What Is SharePoint and Do I Actually Need It?
- Sam Williams
- Mar 24
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 29
I work with SharePoint every day and I still think Microsoft does a terrible job of explaining what it is. So here's my attempt.
SharePoint in one sentence
SharePoint is where your business documents, pages, and data live inside Microsoft 365. It's the backend for Teams file storage, your company intranet, and your document management system — whether you've set it up that way or not.
You're probably already using it
If you use Microsoft Teams and share files in channels, you're using SharePoint. Every Teams channel stores its files in a SharePoint document library. You might never have opened SharePoint directly, but it's there, holding all your stuff.
The problem is that if nobody's set it up intentionally, it turns into a dumping ground. Files everywhere, no structure, permissions all over the place, and nobody can find anything.
What can you actually do with it?
Document management. Store files with version history, so you can always roll back. Add metadata (tags like "client name" or "project") so people can find documents without digging through folders. Set permissions so the right people see the right things.
Team sites. Each team or department gets their own space with document libraries, news, links, and whatever they need. Marketing has their stuff, finance has theirs, no crossover unless you want it.
Intranet. Build an internal company site — news updates, policies, onboarding resources, links to common tools. Modern SharePoint pages look good and don't need any coding knowledge to build.
Automations. When a document is uploaded, automatically notify someone. When a contract expires, trigger a review task. This hooks into Power Automate, which is also included in your M365 licence.
Do you need it?
If you're a team of 5 and you're happy with a shared OneDrive folder, probably not right now. But the moment you hit 15-20 people, or you've got multiple teams working on different projects, or you need to control who accesses what — you need some kind of structure. SharePoint gives you that without buying another product.
If you're in a regulated industry, handle sensitive client data, or need audit trails on documents, SharePoint becomes even more important. Retention policies, sensitivity labels, and DLP all plug into SharePoint.
The common mistakes
Treating it like a network drive. Folder inside folder inside folder. SharePoint works better with flat structures and metadata. Instead of Client A > 2026 > Invoices, you have one library with columns for client, year, and document type. Then you filter instead of drilling down.
Ignoring permissions. Everyone has access to everything because nobody set it up. Then you turn on Copilot and it surfaces confidential HR documents to the whole company because Copilot respects SharePoint permissions — and your permissions were wrong.
Never cleaning up. Documents from 2018 sitting next to current work. No archiving, no retention policy, no lifecycle management. It gets slower, messier, and harder to find anything.
What we do
I specialise in SharePoint modernisation and information management. That means looking at what you've got, figuring out what good looks like for your business, and building a structure that people actually use.
Not a six-month project with a 200-page governance document. Usually a few weeks of focused work — clean up permissions, build a sensible site structure, migrate the important stuff, archive the rest, and train your team on how to use it properly.
If your SharePoint is a mess (and most are), happy to have a look and tell you what's involved.
