What Is SharePoint?
Developed by Microsoft, SharePoint played a significant role in businesses when they started modernizing systems 10-20 years ago, back when it was launched in 2001. Acting as a centralized hub, it helped organizations manage and share information, collaborate on projects, and automate workflows.
Here are the key features and functionalities of SharePoint:
- Collaboration: With a collaborative environment, SharePoint is an excellent place for teams to communicate, share ideas, and work together on projects. Features like team sites, discussion boards, and real-time co-authoring allow multiple users to edit documents at the same time.
- Document Management: Robust document management capabilities let businesses store, organize, and secure their documents in a centralized location. It provides version control, document tracking, and search functionality.
- Workflow Automation: SharePoint can do a great job of reducing manual tasks through workflow automation. It offers a visual interface for designing workflows to help automate processes like document approval, content publishing, and task assignments.
- Integration with Microsoft Office Suite: Through seamless integration with other Microsoft Office apps (like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), SharePoint allows users to directly create, edit, and collaborate on Office documents.
- Customization and Extensibility: As a highly customizable platform, SharePoint allows businesses to tailor it to their specific needs. There’s a wide range of customization options, including the ability to create custom lists, libraries, and web parts.
