As companies start to embrace the power of SharePoint and what it can bring to support collaboration in a modern workplace, we thought you might like to know more about our expert in all things Modern SharePoint – Shaun Gould.
We wanted to give you a better understanding of the people we have behind the screens of IT Champion, so we asked some key people ten questions to help uncover the personalities, experience and knowledge that powers our success.
Today is about getting to know our data and collaboration lead.
Tell us about your role at IT Champion
My role within the company is to plan, assist and transition businesses to a more automated, streamlined and tailored Modern Workplace by utilising Microsoft 365 and specifically SharePoint online. I also provide consultancy for businesses already utilising SharePoint Online and looking to enhance how they currently use it.
How long have you worked for IT Champion
12 years (by the time this post goes out likely). I’m one of the IT Champion OG’s.
What does a typical day look like
Lots of emails, meetings, SharePoint consultancy/development and coffee.
What got you into IT and particularly your expertise in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint
I had no intentions of getting into IT initially, but my brother (Glenn) text me one day to ask if I would be interested in an apprenticeship. I got into my job role specifically because we needed to invest someone into keeping up with and understanding the modern ways of working with SharePoint and Office 365.
What would you say are the most commonly under used elements in an organisation’s IT and why
The features/Apps that you have available with an Office 365 subscription. Lots of companies move to Office 365 for their email system but do not always want to further explore the other features that are available and included with their licenses. There are lots of licenses available and some of them can completely transform and streamline how businesses work.
In the time you’ve been developing Modern Workplace solutions for small to medium businesses what development has made the largest impact on an organisation
I wouldn’t say there’s one in particular as I feel they all have made a large impact. For a Modern Workplace project to be successful, there needs to be a driving factor or something that needs fixing with the current system to use as the end goal of the new solution. Since COVID-19, remote working has been a regular request for most businesses and a Modern workplace can easily achieve this whilst enhancing how you currently work. Transforming how businesses work and enabling them to be able to work from home as if they were sitting in the Office in my opinion creates the largest positive impact currently.
When thinking about the rapid changes in office life where do you think technology is best placed to enable secure working and employee productivity
I think the modern workplace has completely transformed how businesses can function and how staff can now work. With being able to access company data and resources securely from any device, the Modern Workplace is paving the way for different methods of working. From my personal experience, this helps to improve my quality of life as I can now work more productively in a home office with more flexibility in my working day.
Where can a Modern Workplace solution impact the most (cost, time, productivity, resilience)
I think all of the above. A Modern Workplace project would tend to be cheaper than the cost of a server replacement. The solution that is built for you is tailored to your wants and needs as a business, so this massively helps to enhance productivity and save on time. Lastly, it’s a very resilient system. With an uptime of approx. 99.9% of the time, it’s very rare that you will experience downtime with your environment. If you do, Microsoft technicians will be working hard to recover the service asap as if it’s affecting you, it will be affecting other businesses too. It also doesn’t matter whether we build a solution for a company with 2 members of staff and then they employ another 200, the system works the same for everyone regardless of the number of users.
What’s next in the development of a modern workplace – what new features are just around the corner
For me, SharEPoint Syntax is the next big feature that’s about to take off. This is essentially a content understanding/processing service the uses AI to automatically extract information from documents and classify them. It also features a modern way of using Templates for specific business documents allowing them to be used quicker and more consistently.
What’s the one piece of advice you would give to an organisation unsure where to start when creating and implementing a modern workplace solution
Reach out to book a free SharePoint demo!
SharePoint is a collaboration and content management platform so you need to get an understanding of how it can look and the best practice ways of using it before you start. Once you see this, it’s very easy to start thinking of how a Modern Workplace solution can work for you. Anyone can move some data to SharePoint but creating a solution that is tailored to your requirements as a business and trying to streamline processes and fix existing niggles is what makes the difference and actually enhances how you are currently working. Until you see what SharePoint online looks like, you won’t be able to visualise how it can help you.
