Frequently, I receive requests along the lines of What can SharePoint do and how can it work for me? With endless possibilities and boundless optimism, SharePoint obviously has a great deal more to offer and the manner in which it is implemented and governed. You will also find mountain of articles and how to guides on the internet but my response almost always touch on the following areas. In this post I will share 8 easy ways that by themselves may not dramatically improve productivity, but combined can result in significant performance gains and hopefully help you leverage SharePoint functionality.

1. Lightening Lists
Swapping pinned-up paper lists in your work area with SharePoint lists can increase efficiency.
Tip: use out of the box available contact, task and custom list templates.
More Info: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/CH010372655.aspx

2. Fantastic Forms
Converting paper based forms to electronic form will save time and effort.
Tip: use MS Office InfoPath to design forms or convert Word, Excel or PDF to integrated SharePoint Form for quick distribution.
More Info: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/CH010372616.aspx

3. Amazing Alerts
Subscribing to many SharePoint libraries and lists via email or RSS feeds will help you access up to date information at the right time.
Tip: categorise the importance of your access to the information and choose immediate, daily or weekly alerting.
More Info: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/create-an-alert-or-subscribe-to-an-rss-feed-HA010378197.aspx?CTT=1

4. Categorising Content
We all know that too much content is hard to consume but its not easy to tell where its located.
Tip: using content types such as meeting minutes, project documents, issues, department reports will improve navigation and search.
More Info: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/CH010372670.aspx

5. Discovering Data
Chances are that your organisation have key corporate data such as HR, Finance and Service Management. Integrating SharePoint lists with these datasets will guide you to better insights and reusability of your organisation’s data.
Tip: use Business Connectivity Service to configure external lists and external content types with your libraries, lists and reports.
More Info: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ee661740(office.14).aspx

6. Wizardry Workflow
For your site content (libraries or lists) It is easier than you think to configure task based approval within a browser.
Tip: use document approval and task allocation workflows to handle information effectively.
More Info: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/CH010372671.aspx

7. Visible View
Your SharePoint library or list may have many items forcing you to scroll down and navigate number of pages resulting in loss of time and staring longer on screen.
Tip: use views to display data with your choice of selected columns, filters, sorting, grouping and item limits.
More Info: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/CH010372657.aspx

8. Web Widgets
Adding web parts to pages in SharePoint sites will enable new functionality while keeping the pages lively and relevant.
Tip: access the web part gallery consisting of site content areas, personalisation, business data, content aggregator and filters.
More Info: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/CH010374342.aspx

I hope you found this post useful and happy SharePointing!

Published by Chirag Patel @techChirag

Chirag is an independent Microsoft 365 consultant at Patel Consulting, and Microsoft MVP (Office & Apps Services), based in UK with more than 20 years of industry experience. He is also a BCS (British Computer Society) Member & Chartered IT Professional, Microsoft 365 Certified Enterprise Administrator Expert, MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer) and TOGAF9 Certified Architect. He works with a wide variety of clients in many sectors, designing and implementing business collaboration, data and information management solutions and services based on Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Microsoft 365 technologies, Power Platform to create business value for both themselves and their customers, including UK Microsoft Gold Partners with deployment, upgrade and migration services delivery. Chirag is an active Microsoft 365 community participant, frequent speaker at local and international events including Microsoft 365 Saturdays, Power Saturdays, SharePoint Saturdays, Collab365, TeamsFest, Modern Workplace Summit and Scottish Summit. You can follow Chirag on twitter at @techChirag. View all posts by Chirag Patel @techChirag