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SharePoint software, intranets and document management
SharePoint software is Microsoft's platform for intranets, document management and team sites, delivered as SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365. Arke Technologies designs, migrates, secures and supports SharePoint intranets and document libraries for organisations, public bodies and schools across South Africa, with governance your auditors can follow.
What SharePoint software does
Microsoft SharePoint is the part of Microsoft 365 that stores, organises and publishes an organisation's documents and information. Most organisations on Microsoft 365 use SharePoint Online, sometimes called SharePoint 365, rather than a SharePoint server in their own building. It sits within our business software service, alongside Microsoft 365 administration.
SharePoint software does four jobs:
- Intranet. Communication sites for news, policies, procedures and staff information, readable on any device.
- Team collaboration. Team sites where a department or project keeps shared files and lists. Every team in Microsoft Teams stores its files in one.
- Document management. Libraries with version history, metadata, check-in and check-out, retention and approvals.
- Search and lists. One search across sites and files, and lists that replace tracking spreadsheets.
OneDrive for Business is each person's own storage on the same platform, for drafts and working files. Viva Engage, Microsoft's employee community tool, adds conversation and announcements beside the intranet. MS SharePoint ties them together with one set of permissions and one audit trail, and staff sign in to it with their Microsoft 365 work account, in a browser or through Teams and the OneDrive app.
SharePoint intranets that staff use
An intranet succeeds when people open it every day because it saves them time. We build SharePoint intranets around the tasks staff need to get done, not around the organisation chart.
Policies and procedures
One current version of each document, with a named owner and a review date.
Forms and approvals
Leave, purchase and change requests routed for approval, with a record of who approved what.
Staff directory
Contact details and roles drawn from Microsoft Entra ID, so they stay current.
Department hubs
Finance, HR, IT and operations sites that share navigation and search.
Community
Viva Engage for questions, recognition and organisation-wide conversation.
For schools, the same structure gives staff one place for timetables, policies and templates; see Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for Education.
Document management in SharePoint
SharePoint is a capable document management system (DMS) when it is configured deliberately. We set up:
- Information architecture. Sites, libraries, content types and metadata that match how people look for documents.
- Version history and approvals. Every change recorded, with major and minor versions where documents are formally approved.
- Retention and sensitivity labels. Rules for how long each record is kept, and labels that control who can open, forward or print it.
- Data-loss prevention. Policies that stop identity numbers, bank details and other personal information leaving by mistake.
- External sharing controls. Guest access set site by site, with expiry dates and reviews.
- Search. Metadata and navigation that put the current version first.
Some organisations run a dedicated document management system, on premises or hosted in the cloud, for example on AWS. We assess whether SharePoint should replace it, connect to it through its API or leave it in place. If you work in Google Workspace, shared drives and Vault play a similar role, and we manage those too.
Permissions, oversharing and Copilot readiness
Years of "share with everyone" links leave sensitive files open to people who should not see them. Microsoft 365 Copilot and search make that visible, because they surface whatever a user is allowed to open. Before a Copilot rollout, we review SharePoint and OneDrive permissions, clean up oversharing, apply sensitivity labels and data-loss prevention, and design a pilot. See Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness and Microsoft 365 security.
Retention settings and the recycle bin help with everyday mistakes, but they are not an independent backup. For recovery after ransomware or a mass deletion, we add a separate backup of SharePoint Online and OneDrive through backup and disaster recovery.
What SharePoint costs, and what drives it
Last reviewed: September 2026.
- Licences. SharePoint Online is included in most Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans, which we supply on monthly or annual terms. See Microsoft 365 pricing in South Africa.
- Storage. Each Microsoft 365 tenant receives pooled storage that grows with the number of licences; large archives may need extra storage, priced by Microsoft.
- Design and build. Information architecture, intranet design, forms and approval workflows, quoted as a project.
- Migration. Driven by data volume, the number of sources, permission complexity and the clean-up needed.
- Support. Administration, site requests and permission reviews under an SLA, priced per user per month.
We do not publish rates. We quote in writing after an assessment, with licences, the project and ongoing support shown as separate lines.
Governance, compliance and procurement
- Governance and reporting. Named site owners, a site request and lifecycle process, regular access reviews, and a monthly service review covering storage, sharing and licence use.
- POPIA. Personal information classified, labelled and retained according to your records policy, with audit logs your Information Officer can use. See the POPIA compliance checklist.
- King IV, PFMA and MFMA. Records management and audit trails that support board-level technology and information governance (King IV Principle 12) and the documentation disciplines of departments, public entities and municipalities.
- Security. Sharing, guest-access and sign-in settings aligned with ISO/IEC 27001 and the CIS Controls, hardened through our Microsoft 365 security service.
- Procurement fit. Level 1 B-BBEE contributor (sworn affidavit available on request), giving buyers 135% procurement recognition. Company documents, our CSD supplier number and SARS tax compliance status are available on request, and we complete standard bidding documents when a bid requires them. Buy through a proposal and purchase order, an SLA or a tender response; see our company facts.
- Continuity. The tenant, the content and the admin credentials are yours. Our remote sessions are approved and logged, and we document the site structure, permissions model and retention rules so another team could run them, handing over in an orderly exit if you move on.