SharePoint is a powerful platform that can impact almost all aspects of running a business: document and workflow management, host collaboration, internal portals, project management, knowledge management and much more. It powers organizations from different business domains and industries all over the world. Large companies use SharePoint to facilitate communication and better manage large projects, but is SharePoint right for Small Business?
Here are some of the reasons why should use Microsoft SharePoint for small business.
Low Cost Solution and Convenience
For starters, SharePoint is a part of Microsoft Office 365: number one choice for a lot of small and medium sized businesses, for creating documents online with such well-known programs as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Saying that, SharePoint is offered through Microsoft Office 365 for the price of a low monthly subscription. And as a tiered service, you can use and pay only services that you need, without costly licensing fees or expensive upgrade paths, especially considering that Microsoft provides all updates free of charge.
Mobility and Collaboration
With SharePoint Online, small businesses staff can have access to their documents 24/7 anywhere in the world and from any devices: PC, laptops, smartphones and tablets, while on the road or working from home. Using SharePoint, you can implement intranet portal, collaboration sites, chat and messaging, video chat. So now, you can bring your workforce together and communicate ideas, news, and important updates easily. Since data can be synchronized and is readily available, everyone sees the most up-to-date information regardless of how they view the document.
Security customization
In today’s digital world, security is main priority for everyone. Many small businesses still believe that it’s not safe to keep sensitive information in the cloud. However, Microsoft through SharePoint provides a multi-layer security system for its customers. With SharePoint data encryption, permission levels, strong user passwords, multi-factor authentication including biometrics, backups and redundancy, risks of document disclosure or corruption are low. Small & medium sized business can store all company information within the intranet, but limit access to information based on roles and requirement. In addition, SharePoint allows also to securely share documents with external users of the organization (customers, suppliers). In order to access certain information within intranet requires credentials and is not searchable, so it’s not visible to regular intranet users.
So, is SharePoint right for Small to Medium Business? Certainly Yes. On the other hand, even though SharePoint out-of-the-box functionality will be the right choice for some small businesses, some will need additional customization in bid to maximize the productivity and efficiency of their business processes.
How can ITAF help you?
If your company needs help with setup and maintenance of SharePoint, configuration or technical support, feel free to contact ITAF, Partner of Microsoft . Our team of experienced engineers will assist you and help you with all IT support and Cloud services needs.
