The Internet is changing the way businesses work. No longer do your employees need to be sitting together around a table to work on a project as a team. Managers don’t need to micromanage their employees to ensure projects are being completed on time. The status of any given project can be tracked as it’s being completed without the need of a status report from an employee. Businesses are being revolutionized by the freedom they’re able to offer their employees through technology.

In order to make these changes, though, businesses have to be willing to change the way work gets done. They have to embrace the opportunities technology can offer them. In order to truly do that, they need to do more than simply have Wi-Fi available to their employees. They need to find ways to facilitate a work environment that allows for work to get done in a timely manner. This is where programs like Microsoft SharePoint come into play.

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is a program designed by Microsoft to assist in project management, among many other tasks. It’s a web-based application, so you can have access to it from anywhere and at any time you have Internet access. It’s highly adaptable to many business practices today, as it’s based on and closely integrated with the Microsoft Office suite, some portion of which you probably use every day in your office. It’s designed to streamline workflow by keeping project-based communication in one location that everyone has access to. There’s no more need for several email strings and the chance of leaving someone out of an important email. By focusing communication within a project, work can get done quickly, efficiently and without constant status updates.

What does SharePoint Do?

Frankly, SharePoint does just about anything that can help people work together. SharePoint allows you to build communities, which are often job or project based. You can include whomever you need to in these communities. This ensures that you have all shareholders involved where they need to be, without bogging down the schedules or inboxes of those who aren’t necessary. You can set up specific websites to share information with other people. You can manage and oversee documents from conception to their completion. If your business has specific needs that aren’t being met otherwise, you can develop your own applications in SharePoint to effectively meet them.

How do I implement SharePoint?

Implementing SharePoint in your business is as easy as obtaining the correct client license for your business and creating accounts for your employees. After training your employees on the ins and outs of SharePoint, you’ll be up and running. Keep in mind, though, that unless you have an IT department to help you handle some of the designing and programming required in SharePoint, it may not be an easy transition. While SharePoint is very end-user friendly, it does require some programming experience to really get all of the best benefits out of it for you. If you have a smaller business without a dedicated IT department, consider having a third-party company host your SharePoint processes. While there may be an upfront cost associated with it, you’ll quickly make up your money in seeing streamlined project management.