Your Introductory Guide To SharePoint Online

Your Introductory Guide to SharePoint Online

Brought to you by Rosy King @ Corporate Training Options

Your Introductory Guide to SharePoint Online

In the years the CTO team has been working with and teaching SharePoint, I’ve finally got around to writing this well overdue article and guide to SharePoint Online.

Okay so let’s dig in.

The current version is Microsoft SharePoint Online, which I’ll focus on here.

SharePoint Online in a Nutshell

SharePoint is a platform for cloud-based content management and document storage. It’s not a tool like Excel or Word, it’s a cloud-based server – an internal company directory containing all the information, resources and files you need to perform any project or task.

Previously used mainly by larger enterprises, Microsoft has now made SharePoint more accessible and simplified, as part of Microsoft 365.  If you need online document sharing and collaboration, then SharePoint is for you.

What is SharePoint Used For?

Good question.  SharePoint has been a crucial “Intranet” Microsoft platform for nearly two decades. You can collaborate and create standardised business systems with team members. Choose who you share and edit documents with, work on ad-hoc projects and record data, which increases your businesses productivity, communication and efficiency.

It allows you to store documents more effectively than saving files in traditional folder systems, so people in-house and externally can share, edit and receive files and information essential to them.

SharePoint -v- OneDrive

It would seem that SharePoint and OneDrive perform a similar role.  So what’s the difference?  Basically, SharePoint focusses on sharing files within groups or teams.  Anyone within the team has the ability to edit the files.  OneDrive is more of a personal storage option, where you can store your own files outside of the group storage facility.

Where does Microsoft Teams fit?

Teams and SharePoint are two different platforms.  SharePoint is a collaboration platform and a place for content sharing and document storage.  Basically, SharePoint is the site which holds all the content, documents and files, for your organisation.  However, it does not provide you with communication.  That’s where Teams comes in.

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based communication tool. It is a great alternative to email, allowing you to meet and chat online, share files quickly, and be part of various Teams and Channels.

Microsoft Teams and SharePoint work together with Microsoft 365 Groups.  Every Microsoft Team automatically has a SharePoint team site associated with it, where channel documents are stored.  Users don’t have to leave Teams to work on their files – they appear in the Files tab.

Some of the benefits of using Microsoft SharePoint

Work on documents at the same time as others

With SharePoint you can work on documents at the same time as others, using the document library.  Simply open the document library and click on the file you want to edit.  You’ll be able to see if other people are editing the file as well, in the top right-hand side of the file name.

Create and modify team sites

With Microsoft 365, you can create a site from the SharePoint home page, and it automatically creates a group. You can edit and share pages with others in your organisation or outside your business, such as a client.

Security

Within today’s modern organisations, data security is everything.  And Microsoft SharePoint Online has some of the best security functions available.

When you make the move to SharePoint Online it’s a great idea to apply SharePoint Security Groups with corresponding permissions.  It’s considered best practice to always have individuals as part of SharePoint Security groups and not individually assigned to a site.  Within Security Groups you can centralise various verticals of groups of users from within your organisation, then use these groups to maintain security on your SharePoint site.

With Microsoft 365 when you create a Group, it creates a security group tied to various Microsoft 365 apps like Planner, Teams and Outlook.  This membership group allows teams to collaborate using the various apps tied to it.

Some of the other great security functions in SharePoint

• The “Check out function.” This stops other people editing your documents
• The notifications feature, which notifies you when document edits are made or uploaded
• You also can create workflows and automate various actions. These can include emailing files and documents and recording specific information.

Sharing Files and Sites

As long as you have permission, you can share files and sites via SharePoint. The benefit of this is that you can share sites and data files in or out of your organisation reasonably easily.

Creating Lists

Want a central location where you and your team members can add all kinds of data and fields such as text, or images that you can format?  Then be able to search and filter to find the specific data or information you need?

A list in SharePoint gives you these functions and capabilities and more. A list in SharePoint can also link people, dates and tracking history, and you can automate the entire process with Power Automate.

Three Critical Steps to Introduce Microsoft SharePoint Online into Your Organisation

 Preparation

The preparation before learning and starting to use SharePoint Online is essential. You need to determine why you need SharePoint and what tasks you and your team will be using SharePoint for.

Implementation

Getting started with the SharePoint Online software isn’t all that difficult. It’s migrating it into your business that’s the tricky part. You could seek the services of a consultant to help you with this, or your IT department if you have one.  Remember to discuss the implementation with your team.  Training is recommended after implementing SharePoint Online into your organisation.

Training your Team in SharePoint

Many organisations implement new software such as SharePoint Online and then fumble their way through it, learning as they go. This is time-intensive, frustrating and tedious, and in the big picture, unproductive.

To implement SharePoint Online successfully into your business, training your staff in the basics of how to use SharePoint correctly is vital.

So that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed this Guide to SharePoint Online and learning some of the basics of using the SharePoint tools in your organisation.

What do our customers say?

The SharePoint training was extremely useful, in particular the ability to run through some of the examples and specifics that relate to our processes.

Karen, Lion Dairy & Drinks, Melbourne 

Our CTO trainer was very interactive in imparting the Microsoft SharePoint training content.  Really enjoyed it!

Rudolf, Accenture Australia

Your Guide to SharePoint Online – Introduction Training

When it comes to training in SharePoint Online, Corporate Training Options can provide you with both introductory and advanced courses, presented online or onsite at your workplace.

If you’re ready to learn the basics of SharePoint Online, or ready to upgrade your Microsoft 365 skills in other areas, contact CTO today for friendly, professional advice.

We’ll discuss your specific needs and tailor a training course to suit your requirements.

Why Choose Corporate Training Options?

• Your Trainers are certified experts who are real-world practitioners
• The courses are interactive, well organised and fun – making it easier for you to learn
• Small workshop groups mean each trainee will receive individual attention and can be confident about the skills gained
• Our complimentary trainer consultation before your training ensures your objectives will be met
• CTO is a Business Excellence Award-winning company