10 key SharePoint benefits and 12 real-world use cases

Aug 28, 2025 14 min read

SharePoint gives you fast access to critical information, automates repetitive tasks, supports team collaboration across locations, and keeps everything traceable and secure. Big names like Nestlé, Ardent Mills, and Kraft Heinz rely on it to organize internal workflows, manage content, and maintain tight business operations.

If your team’s using SharePoint just to store files, then you’re essentially sitting in a Ferrari but only using the radio. SharePoint’s real value kicks in when it becomes the backbone of your business ops: your intranet, your knowledge base, your process engine, your document control center.

In this article, I’ll break down the most essential SharePoint benefits for businesses and major use cases. I’ll share why to use SharePoint, where it falters, and how to approach SharePoint intranet development without wasting months rebuilding things that never worked in the first place.

Think of this as a reality check and a practical guide for anyone who wants to get serious about using SharePoint the way it was intended.

The most essential benefits of SharePoint for businesses

The most vital SharePoint benefits boil down to three things: better visibility, fewer manual tasks, and tools that actually reflect how your teams work. When set up properly, SharePoint becomes a central nervous system for your organization.

SharePoint simplifies cross-team operations

One of the most underrated benefits of SharePoint is how it forces teams to work from a shared structure. And how that structure reduces friction.

Most companies don’t realize how much time they waste just tracking down files, chasing approvals, or guessing which version is final. SharePoint gives you a way to standardize collaboration without locking people into rigid workflows.

For example, you can replace five disconnected Excel trackers and inbox-based approvals with one SharePoint list tied to a Power Automate flow. Everyone works from the same system, and things move faster without extra meetings.

Enterprise-grade security and compliance

SharePoint gives businesses a secure, centralized environment for collaboration and governance. You get granular permissions down to the document level, audit trails for every interaction, and native compliance features like retention labels, eDiscovery, and sensitivity settings. All these are backed by the Microsoft 365 security framework.

If you’re dealing with internal policies or industry regulations, SharePoint helps maintain control without adding layers of complexity. It’s built to support multi-region data residency, protect confidential information with conditional access, and provide the transparency your legal and InfoSec teams need.

SharePoint scales as you grow

SharePoint doesn’t need a big-bang rollout. You can start with a single team site and build outward, which is exactly what we recommend for most clients.

Startups can begin with just one document library and later expand into department-specific portals, intranet homepages, and connected Power BI dashboards. SharePoint supports that kind of modular growth. You don’t need to redesign your whole system every six months, you just add layers as your needs evolve.

Content stays structured and searchable

This is where SharePoint wins over tools like Dropbox or Google Drive: metadata.

Most teams dump files into folders. Then someone changes the naming convention. Then you can’t find anything. SharePoint gives you tagging, content types, and filtered views. Want to pull every contract signed in Q2 by a specific manager? That’s two clicks if your data is structured.

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Data is centralized and accessible

Every company hits the same pain point eventually: someone’s off, a deadline’s looming, and no one knows where a needed file is.

SharePoint solves that by becoming a central hub for operational data: documents, lists, pages, task trackers, and even dashboards. And because it’s integrated with Microsoft 365, you can surface that data in Teams, Outlook, or Power BI without switching tools. If you’re used to tracking delivery exceptions in email threads, a SharePoint list with filters, status logic, and notifications will help you avoid inbox archaeology.

Fun fact

McKinsey found that employees spend nearly 20% of their time just searching for internal information or tracking down colleagues. That’s one full day every week. When data lives in a centralized, searchable system like SharePoint, that time doesn’t vanish but gets repurposed into actual work.

Admins get full control without micromanaging

Centralized administration gives the right people the right level of control.

SharePoint gives IT teams a clean overview: who owns what, where access has drifted, what content is stale, and how usage is trending. But it also lets site owners manage their own space. That balance matters. Even in a global rollout, you can set up governance policies so each department can own its structure, but still follow consistent naming, retention, and permissions models.

You don’t need to be a developer to build something useful

SharePoint gives non-technical teams real tools to get work done. For example, HR can create onboarding checklists, procurement can manage vendor data, and finance can run monthly close workflows. All using built-in lists, forms, views, and Power Automate. With the right structure in place, teams gain independence and move faster.

Note

For long-term stability, it pays to set things up right from the start. A clear site architecture, naming conventions, and permission strategy — these are the pieces that keep SharePoint usable at scale. That’s where we come in. At Innowise, we help companies roll out SharePoint solutions that work now and keep working as they grow.

Collaboration becomes a byproduct of good structure

Collaboration works best when information lives where people expect to find it: not in someone’s head or lost in a chat thread. SharePoint helps teams build shared workspaces with real logic behind them: tasks, calendars, documents, status updates, and templates. And all of these are in one environment.

For example, a marketing team can set up a site where campaign briefs, feedback rounds, final assets, and launch checklists live side by side. Everyone sees the same information, uses the same tools, and stays aligned without chasing links or asking around. When collaboration feels easier than context-switching across five platforms, people tend to actually use it.

Productivity improves because friction drops

SharePoint doesn’t magically make teams more productive. It just removes the junk that slows them down.

SharePoint handles approvals, version control, recurring updates, and progress tracking once configured correctly. For example, a manufacturing company that is used to managing production deviations in Excel can migrate the process to SharePoint with a custom form, status logic, and automated alerts. As a result, no more missed entries or manual reminders, and faster resolution time.

You can customize without creating a monster

SharePoint is flexible, but that doesn’t mean you should touch every setting.

For example, a team building an internal training portal can use modern pages, Power Apps, and Lists to deliver content, track completions, and collect feedback, without writing code. That approach keeps the site maintainable, scalable, and easy to hand off. When customization supports a clear business goal and fits within platform limits, it stays useful over time.

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The most important use cases of SharePoint

So what is SharePoint used for in business? Teams use it to replace scattered tools, centralize knowledge, automate repetitive tasks, and give departments more control without losing structure.

In this section, I’ll go over the core SharePoint use cases that come up again and again. Let’s take a closer look.

1. Using SharePoint as an intranet portal

SharePoint works well as a company-wide intranet when it gives people what they need: updates, documents, links, calendars, and pages that reflect how the business operates.

Companies like Cummins built their intranet, Cummins Connect, on SharePoint Online to support collaboration across more than 100 countries. Marketing teams use it to co-create plans across 25 business segments. Executives access it on mobile during travel. The structure allows teams to collaborate on the same document without version conflicts and without relying on external tools.

Another example is Douglas Elliman. They launched their new intranet, Douglas, on SharePoint Online to give agents across 113 offices access to tools, data, and apps from a single hub. It includes an app store, customizable tools, and a chatbot called AskDouglas. All of them are tailored to support the way agents run their businesses.

2. Using SharePoint as a document management system

SharePoint handles document management with structure and traceability. Version history, permissions, metadata, and access logs are already part of the system, so there is no need to bolt them on.

At Ardent Mills, for instance, an internal business architect started out using SharePoint lists as the data layer for custom Power Apps. What began as a single form replacement grew into a network of tools across 35+ facilities, covering everything from quality checks to logistics feedback and vehicle inspections. SharePoint offered a familiar environment to build from. And once the team matured, they started to move to Dataverse. But SharePoint was the gateway that unlocked this transformation.

3. Using SharePoint to manage projects

SharePoint supports project work management when teams need visibility, not another app. Task lists, document libraries, timelines, calendars, and dashboards can all live in the same space, tied to the actual project work.

Toyota uses SharePoint for managing a wide range of internal projects, including vehicle development, process optimization, and quality control. They built customized project sites in SharePoint to provide teams with centralized access to tasks, documentation, and timelines. These SharePoint workspaces helped them align cross-departmental efforts and ensure compliance with internal processes, all while using tools their employees were already familiar with via Microsoft 365. That resulted in smoother communication across departments and better visibility into project progress at every stage.

4. Using SharePoint as a content management system

SharePoint helps manage internal content at scale: with approval workflows, templates, tagging, and ownership baked in. Content teams can track who published what, when it was updated, and where it fits into the bigger structure.

Pro tip

Microsoft’s enterprise content management guidance outlines how to use managed metadata, content types, and document sets to keep content consistent across business units. This setup works well for internal policy libraries, training materials, research archives, and operational documentation — anywhere version control and consistency matter.

5. Using SharePoint as a knowledge base

Knowledge bases only work when they’re easy to search and someone’s responsible for keeping them useful. SharePoint supports both. It gives teams a place to collect how-tos, SOPs, training docs, and troubleshooting steps with the right filters and permissions.

Content Formula shares examples of SharePoint knowledge bases built with clear categorization, contributor workflows, and expert directories. That kind of structure gives new employees a head start and saves senior staff from answering the same questions twice.

6. Using SharePoint as a ticketing system

Internal ticketing works best when the request types are known and the volume is manageable. SharePoint handles this well, especially when paired with Power Automate and Forms. Employees submit requests through a form, status updates are tracked in a list, and notifications go out automatically.

The University of Oxford uses a SharePoint-powered self-service portal for IT support, enabling staff and students to log issues directly through forms tied to their SSO. That portal routes tickets into a central site where support teams track requests in real-time, even flagging delays and integrating phone-back request options for urgent cases

7. Using SharePoint as a CRM

SharePoint can function as a lightweight CRM for tracking contacts, opportunities, and client communications. It’s not built for complex deal pipelines, but it covers the basics: contact directories, activity logs, attachments, and reminders.

I once came across a case where a Microsoft partner described how a German manufacturer, Liebherr, built a CRM-like setup using SharePoint and Dynamics 365. The key detail? They synced permissions between the two, so customer documents were stored in SharePoint but governed by the same rules as in the CRM. That way, teams could collaborate on sales and project files without worrying about access issues.

When people ask, “What is SharePoint used for beyond document storage?”, this is a good example. The setup works well when you’re tracking internal accounts, managing vendor contacts, or handling partner relationships where tight coordination matters more than a complex sales pipeline.

8. Using SharePoint alongside ERP systems

SharePoint doesn’t replace ERP systems, but it complements them. Many companies use SharePoint to surface ERP data in a more user-friendly way: with dashboards, filtered views, and collaboration features that aren’t available in most ERP interfaces.

In one of our automation projects for a US-based bank, we worked on integrating a robotic process automation platform with the client’s financial systems, internal tools, and documentation hubs. Alongside core ERP-like systems, we also integrated SharePoint to serve as a central point for internal documentation and long-term maintenance guidance. That made it easier for the bank’s distributed teams to access RPA workflows, integration specs, and compliance knowledge from one place. All that without digging through emails or relying on outdated PDFs.

9. Using SharePoint to manage purchase requests

Purchase request tracking often starts in email and stays there until something breaks. SharePoint offers a better path: structured forms, automated approval flows, and real-time tracking.

I’ve seen this setup work well in companies where teams needed more structure but didn’t have the budget or scale for a full procurement system. When everyone uses the same form and approvals are tied to roles, it reduces delays and cuts out guesswork. It’s not fancy, but it brings visibility: finance teams know what’s coming, managers know what’s pending, and requesters don’t have to chase updates in email threads.

10. Using SharePoint for internal newsletters

Internal newsletters often live in email, but SharePoint makes them easier to organize and find later. Pages can include announcements, event recaps, embedded videos, or surveys. All is styled consistently and published on a predictable schedule.

Microsoft recommends using SharePoint communication sites to build out internal news hubs. Teams can manage archives, track readership, and pull content from other parts of the intranet without rewriting it.

11. Using SharePoint to support personal productivity

Personal productivity in SharePoint starts with visibility. When employees know where to find what they need and don’t spend half the day chasing files or status updates, everything gets easier.

Document libraries, task lists, shared calendars, and page bookmarks help individuals stay focused. SharePoint also ties into OneDrive, Teams, and Outlook, so people can manage tasks and documents across the tools they already use.

12. Using SharePoint to support employee-driven innovation

Continuous improvement depends on access to both internal documents and to each other’s ideas. SharePoint gives companies a platform to surface, discuss, and evolve those ideas over time.

Flex uses SharePoint Online as the foundation for an ideation portal where employees submit, vote on, and refine proposals to improve operations or service delivery. That kind of visibility empowers individuals, but it also scales. And the best ideas get folded into workflows used globally across teams.

How Innowise can help you with SharePoint

SharePoint isn’t hard to use, but it’s easy to get wrong. I’ve seen teams lose weeks of work over broken permissions, duplicated libraries, and migrations that looked fine until someone noticed missing metadata. Downtime, confusion, and messy user adoption aren’t rare, they’re what happens when planning takes a back seat.

That’s why companies like Ardent Mills, Cummins, and Douglas Elliman invest in getting their SharePoint foundations right. They’re not chasing fancy features, but rather making sure the basics (collaboration, document control, and system trust) properly hold up at scale.

That’s where my team usually comes in. Sometimes it starts with SharePoint consulting: figuring out what you already have, what’s worth keeping, and what needs to be rethought entirely. Other times, the goal is to move fast: replace file shares, rebuild an intranet, or clean up years of SharePoint sprawl. In those cases, we lean on Sharegate. It handles the heavy lifting during migration (from content mapping to permission transfers) without blowing things up mid-process.

When you’re building something new, I usually recommend starting small. One well-structured intranet page. One process automated with a list and a Power Automate flow. Something real that a team can use right away, not just a plan sitting in a doc.

If your SharePoint setup feels bloated, brittle, or half-adopted, there’s probably a reason. We’ve seen how SharePoint use leads to more confusion than clarity. If you want help sorting it out, start with our SharePoint development services. Or just reach out. Sometimes it only takes a few decisions to fix what’s not working.

Ivan Shatukha

Global Development Director

Ivan Shatukha is the Global Development Director at Innowise, with over 8 years of experience growing software development teams and making sure tech projects deliver on both the business and technical sides. Having started as a Lead Python engineer, Ivan grew the team from just a few people to over a thousand, with a sharp focus on scaling and improving efficiency. He’s known for blending strong technical knowledge with clear strategic vision, all while building the systems that keep projects on track and within budget. He’s played a key role in scaling Innowise’s operations, from automating core processes to introducing new tech directions that drove growth.

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