SharePoint is an excellent piece of technology, and it’s no wonder that it is used by over 80% of Fortune 500 companies. However, many organizations still find themselves in a situation where teams have to collaborate with SharePoint. While SharePoint was initially designed for collaboration, this is only partially true today as SharePoint has evolved into a collaborative content management system (CMS).
The main problem with using SharePoint as both a team collaboration tool and organizational CMS is that one solution cannot meet all the needs of your organization at once.
Teams vs SharePoint
Let’s start with the basics. Teams is a communication and collaboration platform, while SharePoint is a document management platform. Teams is part of Microsoft 365 and SharePoint is part of Office 365, so they both belong to the same family of products. You can think of them as siblings or maybe even cousins: they’re both related but they have some pretty different personalities!
Both Teams and SharePoint play important roles in any business’s online workflow. They work together seamlessly to create an integrated system that makes it easy for your team members to share ideas, collaborate on projects and discover new ways to improve your organization’s overall productivity. By using both services together, you’ll be able to maximize their combined functionality for greater results than either could achieve alone.
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace that brings together all the people, tools, and conversations you need to get work done. It’s a place for your team to share and collaborate on documents, discuss feedback in real time, plan projects, and hold meetings. It also makes it easy to find experts or resources within your organization. We use Microsoft Teams at the office so we can chat with each other about new projects and share files quickly.
What does Microsoft Teams do?
Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace that helps you work together and get things done faster. It’s the hub for teamwork and collaboration, built on Office 365.
A whole new way to connect with teammates, Microsoft Teams makes it easy to find the right people, quickly set up meetings, share documents and more. In one place you can easily access files from other apps like SharePoint or OneDrive for Business as well as collaborate in real time on everything from short messages to full-blown presentations.
How does Microsoft Teams work with SharePoint?
Microsoft Teams is a chat-based collaboration platform, while SharePoint is a file-based collaboration platform. So how do they work together?
Well, definitely not in the way you’re thinking. The idea of using Microsoft Teams to share files and folders isn’t a good one because it creates more work for you as a team member—and it creates more complexity when you’re trying to get something done. If your goal is to get things done faster and easier, there’s no point in creating more hassle for yourself!
Instead, just use the tools that best suit your needs: if you want to collaborate on documents or spreadsheets with your teammates from within Microsoft Teams, go ahead; if you need immediate access to certain items (such as images) outside of the chat app or email threads about them, then open up SharePoint instead. You’ll be surprised at how seamlessly everything can work together once everything’s been properly set up!
Microsoft Teams vs SharePoint document management
Microsoft Teams and SharePoint are two different products. You can use Microsoft Teams to collaborate on documents, but you have to use SharePoint for document management. However, you can also use both of these tools together in your business.
Governance of files in Microsoft Teams
As we saw earlier, Microsoft Teams allows you to better manage files with its permissions model. It also offers more control over user access, so you can give team members different levels of access depending on the business need.
But what if your organization already has a SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business environment in place? Many organizations do, and they’re not going to be willing or able to ditch their existing platforms just because Microsoft Teams is out there now. In these cases, it’s important that you understand how Office 365 will treat files that come from these systems.
I mentioned earlier that SharePoint Online integrates with Teams; this means that any file stored in SharePoint Online can also be shared via Teams—but only if you give users enough access rights. The same goes for OneDrive for Business: if users share a file from their OneDrive account within a Team channel, only people who have access rights at both levels will see it.
One key takeaway from this article is that both platforms can be used together or independently, it depends on what your team needs to get the job done.
One key takeaway from this article is that both platforms can be used together or independently, it depends on what your team needs to get the job done. SharePoint itself is not a collaboration tool, but it can be used in conjunction with Microsoft Teams or independently. For example, if you need to store documents or have them available for offline viewing and editing, then using SharePoint will likely be a better option than using Microsoft Teams. If you’re looking for more advanced functionality such as discussions around documents (which Google Docs doesn’t provide), then Microsoft Teams may be better suited for your needs.
However there are many companies who choose to use both platforms together due to their complementary natures:
- SharePoint provides file storage and management capabilities while sharing files externally with business users or customers via Office 365 Groups; at the same time allowing these groups of people to collaborate by adding comments directly onto the document itself within the interface of their browser window without having first downloaded an external application like Word or Excel which isn’t always practical when working remotely across multiple continents (like say Vietnam vs USA). This allows businesses with minimal IT support staff manage data efficiently while also enabling remote workers access anytime anywhere through any device type – regardless whether they’re connected via VPN tunneling software like LogMeIn which securely tunnels all traffic between computers so there’s no chance anyone else could eavesdrop upon them while browsing YouTube videos late at night after hours 🙂
- Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration tool that integrates with Microsoft Office 365. It allows users to chat and share files in real time, whether they are working from the same location or remotely. Unlike SharePoint, which is designed for document management, Teams is focused on connecting people by providing them with an easy way to communicate and collaborate across multiple channels.
If you are interested in an Office 365 Cloud solution provider but are looking for more information, contact us for a consultation