Results

The Vancouver Olympics offered great opportunities to see the power of teamwork in action. If you watched teams go for the gold, you probably recognized the training and commitment that went into the effort. What you may not have recognized is what had to happen behind the scenes to allow athletes, trainers, managers and support staff to achieve the Olympic dream – the same things that need to happen inside a growing company that wants to be at the top of its game.

Fortunately, today’s technology makes it easier than ever for small- and medium-sized businesses to streamline work, improve collaboration and boost profits. One of the best examples of this is the recent availability of hosted Windows SharePoint software. SharePoint’s benefits used to be reserved for large companies that could afford costly licenses and infrastructure. Here’s a look at how the more affordable hosted SharePoint solution levels the playing field for growing businesses:

Better Customer Service
SharePoint can be used to streamline workflow with clients and vendors. Clients can be kept up to date on work progress and given controlled access to the SharePoint system to improve response times and communications. Vendors can post invoices and receive updates on payment status. SharePoint’s automation reduces the manual time needed to manage accounts and streamlines accounts receivable, enhancing cash flow.

Enhanced Collaboration and Communication
Even companies with just a handful of employees often have remote workers and frequent travelers on staff. SharePoint helps them work more efficiently and effectively. Ultimately, better communication and coordination equals a better quality product or service and improved customer service. This, in turn, leads to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. Here’s an example of SharePoint capabilities that benefit the bottom line:

• Team members in any location can share a virtual workplace that mimics how they might work if they were in the next cubicle. They can share task lists, files, calendars, RSS feeds, contact information and more. Even better, the workspaces are completely customizable. Each department can design its own space based on project requirements. Efficient remote work helps to keep costs in line by reducing redundant work, travel costs, and errors.
• SharePoint allows teams to keep all communications and work materials for a project in one location so everyone on the project has access to the same information. Documents can be tracked by version and users can check them in and out so everyone knows who is working on them. Team members can communicate through discussion boards, rather than long email strings that are difficult to track.
• SharePoint helps with workflow management, breaking tasks into a series of steps – including ‘if/then’ operations – that allow work to keep flowing as the users who own each step update their status.
• SharePoint can also be used to create a central meeting ground for the entire organization, giving everyone access to the same information. This ensures that employees are armed with the information they need to give customers a positive, consistent experience with your brand.
• When multiple people work on documents, it can be difficult to know which computer, server or flash drive holds the most recent version. This wastes time and only gets worse when people start emailing documents as attachments, spreading them to other drives and networks. SharePoint eliminates these problems by allowing users to ‘check out’ documents to work on them and check them back in when they’re done. Only one user can have modification rights at any time and historical versions can be saved.

Enhanced Security
Data protection is a key concern for companies and hosted SharePoint includes many safety features to help companies protect their assets. Group administrators can easily slice and dice access to documents and information based on each user’s specific needs. And because users are working in a single, secure place, each user’s activity becomes part of a shared project history. With less work happening outside of the workspace, companies don’t have to worry as much about an email attachment being sent to the wrong person or sensitive information leaking out.

Interested in learning more about hosted SharePoint solutions? Contact Data Balance today at 727-532-0603.