completed through an Intranet. An Intranet also makes it easy to engage with staff. 

Governance is improved:
Control is improved as SharePoint records everything that happens internally and as such problems or issues can be ironed out fast en efficiently. The more information available, the easier it is to problem solve. The Managing Director is aware of everything that is going on in the company through the corporate dashboard – this also increases control over the company. 

Over all, SharePoint 2013 is so easily managed and user friendly that work place productivity is dramatically increased. Workflow is improved and management is made easier as information and knowledge becomes more accessible than ever before. Just as you can’t do without a website, having an Intranet is a must. 


Related Articles:

• SharePoint 2013 - Improved Usability and Content Authoring
• Managing Your Knowledge Through SharePoint

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Carina Claassens is a Writer for Sound Idea Digital l carina@soundidea.co.za | @SoundIdea | Sound Idea Digital l www.soundidea.co.za