SharePoint has become a cornerstone of modern business operations, providing powerful tools for collaboration, document management, and workflow automation. However, many organizations struggle to fully realize the potential of their SharePoint investment. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to optimize your existing SharePoint environment, the key lies in leveraging the platform’s capabilities to align with your business goals.
In this blog, we’ll explore strategies for maximizing your SharePoint investment, drawing from our experience as a managed services provider specializing in SharePoint consulting and development.
1. Understand Your Business Needs
The first step in maximizing your SharePoint investment is to clearly define your business objectives. SharePoint is a versatile platform that can be customized to meet various needs—from team collaboration and document management to enterprise search and business process automation. However, without a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, it’s easy to get lost in the platform’s many features.
Start by identifying the specific pain points in your organization that SharePoint can address. Are you looking to improve document management and reduce reliance on email for sharing files? Do you need a better way to collaborate across departments or with external partners? Or perhaps you’re seeking to automate routine workflows to boost efficiency?
Once your goals are defined, a SharePoint consultant can help you tailor the platform to meet these needs, ensuring that your investment directly contributes to your business’s success.
2. Leverage Customization and Development
One of SharePoint’s greatest strengths is its ability to be customized to suit the unique needs of your organization. While out-of-the-box features offer a good starting point, the real value of SharePoint often lies in its customization and development capabilities.
Custom development allows you to create tailored solutions that integrate seamlessly with your existing systems, automate complex business processes, and provide a user-friendly experience that drives adoption. According to a Forrester study commissioned by Microsoft, organizations that invested in custom SharePoint solutions reported a 171% return on investment (ROI) over three years, with improved productivity and reduced costs being the primary drivers.
Working with a managed services provider that specializes in SharePoint development, like BCS365, ensures that your customizations are designed, implemented, and maintained according to best practices, providing long-term value for your business.
3. Focus on User Adoption and Training
Even the most well-designed SharePoint environment won’t deliver results if your employees aren’t using it effectively. User adoption is critical to realizing the full potential of your SharePoint investment. To drive adoption, focus on creating an intuitive, user-friendly experience that aligns with how your teams work.
Training is also essential. Many employees are familiar with basic SharePoint functions but may not be aware of the more advanced features that can enhance their productivity. Regular training sessions and workshops can help users get the most out of SharePoint, empowering them to take full advantage of the platform’s capabilities.
According to Gartner, a well-implemented adoption strategy can increase the effective use of SharePoint by up to 50%, leading to better collaboration and higher employee satisfaction.
4. Optimize for Performance and Scalability
As your organization grows, so will your SharePoint environment. Ensuring that your SharePoint instance is optimized for performance and scalability is crucial to maintaining a smooth user experience. This involves regular monitoring, maintenance, and upgrades to keep your environment running efficiently.
A managed services provider can help by offering ongoing support and proactive management. This includes everything from performance tuning and capacity planning to security updates and compliance checks. By optimizing your SharePoint environment, you’ll not only improve performance but also extend the life of your investment, ensuring it continues to meet your business’s needs as it evolves.
5. Integrate SharePoint with Other Business Tools
SharePoint’s true power is realized when it’s integrated with other tools in your organization’s tech stack. Whether it’s Microsoft 365, Teams, Power BI, or third-party applications, seamless integration enhances collaboration and data flow across your organization.
By working with a managed services provider, you can ensure that these integrations are set up correctly, providing a unified experience for your users. For example, integrating SharePoint with Microsoft Teams can streamline communication and file sharing, while connecting SharePoint with Power BI can provide powerful data insights directly within your SharePoint environment.
6. Continuous Improvement and Innovation
Finally, to get the most from your SharePoint investment, it’s important to embrace a mindset of continuous improvement. SharePoint is constantly evolving, with new features and updates being released regularly. Staying up to date with these changes and incorporating them into your environment can help you stay ahead of the curve.
A managed services provider, like BCS365, can assist by keeping your SharePoint environment current with the latest updates and features. Additionally, they can provide strategic guidance on how to leverage new capabilities to drive further business value.
Conclusion
Maximizing your SharePoint investment requires more than just implementing the platform—it requires a strategic approach that aligns with your business goals, focuses on user adoption, and leverages the platform’s full potential through customization, optimization, and integration.
By partnering with a managed services provider that specializes in SharePoint consulting and development, you can ensure that your SharePoint environment is not only a tool for collaboration but a driver of innovation and efficiency in your organization.
Ready to get more from your SharePoint investment? Let’s start the conversation.