Singing the SharePoint Song at C4DI
/We use SharePoint at work. All the modules that we teach (and lots more besides) have SharePoint sites that contain notes, coursework and other useful stuff. It works for me.
It works for Simon and Steve too. Tonight at the C4DI Software Development Meetup they gave a presentation which started with a song. (something I've never dared do) and then went on to lay out, in well structured detail, just how much you can do with this platform.
Things that came out of the talk for me:
- SharePoint an "everything machine". You can use it to share data, you can use it to manage process, you can use it to present stuff. And lots of other things too. It will provide 90% of the features of highly expensive platforms for things like document management, version control, group working and lots of other business needs. And if it doesn't do what you want out of the box you can use it as a platform for customised apps that can run on a huge variety of devices.
- SharePoint is cheap to get started. Individuals can use the online version which is part of Office 365 for a few quids a month, and you can get developer access for not much more. And even an individual can get value out of using it to manage their data.
- SharePoint is becoming a cloud application. You can run your own servers, but the number of reasons for doing this is falling over time.
- SharePoint is like a lot of things in life. You get out what you put in. A little planning at the start will pay off hugely when you start to use the system.
I only use a tiny percentage of what our departmental SharePoint site offers. After this talk I left resolved to find out more.
