SharePoint 2010 Foundation and Growing Your Business

SharePoint 2010 is an excellent tool for increasing productivity and collaboration internally. As your business grows, so will its usage, and as such the cost of using it. Putting in place a carefully structured plan for SharePoint use and maintenance is essential for maintaining a good ROI.

Security

SharePoint comes by default with its own security provisions; however, most industries are subject to very specific security and data protocols themselves. As SharePoint usage increases, so will the need for ever more granular permissions administration. Unless this is planned for in advance, ensuring that all data is in compliance with these regulations could become an enormous job.

As soon as your SharePoint server or cloud service is implemented, be sure to create a clear set of guidelines as to how these permissions will be set. Just as important is to establish how a manager will audit these permissions. The use of third party tools can help, but the earlier they are implemented the more efficient their use will be.

Usage

Just as permissions can balloon, so can data usage. Companies using internal SharePoint server farms can quickly find themselves needing to install new servers, while those using SharePoint in the cloud can find their data costs rocketing if left unchecked.

Again, establishing guidelines for data usage early on is key to keeping data usage reined in. Of course employees should be left to upload what they want and when, allowing them to make full use of SharePoint's collaboration applications, but encouraging users to delete files when they are no longer needed (and implementing a reward/penalty structure to do so) will go a long way to keeping data costs down.

Similarly, establishing some sort of tracking mechanism to identify who is using what will allow you to keep better tabs on direct ROI as a result of SharePoint usage, and as such, how fair that usage is.

SQL Server

The final area it's essential to plan for is the maintenance of the SQL server. This forms the back end of the entire system and requires an IT professional to manage.

It's possible that within your existing IT staff there is enough database knowledge to keep the SQL server running efficiently but it's important to make sure either way. If not, obtaining training should be a priority.

Call us now for a no obligation chat about how SharePoint 2010 Foundation can help your business.