Five things you can create with SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online is a powerful cloud-based service that can be used alone or in combination with Microsoft 365 or other cloud-based services. In this article we look at the main use cases for SharePoint Online.

1. Intranets

SharePoint Online provides organisations with a central location to store and share corporate information. The service includes tools for creating and managing news and announcements, events, calendars, organisation charts, people directories, quick links, FAQs, blogs, learning material, and media galleries.

Intranet content can be personalised for users based on their location, role or other attribute. On top of this, SharePoint Online provides robust search functionality which is essential for any intranet.

2. Document and records management

SharePoint Online can be used to manage documents throughout their lifecycle, from creation to storage to versioning to archiving.

Version history keeps previous versions of a document without cluttering your document storage and you can review and restore any previous version at any time.

SharePoint also provides a seamless sync with Office 365 applications.

Documents can be easily shared with individual people or teams and protected form unauthorised access.

With SharePoint Online you can also leverage the power of Microsoft Purview to safeguard and govern your information effectively. Some of the key features include:

• retention labels and policies that allow you to comply with legal and industry standards by retaining and disposing of information in line with legislative industry requirements.
• information protection capabilities that assist you in identifying and classifying sensitive information and automatically securing it through encryption.

3. Collaboration

SharePoint Online offers a central place for group and company-wide collaboration. It includes features such as task lists, calendars, and document sharing.

The co-authoring feature lets multiple users collaborate on documents in real-time and can be easily extended by connecting Microsoft Project and Microsoft Teams.

4. Workflow applications

SharePoint Online supports the ability to create custom workflow applications. These applications can automate tasks such as approvals, notifications, and task assignments. Workflow applications can be created using the built-in workflow designer or by using third-party workflow software.

5. Knowledge management

SharePoint Online comes with built-in capabilities that helps users to capture, organise and share accumulated knowledge within an organisation. Information can be easily searched by keyword and metadata and there are tools for knowledge administration and governance.

Summary

These are the five main use cases for SharePoint Online that help organisations and businesses of different sizes to communicate, collaborate, manage their documents and knowledge, and automate business processes.