Document on introduction to sharepoint, its features and How Can a SharePoint Solution Help Your Business? you can visit http://www.alliancetek.com/collaboration-tools.html for More Information on SharePoint.

1. Is Excel Not Cutting it Anymore?
For many small businesses, Microsoft Excel is the default software application used to store company
information, communicate with team members, and control content. However, as businesses grow and their
needs increase, they often find Excel cannot meet emerging challenges that demand faster, more efficient
communication, more control over information, and better organization. Excel is independent in nature and it is
therefore it is difficult to connect external parts of a business. Due to Excel’s structure, it is cumbersome to
manage large amounts of data, especially if they involve disparate parts of an organization. Businesses may be
wasting untold time and resources trying to stretch the use of an outmoded program that can no longer keep up
with their needs.
For these businesses, it may be time to step up to a SharePoint solution. SharePoint enhances sharing and
communication by providing a central repository where information can be managed, controlled, and distributed
easily. SharePoint breaks down the different areas of a business and provides tools for connecting them in
meaningful ways.
However, a lot of businesses are skeptical about Microsoft’s rapidly growing SharePoint technology. This may be
because they are unsure about what it does and how it can be applied to their business operations. The purpose
of this article is to define SharePoint, discuss its uses, and help you consider how it can be applied to deliver a
positive return on your investment.
What is SharePoint?
Microsoft SharePoint is a multi-purpose web application
platform that can make communications, collaboration,
and content management more fluid and effective for
many businesses. The SharePoint platform assists with
information sharing, enterprise search implementation,
business processes, and business intelligence to
streamline business operations, increase productivity,
and ultimately save time and money. The three main
themes of SharePoint are communication, information,
and organization.
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2. Is Excel Not Cutting it Anymore?
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Communication
S
harePoint’s communication features improve the way people work together, helping teams stay on top of
who did what, when, and to which documents. SharePoint assists with sharing and information
distribution to enhance teamwork. Content is kept in a central repository rather than spread throughout
the organization. Here it is easier to access, assign, control, and share. Tasks are assigned and team members
are automatically notified of their jobs. Upcoming events are easily found and sent to appropriate parties. Blogs
and discussion forums provide a platform to share information and ideas.
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Information
S
harePoint gives users more control over information. Content management is more fluid and effective for
businesses by keeping it in a centralized location and synchronized to all members. Here, information is in
a secure and private place where it can be shared with assigned team members, clients, or partners.
Using efficient check-in/ check-out management features, users can add, edit, and delete the same documents
without stepping on each others’ toes. Companies can gain more control over their documents with content
approval functions and if mistakes are made, they can restore earlier versions.
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Organization
O
rganization is also enhanced through SharePoint. Content can be added in the form of a table and lists
where users can easily search and assign tasks. By storing content within a manageable database, it
becomes much simpler to access and share. With the calendar tool, an event can be created and stored
with related documents and other media. Automatic notifications can alert relevant parties about upcoming
events or document changes. Data can be accessed with Internet-enabled mobile devices so all parties can have
information right at their fingertips no matter where they are in the world.
Essentially, SharePoint is a collaboration tool, improving the way people work together in an organization by
providing tools that allow information to move fluidly among users and departments. Users are able to
collaborate, share ideas, discover information, and stay in sync with the challenges of the organization. Better
collaboration leads to better productivity, innovation, and more informed decisions that ultimately reduces costs
and saves resources without adding any overhead to an organization.
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3. Is Excel Not Cutting it Anymore?
How Can a SharePoint Solution Help Your Business?
1
Increased Productivity
S
harePoint is intended to increase productivity through a variety of features and tools that get the right
information to the right people at the right time, while eliminating unnecessary tasks through automated
processes. Team projects are better managed with centralized locations for task management systems
and workflow solutions that keep members apprised of task status, deadlines, and milestones. Workflow
solutions define project processes and automatically send appropriate notifications, updates, and alerts.
SharePoint allows users to work offline on files, project tasks, discussions, contacts, calendars, blogs, and other
documents and then synchronize the updated information at a later date.
2
Better Decisions
T
he decisions a business makes ultimately determine its future. Successful businesses know how to collect,
access, and analyze important business information and marketing data to gain effective, strategic,
tactical, and operational insights and make better decisions. A SharePoint solution allows a business to
quickly respond to a changing marketplace and rapidly evolving business needs by easily accessing readilyavailable information. For example, a project dashboard allows users to view and filter company and project
information so they can have an overview of a particular business issue right at their fingertips. Accessing and
distributing the right business information allows a business to make better decisions regarding the future of the
company.
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Unlocked Innovation
I
nnovation is a creative process of coming up with a new idea and successfully applying it. Innovation can help
a business improve productivity, reduce costs, be more competitive, find new customers, and increase
profitability. A business that fails to innovate lose market share and fail to get ahead. SharePoint is an
innovation assistance tool that helps unlock the creativity of people through information discovery and sharing.
SharePoint’s discussion features allow users to share ideas, offer expertise, and create custom solutions for
specific needs. For example, a user can start a private company blog to share ideas with a team that’s only
viewable to those with given access. With better team communication and brainstorming sessions, SharePoint
creates a platform where all team members can participate and push each other to trigger their creative potential.
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4. Is Excel Not Cutting it Anymore?
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Benefits of SharePoint
S
harePoint reduces costs by consolidating intranet, extranet, and Internet sites on a single platform, either
in-house or by using the cloud. Training costs can be cut by using SharePoint to distribute training
materials to teams, clients, and partners through a password-protected website that is accessible
anywhere. Resources, time, and effort are saved by SharePoint’s productivity and collaboration features,
allowing businesses to focus more energy on higher business priorities. Maintenance costs are also cut by
having SharePoint take care of much of the ongoing software application needs of a business. SharePoint
delivers these benefits without the increased overhead of more staff or dedicated resources.
Useful SharePoint Tools
Often the reason businesses are reluctant to switch to SharePoint is because they fail to envision how it can be
applied to their specific business to deliver tangible benefits. While there are many tools associated with
SharePoint, the following tools usually have the most understandable applications to business operations.
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CRM Tools
W
ith SharePoint, businesses can more easily implement a strategy for managing their company’s
interactions with customers, clients, distributors, and sales prospects. CRM tools afforded by
SharePoint can assist with marketing endeavors, customer support, and even technical services.
SharePoint can share CRM data with customers, partners, and distributors, enabling them to submit requests,
track status, and view information. Content management features can be extended to your customers or clients
– you can create secure central documents that your clients can view and edit. These documents are
synchronized so updates are accessible with a click of a button so they can be shared among clients and
partners. SharePoint makes it easy to offer training materials or other customer information available in a
password protected website that can be accessed anywhere in the world.
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5. Is Excel Not Cutting it Anymore?
2
Calendar
A
SharePoint calendar will keep your users apprised of upcoming events, meetings, deadlines, milestones,
and other important dates to remember. Users remain focused and teams are more cohesive when all
users are aware of calendar events. Customers also are kept aware of company or product events
through email updates. You can overlay a SharePoint calendar with Outlook calendars or with other SharePoint
calendars so that you can filter events or see them all at once.
3
Workflow Solution
A
ll businesses, no matter the size or scope, have workflows that dictate a pattern of activity enabled by the
systematic organization of resources, defined roles, and flow of information into a tangible process that
can be documented and learned. In SharePoint, workflow is defined as the automated movement of
documents or items through a sequence of actions or tasks that are related to a business process. Using
SharePoint business logic, a set of instructions that specifies and controls the actions that happen to a document
or item, can be attached to workflows. This can streamline the cost and time required to coordinate common
business processes.
For example, by attaching the right business logic to a project approval or document review process, you can
quicken the process and improve accuracy. When the document author starts the starts the approval workflow,
the approval tasks are automatically created and assigned to workflow participants and sent as e-mail alerts with
instructions and a link to the document to be approved. The workflow owner is automatically notified when the
tasks are completed, and can check the workflow status at any time to see which participants have finished their
tasks.
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Dashboard Tools
S
harePoint allows you to create a project dashboard to help keep people synchronized and on task. You
can view and filter project elements, like project details, project documents, project tasks, project issues,
project calendar, project milestones, project lessons learned, project risks, project change orders, and
others. Effective use of the dashboard can help you monitor business metrics, analyze the causes of issues, and
enhance business intelligence to improve-decision making. You can customize the SharePoint dashboard to
make essential tools readily available to manage your contents and users.
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6. Is Excel Not Cutting it Anymore?
Is SharePoint Right For Your Business?
There are sound business reasons for using SharePoint, but it is still up to each business owner to take a hard
look at the business case and calculate the true cost of ownership. Consider your number of users, licenses and
servers, and any extra modules of functionality you’re likely to require. Overall, if deployed seamlessly and used
effectively, SharePoint should reduce costs, save resources, and ensure accuracy while delivering tangible
business benefits, like improved productivity, better decision-making, and increased innovation.
Call Reynolds Corea 484-892-5713 ext.108 to schedule your free consultation with AllianceTek.
AllianceTek, Inc.
112 Moores Drive, Suite 200, Malvern, PA 19355
484-892-5713
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info@alliancetek.com
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