Making Document Management Easier with Microsoft Cloud Tools
In this story, we'll talk about how we helped a customer in the agricultural industry make their document management better. This company works with over 40 small farms in Pennsylvania, helping them store, package, and sell fruit. Wishing to improve their overall storage efficiency and the organization of their physical file servers, we assisted them in making the move to SharePoint online.
The Problem
The company used a file server to store important documents like invoices, contracts, and reports. But they had some issues:
Not Enough Space: The server could only hold a limited amount of data. They had to delete old files or move them to external hard drives, which was a time-consuming manual effort.
Security Risks: The server didn't have good security, so their data could be easily accessed or stolen. They also lacked a backup plan in case something went wrong.
No Collaboration Features: Employees couldn't work together on documents easily. They had to email files back and forth, resulting in duplicates, confusion and mistakes.
Management needed these issues addressed to support strategic plans for growth and efficiency.
The Solution
Infotect's cloud team designed a solution based on SharePoint. SharePoint would resolve all of the current issues and open a trajectory for future projects using Power Platform to build workflows and dashboards.
Assessment: We looked at their current file server to understand what they had and what they needed.
Planning: We made a plan for moving their files to SharePoint, including a timeline and the tools we would use.
Preparation: We cleaned up their files and set up SharePoint sites and libraries.
Execution: We migrated their files to SharePoint, making sure everything was transferred correctly.
Validation: We checked to make sure all files were in the right place and worked properly in SharePoint.
Training: We taught their employees how to use SharePoint for storing, sharing, and working on documents together.
Documentation: At project conclusion, we delivered comprehensive documentation to support future trainng, administration and disaster recovery.
The Benefits
Moving to SharePoint gave the company many benefits:
More Storage Space: They now have 25 TB of storage, so they don't have to worry about running out of space.
Better Security: Their data is protected with encryption and authentication, and they have a backup plan in case of emergencies.
Improved Collaboration: Employees can now work together on documents easily with features like version control, co-authoring, and commenting.
Power Platform: By moving to SharePoint online, the organization can now take advantage of the Power Platform for automating document alerts & archiving.
By moving their documents to SharePoint and using the different Microsoft tools, the company improved their document management and collaboration. They now have more storage space, better security, and easier ways to work together. The company is very happy with the solution and wants to explore more projects in the future.
Interesting Facts
SharePoint can save up to 60% of the total cost of ownership over five years.
SharePoint reduces downtime and data loss by up to 99.9%.
SharePoint supports up to 30 million items per library and up to 15 GB per file.
SharePoint increases employee engagement by up to 20% and revenue growth by up to 19%.