The traditional challenges inherit in creating and managing documents in an organization are plentiful:
♦ There are a lot of documents and they’re hard to keep track of.
♦ Documents that you need are often stored in folders that you don’t have access to.
♦ Collaborating by emailing documents to your collaborators and then merging their changes when they ‘re done is laborious.
♦ Your folders are littered with copies and versions of the same documents. The final version of a document can be hard to find.
Cloud storage systems like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox and Box are powerful alternatives, and Techcafeteria’s take is that any of these are a big step up from folders on a file server. But Microsoft’s offering is particularly compelling, both from a financial viewpoint (the pricing is very low for the amount of productivity and security features included); and from a knowledge management perspective (the competition lacks the sophistication of SharePoint and the versatility of Teams).
Microsoft 365 has three applications for storing documents: SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive. You might ask which one you should use. Techcafeteria advocates for using all three:
Sharepoint is the work product repository, the primary document storage and management system for the organization.
Teams is the collaboration tool, and works well with Sharepoint because the file folders in Teams are SharePoint folders. You can access them from either application. Teams really shines as a portal for med to large-sized projects with external collaborators.
Onedrive is best for simple collaboration and storing personal files. But it also serves as a gateway to SharePoint and Teams, as their folders can be linked to outlook, letting you access everything from one place.
Techcafeteria has deep expertise in document and knowledge management, and we can guide you in setting up a SharePoint/Teams structure that meets your organizational needs. We can also advise on naming and folder structure conventions, document security, document migration, archiving and backup, and, most important, how to collaborate without creating a mess.
Techcafeteria’s mission is to help nonprofits use technology to advance their work. We tailor our advice to fit the mission, strategy, culture, and available resources of our clients.
If you are with a nonprofit or a similar organization working to improve lives, we’d love to hear about your technology challenges and see if we can either help you, or point you in the direction of someone who can. Just fill out this form and you’ll hear back from us.
