Item: Microsoft SharePoint
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use MS SharePoint in a variety of ways. First, it is an excellent shared file depository. You can collaborate with people across campus by placing the file in SharePoint and allowing the people on the team on which you are working access. Thanks to the capabilities of office you can all edit the document in a single place and don't have to worry about people downloading their own copies and different revisions developing. We also use this feature as a sort of wiki to show changes over time. I also use the calendar feature quite a bit. It is helpful for tracking past events and planning those in the future. The color coding features are nice so you can run parallel calendars over top of one another. The last feature I like is setting up a landing page or home page that you can use to keep people that maybe don't use the SharePoint site as regularly up to date on the project or area that you have developed.

Pros and Cons

The calendar features are quite robust.
Document storage is a breeze.
Live document editing is simple.
Organizing information and creating a structure is done in a way even novice users can manage with little assistance.

It does take some work to get your setup to be as graphical as modern design tends to be.
Overlapping calendars are great but they do take some time investment to create.
Depending on how many project or teams you work with it can get a little overwhelming to have so many different groupings.

Return on Investment

It is certainly a time saver.
You can likely stop paying for other tools if you are willing to move to the SharePoint platform.
If you are considering a remote office it will help support dispersed users.

Alternatives Considered

Trello, Google Drive and OneDrive

I think that MS SharePoint is a more robust and well integrated tool than other products. Because it lives in the Microsoft universe it likely integrates to the other software products you already have very easily. Most users will not have trouble adopting it as the UI is familar.

Key Insights

Do you think Microsoft SharePoint delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft SharePoint's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft SharePoint live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft SharePoint go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft SharePoint again?

Yes

Other Software Used

PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, OnBase by Hyland

Likelihood to Recommend

If you work with teams of people and need a good way to work collaboratively that I would easily recommend MS SharePoint. It makes working remotely a breeze. You can share, save, store, and edit files live with any users on your team. You can keep on track with project calendars. It is a great tool for project management and planning.

It might not be a great tool for an organization that already has a solution for data sharing and a robust planning program. If you are using something like Jira or Trello you may have some of these pieces already. I think SharePoint is well suited to do a lot of things very well but it may be redundant if you have solutions for some of these problems already. If you have a staff that is more functional and less techy then you will probably want to have at least one or two staff members that are proficient enough to run the SharePoint and keep it cleaned up.

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Product Features
Product Usability

MS SharePoint, A robust and user friendly product

Overall Satisfaction with MS SharePoint