As SharePoint admins, we’re always looking to provide our team with the tools they need to do their jobs as efficiently and effectively as possible. When a member of our team needs to create a new communication site or a modern team site , we are the first place to come. Unfortunately, properly setting up a site for a routine task or ensuring the new site meets organizational requirements is rarely done in a few simple steps.
An effective SharePoint strategy requires consistency across sites with SharePoint consulting services. To achieve this consistency, sites would, in most cases, have to follow a set of rules that are automated, but still offer configurability. That’s what SharePoint site designs are all about, making building consistent SharePoint experiences a breeze! What are they and why are they so useful?
What is a SharePoint site design?
Site designs are like a templating engine. They help ensure that a set of requirements, expectations, and actions are initiated each time a given design is applied to a site. Site designs can be applied when provisioning a new site or later, and they can be applied to existing sites at any time. All the corresponding functionalities are accessible in a user-friendly browser-like interface.
How do site designs empower your team to do more?
1) They allow you to control the results of site creations
Site designs allow you to tailor each SharePoint site to the specific needs of your organization in a repeatable and reliable way. Creating template-based sites that include the components, structure, and storage space you need will save you a lot of time later.
For example in the following case: the HR team of one of our customers in the education sector had asked us to provide them with template-based team sites for open positions with very different structural requirements from those of other sites. Site designs allowed us to create specific templates for their particular scenarios and use cases.
Site designs are developed by your team to meet specific goals, such as:
- Define a theme
- Configure lists and document libraries
- Predefine metadata
- Define common security scenarios
- And much more !
If a site design is unable to meet one of your requirements, you can extend the template creation processes using a supported external application such as Microsoft Flow .
2) They offer new possibilities
Frequently IT-intensive tasks, such as enabling or disabling external sharing or enabling the SharePoint Framework, can now be integrated into site designs. Is the IT department tired of dealing with incessant requests from site owners? These can now be made available through the browser at the click of a button. Powerful users can even apply site designs themselves to circumvent bottlenecks and save time for all stakeholders.
In addition, it is possible to reserve designs for particular individuals or groups, to ensure that given site designs are applied only by properly trained site owners.
3) They guarantee consistency
Using SharePoint site designs allows your team to do more while ensuring that new sites are created and preconfigured consistently. With expectations clearly defined, you can be confident that all sites are provisioned correctly and that your team has the tools they need to be effective in their day-to-day work.
You can also set default designs for your organization, which are then automatically applied whenever a new modern team site or communication site is created.
4) They save time
Time is money. Having to constantly recreate new SharePoint sites that meet specific organizational requirements creates a significant risk of inconsistency. Misconfiguring a site can lead to all sorts of problems, such as sending the wrong. Invoice to a customer or losing valuable working hours. If the wrong version of a proposal to a colleague.
Conversely, site designs save time by automatically and uniformly. Applying branding requirements, adding new listings. Setting up required metadata for document libraries, and more. using a predefined script.
As already mentioned, by giving users the ability to perform more tasks independently. Implementing site designs also frees up time for the IT team. Not to mention that because of their great user-friendliness, the site designs also allow a reduction in training costs.
5) They prepare for the future
Microsoft has made it clear that site designs are the preferred. Method of building SharePoint sites whenever a template-based approach. Is needed to support particular business scenarios. In other words, SharePoint site designs are the way of the future.
We always recommend that our customers adopt Microsoft best practices. Wherever possible to future-proof their solution and allow. Users to take advantage of new features and upgrades. Provided by Microsoft over time. time. For our part, at PixelMill , the use of site designs has brought us great successes with our customers. Are you ready to empower your team, return valuable IT team time. And deliver tailored solutions that will benefit your organization? Site designs are powerful tools for empowering users and increasing the reliability of your SharePoint deployment
