Non-profits often have to contend with a myriad number of problems ranging from fundraising to dealing with ever increasing demand for services. Also, nonprofits have to ensure that they utilize technology effectively to lower their operational costs without compromising on the quality of the service they provide.
We live in a digital world, which means the success of any business, and even non-profit, to a large extent is dependent on effective and efficient use of technology. It is the reason we explain in detail relevant reasons as to why it is important for non-profits to use SharePoint and how a good SharePoint development company can help them achieve their goals.
In the non-profit world, it is of paramount important to make efficient use of resources at your disposal for the simple reason that the money is tight, and being wasteful can cost the organization dear.
Up until now, SharePoint was generally the preferred choice for large organizations with resources to maintain their own IT department. Fortunately for smaller businesses, the release of Office 365 and SharePoint online made it possible for them to leverage the power and versatility of SharePoint to grow their business. Non-profits too can use a SharePoint version that is within their means to deliver impeccable services and expand their reach.
SharePoint Benefits for Non-Profits
Non-profits can download and use Microsoft offers Office 365 and SharePoint either for free or at least at a significantly discounted price depending upon the choice of plan. This way they can avail of all the features and benefits of SharePoint without badly impacting their bank balance.
Secondly, SharePoint offers a central repository for key business needs. As is generally the case with majority of non-profits, they often host their email accounts with some third- party service providers like Microsoft or Google. Also, important documents for the most part are stored on cloud. Using SharePoint can prove highly beneficial as it can bring everything under one roof, making the records easily accessible to authorized personals.
An important point to note here is that non-profits generally have a higher turnover rate. It means the organization will not have much trouble with documents that the employee had been working on as SharePoint has the ability to streamline the entire process making it extremely easy to work with documents pared over multiple places.
And as far as maintenance and other technical aspects are concerned, SharePoint spares the need for in-house technical experts, which anyway most non-profits simply don’t have owing to fund paucity. The organization’s firm stored on cloud is also highly secure for the simple reason that SharePoint is offered by Microsoft, and the company has resources to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on cloud security.
Some of the important benefits offered by SharePoint for non-profits are summarized as following. This will reinforce the argument as to why non-profits should use SharePoint, and also how a reputable provider of SharePoint development services can help them leverage the full potential of this powerful software application.
- It allows for development of websites, custom applications, and functions without complex coding knowledge.
- Allow employees, members and donors obtain access to important information in a secure manner.
- Permit collaboration as authorized people can access the necessary documents and information anytime and from anywhere with a net connection.
- Non-profits are able to manage all their social activity in real time
- Allows for significant cost cutting as the organization does not have to spend money on installing and maintain intranet and extranet facilities.
- It offers the organization the facility to opt for either on-site or cloud-based deployments
- Non-profits can utilize hundreds of add-ons and plug-ins offered by Microsoft as well as independent bodies.
Few Important reasons why non-profits should use SharePoint
Avail of the discounts on offer and save money
Microsoft’s policy has been to offer SharePoint to non-profits without charging any fee based upon certain criteria. In the free version, the facility of free cloud file storage, email, and web-conferencing are available. Additionally, the company offers an upgrade option at a nominal price. Organizations can opt for an upgrade to enjoy all the features and benefits that come with premium subscription.
All in all, non-profits can save money and still enjoy advanced features of SharePoint such as centralized document management, and latest Microsoft office application at a discounted rate. Moreover, plan your budget in advance as you only have to pay a fixed amount without worrying about additional expenditures incurred on maintenance and hardware.
Enhanced level of security
SharePoint is one of the popular and secure file management system in the digital world. It comes equipped with high-grade security features like automatic anti-malware protection, file encryption, multi-layer security features, disk encryption, etc.
Moreover, it offers the facility of creating and storing data on any device and from anywhere in the world. You can store all the important documents, files, videos, presentations, financial records, and other sensitive data on the cloud without worrying an iota about the security as Microsoft is there to ensure utmost security.
Your data will be safe on the cloud service of Microsoft known as (Microsoft Azure). You will have full control over authorization i.e., allow or deny permissibility to access data.
Better team collaboration
SharePoint allows you to create a virtual workspace where team members can discuss, collaborate, chat, assign tasks, and exchange emails without the need for any third-party involvement. This promotes efficient team management and facilitates faster completion of work. you can make use of the calendar to keep a tab on project deadline.
Conclusion
A well-established SharePoint development company can help your non-profit organization leverage the full potential of this incredibly powerful collaboration tool from tech behemoth Microsoft. Non-profits can enjoy cloud-based service without having to worry about data breach and data security. Moreover, the built-in tools give you the facility of accessing data anytime and from anywhere in the world provided you have a net connection.
