**Title: Unveiling Microsoft SharePoint: A Comprehensive Guide to Its Core Features** Microsoft SharePoint, a robust platform developed by Microsoft, has become integral to countless organizations worldwide for its capabilities in managing and sharing content, knowledge, and applications. As an innovative platform that promotes teamwork, SharePoint enables businesses to streamline their processes, foster teamwork, and enhance informational exchange across the workforce. In this blog post, we’ll delve deeper into what Microsoft SharePoint is and explore its key features that facilitate organizational efficiency and collaboration. ### What is Microsoft SharePoint? Microsoft SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is primarily sold as a document management and storage system, but the product is highly configurable and its usage varies substantially among organizations. It is designed to meet the diverse needs of businesses with regard to content management, collaboration, and custom web applications. ### Important Features of Microsoft SharePoint #### 1. **Document Management and Collaboration** SharePoint shines as a document management platform. It allows teams to store, retrieve, search, archive, track, manage, and report on various documents and records. Collaboratively, team members can edit documents simultaneously, manage version control, and ensure that everyone has the most up-to-date information. #### 2. **Intranet and Team Sites** SharePoint enables the creation of intranet sites for your organization. This helps in disseminating information across the organization in an easy-to-navigate and consumable format. Teams can also create their own sites to manage project-specific and team-specific work. #### 3. **Integration with Microsoft Office** A significant advantage of using SharePoint is its seamless integration with Microsoft Office products. Users can directly interact with Microsoft Office files, collaborate in real time, and access SharePoint’s features from within Office programs. #### 4. **Automated Workflows** To enhance business efficiency, SharePoint allows users to create and customize automated workflows. These workflows can be designed for a variety of processes, such as project approvals, document reviews, and issue tracking, thereby reducing the need for manual intervention and speeding up operations. #### 5. **Customization and Extensibility** SharePoint is highly configurable. Organizations can modify and extend the platform with custom apps and integrations to suit their specific requirements. SharePoint’s adaptability makes it suitable for diverse business needs, from creating custom forms to developing complex enterprise applications. #### 6. **Security and Compliance** With robust security settings configurable at file, site, or server levels, SharePoint provides detailed control over accessibility and security. It supports both in-house and cloud deployment models and complies with a range of international, regional, and industry-specific standards, which is critical for businesses in regulated industries. #### 7. **Search Functionality** SharePoint offers powerful search features that help users quickly find documents, sites, and people across the organization. Enhanced search capabilities ensure that relevant information is accessible when needed, improving overall productivity. #### 8. **Mobile Accessibility** Recognizing the shift towards mobile usage, SharePoint has been optimized for mobile devices, allowing users to access content, follow people or projects, and interact with their teams from anywhere. #### 9. **Collaborative Content Management** Teams can manage content lifecycle, from creation, through review, publication, maintenance, and archive. Content can be tagged with metadata, making it easier to organize, discover, and surface important information. ### Conclusion Microsoft SharePoint serves as a dynamic platform offering extensive functionalities ranging from document management to complex workflow creations. Its integration with Microsoft Office, coupled with its diverse capabilities in managing content and enabling collaboration, makes it a staple in many business environments. For organizations looking to enhance collaboration and efficiency, SharePoint is a platform worth considering.

Microsoft SharePoint is a document management and collaboration platform that assists organizations in managing and handling documents, records, and other crucial business content. It is used across various industries and internal departments to enhance enterprise management and boost productivity through effective collaboration.

SharePoint enables users to create customizable team sites that facilitate the sharing of news, data, files, links, and other important resources. It can be managed by administrators via a centralized web application, while end-users can interact with its functions and features via web browsers. This platform allows for the alteration of content and site architecture, the ability to create and remove sites, toggle product features on and off, set up basic workflows, and oversee analytics.

SharePoint offers extensive features that aid in organizing, accessing, and disseminating information throughout an organization. It supports access from any device through a compatible web browser or via the SharePoint mobile application, allowing users to leverage its full suite of features and manage site content efficiently.

While SharePoint offers an array of functionalities, there are six fundamental categories that capture the main functions fueling the SharePoint environment:

Microsoft offers additional features and resources beneficial to SharePoint clients, including training materials, customization tools, and developer resources.

SharePoint is accessible as an on-premises solution or a cloud service. It can also be configured in a hybrid mode, blending both deployments.

Introduced in 2001, on-premises SharePoint has been updated regularly with newer features in each version. The most recent version is SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, launched in November 2021.

As of the latest updates, SharePoint Server 2019 was still under active support. However, as of January 2024, it shifted to Extended Support, receiving only security updates. SharePoint Server 2016 made this transition earlier in July 2021. Extended Support for both versions will cease on July 14, 2026, ending all forms of support.

Organizations still utilizing SharePoint Server 2019 need to plan their next steps as support for this version will eventually end. They can either transition to SharePoint Online or adopt the SharePoint Server Subscription Edition.

Microsoft’s preferred route for clients is shifting towards SharePoint Online. Though updates will continue for the Subscription Edition mainly focusing on security and specific customer needs, the main enhancements and investments from Microsoft will be directed towards SharePoint Online. This will widen the technological gap between these two SharePoint services.

However, some organizations might still opt for the on-premises version, hence Microsoft’s ongoing support for the Subscription Edition. Initially, this upgrade from SharePoint Server 2019 offered improvements in several aspects:

Following its launch, the Subscription Edition has seen regular updates that enhance features and introduce new functionalities. One notable update, Version 24H1, included enhancements like tailored branding in the Suite Bar, vertical customization of search results, integration of OpenID Connect with SharePoint certification management, and a feature allowing the collection of feedback directly from SharePoint farm administrators.

Originally an on-premises solution, SharePoint has evolved with Microsoft’s shifted focus towards cloud-based services. It is commonly known as SharePoint Online, though it can also be referred to simply as SharePoint or as part of Microsoft Office 365, depending on the context. Microsoft views its online platform as the superior SharePoint experience, designed to enhance productivity, security, and user experience.

SharePoint Online is available as a basic subscription, integrated with OneDrive and Microsoft Lists. It is included in many Microsoft 365 business and enterprise subscriptions, such as Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft 365 E5, and Microsoft 365 F3. Furthermore, it’s bundled with numerous Office 365 packages, catering to government and nonprofit organizations as well.

To further enhance SharePoint Online, Microsoft has plans to introduce new functionalities aimed at improving intranet authoring, content creation, user engagement, and platform flexibility. Upcoming features include page co-authoring for real-time collaboration, enhanced page toolbar capabilities, and a content pane that will provide easy access to relevant authoring tools.

Since its debut in 2001, SharePoint has expanded to serve over 190 million users across 200,000 organizations globally, per Microsoft’s data. Throughout its existence, various versions have been released and evolved, with the first significant enterprise version launched as SharePoint 2010 Enterprise.

SharePoint Server 2010 was closely integrated with Microsoft Office and Active Directory. It enabled organizations to quickly develop and build websites without programming knowledge. The websites could then be used to manage collaboration tools such as document libraries, discussion boards, shared task lists, shared calendars, blogs, wikis and surveys.

SharePoint 2013 was released as a collaboration platform for customized webpages in November 2012. The initial release of SharePoint 2013 offered a simplified user experience, as well as new enterprise social media capabilities. The 2013 edition expanded upon previously offered capabilities for website management, including shared calendars, blogs, wikis, surveys, document libraries and shared task lists.

SharePoint 2013 also launched with a community forum for users to communicate with each other and categorize discussions. It included microblogging and enhanced search capabilities, as well as e-discovery functionality, claims-based authentication and mobile support. The business intelligence (BI) tools in SharePoint 2013 enabled users to organize goals and processes and create customizable data models, reports and dashboards.

SharePoint Server 2016 shared much of the same code as SharePoint Online. As a result, on-premises customers received the same support and performance capabilities for their SharePoint server farms because there were few architectural differences. SharePoint Server 2016 is now in Extended Support, which ends July 14, 2026.

SharePoint 2019 marked the final version of Microsoft’s SharePoint Server as a non-subscription product. This edition introduced more cloud-centric capabilities and hybrid architecture options. SharePoint Server 2019 is currently in Extended Support, which is set to conclude on July 14, 2026.

The SharePoint Server Subscription Edition represents the newest iteration in the SharePoint Server line, becoming the sole fully supported on-premises version and is anticipated to stay that way moving forward. This edition benefits from Microsoft’s contemporary engineering and support life cycle, receiving frequent updates and enhancements.

While SharePoint continues to dominate the document collaboration and management sector, it faces increasing competition from cloud-based services like Box and ClickUp, as well as Google Workspace. Additionally, platforms such as Sitecore, Atlassian Confluence, and WordPress offer alternatives in the web content management arena.

The broader landscape of collaboration software has expanded with the rise of other products like Salesforce Slack, Salesforce Chatter, and Aurea Jive. Microsoft responded to these market shifts in 2017 by launching its collaboration tool, Teams, enhancing the capabilities of SharePoint 2016. Teams continues to be integrated with SharePoint today.

Learn more about Microsoft SharePoint in this overview. Also, SharePoint integrates with several different collaboration tools. However, some businesses might find alternatives more useful, especially for easier migration to the cloud. Learn 10 alternatives to Microsoft SharePoint.