Microsoft Software and Solutions

First and foremost, SharePoint is an intranet platform. Though Microsoft states that SharePoint is "primarily sold as a document management and storage system" it is an information sharing platform and for "implementing internal applications, and for implementing business processes."

SharePoint is the know market leader for powering intranets: about 90% of the Fortune 1000 use SharePoint in some shape or form (with many using it to power their Intranet home page).

There are in fact two versions of SharePoint: the on-premises version, SharePoint Server, and SharePoint Online, which comes bundled in Microsoft 365 (the Cloud). Though those with Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) automatically have the latest features in SharePoint Online; those with on-premises SharePoint, have to wait for the next release to get the latest and greatest.

SharePoint’s greatest strength is it’s an all-in-one approach – it’s a portal, a content management system, a search engine, a social collaboration platform, a web development platform, and so much more. Its greatest weakness is that it’s an all-in-one solution – everything and the kitchen sink; a jack-of-all-trades, a master of none. Some argue that SharePoint is a “mile wide, but a foot deep.” It offers so much, but some features are seen as still ‘developing’ or even sub-par. But there are a lot of tools and features, and with each release, it gets better and better (though more complex).

It’s important to note that SharePoint is still a technology. It doesn’t include all of the people, process and planning that is required to make any intranet technology work. Intranet technology will fail without careful planning, process and committed people. Most of the key ingredients of a successful intranet in the digital workplace are based on people, and process; technology is merely an enabler.

Features include:

1. Cloud / Hybrid - Hybrid enables you to integrate your on-premises farm with the cloud, at your own pace.
2. Durable Links - Resource-based URLs now retain links when documents are renamed or moved in SharePoint.
3. Video recording, storage, and screen recording - an all-in-one video solution using Stream, including video editing.
4. Large files - now supports uploading and downloading files larger than 2,047 MBs
5. Mobile - an improved mobile navigation experience, including a very fast and easy to use app.
6. Search - SharePoint Search integrated the FAST Search engine, with more features, and indexes up to 500 million documents (per app).
7. Sharing - better user sharing options, including a Shared folder, and invitation email notifications.
8. Microsoft Teams - full integration with Microsoft Teams (all Teams files are stored in SharePoint).

We are Intranet consultants (www.PrescientDigital.com) and and principally use Microsoft 365 - SharePoint Online for Enterprise Content Management; improving the way our organization functions in terms of employee collaboration and knowledge sharing specifically via document management, and social collaboration (discussion groups, profiles and blogging being the most used social tools). Increasingly we use Teams, and use it with external clients that can be invited to a specific Team (project site).

Web content management and social media tools (e.g. wikis) are not best-of-breed, and usability is an issue with many features. We also encountered many, many problems with deployment -- customization and implementation requires more work than you expect. Additionally, like most organizations, a customized user experience can break (particularly specific webparts) with every SharePoint patch and upgrade. However, we found no issues with stability or scalability. 

80% of our clients use SharePoint, and probably some 90% of the Fortune 1000 use SharePoint in some shape or form. We are first and foremost SharePoint intranet consultants, so we build and design other intranets, and need to deeply understand the ins and outs of SharePoint. 

The initial setup of SharePoint is very easy - out-of-the-box deployment is simple, fast and a novice could manage a deployment. Customization requires a lot of work, particularly using SPFx (hiring an outside expert is strongly recommended).

A note of caution: planning is everything. The intranet is more about people and process, and any intranet requires a through plan -- for information architecture, content management, design, and change management -- plan, plan, plan. And plan to run over-budget (unless you hire very strong outside experts to develop and run your plan and budget) for customization activities. 

SharePoint features major upgrades to the user experience design and mobile access, including a new dedicated SharePoint app. It’s very clean and modern, with a major emphasis on images, and video. The new "modern UX" is fully responsive, and has it's own dedicated mobile app.

Among the new UX features, particularly noticeable in the new SharePoint Communications Sites, are drag-and-drop web parts for image galleries, slideshows, hero slideshow, and video.

Continue reading: The New SharePoint

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