SharePoint has many capabilities that can assist the University of Saskatchewan with its day-to-day business, as well as long-term retention and storage of electronic documents. SharePoint can be used to:

• automate university processes, 
• improve service (because documents can be retrieved quickly and are not lost or misplaced), 
• enhance collaboration (documents can be shared with those needing them), 
• speed up decision-making (information regarding decisions to be made is routed electronically instead of manually), 
• improve productivity (paperwork and tasks are routed electronically, less time is spent filing and retrieving documents), 
• free up office space (paper copies of documents do not have to be stored), 
• reduce our reliance upon printing and the distribution of paper (create the “paperless” office), 
• reduce printing costs (less paper will be printed), 
• decrease our carbon footprint, contribute positively towards the university’s sustainability commitment, 
• and meet the university’s requirements for record management.

Collaboration

Often groups of people within the University work collaboratively and need to store documents where the group can find, use or update them.  For example, the group may be working on:

• Committee agendas, minutes, and reports
• Project proposals and charters
• policies and procedures
• Service plans
• Presentations
• Budgets

SharePoint can store any type of electronic documents along with associated information such as the author, date created or modified, student number, college, department, or description.  SharePoint can search for documents using the associated information. Once a person has located the document, they can edit it using the program that created it. With versioning, it is possible to keep multiple minor and/or major versions of edited documents, allowing groups to revert to a previous version if necessary.

Groups that are already using PAWS Community groups for collaboration may wonder whether SharePoint is a better tool for their purposes. Please read PAWS Community Groups and SharePoint 2010 - Comparison for a comparison of the collaboration features in the two products.

Business processes

The University has business processes which require that certain tasks be completed by the correct individuals in the correct order. If a business process uses (or could be adapted to use) electronic documents, it can be implemented in SharePoint.  The process can be launched manually or automatically when a certain event happens or a certain date is reached.  It can create tasks automatically and send e-mail alerts to the person who is assigned to the task.  Once the staff member marks a task as completed, the process can automatically create the next task and send an e-mail alert to the next person in the process. 

Document management

Some documents created by the University are official records. There is a legal requirement to retain these documents for a specified period of time, after which the document may be destroyed or moved to Archives. SharePoint can set up rules that specify the retention period for each document based on its type or location. Once the retention period has expired, SharePoint can move the document to the next stage, either automatically or after a review. The rules can set dates or other information on the documents at each stage.

Examples of documents that may be part of the university’s official records include:

• Committee proceedings
• Curriculum records
• Thesis documents
• Financial information
• Student records

Note: SharePoint will not replace the storage of official records already retained in SiRIUS, UniFi or About-US, but can be used to provide supplementary records not already in those systems.