The newly released version of the Microsoft Web-based platform, SharePoint, shows the extent to which the solution has evolved and why it truly matters to business decision makers.
Established South African ICT solutions and support provider, Ukuvuma Solutions, believes the product’s profile as an enterprise-wide solution for document and content management, collaboration, workflow and process automation, and business intelligence, amongst other functionalities, will impact the ICT strategies of all industries in 2013.
Executive management at Ukuvuma say SharePoint offers the ability to develop custom applications that run on- and utilise platform capabilities that enables one central platform from which the entire organisation can be managed.
In the past the solution was generally considered to be a document management technology, but this profile has now changed – particularly with the release of the 2010 and 2013 versions.
SharePoint 2013 offers a range of additional and improved functionality, including improved BI capabilities, support for big data, improved MySite and Collaboration tools as well as micro-blogging features. It also offers the ability to share files to people outside the environment via SkyDrive.
Whilst the solution has retained a number of features of the 2010 version, the latest version also includes branding, content management services, translation and workflow services, as well as e-discovery and work management services.
Executive management believes that because of this broad range of new features, the solution is applicable and relevant to any sized business in any industry.
“SharePoint offers a wide variety of business solutions in one platform. This cuts down on development time in a big way and still allows you to have one managed platform for most of your business solutions,” says Jason Smit, director, Microsoft Technologies at Ukuvuma Solutions.
Ukuvuma specialises in the deployment of customised business solutions built on the SharePoint platform. The company has a proven track record of experience, expertise and product knowledge to transfer the benefit of SharePoint to the market.
“We have the skills in house on both the out of the box SharePoint functionality, as well as ability to develop custom applications and integration solutions to secure return on investment,” adds Smit.