SharePoint for business is Microsoft’s platform for storing and sharing documents, building intranets and knowledge bases and connecting the systems your team already uses. Most Australian businesses run SharePoint Online as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription. Done well, it replaces scattered network drives and overflowing inboxes with one searchable, permission-controlled source of truth. This guide covers what SharePoint does, what to weigh up and how to roll it out without the usual mess.
Table of Contents
What is SharePoint and what do businesses use it for?
SharePoint is Microsoft’s content and collaboration platform for storing, organising and sharing information across an organisation. Businesses use it as a central document store, an intranet, a knowledge base, a place for lists and forms and the backbone other apps connect to. It is the content layer most Australian teams already own inside Microsoft 365.
Microsoft describes SharePoint in Microsoft 365 as the place where organisations share and manage content, knowledge and applications so teams can find information and work together, as set out in its SharePoint service description. Its core jobs are document and content management, intranets, search and workflow, delivered as a continuously updated cloud service.
SharePoint: Microsoft’s platform for storing, managing and sharing documents and content, plus building sites such as intranets and knowledge bases.
SharePoint Online: The cloud-hosted version delivered through Microsoft 365, with no servers for you to run and updates handled by Microsoft.
In practice a business uses SharePoint to do five things: keep documents in shared libraries instead of personal drives, publish an intranet for news and policies, build a searchable knowledge base, track information in lists and forms and feed clean content to tools like Power Automate and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The rest of this guide takes each of those in turn.
SharePoint Online vs SharePoint Server: which should your business use?
For almost every Australian business the answer is SharePoint Online. It runs in Microsoft’s cloud, needs no servers of your own, updates automatically and is included in most Microsoft 365 business plans. SharePoint Server is the on-premises version you host and maintain yourself and it now suits only a narrow set of organisations with specific data-residency or legacy requirements.
The practical difference is who carries the infrastructure. SharePoint comes in a cloud version and an on-premises version and the cloud option removes the patching, hardware and upgrade work. SharePoint Online is licensed on a per-user monthly subscription, usually bundled into a Microsoft 365 plan rather than bought on its own. We avoid quoting a dollar figure here because Microsoft’s pricing changes regularly, so check current plan pricing for your user count.
The table below sets out the main differences between the two:
| Consideration | SharePoint Online | SharePoint Server (on-premises) |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Microsoft cloud | Your own servers |
| Maintenance and updates | Handled by Microsoft | Your IT team |
| Licensing model | Per-user monthly, usually via Microsoft 365 | Server and client licences |
| New features (Copilot, hub sites) | Available first | Limited or unavailable |
| Best for | Most businesses | Specific data-residency or legacy needs |
What you need to run SharePoint Online is simple: a Microsoft 365 subscription that includes it, accounts for your users and a browser. The harder work is not technical setup but structure, permissions and adoption, which the later sections cover.
SharePoint vs OneDrive vs Teams: when should you use each?
Keep individual working files in OneDrive, shared team and company content in SharePoint and day-to-day chat and meetings in Teams. They are not competitors. Teams actually stores its shared files in SharePoint behind the scenes, so the three work as one system once you understand the split.
The simplest rule is ownership. If a document belongs to one person, like a draft or personal notes, it lives in OneDrive. If it belongs to a team, a project or the whole business, it belongs in SharePoint where permissions, version history and search are built around shared access. Microsoft’s own Get started with SharePoint guidance frames SharePoint around sites, libraries and permissions for exactly this shared-content role.
The table below shows which tool fits which job:
| Tool | Best for | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| OneDrive | Personal and draft files | You, plus anyone you share with |
| SharePoint | Shared team and company content | Site members by permission |
| Teams | Chat, meetings, day-to-day collaboration | Team members (files stored in SharePoint) |
A common mistake is treating Teams as the filing system. Files dropped into a Teams chat still land in SharePoint, but without any thought about structure or naming, which is how an organisation ends up with content it cannot find later.
How does SharePoint document management work?
SharePoint document management works through libraries, metadata and version history rather than folders alone. Documents live in shared libraries on a site, tagged with metadata such as client, document type or status, with every change versioned automatically. That makes content findable by what it is, not by remembering which folder someone buried it in.
Document library: A container on a SharePoint site for storing files, with built-in versioning, permissions and metadata columns.
Metadata: Tags or columns describing a document, such as client, status or category, used to sort, filter and search instead of digging through folders.
Version history: An automatic record of every saved change, so you can see who edited a file and roll back to an earlier version.
Metadata is the part most businesses skip and the part that pays off. A flat folder tree breaks down as soon as a document could live in two places. When we built a structured workspace for a Melbourne disability and interpreting services provider, the team was working off a single shared login with files treated like a local drive. We set up an Operations SharePoint site with document libraries mapped to how the team actually works rather than a copy of the old folder tree, backed by a simple Owners, Members and Visitors access model. Microsoft’s information architecture guidance treats this structuring of libraries, lists and metadata as the foundation of a working SharePoint.
For the full step-by-step on libraries, metadata columns, versioning and permissions, see our SharePoint document management guide.
How do you build a SharePoint intranet?
You build a SharePoint intranet from communication sites for news and policies, team sites for collaboration and hub sites that connect them into one navigable structure. The modern approach is a flat architecture where each area is its own site, associated to a hub, rather than the old nested subsites that became rigid and hard to reorganise.
Hub site: A site that links related communication and team sites together with shared navigation, search and branding.
Communication site vs team site: A communication site is built to broadcast to a wide audience, like company news or HR policies. A team site is built for a smaller group to collaborate and create content together.
Microsoft calls hub sites the connective tissue of an intranet, with each unit of work given its own site so governance and growth stay manageable and its intelligent intranet overview frames the intranet around communicating, engaging staff and surfacing knowledge. The work that decides success is information architecture and adoption, not visual design. The pattern we see most often is policies and templates stranded on a network drive that remote staff cannot reach. The fix is not a prettier homepage but communication sites for news and policies, team sites for each group and a hub that ties them together around how people actually work.
For the detailed build, including site types, navigation and getting people to use it, see our guide to building a SharePoint intranet.
How do you build a knowledge base in SharePoint?
A SharePoint knowledge base is built from pages and documents, organised with metadata and made findable through search. You structure content by topic, write it on SharePoint pages, tag it so search and filters work and keep ownership clear so it stays current. The same structure is now what makes AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot useful, because they answer from the content you have already organised.
This is the step most organisations skip and it matters more now that AI sits on top of SharePoint. Microsoft 365 Copilot only surfaces content a user already has permission to see, so a clean, well-governed knowledge base is what makes its answers trustworthy. Microsoft’s guidance on getting ready for Copilot with SharePoint is built around tidying content and access before rollout. In our experience the order matters: restructure and govern the content first and the AI tools that read it return accurate, sourced answers instead of confident guesses from stale files.
For pages, search configuration, metadata and Copilot, see our guide to building a SharePoint knowledge base.
How does SharePoint connect to your other systems?
SharePoint connects to other systems through Power Automate, the SharePoint API and Microsoft 365’s built-in links to apps like Teams and Outlook. You can trigger workflows when a document is added, push and pull data through the API and surface SharePoint content inside other tools. This is what turns SharePoint from a file store into part of a connected process.
The everyday version is automation. A new file in a library can start an approval, notify a channel or update a record in another system, all without code, using Power Automate. For a Darwin manufacturer, a Power Automate flow now builds the standard SharePoint folder structure and raises a Planner task automatically on every new job, so project setup is consistent every time without anyone setting it up by hand. For deeper connections, such as syncing SharePoint with a CRM or a line-of-business app, the SharePoint API handles structured, two-way data exchange. We cover the patterns, limits and security of this in our guide to the SharePoint API for integration and automation. The point worth holding onto is that SharePoint is rarely the whole solution on its own. It is usually the content hub that other systems read from and write to.
How secure is SharePoint and how do permissions work?
SharePoint is secure when permissions and sharing are managed deliberately and risky when they are left on default. Access is controlled per site and per library through permission levels and groups, but SharePoint defaults to the most permissive sharing setting, so the real exposure for most businesses is accidental oversharing rather than a platform weakness.
Microsoft’s Copilot readiness guidance is direct that SharePoint sets sharing to the most permissive option by default and that controlling broad “anyone” and organisation-wide links is the key to preventing oversharing. For Australian organisations there is a legal layer too. Under the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s guide to securing personal information, any business covered by the Privacy Act must take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse and unauthorised access and must assess a cloud provider’s controls when storing that information. In practice that means clear permission groups, limited external sharing, sensitivity labels on confidential content and a regular access review.
How do you roll out SharePoint for your business?
You roll out SharePoint in stages: plan the structure, build it, migrate content, set permissions and governance, then drive adoption. Skipping straight to migrating files is the most common reason a rollout fails, because you end up moving the same mess into a new place. A staged approach gets structure right before content lands.
A reliable sequence looks like this:
- Assess what you have. Audit existing files, drives and any old SharePoint and decide what to keep, archive or delete.
- Design the information architecture. Plan sites, libraries, metadata and navigation around how people actually work, not the org chart.
- Migrate content in waves. Move and tag content in stages, archiving outdated material rather than carrying it across.
- Set permissions and governance. Define permission groups, sharing rules and ownership before opening it up, not after.
- Drive adoption. Train staff on their own documents, name site owners and review usage so the platform sticks.
When we migrate Australian businesses off a shared network drive or a folder sprawl, the cleanup and architecture in steps one and two are where the value is created. Microsoft’s information architecture guidance makes the same point: get the structure right and everything else gets easier.
What are the most common SharePoint mistakes?
The most common SharePoint mistakes are recreating a flat folder structure, inconsistent naming, ignoring metadata, leaving sharing on default and treating go-live as the finish line. Each one is avoidable and together they are why so many SharePoint sites get abandoned within a couple of years.
The pattern repeats across businesses. A site starts tidy, grows without governance and accumulates inconsistent names and duplicate files, until staff quietly drift back to email and personal drives. We have seen the version that never gets off the ground too: a whole team sharing one login, files treated like a local drive and competing versions overwriting each other until no one trusts what they are looking at. The fixes are not technical. Use metadata instead of deep folders, agree naming up front, set permission groups rather than one-off shares, name a site owner for every site and schedule a content review so the store stays clean. A SharePoint that is governed lightly but consistently keeps working. One left to grow on its own does not.
Frequently asked questions
Is SharePoint included in Microsoft 365?
Yes, in most business and enterprise Microsoft 365 plans SharePoint Online is included. It is also sold as a standalone subscription, but the majority of Australian businesses get it bundled with the rest of Microsoft 365, alongside Teams, OneDrive and Outlook. Check that your specific plan includes it, as the lowest-tier plans can differ.
How much does SharePoint cost for a business?
SharePoint Online is licensed on a per-user monthly model, usually as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription rather than a separate purchase. Because Microsoft adjusts pricing regularly, the sensible approach is to check the current per-user rate for the plan that suits your team size rather than rely on a figure that dates quickly.
Is SharePoint secure?
SharePoint is secure when permissions and sharing are managed properly. The platform provides per-site permissions, sharing controls, sensitivity labels and audit tools. The main risk is accidental oversharing through broad links, because SharePoint defaults to permissive sharing. Australian businesses also need to meet Privacy Act obligations for any personal information they store.
Can a small business use SharePoint?
Yes. A small business gets the same core SharePoint features as a large one and often benefits more, because it replaces ad hoc drives and email attachments with one organised store. The setup is the same in principle, just smaller in scale and a lean structure is usually enough to start.
SharePoint vs Google Workspace: which is better?
Neither is better outright, it depends on your stack. If your business already runs Microsoft 365, SharePoint is the natural fit because it integrates with Teams, Outlook and Office. Google Workspace suits organisations built around Google’s tools. The deciding factor is which ecosystem your staff already work in day to day.
Do you need IT or a consultant to set up SharePoint?
A small, simple SharePoint can be set up in-house. The value of help shows up in the parts that are easy to get wrong: information architecture, metadata, permissions and migration. Getting those right at the start avoids the structural drift that forces a painful rebuild later.
How long does it take to set up SharePoint?
A basic site can be live in days. A structured rollout for a whole business, with content migration, permissions and adoption, more commonly runs a few weeks depending on how much content needs cleaning up. The variable is rarely the technology. It is the size of the cleanup and how much change the team can absorb at once.
Bringing it together
SharePoint for business is most valuable when it stops being a dumping ground and becomes the organised, permission-controlled hub your documents, intranet, knowledge base and other systems all run through. The platform rarely lets businesses down. Flat structures, weak governance and no adoption plan do. Get the architecture and permissions right and the rest, including AI tools sitting on top, gets far easier.
If you want a SharePoint environment built around how your team actually works, OfficePro Consulting plans, builds and migrates SharePoint for Australian organisations. See how we can help on our SharePoint services page.
