Posts Taged sharepoint-development

SharePoint Online: A great tool for Small and Medium Enterprise

November 2, 2014 Tags: , , , Stewart Dawes

SharePoint Online is a Microsoft cloud service included as part of Office 365 or separately as SharePoint Online. It provides a comprehensive framework for integrating internal communications, content management, document management and enterprise search working seamlessly with Microsoft Office products.

SharePoint Online is tremendous value for business with 2-10 employees as it addresses the price point issue, it offers enterprise level software on per user per month subscription. It includes several features perfect for small or medium size businesses as it can grow with your business and does not require an upfront investment in infrastructure or licenses.

Reasons why SharePoint Online is great for Small and Medium Enterprise
1. SharePoint Online requires minimal startup costs. SharePoint Online does not sit on your own servers, does not require an enterprise license, and does not require Client Access Licenses (CALs). The cost structure is simple and does not include the hardware needed. Also, if your company is a nonprofit, you might get a significant discount from your local SharePoint and Office 365 partner.
2. Ease of Deployment – there is a significant amount of development needed up-front for your SharePoint implementation but anyone with basic HTML experience will be able to create and maintain pages. It is easy to customize the entire site with colors and fonts. There is no need to install and configure SharePoint like you would need to on your own server, it comes pre-configured with a single site collection ready to go, out-of-the-box.
3. SharePoint is best to be used as database – it allow organizations to create spaces online to upload and share important documents. SharePoint Online enables your employees to access their documents from anywhere using any mobile device. It’s particularly useful when your employees need to work remotely or from home.
4. Easy integration with existing system, the possibilities are almost endless with SharePoint online. It removes the need to email documents around or keep multiple versions of the same file – the old versions of a document are always available.
5. SharePoint Online in Office 365 now includes the ability to operate a simple public facing website. This allows you to build a very simple website using SharePoint. It’s particularly of great value to small businesses currently without a web presence. With SharePoint Online, your employees can create mini-sites and use them to share documents securely over the internet.
6. SharePoint Online (and Office 365) makes it easier to collaborate with suppliers and customers, which increase the ease of communication between businesses. This result in more business and return on investment.
7. SharePoint Online makes a low cost and simple option for creating and managing your company’s intranet. The tools for managing content are simple to use and familiar to all Microsoft Office users. Your tech savvy users can make use of more sophisticated features like content query web parts, calendar apps, news and announcements.
8. The licensing model of Office 365 and SharePoint Online, allows SMBs to just pay a fixed price per month for the number of users that are working on their SharePoint Online environment. If the business grows then they can just purchase more user licenses against a fixed price per month. So at the end, the price is very low for the use of an enterprise platform. The bottom line is that Office 365 lets Small and Medium Businesses have access to an Enterprise Platform at SMB Pricing.

Large or small, every business has a different way of working. WebVine can tailor a SharePoint solution to meet the modern needs of your business, your demographic and your industry. Contact WebVine today on 1800 022 990 for a free SharePoint consultation.

Sharepoint Development

November 14, 2013 Tags: , , Stewart Dawes
sharepoint development sydney

sharepoint development sydney

What the heck is Sharepoint and how can your company use it? We speak to Sydney-based Sharepoint developer and consultant Marcus Dervin, director of WebVine, about its uses …

By Catherine Blum

When did you first get interested in the internet and technology? Did you do a course in web technology? What course was it and where did you do it?

I completed my uni degree in 1994 and started working for Apple in 1995. That’s where I discovered Netscape 1.0 and the Internet. No-one even spoke about it in Ireland (where I am from) at the time, and I think there were only 50,000 websites at that time. I was enthralled, chatting to people from around the world, building my first website, it was really exciting

Were there other sharing applications that you were initially interested in or worked with before you discovered SharePoint?

I worked with all the usual web applications – dreamweaver, photoshop and then worked with a lot of CMS products – Vignette, Kentico, WordPress, Joomla etc.

What are some of  SharePoint’s best characteristics compared to other applications in its industry?

There’s no other application that quite compares with SharePoint for its broad range and depth. It’s a platform more than an application, as you can develop applications on it as well as use its many features.

Document management, business intelligence, content management, search, forms, workflows, Sharepoint has it all.

What size companies can benefit from using SharePoint?

I think to get the most from sharepoint, rather than just using it for documents, you really need to run an intranet on it with automated processes, dashboards etc so a company with at least 30 staff upwards.

Does it require training to use it? How much staff training is required to get people working on it?

General users do not need training, its like visiting any website. But authors need training, no more than half-day, and power users would need 2-3 days.

What is a typical scenario for a company using SharePoint e.g. how do they use it?

It’s the home page when staff open their browser, and typically has company news, a staff directory, HR section with ability to apply for leave. It can have social information, there’s no end to the content that can go on sharepoint.

Then many companies use it for document management, so all of their documents are stored there rather than on the share drive.

The benefits of this are many – version control (it keeps a history of changes so you don’t need to duplicate files), email a link to a document instead of attaching the document (so not creating more copies), using search and metadata to find documents rather than a million nested folders – and more.

Then you have forms and workflows for automating processes, so instead of using paper forms to get things approved, you get forms on the intranet, tasks are sent to the appropriate people to approve and go to the next stage. This can cater for complex processes or simple ones.

Some companies then start using Business Intelligence features, displaying information from other systems into SharePoint in a dashboard, so management can see how sales are going – without anyone preparing reports, even if it’s from another system altogether.

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Sharepoint Development

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