How a private online workspace like SharePoint can boost your business
1. Provide your company a central point for communications.
Maybe you've just named a new vice president of sales and need to ensure that the marketing team updates all of their materials right away. SharePoint provides a selection of tools that allow you to communicate with your team instantly. In our example, a specific home page could be set up for the marketing team to post this information and set it as a top priority. You can even add a Quick Launch link introducing the new vice president.
What do people really think of the company's "casual Friday" policy? You can quickly set up a survey and poll staff members to find out. Surveys can be set up to ask for simple yes or no answers or more detailed explanations.
Here are some additional features that can ease communications:
| • | Announcements: This is where you can post general information about the business, such as a new hire or policy changes. |
| • | Prioritize information: You can customize the look of the program to suit your needs. If you need to notify everyone of a certain event or task you can place this section at the top of the page where it can't be missed. |
| • | Quick launch items: Staff members can find what they need right from the homepage by setting up a link. |
| • | Control user access: With so many staff members or partners using SharePoint at any given time you may want to restrict access to certain projects. You can ensure security by offering different levels of access from the ability to post and view material to a read only account. |
Rather than buy a separate software package to maintain your contact database, SharePoint provides one for you. Here, you and your employees will have access to all of the names and numbers you need to run your business.
If you already have a large database of contacts in your Office programs you can import them right into SharePoint. You also have the flexibility to set up designated contact lists that meet your needs. For example, if you have employees that look after shipping your exported goods they can make a list of all the shipping companies in town.
With SharePoint's built-in discussion boards you can share and collaborate on projects without having to be in the same room.
Let's say that you're running an advertising agency where you regularly employing freelance artists and writers. SharePoint's discussion boards can act as a common meeting place where everyone involved in a big project can come to offer ideas, gather feedback on design mock-ups, or submit ad copy.
These discussions can be easily set up and moderated by any of your employees that have access to this part of the program. Use the administrative controls to give freelance staff limited access to the system. When one project is finished, you can close the discussion and start a fresh board for the next assignment.
You may have staff members who work from home across town, or possibly even across the country. Perhaps your company is hosting a tradeshow where all of your employees will be in attendance. How can you coordinate event duties, travel times, and possible accommodations without confusion? By using SharePoint. Here's more:
| • | Events: Here is where you can post any upcoming meetings, trade shows, or presentations. Employees can find out how long the event will be and any important details. Once the event is over SharePoint will automatically remove it. |
| • | Tasks: Ensure that your event goes just the way that you planned by posting assigned tasks for each of your employees. In our tradeshow example, this feature could be used to designate who will be responsible for setting up the company booth. Employees can choose to view tasks for everyone, or just their own. The program also has features that allow you to monitor the progress of each assignment. |
| • | Shared documents: You may have asked two of your remote employees to give a joint presentation at the event. Using SharePoint's documents section they can each post notes for the other to read and comment on. These presentations can also be stored as part of a document library. |
| • | Contacts: In addition to storing client information you can also tailor the contact database to provide your employees with a place to store names and numbers for airlines, hotels, and family information. |