Important SharePoint Customization Considerations
Although SharePoint can meet organizations’ basic collaboration and communication needs out of the box, many organizations may choose to go beyond the core functionality soon after implementing a solution. Companies, for example, may want to customize dashboards and menus or integrate a SharePoint solution with other software. All of these changes are possible with customization. However, because of the associated complexity, multiple risks, and limitations, customization is one of the platform’s owners’ pet peeves.
We have analyzed what is important to know about SharePoint customization, including both its opportunities and limitations, based on our SharePoint expertise. Customizing SharePoint Application Development Services for Software Firms will allow them to focus on their business while also assisting them in developing a high-quality software product for their organization.
Why should you personalize?
SharePoint’s customization capabilities enable the development of a wide range of solutions that are tailored to the company’s existing processes. Intranets and portals, contract and document management systems, learning management, knowledge management, ticketing, help desk systems, and other systems are among the solutions available.
Here are some examples of customization from recent projects:
- Customization of a portal to create a performance management system
- Customization and redesign of cloud intranets
- Customization of an intranet to create a project management solution
- Customization of the portal to improve news management
The extent of customization depends on the type of solution. Since SharePoint was designed to meet content management needs and customization is used to ensure that integrated systems run smoothly. Integration with CRM, for example, enables the automated inserting of data from CRM into contract templates stored in SharePoint, avoiding manual data entry and contract duplication in two systems. You can see how it works in SharePoint DMS by watching our interactive demo.
Transferring data and workflows to a new technical environment is difficult. When migrating a SharePoint solution to a newer version of the platform or the cloud, customization is required to ensure the seamless transfer of content, workflows, and custom features.
Compliance regulations must be followed. Customization enables the creation of a hybrid SharePoint environment by connecting SharePoint on-premises and cloud deployments. It is relevant, for example, for healthcare organizations that may store routine documents in the cloud but are required to store patient information on premises by federal and state compliance regulations such as HIPAA.
What to change?
The following are the primary SharePoint elements that can be customized:
Design.
SharePoint branding entails customizing SharePoint features such as logos, styles, colors, master pages, and page layouts. It contributes to the creation of a distinct look and feel, as well as the promotion of corporate culture throughout the organization.
Navigation.
Navigation customization allows users to quickly access relevant information. It allows you to add, edit, or remove links from a team site’s left-hand menu, a communication site’s top menu, a hub site’s footer menu, and more. For example, in the employee portal project, The team created a three-level navigation (the SharePoint/Office 365 navigation panels, the employee portal, and the quick links) that simplified moving around the employee portal and Office 365 applications.
The page’s content.
Customization enables the creation of unique web page layouts. A SharePoint page can also be customized by adding custom Web Parts (Events, News, Bing Maps, File Viewer, Image Gallery, etc.).
Workflows.
Customization allows for the creation of workflows that would otherwise be unavailable, such as tax calculation. SharePoint workflows can also be used to approve the content on SharePoint pages. SharePoint Designer, Microsoft Flow, and Visual Studio can all be used to create custom SharePoint workflows.
Forms.
Custom forms for surveys, quizzes, and polls can be created using PowerApps or Microsoft Forms. Microsoft Forms, for example, can be used to collect customer feedback, measure employee satisfaction, and organize corporate events, among other things. These forms are designed to work with SharePoint pages.
How much can you customize?
The extent of customization capabilities is determined by the type of SharePoint deployment:
On-premises deployment (SharePoint Server).
Server-side code (code that runs on SharePoint servers) and client-side code are both supported by SharePoint Server (runs in a browser). Because server-side code is available, SharePoint customization capabilities are nearly limitless. It, for example, enables the creation of custom notifications that are sent automatically to a manager in the event of a Service Level Agreement breach.
The utilization of the cloud (SharePoint Online).
Client-side code is used for customization instead of server-side code because server-side code is not available in SharePoint Online. For customization, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS are used. Customizations in SharePoint Online include, for example, creating policies for automatically deleting old files or initiating a review workflow after a specified period, associating a specific document template with a library, and more.
Business Software, Custom Or Generic?
To summarise
SharePoint offers numerous customization options for businesses to create designs, workflows, and other digital workplace elements that are tailored to the needs of their customers. Furthermore, businesses that already use basic SharePoint functionality can use the platform to build a variety of business solutions for document, policy, and asset management, as well as ticketing, learning management, and other functions. Cubix has extensive experience designing and developing SharePoint applications and sites as a Microsoft partner. We can design and build a solution tailored to your user base and budget, whether cloud-hosted or on-premise. If you are planning a SharePoint project, please contact us. We will gladly help your company deploy, integrate, and customize its features.