The world of work has undergone a significant transformation, with remote work becoming increasingly prevalent. The need for robust collaboration tools has never been greater as organizations strive to ensure productivity and effective communication among remote teams.

In this blog, we delve into the depths of SharePoint, an exceptionally comprehensive solution that empowers seamless collaboration, boosts productivity, and enables effective remote work.

Join us as we explore the extraordinary features of SharePoint and how it can elevate team efficiency, communication, and data security, all while optimizing remote work.

The Rise of Remote Work and the Need for Robust Collaboration Tools:

As remote work becomes the new normal, organizations face the imperative to equip their teams with tools that enable seamless collaboration and productivity.

The physical distance between team members necessitates a solution that bridges the gap and fosters effective communication (without defaulting to email), efficient document sharing, and real-time collaboration.

SharePoint stands out as the go-to platform that addresses these needs and revolutionizes the way remote teams work together.

SharePoint: Enabling Seamless Collaboration and Productivity in Remote Work Scenarios:

SharePoint boasts a myriad of features that empower remote teams to work collaboratively, enabling them to transcend the limitations of geographical boundaries.

With its versatile capabilities, SharePoint ensures that teams remain connected, collaborative, and productive, regardless of their physical location.

1. Co-Authoring and Real-Time Updates: 

One of the standout features of SharePoint is its ability to facilitate real-time co-authoring, enabling team members to work on documents simultaneously. This fosters a dynamic and collaborative environment where ideas flow freely, fostering innovation and collective problem-solving.

With real-time updates, every team member can witness changes as they happen, eliminating the need for endless email threads and version control headaches.

2. Document Sharing and Accessibility: 

SharePoint’s document-sharing capabilities form the backbone of efficient remote collaboration. With its intuitive document libraries and folders, teams can easily organize and categorize files, ensuring smooth accessibility and seamless sharing.

Remote team members can effortlessly retrieve information, enabling streamlined workflows and reducing time wasted searching for critical documents.

SharePoint Online extends its prowess to foster external collaboration allowing users to securely share files and collaborate with external partners, such as contractors, vendors, or clients, all while maintaining stringent data protection measures.

3. Integration with Microsoft Teams: 

To truly supercharge remote collaboration, SharePoint integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, providing a unified solution that combines collaboration and communication tools.

With this integration, virtual meetings become effortless, allowing team members to connect, share screens, and collaborate on documents in real time.

Chat functionality within Teams fosters quick and efficient communication, further enhancing remote team collaboration.

4. OneDrive with Sync for Offline Work:

For those instances where connectivity may be limited, SharePoint’s integration with OneDrive offers a powerful solution.

OneDrive with Sync enables team members to continue working on documents even without an internet connection.

Changes made offline are automatically synced when the connection is reestablished, ensuring a seamless transition and uninterrupted productivity.

5. Advanced Data Security: 

In a remote work environment, data security is of paramount importance. SharePoint provides robust security measures to protect sensitive information and prevent unauthorized access.

With features such as role-based access control, encryption, and data loss prevention, organizations can rest assured that their data is safeguarded even in remote settings.

More advanced capabilities are available within Azure Information Protection (AIP) and Microsoft Purview, allowing label and policy settings for a more unified and nuanced management capability that we’ll explore in a future article.

6. SharePoint as an Intranet: 

SharePoint serves as an invaluable intranet solution, empowering organizations to create cohesive and personalized intranet portals. These centralized hubs offer a seamless gateway for employees to access important information, news, and updates.

With customizable layouts, newsfeeds, and event calendars, SharePoint’s intranet capabilities foster a sense of unity and engagement within distributed teams.

Additionally, the intranet acts as a virtual water cooler, providing a space for employees to share ideas, collaborate on projects, and build a strong sense of community, even when working from different locations.

7. Usage Analytics:

SharePoint Online equips organizations with powerful usage analytics, granting valuable insights into how the platform is utilized by remote teams.

These analytics offer a comprehensive understanding of user behaviors, content engagement, and collaboration patterns.

Armed with this data-driven knowledge, organizations can identify areas for improvement, optimize remote work strategies, and enhance overall productivity.

Usage analytics become the compass guiding organizations towards more effective remote collaboration, empowering them to make informed decisions that drive success.

8. Integration with Microsoft Search: 

SharePoint Online seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Search, a powerful cross-application search tool within Microsoft 365.

This integration delivers a unified search experience, allowing remote workers to swiftly locate information across various Microsoft 365 applications.

With a single search bar, users can access files, emails, documents, and even people, streamlining the retrieval of critical information.

This unified search capability eliminates the need for navigating multiple applications, enhancing productivity and efficiency for remote workers and ensuring that valuable time is spent on collaboration and essential tasks rather than searching for scattered information.

The potential of SharePoint in fostering effective remote collaboration is endless. Check out the Top Features and Benefits of SharePoint Online for a more comprehensive understanding of how SharePoint Online can enhance collaboration and teamwork.

Tips and Best Practices for Optimizing SharePoint in Remote Work:

To maximize the potential of SharePoint in remote work scenarios, here are some tips and best practices to consider:

• Leverage alerts to ensure team members stay updated on critical changes and developments in real-time
• Customize and edit basic Flow templates to automate routine tasks, freeing up time and increasing productivity
• Create different views in lists/libraries to allow team members to view filtered data relevant to their specific roles and responsibilities.
• Review the Office 365 tenant settings for tuning the right set of features, sharing, and control for your enterprise.
• Create an Intranet in SharePoint so the enterprise, down to each team and department, has access to all the links, documents, events, news, and calendars needed to hit the ground running.

Understanding the advantages of transitioning to SharePoint Online and the smooth migration process can greatly contribute to optimizing your collaboration and productivity

For valuable insights and practical tips, check out Why Migrate to SharePoint Online and Tips for Migration.

SharePoint for Virtual Meetings and Communication:

In conjunction with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint serves as a powerful platform for virtual meetings and seamless communication.

Teams can conduct virtual meetings, initiate chats, and collaborate on documents in real-time, ensuring remote teams are always connected and informed.

SharePoint for Knowledge Management:

In addition to collaboration and document management, SharePoint excels as a knowledge repository.

Through features such as wikis, document libraries, FAQs, and robust search functionality, teams can capture, organize, and share valuable information.

This promotes continuous learning, enhances productivity, and empowers remote teams with a wealth of knowledge.

Optimize Your SharePoint Environment with Reality Tech:

At Reality Tech, we specialize in optimizing SharePoint environments to suit the unique needs of remote collaboration.

Our expertise spans SharePoint development, migrations, workflows, and support, enabling businesses to maximize efficiency, improve communication, and enhance the overall remote work experience.

Regardless of your physical location, Reality Tech can be your trusted partner in unleashing the true potential of SharePoint.

Conclusion:

As remote work continues to shape the future of work, SharePoint emerges as a game-changer, enabling seamless collaboration, productivity, and secure data management.

With its versatile features, SharePoint empowers remote teams to collaborate effectively, communicate effortlessly, and access critical information from anywhere.

While SharePoint offers incredible out-of-the-box functionality, selecting the right SharePoint services firm can make a significant impact on your business’s success. That’s why it’s crucial to know how to choose the ideal SharePoint services partner for your business.

However, there is more to SharePoint than meets the eye.  From aligning with unique requirements to optimizing workflows, SharePoint configuration and even customization opens doors to endless possibilities, helping you tailor your SharePoint environment to meet business needs.

Partnering with Reality Tech ensures that your SharePoint environment is fine-tuned to drive success, regardless of physical location. Embrace SharePoint and revolutionize your remote work experience.

Summary

In this blog post, I share the steps for creating the custom template for any SharePoint Online site

Now let’s start building the custom template, for which we will run the following commands.

$themepallette =@{
"themePrimary"="#9b59b6";
"themeLighterAlt"="#faf7fb";
"themeLighter"="#f5eef8";
"themeLight"="#ebdef0";
"themeTertiary"="#d5b9e0";
"themeSecondary"="#a569bc";
"themeDarkAlt"="#8e4ba8";
"themeDark"="#6e3a83";
"themeDarker"="#572e67";
"neutralLighterAlt"="#f8f8f8";
"neutralLighter"="#f4f4f4";
"neutralLight"="#eaeaea";
"neutralQuaternaryAlt"="#dadad";
"neutralQuaternary"="#d0d0d0";
"neutralTertiaryAlt"="#c8c8c8";
"neutralTertiary"="#d6d6d6";
"neutralSecondary"="#474747";
"neutralPrimaryAlt"="#2e2e2e";
"neutralPrimary"="#333333";
"neutralDark"="#242424";
"black"="#1c1c1c";
"white"="#ffffff";
"primaryBackground"="#ffffff";
"primaryText"="#333333";
"bodyBackground"="#ffffff";
"bodyText"="#333333";
"disabledBackground"="#f4f4f4";
"disabledText"="#c8c8c8";
}

$site_script=@'
{
"$schema":"schema.json",
"actions":[
{
"verb":"applyTheme",
"themeName":"Test Purple"
},
{
"verb":"setSiteLogo",
"url":"Site Logo Url Path"
}
],
"bindata":{ },
"version": 1
}
'@

	
Add-SPOSiteScript -Title "TestSite" -Content $site_script -Description "Creates Test Site Script"

	
Add-SPOSiteDesign -Title "TestSite" -WebTemplate "68" -SiteScripts "ID" -Description "Test Site"

SharePoint External File Requests

With SharePoint, one can now request external files quickly and easily. The feature initially surfaced first back in 2019 within OneDrive. It is now available in SharePoint as well.

This out-of-the-box feature allows users to request and collect files from anyone inside or outside the organization quickly and securely.

With file requests, one can request documents from anyone, irrespective of whether they have access to your SharePoint document libraries or other sites.

The file request link can be included in a range of communication channels, including email signatures, chats, and your intake or onboarding procedures with customers, prospects, and vendors.

The procedure is quick and straightforward for the recipient. They receive a link and upload the file via browser, and the file is then stored in SharePoint.

This feature improves overall collaboration and streamlines processing. File sharing in this manner gives users a simple and secure way to upload files without compromising access or requiring permission changes.

The result is fewer files being emailed and a reduced load on email recipients extracting the file from the email and uploading to a specific SharePoint location.

How SharePoint External File Requests Help My Enterprise?

This easy and secure way of collecting files from anyone and everyone is beneficial for organizations as it leads to smoother and better collaboration and faster business processing and automation with no code and less user interaction and manual filing effort.

1. Greater Collaboration:

The file request feature allows for streamlined collaboration and sharing with external users.

It enables organizations and their employees to collect files easily from clients, customers, and vendors in a controlled and secure manner while enhancing the coordination, communication, and collaboration processes.

2. Simplified File Collection: 

This feature enables a smoother and more secure file collection process that is easy and simple for users.

It has an extremely easy, user-friendly web interface for recipients to upload files while avoiding the requirements for complicated and time extensive file transfer methods that might entail licensing or additional credential management.

3. End-to-End Data Security: 

Apart from easy file sharing, it also ensures end-to-end data security and control, ensuring that external users can only upload files to a specific folder that they want and does not grant access to the folder or library to the user.

It mitigates the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information and maintains the security of your SharePoint document libraries.

To prepare for using the file request feature in SharePoint Document Libraries, here are some of the considerations that should be kept in mind- 

• To enable such file transfers, ensure that the administrator enables the file request feature at the tenant level.  You can enable this configuration using the SharePoint Online Management Shell.
• Configure the required permissions for links, with specifications related to the appropriate levels of view, edit, and upload permissions for external users.
• Inform your user base of this capability and how to utilize it.
• Users should receive some guidance, instructions, or cheat sheets for making file requests and managing the files they receive using this functionality.
• Ensure desktop support staff is aware of this newly enabled function and are ready to provide support and guidance on its use.

By taking into account the configuration, management, and use, you can get the most out of SharePoint Online’s file request capability and benefit from streamlined file collecting and collaboration while ensuring data protection and control.

Step-by-step Guide for External File Sharing in SharePoint Online

We will be listing the 10-step comprehensive guide for external file sharing in SharePoint Online. Have a look at it and get started for easy and quick file sharing.

1. Enable Guest Sharing:

The very first step is enabling guest sharing in your SharePoint architecture. The site owners or, more likely, the administrators can do it using the SharePoint Online Management Shell.

Change the Sharing Settings as below by going to SharePoint Admin Center > Policies > Sharing

You can set up the OneDrive settings as – New and existing guests and Anyone for SharePoint and can still enable the feature.

After setting these up, check that OneDriveRequestFilesLinkEnabled is set correctly via SharePoint Online Management Shell.  Here are the commands (substitute your tenant domain, of course):

• Run Connect-SPOService -Url https://realitytechhub-admin.sharepoint.com; make sure to connect with the SharePoint Admin account
• Run Get-SPOTenant

• For OneDrive
  • Check if CoreRequestFilesLinkEnabled is set to True. If it isn’t set to True, run Set-SPOTenant -CoreRequestFIlesLinkEnabled $True.
  • If this is set to True, the Request files link on the core partition for all SharePoint sites is enabled (not including OneDrive sites). If this value isn’t set, Request files will only show for OneDrive with Anyone links enabled.

2. Choose a Folder: 

After that, choose the folder in SharePoint where you want the recipient to place the requested files. This folder collects the files uploaded by the recipients.

In SharePoint, the option appears as:

In OneDrive, the option appears as:

3. Request Files: 

Once you’ve selected the folder, click on the “Request Files” option to initiate the file request.

4. Fill out the Details: 

You need to add the necessary details, such as the name of the folder which you will use to collect the requested files. Make sure that the name of your folder is easy to find as well as descriptive.

A popup comes up to add the information:

5. Enter the Recipient’s Email: 

Then, add the email address of the person you want to request files from to enable file requesting.

6. Sending the Request: 

After you get the recipient’s email, then you can send the file-sharing request option to the recipient. You can send a unique link or email directly from the SharePoint user interface.

7. Uploading Files:

The recipient will receive the file request and click on the link provided in the email. They will be directed to a web page with a simple browse and upload experience. The recipient can select the files they want to upload and submit them.

When the recipient clicks on the link, the following page is displayed,

Once the user clicks “Select Files”, File Explorer opens up to select files.

Once the files are selected, click on Upload to upload the files to the folder.

Once uploaded, the documents come up like this:

Here’s A Disclaimer – 

The file request feature allows users to only upload files. They cannot view, edit, or see files uploaded by others or any other content in the SharePoint environment.

That’s good news, as the process is naturally secure, restricting your designated user to simply uploading file(s).

1. Email Alerts: 

Once the recipient uploads files, you will receive an email notification about the update. The email contains all the information regarding the updated files and even the person who uploaded them.

2. Repeat for Multiple Requests: 

You can repeat this process for multiple recipients or file requests. Each recipient will have a unique file request link or email.

3. Manage Files Seamlessly: 

As the requestor, you can access the folder where the requested files are being collected. You can view and manage the uploaded files as needed seamlessly.

Quick Tip – 

You can also consider assigning a common folder for broader file requests, such as a SharePoint document library.

This way, you can use the file request link within your email signature, making it easier for people to send you files by simply clicking on the hyperlink.

That’s it! You’re now ready to start using the file request feature in SharePoint.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the file request feature in SharePoint offers numerous benefits and provides a convenient solution for collecting files from external parties.

With our simple step-by-step guide, you can easily set up file requests and streamline the process of gathering documents from various sources.

This feature is highly versatile, and you can easily use it in various situations, such as collecting bids for a Request for Proposal (RFP), gathering assignments from students, soliciting feedback from team members, accumulating media files from an event, etc.

When you are looking to implement file requests, it is crucial to ensure that guest sharing is enabled in your SharePoint environment and that the appropriate folder is selected for collecting the requested files. With clear instructions, you can facilitate a smooth and seamless process.

We hope that by following the step-by-step guide outlined in this blog, you can start leveraging the file request feature in SharePoint to simplify file collection, improve collaboration, and enhance productivity.

So, What Are You Waiting For?

Start leveraging this powerful feature today and experience the benefits of efficient file collection and collaboration with SharePoint.

If you are looking for further guidance to enable smooth collaboration with SharePoint Online, then reach out to Reality Tech. Our team of experts is glad to assist.

We faced a client challenge for replicating Salesforce content, metadata and objects into SharePoint in real-time, and further, replicate the content into SQL Server.

As part of the existing process, users would create objects; in this case Companies, Contracts, Stock Tickers, Contract Teams, as objects in Salesforce.

Our automation would then replicate these objects and content as SharePoint Libraries and Document Sets, and would add as entries into SQL Server tables. The SQL data would be reflected in real-time in a Power BI dashboard.

The image below shows the flow of information-

Here’s how the Document Sets (Contract) and Libraries (Companies) are created in SharePoint and entries are added to SQL Server tables when they are created in Salesforce,

SharePoint Lists for managing contracts, deals, metadata and associations, as replicated out of Salesforce:

• Companies List – Used to maintain the number of Libraries in the SharePoint site
• Contracts List – Used to maintain the number of Document Sets in Libraries
• Intermediate Contracts List – Used to create Document Set when a Contract is created in Salesforce.
• Intermediate Companies List – Used to create Library when a Company is created in Salesforce.

SQL Tables used to store Company/Contract and associated metadata:

• Companies – Used to store information of Libraries in SharePoint site
• Contracts – Used to store information related to Contracts and Companies it resides in, and SharePoint details as well
• Contracts Item – Used to store information related to folders/documents created in Document Sets i.e., Contracts in SharePoint

For a New Company created or an existing one updated in Salesforce, we create a new Library in real-time, or update the exiting one in the SharePoint site.

The Companies flow gets triggered, with specific actions performed in sequence:

• Check if the Company is already added to the SQL table,
• If yes, we check the SQL table and get the Guaranteed Unique Identifier (GUID) and make further changes based on this lookup. If the metadata is updated or the Company’s name is changed, it is done on both the SQL table as well as in the SharePoint library.
• If no, we add an entry to the Intermediate Companies List. Once the entry is added a Remote Event Receiver (RER) we write is triggered.

The RER performs the following steps-

• Creates a Library in the SharePoint from an existing template
• Updates the name of the Library as provided in the List and adds the content type and columns needed
• Creates an entry in the Companies Table in SQL with the Library’s GUID

For a New Contract created or an existing one updated in Salesforce, we are creating a Document Set in the Library or updating an existing one in SharePoint site.

The Contracts flow gets triggered, here are the actions performed in sequence-

• Check whether the Contract is already added to the SQL table,
• If yes, we check if the Library already exists in the Companies SQL table. If not, we create the library first with the same process described above. Then, we check the SQL table and get the GUID of library and item’s ID and make any changes using our automation. If the metadata is updated or Company’s name is changed, it is done both the SQL table as well as in the SharePoint Document Set.
• If no, we add an entry to the Intermediate Contracts List. Once the entry is added, the RER is triggered.

The RER performs the following steps-

• Creates a Document Set in the SharePoint Library from an existing template
• Updates the name of the SharePoint Document Set and updates the metadata properties into columns as well
• Creates an entry in the Contracts Table in SQL with the Library’s GUID, Document Set’s ID and the metadata from Salesforce.

Also, if the flows failed, we design the flow to fail gracefully; as, we trigger email notifications actions after every major action in the SharePoint and SQL being made, so if the previous action failed and the flow gets terminated, we get an email with the details of the Library/Company and Document Sets/Contracts.

The overall Goal for the Client was to see the information from Salesforce being replicated to Power BI as Power BI reports are central to how key users conduct their work.

The Power BI reports act as a the main intranet jumping-off page, for all efforts, based on the given Contract.

Adding SQL Server as the source for Power BI reports helps greatly, as the sync time is far lower than for other data sources. This was key to achieving near-real time replication from Salesforce all the way into the Power BI reports.

The Reports in Power BI show the metadata along with all the key Clients and Contract and document information.

We are replicating into SQL the links to the Companies, Contracts, and Documents in the SQL table that points to the Library, Document Set, and Documents in the SharePoint site respectively, so when they are clicked, it redirects to that object in SharePoint. The libraries, document sets, folders and documents are literally one-click away.

While implementing the solution, we overcame four obstacles-

1. Creating a Library and Document Set from the same flow.

Initially we planned on using a single flow to manage creating and updating the Libraries and Document Sets, but it became difficult with creating and updating both. So, we decided to use different flows for Libraires and Document Sets.

2. Creating a Document Set and Library from a Remote Event Receiver (RER) instead of using the Flow with the listdata.svc method.

Using the listdata.svc method has its limitations, so we had to switch to using q RER (Remote Event Receiver) to create libraries and Document Sets.

With using a RER, we came up with a solution to use Intermediate lists for both Libraries and Document Sets i.e., Companies and Contracts.

3. Bulk updates on Companies in Salesforce

Another curveball came when the client confirmed that they had bulk updates on Companies over a certain period. So, we had to enhance the flow for Libraries where it can handle one and many updates in a single instance.

This was caused by large scale bulk uploads, which was unanticipated, given how Contract management was anticipated.

4. Using SQL Server as source for Power BI dashboard report

As we know, repeated creation of new connections in Power BI is a tedious task, and creating a Flow to connect each library to a Power BI dashboard would be difficult and time-consuming as there were thousands of libraries, so we chose to use SQL Server as the database for Power BI which would get the data from several tables and display it in dashboard.

In short, the capabilities of Power BI, Power Platform and SharePoint can be combined to create real time enterprise systems that save time daily for key users, and enable no-code/low-code rapid development to bring value to enterprises and delight end users.