Originally published 13 September 2023. Fully updated for 2026.
People often ask us "what is SharePoint in Office 365?", usually after discovering they've been using it for years without realising. Office 365 is now called Microsoft 365, but the answer is the same: SharePoint is the content and collaboration platform underneath much of what your team does every day. Every file shared in a Teams channel is stored in SharePoint. Most company intranets built on Microsoft 365 are SharePoint. And when Microsoft 365 Copilot answers a question about a policy or a project, SharePoint is frequently where it finds the answer.
What is SharePoint?
SharePoint (strictly, SharePoint Online, the cloud version included in Microsoft 365) is a platform for storing, organising, sharing and publishing information across an organisation. Think of it as three things in one:
- A document management system: shared libraries with version history, co-authoring, metadata and permissions.
- An intranet platform: sites and pages for company news, policies, onboarding and team information.
- An app foundation: lists and libraries that power workflows, forms and custom business tools.
SharePoint is included in the Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium plans, as well as the Enterprise plans. Your organisation gets a pool of storage that grows with the number of licences you hold.
How SharePoint fits with Teams and OneDrive
This is where most confusion comes from, so here's the short version:
| Tool | What it's for | Who owns the content |
|---|---|---|
| OneDrive | Your personal work files and drafts | The individual |
| Microsoft Teams | Conversations, meetings and day-to-day teamwork | The team (files are stored in a SharePoint site behind the scenes) |
| SharePoint | Shared documents, intranet pages, lists and records | The team or the organisation |
Every Microsoft 365 group or team gets a connected SharePoint team site automatically. For a deeper dive on where files should live, read SharePoint vs OneDrive: what's the difference?
Features that matter in 2026
1. Sites: team, communication and hub
Team sites are collaboration spaces for a department or project, usually connected to a Team. Communication sites are for broadcasting to a wider audience: the intranet home page, HR policies, company news. Hub sites tie related sites together with shared navigation, branding and search, which is how you build an intranet that feels like one place rather than fifty.
2. Document libraries
Libraries are the heart of SharePoint. They give you automatic version history, real-time co-authoring in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, check-in and check-out where you need it, and metadata columns (client, document type, status) that make files far easier to find and filter than a deep folder tree. Libraries sync to File Explorer through the OneDrive app, so people can still work the way they're used to.
3. Microsoft Lists
Lists are structured tables that live in SharePoint: asset registers, issue trackers, leave requests, supplier lists. They support forms, views, conditional formatting and approvals, and they're often the fastest way to replace a shared spreadsheet that five people are fighting over.
4. Pages and news
Modern SharePoint pages are built from web parts (text, images, document viewers, embedded Power BI reports, events, quick links) and look good on any device. News posts can be targeted to specific audiences and surfaced in Teams through Viva Connections.
5. Automation with Power Automate
The original article mentioned SharePoint's built-in workflows. Those are now gone: Microsoft retired SharePoint 2010 workflows in 2020 and SharePoint 2013 workflows in April 2026. Automation in SharePoint now runs on Power Automate, which can trigger approvals, notifications, document routing and integrations with other systems. If you still have legacy workflows or old on-premises SharePoint Server (versions 2016 and 2019 reached end of support in July 2026), it's time to plan the move. Our app development team builds these flows and SharePoint-based tools.
6. Permissions and external sharing
SharePoint lets you control who can see and edit what at site, library, folder or file level, and share securely with guests outside your organisation. Admins can set external sharing limits across the tenant, require sign-in for guests and set links to expire. Used well, it's precise. Used carelessly, it's the main source of oversharing.
7. Copilot and SharePoint agents
With Microsoft 365 Copilot, SharePoint content becomes something you can ask questions of. Copilot can summarise documents, draft content from existing files and answer questions grounded in what's stored across your sites. You can also create agents scoped to specific sites or libraries, such as an HR policy assistant that only answers from the policy library.
Crucially, Copilot only surfaces content a user already has permission to see. That's reassuring, but it also means any file that's been overshared ("everyone in the organisation" links, open sites) is now much easier to find.
Before rolling out Copilot, review who has access to sensitive sites like HR, finance and leadership. Microsoft's SharePoint Advanced Management tools, available to organisations with Microsoft 365 Copilot licences, include oversharing reports and Restricted Content Discovery, which keeps chosen sites out of Copilot and organisation-wide search without changing who can open them. See Microsoft's Copilot readiness guidance.
Security and compliance
SharePoint inherits the security of your Microsoft 365 tenant: multi-factor authentication and Conditional Access through Microsoft Entra ID, encryption at rest and in transit, and auditing of file activity. With the right licensing, Microsoft Purview adds sensitivity labels (which can encrypt and restrict documents wherever they travel), data loss prevention to stop sensitive information being shared inappropriately, and retention policies for record-keeping obligations.
One thing SharePoint is not: a backup. Version history and the recycle bin help with everyday mistakes, but they have time limits and won't protect you from a compromised admin account or a ransomware event that encrypts synced files. Pair it with dedicated Microsoft 365 backup.
Who benefits from SharePoint?
Almost any organisation that has outgrown a shared network drive and a group chat. It's particularly strong for:
- Professional services firms that manage client files and need consistent structure and access control.
- Healthcare and allied health providers with sensitive records and policy documentation.
- Property, construction and multi-site businesses where teams in different locations need the same current documents.
- Any growing team that needs one place for policies, onboarding and company news.
Getting SharePoint right: five practical tips
- Design the structure first. Map sites to how your business actually works (departments, clients, projects) before migrating a single file.
- Prefer more sites, fewer folders. Separate sites make permissions and ownership much simpler than one giant site with deeply nested folders.
- Give every site an owner. Someone accountable for membership and tidiness.
- Use metadata for the things people search by. Client, document type and year are common starting points.
- Set sharing and lifecycle policies centrally. Decide how external sharing, guest access and inactive sites are handled, then enforce it.
How synfo can help
We design and build SharePoint intranets and document management structures on the Microsoft 365 platform you already run. Our intranet and collaboration service covers information architecture, migration from file shares, Teams structure, governance and Copilot readiness, and our managed IT plans keep it secure and supported afterwards. If you're coming from Google Workspace, see our migration guide.