Before getting started on the technical tasks associated with managing and working with SharePoint content, it is important to understand the purpose and common usage scenarios for the technology.
Organizational stakeholders often suffer from what’s been termed information overload. Because computers play such an integral part in any business, not surprisingly, more and more of the information that is created, consumed, and shared in an organization is digital. The more business that you have and the more successful your business, the more information you have to manage. Usually, you have some form of document for just about every process and transaction that plays out during the day-to-day operation in your company. From proposals to legal documents, from sales receipts to human resource policy documentation, the amount of information required to function is staggering.
To manage your information overload, SharePoint offers tools with which you can build business applications to better store, share, and manage digital information. With it, you can create lists, libraries, and websites for your various company teams to help run your business processes more efficiently.
What is Portal Technology?
A corporate portal is a gateway through which members can access business information and, if set up properly, should be the first place an employee goes to access anything of importance. Portals differ from regular websites in that they are customized specifically around a business process. In SharePoint, a portal may actually consist of numerous websites, with information stored either directly on those sites or in other systems, such as fileshares, business applications, or a regular Internet website. Because making informed business decisions is key to becoming and remaining successful, it’s important that the information you place on a portal is secure, up-to-date, and easily accessible. Because a business’s marketplace may span the globe, an organization also needs to have the information that reflects the needs of employees from multiple specific regions.
As an example, consider a new employee who has just joined an organization. In addition to learning her new job responsibilities, this employee must quickly get up-to-speed on the various company processes and policies. A good portal should provide all the company reference and policy information that the employee needs to review as well as links to all the information systems and websites that employee needs to do her job. Information should be stored in easy-to-browse locations, based on subject or topic. In situations where the location of a document or information is not obvious, the employee should be able to type words into a search box and receive suggestions. The employee should also be able to share information with others. In many ways, a good portal should act as a table of contents for all the information and websites related to an organization or topic.
