Think SharePoint = intranet only? Think again

SharePoint is a bit like tequila, you either love it or hate it. But if you’ve paid for it, you’ll want to get the most out of it.

It’s no secret that SharePoint is the world’s number one intranet platform. Ask most employees and they’ve probably used it in at least one previous company. According to Microsoft, 78% of Fortune 500 companies use SharePoint in some way.

It’s a powerful tool for content management and collaboration. But challenges around proper management, customisation and user adoption, have led some commentators to conclude that on-premises SharePoint is dying.

Microsoft disputed this in a recent announcement introducing SharePoint Server 2016, released ahead of the popular Microsoft Ignite conference that took place in May in the US. And then of course, there’s the fact that SharePoint online comes free with Office 365.

SharePoint is here to stay. But is doesn’t come cheap. Businesses that have already made, or are considering making, the hefty investment will want to make sure that they extract maximum benefit from their SharePoint platform.

In some cases, this requires further investment – usually in the form of customising the platform, integrating it with other software and training users properly. But there’s so much more you can do with SharePoint than simply use it for your intranet.

Take the power of SharePoint even further

The latest document automation tools can transform SharePoint into a dynamic content automation powerhouse. The ability to automatically generate and customise documents in seconds by merging document templates with content stored in SharePoint, CRM and other enterprise systems, dramatically improves efficiency and reduces the costs associated with generating large volumes of complex documents.

One of SharePoint’s greatest features is its collaboration capability. It’s perfect for storing all sorts of information, including sales and marketing content and collateral, case studies, product overviews and information, as well as application forms and contracts. Solution providers are creating systems that take SharePoint to the next level.

Document automation tools can help businesses become more collaborative and efficient, and produce better-quality documents, reports, proposals and RFP responses. To achieve this, solution providers have built the software to work seamlessly within familiar Microsoft Office applications like Word and PowerPoint.

Workflows and Microsoft Office plug-ins make collaborating on content a breeze

Adding content to SharePoint for use in future documents is simple. Clever document automation plug-ins for Microsoft Office allow people to create, locate and suggest content to SharePoint libraries without leaving the Word, Excel or PowerPoint document they’re working in.

And SharePoint’s co-authoring capability enables users to collaborate on the same document, at the same time, without worrying about version control. Updates are visible in real time, and the history of a document is easily traced.

Long live SharePoint

So many business have invested in SharePoint, but too many are not using it to its full potential. If you’ve got it, it may be time to dust off the cobwebs and breathe new life into a powerful asset.