Is your organization getting the most out of SharePoint? SharePoint is one of the most powerful collaboration and content management platforms on the market and is relied upon by companies and organizations all over the world, to bring teams together, share and manage documents, and increase productivity.
Even though SharePoint has an extensive amount of features available to users, many organizations are unable to take full advantage of these capabilities. Oftentimes, this is due to a lack of internal skills and/or a lack of strategic vision for SharePoint. This is where your SharePoint Consultant will be a very valuable resource to your organization.
An SharePoint expert for business will work with you to identify how to best utilize SharePoint’s features based on your organization’s needs, thereby unlocking hidden efficiencies, increasing adoption, and bringing success to your organization in using SharePoint.
Understanding SharePoint’s Core Capabilities
SharePoint is a versatile platform that allows for document management, collaboration, intranet portal creation, workflow automation, and business intelligence. A SharePoint consultant for document management streamline file organization, improve access controls, and implement automated workflows across departments. Not to forget, SharePoint connects tightly into Microsoft 365 and allows you to leverage the productivity-enhancing capabilities of tools like Teams, Outlook, and OneDrive.
More specifically, SharePoint allows organizations to bring content under one roof, manage access to that content, and ensure that teams and departments are working with the accurate version of that content. SharePoint can be customized to support different types of solutions across different industries.
Want to trust SharePoint consulting for digital transformation? Its flexibility allows you to tailor SharePoint solutions to the business processes that make sense to your organization. Certainly, its scalability allows you to support business solutions with SharePoint for everyone from small businesses to multi-national corporations, which makes it a strategic platform for long term digital growth.
Common SharePoint Challenges Faced by Organizations
- When organizations do not strategically implement SharePoint, usage is often low and use cases tend to be undefined.
- Poor information architecture makes it difficult for contents to be navigated and searched for effectively.
- The lack of appropriate governance and security settings and protocols exposes organizations to compliance risk and breaches of privacy.
- Disorganized content and inconsistency in workflows create chaos and put a dent in productivity.
- Using DIY configuration or non-certified IT contractors exposes organizations to poorly-configured environments, leading to long-term maintenance and migration issues.
- SharePoint as a collaborative platform. However, its implementation, without proper guidance, may likely go unexplored.
What a SharePoint Consultant Brings to the Table?
A SharePoint Consultant combines deep technical depth and business acumen to unlock the full potential of SharePoint for clients. They have a deep understanding of features on the platform, customization, and best practices to build solutions that address specific business goals.
Hire SharePoint consultant who can analyze business needs using a detailed needs assessment. They analyze existing workflows, determine the pain points, and develop a thorough understanding of user needs to build a SharePoint environment that is optimized for user performance, scalability, and security. They implement intuitive architecture and user interfaces help drive the adoption of SharePoint and improve user productivity. They also develop training plans and ongoing support needs to ensure that users adopt SharePoint confidently.
Consultants at a SharePoint consulting company utilize Power Automate and the Power Platform to develop custom workflows through automation to reduce manual effort and mistakes. They understand the SharePoint governance framework. They can implement that governance framework to ensure they are securing content, managing permissions, and complying with regulation.
SharePoint consultants can plan and manage the migration of legacy and/ or older SharePoint environments to a new version of SharePoint without interrupting day-to-day activities. Finally, business SharePoint consultants leverage SharePoint to create a deployable, efficient, and strategic solution for the organization.
Key Business Benefits of Hiring a SharePoint Consultant
- Improved Productivity: Employees can spend less time looking for information, and more time acting on it.
- Improved Collaboration: Real-time file sharing, co-authoring, team sites.
- Improved Operational Efficiency: Automation of processes reduces manual work and mistakes.
- Improved Scalability: Systems expand as your company grows.
- Improved Security & Compliance: Established governance reduces risks and increases adherence to regulations.
- Improved Decision-Making: Dashboards and report tools allow for better data-based decision-making.
Real-world Benefits Of Working With A SharePoint Consultant
- Changing and Upgrading Intranet: A consultant created an attractive, branded intranet that centralized information and resources and improved internal communication across departments, employees were able to engage and find information. The organization hired a SharePoint intranet consultant for Teams to streamline internal communication and enhance collaboration across departments.
- Overhauling Document Management: For a legal firm, a consultant restructured its document libraries, created metadata tagging, and incorporated version control, to save significant time for employees while providing enhanced capabilities to track the approval of documents and compliance for audits.
- Automating Workflows: Using Power Automate, the consultant automated the HR onboarding process, which reduced manual work commonly undertaken, standardized onboarding and ensured policies across new hires.
- Migration from Legacy Systems: A legacy document management system was effectively migrated to SharePoint online with minimal legacy data or loss of integrity, downtime, employees were able to work on documents or use cloud enabled collaboration.
Choosing the Right SharePoint Consultant
Choosing a SharePoint Consultant means everything when implementing SharePoint. Take into consideration the following attributes when assessing potential SharePoint consultants:
- Experience and Credentials: A SharePoint consultant should be either Microsoft-certified or a Microsoft partner. Experience is critical to review their project portfolio, and assess if they have completed similar projects in your industry.
- Licensing and Work Examples: Reviewing assessments of previous projects or testimonials can go a long way in assessing client satisfaction and final outcomes. Where possible, get firsthand accounts of their work.
- Customization Skills: Choosing a SharePoint workflow improvement consultant who can customize the SharePoint functionality according to your specific workflow, business processes, and business goals is important.
- Training & Support: A good SharePoint consultant will also provide post-implementation SharePoint support services, user training and onboarding, and appropriate documentation.
Final Thoughts: Long-Term Value Over Short-Term Costs
You may consider hiring a SharePoint Consultant to be a futile upfront investment, however, the beneficial impact of hiring a consultant greatly outweighs the costs. The productivity enhancement, workflow improvements, compliance, and scalability all reach the highest point to gain favorable ROI over time. The Microsoft SharePoint Consultant will assist you and your organization in taking SharePoint from just a document repository to a powerful business tool! The aim is to help employees to work and collaborate in more efficient ways, and provide an innovative experience.
Unlock SharePoint’s full potential with custom SharePoint consulting, with the Right Support!
Optimize your investment leveraging the tailored SharePoint Consulting Services available from NGS Solutions. We have SharePoint solutions’ partners who can assist you with anything from streamlining business processes, collaborating with employees, or modernizing your digital workplace!
Contact us today to schedule a personalized consultation and for NGS Solutions to help you realize the potential of SharePoint in making a competitive advantage for your organization!
FAQs
- What Does A SharePoint Development Consultant Do?
A SharePoint development consultant helps businesses design, implement, and manage SharePoint solutions. They customize the platform to fit company needs, streamline document management, automate workflows, and improve internal communication.
- Why Hire A SharePoint Consultant For Your Business?
Hiring a SharePoint consultant ensures expert guidance in setting up and optimizing SharePoint, saving time and resources. They help avoid costly mistakes, boost productivity, and tailor the system to enhance your business processes.
- How A SharePoint Consultant Can Improve Collaboration?
A SharePoint consultant improves collaboration by creating centralized document libraries, enabling real-time co-authoring, setting up team sites for easy communication, and automating notifications and workflows to keep everyone aligned.
