AKA: SharePoint - What is it good for?

The podcast discusses SharePoint and its evolution over the years. Initially marketed for various business needs like website building, analytics, and workflow management, SharePoint's current primary focus is on document management. It offers useful features like additional metadata, versioning, and integration with Microsoft OneDrive and Teams.

SharePoint excels in document searching, but for serious document management, more robust solutions might be needed. SharePoint lists are popular for quick data input and sharing, particularly in Power Apps and Power BI demos. However, they are not as structured as databases and can lead to connectivity issues if not managed properly.

While SharePoint is useful for linking Excel spreadsheets in Power BI for easy updates, its role in the future seems more focused on document management. Other tools like Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Pages have taken over functions SharePoint used to cover.

Best practices for SharePoint include using it for document management, versioning, and collaboration. However, it's not suitable for true records management or extensive data management. SharePoint should not be used as a database or for storing multiple Excel sheets as a pseudo-database.

Proliferation of SharePoint sites can lead to confusion, so it's important to manage and control their creation and use, similar to file shares.

In conclusion, SharePoint is a cost-effective document management solution with certain limitations. For more complex needs, other tools within the Power Platform and Fabric should be explored. SharePoint is becoming more focused and purposeful, which is positive for its future.

Next week's topic will be "Citizen Developers and the Democratization of Data."

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