Are you still banking on a clunky and outdated legacy system to edit, share, organize, and access important files? If yes, you are missing out on the opportunity to unlock the productivity of your workforce. Long gone are the days when businesses used to employ traditional document management and storage systems that utilize a shared file system and are accessible through a local on-premise server.

Today, web-based tools like SharePoint are transforming businesses from the inside out. With SharePoint application development, you can not only upgrade the traditional document management system but also streamline business operations resulting in improved collaboration and productivity. This may be the reason why 250,000+ organizations and more than 85% of Fortune 500 companies including Proctor and Gamble, Viacom, CitiBank, UPS Store, Chrysler, etc. have Microsoft SharePoint as part of the Office 365 suite. In fact, the usage of MS SharePoint has surged by 90% in the last year and over 10 million new sites powered by SharePoint have been created. Before we dive deep into the reasons why you should invest in SharePoint development, let’s quickly understand what exactly MS SharePoint is.

What is MS SharePoint?

MS SharePoint is a web-based platform that is used by businesses for content collaboration, document sharing, advanced search, business intelligence, and much more. In other words, Microsoft SharePoint works as a web content management system, shared file repository, and even an intranet.

If you have a business in multiple locations or your employees working remotely before the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), you might have faced challenges to ensure that every employee has easy access to all the crucial business documents. With SharePoint application development, all your employees can open, edit, review, and share documents from any device, anytime, and anywhere in the world. All they need is a web browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Microsoft Edge, etc. This simply means that SharePoint offers optimal flexibility to all your employees whether they are working from a remote location or from the office. In a nutshell, SharePoint works in a similar manner to Google Drive, however, it comes with a host of riveting features and tools that make it a smart investment for businesses. Let’s look at some of the interesting features offered by Microsoft SharePoint.

1. Easy Integration with Your Existing Business Applications

Microsoft SharePoint offers easy integration with all your popular work applications including MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word, CRM, ERP, MS Exchange Server, MS Unified Communications, and many back-office systems. In other words, the compatibility of SharePoint is not just limited to Office 365 suite. In fact, it integrates easily with your existing business applications and works seamlessly across all modern web browsers.

2. Improved Security

When you switch from legacy storage systems to MS SharePoint, you can get away with the risk of unauthorized access and outages. MS SharePoint comes with advanced security features including authentication enhancements and new workflow upgrades that allow your workforce to optimize the access and shareability to protect the data integrity. Apart from this, you'll also get access/editing privileges with MS SharePoint that can be set at either item level or document level. In short, SharePoint is the go-to solution for organizations that deal with sensitive data and are looking for ways to protect it from anonymous users.

3. Content Management Becomes Breeze

Businesses churn out a wide array of content ranging from corporate blogs to internal communications, social media posts, brand positioning, and other marketing collateral. Most of these contents require multiple edits, feedback, and approvals from managers, which can be time-intensive. With SharePoint web development, your workforce can easily create, edit, submit documents from any device and share it within or outside the organization. Owing to the collaborative nature of this platform, approvals take little or no time since multiple users can work simultaneously on the same document and see the changes in real-time. Apart from this, you can also convert your documents into various formats such as PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, CSV, and HTML.

Summing Up

Since its launch in 2001, Microsoft SharePoint has been evolving incessantly and today it has become the most coveted platform for content collaboration and document sharing. Apart from the aforementioned features, some other interesting characteristics of SharePoint include centralized administration, multi-purpose functionality, customizable, site consolidation, and many more.