When it comes to electronic technology programs have come a long way. This is no truer that if you can remember the first offerings from both Microsoft and Apple that contained the kernels of the programs that they have nurtured and raised until today these programs are feature rich and basically indispensable to a huge range of companies which include the top level of fortune 500 companies.
These feature-rich applications complete each of their functions amazing and now we are beginning to see some of these moves into partnership status with other programs. An example would be Microsoft’s Excel that does a magical role by itself but is now teamed up with Microsoft Access as a completely integrated system with Excel providing front-end data solutions and Access tying into the backend to have its database capabilities further manipulate that data.
It is in this type of application marriage that we see Microsoft’s SharePoint now beginning more closely aligned with Microsoft Flow, an application that on its own does a great job but becomes a stronger tool when used as a backend to SharePoint.
What Is SharePoint?
SharePoint is Microsoft’s document management and collaboration program that combines an intranet platform to allow documents to be better managed in a number of circumstances. For example, documents are much more easily located, shared, updated and much more. It allows companies to compile and regulate documents and many other pieces of the companies document structure while having the ability to disseminate this information across multiple platforms such as the internet, extranet, and intranet sites. It also allows large organizations to partition those information areas that belong to specific company areas, such as assigning the HR department security closed to allow those documents that solely relate to HR or where the organization ownership resides. In other words, its purpose is to align with documents while Excel is to align with numeracy.
What is Microsoft Flow?
Microsoft Flow or just Flow is one of the newer applications that Microsoft has made available to handle a completely different range of functions with documents and even snippets of documents. Flow, as its name suggests allows you to streamline a range of functions through self-created automation which is easily handled by its clever graphical interface. In other words, it picks up a lot of the corporate heavy lifting once documents have made their way into and through the stages of SharePoint.
For example, one of the very cool features for Flow is that your designed workflow can integrate with a large range of third-party applications that are specialized for various communication styles. Think Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many more. If your company has a use for Twillo, then this can be added to your content outgoings. Dropbox, outlook, Google Calendars and more are now a part of your range of tools. For users of Go To Meetings, RSS and Gmail, each of these are also third-party services that integrate into the endpoint. In fact, there are 295 of these services that you can have Flow interact with to get your messages out faster and further than ever before.
SharePoint And Flow Integrated
I truly hope that you are excited enough about future possibilities when the integration between SharePoint document management front end and Flows integrated delivery and architectural creative options available for your future campaigns. While it may take corporations some time to truly grasp the power of this integration, in time this will become an invaluable tool to them and those team members responsible for the inner workings and training of companies in how to squeeze the most from this marriage will be in a position to sell their knowledge and talents for a very good income, that is how powerful I believe that the integration can become in time.
If I think back to the beginning of this article and refer to the initial offerings of Microsoft and Apple as startups, you can see from Microsoft’s perspective that continuing to invest and grow and better define each of their business offerings has now led them to the next stages of development. What more can come from the coupling of these once great standalone programs?
I expect that the answer to that will be in the take up from a business perspective and once more companies are using, the types of user-based inquiries and suggestions that will fall out from the natural usage of these tools. In the meantime, Microsoft is working hard behind closed doors to roll out its next technical conquests. We know that they are currently devoting resources to AI interfaces such as Cortana extended capabilities and one can only imagine that it will tie more of their offerings together with an enhanced AI range of functionality across each of their platforms. The future is truly exciting.