What are SharePoint's abilities?
SharePoint is a Microsoft web application that enables collaboration through project management or task coordination, social networks such as personal web pages, team web pages, discussion groups and blogs, content management through document management capabilities, content management, metadata and customized search capabilities and business applications.
SharePoint seamlessly integrates with Dynamics 365 and other Microsoft software to serve as a universal document management platform.
Two versions with different functionalities of SharePoint are available – SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online. SharePoint Server can be installed locally on your company’s IT infrastructure in Standard and Enterprise editions and receives updates less frequently, but is more flexible to adapt to your company’s needs.
The cloud version hosted by Microsoft is usually included in Microsoft 365 subscriptions, but can also be purchased separately. SharePoint Online has the advantage of providing redundancy to your company’s server system landscape, but lacks the customization options of a self-hosted installation of SharePoint. The two product versions are identical in the areas of collaboration, document and content management as well as hosting and the synchronization of files. However, as is typical with Microsoft’s cloud products, the SharePoint Online version receives updates and associated new features much more frequently.
SharePoint’s core features are:
Sites as customizable websites through which SharePoint’s features are accessed.
Communities allows your organization to set up and use personal websites (mySites) and social media (wikis, forums, websites / calendars for teams).
Content provides the ability to version control your documents and create viewing and approval processes – so it’s equivalent to a classic DMS.
Search is the search function in Sharepoint – search across folders, files, documents, etc. and then filter and sort results.
Composites offers the option of compiling SharePoint components on websites, seamlessly integrating Office and other applications there, visualizing them and working with them from SharePoint. Additional design options are available through SharePoint Designer and InfoPath.
Insights, again as known from the D365 software, titles the function of aggregating data from different sources, displaying it graphically and making it available for people in your organization to make data-based decisions.