Anyone who has worked in a company before will probably know exactly how it feels to be Emily. Picture the scenario: she starts a new project, searches for relevant team members, holds meetings, and exchanges umpteen emails. Important documents quickly emerge, and these documents bounce back and forth between several people. A few weeks, several hundred emails, and many phone calls later, a few things become obvious:

1. People are confused and overwhelmed – everyone has a slightly different version of the same document, and Emily is never certain if she has the correct one.
2. As all the information is scattered across different workstations and everyone has different information at hand, it’s impossible for her to have a complete overview of the project.
3. The project is isolated from other projects and there is no way to connect them, even though this project may impact existing projects. Tools like SharePoint allow for easy collaboration by bridging the gaps between past and current projects; preventing needless waste of time and resources.

Now picture this: Emily begins a new project and needs team members. This time around, she starts a dedicated SharePoint site; identifying potential team members with the skills she needs using the SharePoint search engine. In no time at all, she finds an instructional designer and a software developer in her company and is able to contact them.

SharePoint blogs function like social media, allowing team members like Bill and Anne to discover they share mutual interests (such as hiking) – building stronger relationships for a solid team foundation. Project documents and attachments are kept in one central library, and version control issues are eliminated as there is only ever one version of a project. All project information is stored in SharePoint, and shared calendars mean any confusion over due dates or meetings is a thing of the past.

Emily will soon realise that she needs budgets and spreadsheets. Rather than having to start again from scratch, she can search the SharePoint database for existing documents to get her started. SharePoint can also access existing databases within her company, allowing Emily and her team to access any relevant data or contact information they need; connecting people and documents through one central point. She can now see the threads connecting all of these elements, while still allowing her company to see the bigger picture.  Gone are the chaotic days before SharePoint – Emily can now look forward to her next project, knowing that it’s all smooth sailing from here on.