It isn’t often you get a chance to save money at little to no cost. But that can be done with a bit of planning, technology and application of the right skill set.

Consider Microsoft’s SharePoint and its use as a collaboration tool. Here at AllianceTek, we’ve cut administrative and managerial costs by about a sixth while increasing quality of service – all thanks to SharePoint.

Similarly, SharePoint benefits have been reaped by Hawaiian Airlines, MTV Networks, McKesson and even Mary Kay of pink Cadillac fame.

A glance at the About Us page (I’ll wait while you go read it) shows why we need a collaboration tool. Client service and project management is here while software development and design is overseas.

That divide-and-conquer approach brings the benefits of outsourcing while eliminating the drawbacks of the traditional model. But it doesn’t get rid of the need to work together across continents.

That’s where SharePoint comes in. With it, we
• Store shared documents for multiple user access with track versioning of changes
• Pass tasks from one individual to the next in proper order
• Monitor any issues, bugs, or change requests and assign such requests to specific employees for attention
• Notify people by email as needed when, for example, part of the website changes

Those are just some of the internal applications. SharePoint also helps with outward facing functions. For example, it allows us to share information with clients, directly through a website and indirectly via Word or Excel documents.

Through the website, clients can add or alter notes pertaining to issues, bugs and change requests as necessary. They can also follow the status of those changes.

As for the indirect connection, SharePoint integrates easily with Office documents, so clients can send in Word and Excel files. These can be read, edited and created directly within SharePoint.

That’s why this approach is low cost. Most businesses already own Microsoft Office, not to mention a host of other standard software. Since this solution builds upon what’s already been purchased, all that’s needed is the addition of any missing parts and the application of the right set of skills. (For that, you can fill out the Quick Inquiry form on the left.)

In later entries, we’ll look at the benefits of Content Management Systems, CRM Applications, E-commerce, Enterprise Resource Planning, Mobile applications and others.