New features in SharePoint make it an even better way to encourage collaboration in your office.

Advanced Technology in SharePoint’s New Features

Microsoft has announced SharePoint spaces, bringing mixed reality to the platform. With SharePoint spaces, virtual reality and real reality combine to create an immersive environment, letting your team have new kinds of online experiences. The online world becomes a 360-degree world that can be explored, creating an exception tool for training and product development. Templates let you start building spaces easily.

Another enhancement to SharePoint is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize the data presented and tailor shared content to employees’ work needs. By learning how a user works within SharePoint, the AI is able to understand which of the content added to SharePoint is relevant and help users find the information they need to work effectively. AI is also built into Microsoft Flow, SharePoint’s default tool for business process automation.

SharePoint simplifies compliance tasks, too, with its new GDPR features. With built-in support for the new European data protection regulation, satisfying security and compliance requirements is easier than ever. If you’re still working through a transition to the cloud and Office 365, SharePoint provides support for hybrid environments and provides a migration tool in addition to its on-premises configuration.

Getting Started With SharePoint

Even for businesses that aren’t ready to incorporate virtual reality and AI into the workplace can benefit from a SharePoint site that helps employees share content and streamlines workflow.

Before you roll out a SharePoint intranet site, think about your long-term strategy. Your SharePoint site will likely grow over the years, and you can make it more effective and easier to manage if you have a vision in place before you get started. While departmental sites are useful, treating every department individually results in every department’s site having a different look-and-feel, making SharePoint harder for employees to use and reducing collaboration.

Don’t let SharePoint simply be a way to find files; take time to understand the business workflows and use SharePoint to streamline processes. Build an information architecture at the beginning to avoid having to spend time moving files later.

Evaluate whether you want to use SharePoint Online or on your premises. If you use SharePoint Online, decide whether your users will have separate identities in the cloud or whether you’ll use federated identities.

While SharePoint is easy to use, don’t leave your employees on their own with it. Plan time to train them in best practices.

Get Help With SharePoint

Make sure your SharePoint site is set up effectively with help from Prescient Solutions. Our SharePoint development services enable Chicago and Schaumburg-area businesses to build custom sites that support enterprise document management and collaboration. Contact us to get started with SharePoint.