SharePoint Initial Setup
VW
VINCENTWU
Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The SharePoint ecosystem is under development and needs both customers and vendors to work together to make solutions viable. As the business is evolving, SharePoint still needs to transform to meet expectations. For our purpose, completely replacing an entire enterprise application will be not possible. We can expect OS-embedded applications in the future in Microsoft. For certain solutions, we may wait years yet (ex., ERP to integrate interface PDM/MES/supplier/Customer EDI).
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MichaelNdwiga
IT Business Support Officer at cityeyehospital
It's an online solution, so there's no installation required. Users simply log in to their account to access the application.
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Sam Scott
IT Manager at The Ventoulis Institute for Local Journalism
It was straightforward. We have 12 employees, so it didn't take long at all.
It was basically just giving them a computer and them signing into their accounts. It is included actually in our subscription, so we didn't have to install or do anything. It was there. I, as the IT manager, did have to create the site though and then add the members of the groups and stuff like that.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
SharePoint
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about SharePoint. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
767,496 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Buthainah Al-Balharith
Information Technology Security Engineer at Direct Choice
The initial setup is easy. You can download it on the desktop by clicking the synchronization command and ensuring appropriate licensing.
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Sadi Abalı
Advisor To The Board at Premier DC Veri Merkezi
The initial setup process is complicated, and unfortunately, the available documentation and guidance are inadequate. As a result, we have to resort to watching online tutorials, reading forums, and even asking friends for help. The most challenging aspect of the setup is integrating the website with the mobile app.
I give the initial setup a six out of ten.
My team took two weeks to complete the deployment. We began by collecting the necessary documentation to include on the intranet site. Then, we created four design templates for the pages and utilized them to develop product information, pricing policies, news postings, and the most effective communication menu for our team.
View full review »KB
reviewer1527261
Lead Consultant at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The initial setup is easy. We must go through some process if we need to utilize some features. For example, if we want to use co-authoring or set up a workflow on top of the document management system, we should be aware of some technical aspects. We must study and gain some technical knowledge.
SharePoint is a SaaS product. I rate the ease of initial setup a nine out of ten. It is easy to deploy. Sometimes, the deployment is done through the DevOps process via a CI/CD pipeline. Sometimes, it is done manually. It can be deployed within an hour.
Wendy Neilan
Microsoft Channel Manager at nVisionIT
I wasn't involved in its deployment, but I can think back to projects that we have done with SharePoint with customers. Obviously, the project itself will be dependent on how many customizations they need, but they are generally not very long projects. We have had some that are done in two to three weeks including customization and deploying everything. It isn't a difficult deployment process from my experience.
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Quintin Jamieson
General Manager at Pon Projects
I have deployed the tool for two businesses. It is not easy to navigate. The initial setup process is not intuitive. Other platforms are intuitive with the setup. Once it's set up, it's good. It is a cloud-based solution.
View full review »AS
Andy Sworan
VP, CRS Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The setup is straightforward, however many of the architecture issues should be discussed prior to deployment. Matching the setup to the organization’s needscan make the installation complex.
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it_user204777
Manager, IT Communications at AbbVie
IT was not very transparent about providing what the tools can and cannot do. As a user, I had to figure it all out, ask a lot of questions then get them to explain why or why not we could or could not do certain things.
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Varun_Gupta
Technical Lead at Infosys
The initial setup of SharePoint Online was straightforward.
For a general user, the documentation could improve. The assigning of unique permissions can be difficult for a beginner.
View full review »SG
Sammy Githinji
Technical Manager at Rigor Systems Limited
The initial setup is easy. I rate the ease of setup an eight out of ten. It is a cloud solution. A person with some knowledge about the solution can deploy it in four to five hours. One person can do the deployment.
it_user322521
ITIL Process Manager at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The initial setup process was fairly straightforward.
View full review »CB
Chaan Beard
Senior Data Center Solutions Architect at ChaanBeard.com
Setup is very simple, though all the features take a while to get your arms around (foundation, server, designer, business sync, etc.).
View full review »BW
BillWatterson
CEO l Founder at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
The initial setup for SharePoint was complex. Anything from Microsoft is complex.
View full review »it_user635955
Project Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Very straightforward setup and not that complex.
View full review »it_user262269
Assistant Manager, Operations Automation at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We have an excellent onboarding process that our IT team put together, so setup was not particularly complex.
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Cesar Danecke
IT Supervisor at HORSCH BRASIL
The initial configuration of SharePoint was very easy. The configuration, training, and communication with the users took less than two months.
RC
Ram Chenna
Enterprise Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
They have good documentation for deployment so it was quite straightforward. I was involved along with the vendor, setting up the environment, setting up the product, the infrastructure and configuration. We had some minor issues but deployment was quite seamless. It took two or three hours, we had one infrastructure and one technical person working on it, that was enough for us.
View full review »CR
Cecil Rupp
Works at Command Results, LLC.
It seemed easy enough. The one issue I had was setting up a project portal where we wanted to implement a number of SDLC Templates via SharePoint. This was a couple of years ago, but the integration of a legacy Microsoft forms product was not very clean or adequate. It looks like the previous tool has been replaced with Microsoft Forms. I haven't had a chance to use this product yet.
View full review »LW
Lewin Wanzer
SharePoint Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The initial setup as explained is complex. You need to understand what you’re doing as an IT engineer and also where this product will be in five years, as far as it being part of your enterprise. If you set up the wrong version of the product or the wrong version of SQL Server, you will not get the features you might be looking for. It’s best to see how the product will be used by your organization, and the bells and whistles your management is looking for to solve issues within your company.
View full review »it_user324303
Lead Enterprise Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Initial setup was straightforward, easy and successful.
View full review »it_user350169
Sr. Business Systems Analyst at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I don't know about setup. It was never my responsibility. Since the products were in place when I arrived, I don't know who the vendors were that partnered with Microsoft to configure and deploy the product.
View full review »it_user221769
Business Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
All I did was request for a site to be created and then the rest of the configuration was up to me.
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NagendraVuppala
Tax Manager at RSM
SharePoint's initial setup is not complex. It's good for any new customer to adapt and understand.
View full review »it_user265281
Network Manager / Senior Network Engineer at Warnock, Tanner & Associates
SharePoint can be very complex to set up initially both in terms of the infrastructure as well as the backend design and implementation. The more scalable the environment, the more complex the setup will be. Generally, third-party consultants will be needed to implement the solution.
View full review »it_user118278
Senior Business Analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Setup was straightforward.
View full review »it_user166335
CTO with 501-1,000 employees
Prior infrastructure planning is a must. When systems are well defined, all setup and integration runs smoothly.
View full review »it_user360681
Technology Manager - Applications at a local government with 501-1,000 employees
After getting the infrastructure setup and deployed, installing and rolling out the product was fairly straightforward. A little bit of planning was required to better understand the differences in Web Applications from Site Collections, but that was largely straightforward.
View full review »it_user253449
Sr. DevOps at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The initial setup for me was fairly simple.
View full review »it_user63336
Database / SharePoint Administrator at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Initial setup can be daunting if you are not familiar with the product, especially if you are setting this up in a multiple-server environment, which would be the common scenario. There are three main servers in the configuration: the database server, the web application server and the web front end server. In larger installations, that number can grow, as you can have multiple front end servers and multiple servers handling the various application services.
View full review »it_user196608
Data Research Analyst at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Rolling out the enterprise version and ensuring integration with other products, budgeting for the hardware, and ensuring governance was not easy for SharePoint. However, I did leverage all of the plans and checklists that Microsoft provided, which made the process much simpler.
Office 365 was very simple to setup and I liked the ease of expanding storage when needed.
View full review »MS
MichaelSoliman
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The initial setup was very complex. We had to keep in mind all of the backup solutions. It is kind of like remodeling a kitchen. You must think of all of the parts, the architecture, the electricity, the air flow, etc.
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Syed Fahad Anwar
Principal System Developer at HHRC
The initial setup is not that complex, if the architecture is laid down properly.
View full review »FR
director194919
Director, Systems Management & MIS Operations at a university with 201-500 employees
Initial setup was straightforward; some steps are implied for an experienced IT tech.
View full review »it_user347112
Senior Consultant/Project Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have no experience with rolling out templates or actual new instances.
View full review »it_user274608
European Business Architect - B2B Marketing & Sales with 1,001-5,000 employees
Initial setup was straightforward.
View full review »it_user229761
Senior Consultant | Architect at DHL
The initial setup was really difficult, because we had no experience. But, together with my colleagues, we managed to solve the initial issues. Then, we used specialized consultants to help us. All subsequent implementations, even in our own environment, were successful. There is always some troubleshooting to do, but this is normal.
View full review »RB
SysMan2876
System Manager at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
A partner initially installed it. That was the start of our use of SharePoint. I believe there was a lack of information or a lack of knowledge on the part of the external party that initiated this project. As our internal IT department has improved, the setup of SharePoint - we migrated to a new version - has improved.
View full review »it_user339057
Sr. Manager - IT Security, Compliance and Administration at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
With so much online help and blogs, setup was straightforward. We did use a third-party to assist us with best practices. Once the system was up, we were able to support ourselves with no issues.
View full review »it_user164916
Senior Manager, Business Intelligence at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The setup was complex. As I work for a large financial organisation, the security matters are very important. For that reason, we had to deploy the different components on many servers in different zones, separated by firewalls. We also had to support the needs for several tens of users for data analysis and a few hundred more users for data consumption.
View full review »it_user199146
IT Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The initial setup was somewhat complex. To get the best results, a farm configuration was needed and many additional components are required to have all the features fully functional.
View full review »it_user293013
Business Development Director at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
In the early days 2003, the initial setup of SharePoint was highly complex, but nowadays it has been streamlined a lot. The challenge, however, is not the basic installations. It is creating something that is ready to take advantage of the scalability and other platform benefits without revising the architecture.
it_user269952
President and Founder with 51-200 employees
It's complex because you must spend significant time determining roles and train accordingly, or else it becomes an unstructured dumping ground for everyone’s files.
View full review »it_user183822
Project Manager with 501-1,000 employees
I wasn't with the company during the procurement and deployment phases.
View full review »MS
MichaelSoliman
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The setup of this solution is complex. There are SharePoint deployment architecture scenarios, and sometimes the C-level deciders underestimate the complexity of it. You have to know SharePoint very well.
View full review »it_user87039
Manager of Operations at a hospitality company with 501-1,000 employees
The setup wizard helps you with the install. It is straightforward and easy.
View full review »it_user246930
Director of Development with 501-1,000 employees
The initial setup was not so complex but our attempt to migrate was plagued with some issue and it was ultimately abandoned. It was not worth redoing everything what was there .
View full review »it_user540288
Project Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
The setup is not complex; we just create the libraries and the sync will start. (We have downloaded and used various tools including Microsoft’s own tools.)
View full review »it_user249759
IT Services Manager at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
As we were new to SharePoint, we found that the initial process was complex. So, we hired a partner to perform the installation. Over the years, this experience has improved drastically.
View full review »it_user328023
IT Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Setup was complex. Setting up the solution requires a solid understanding of the various architecture options available. While Microsoft has made significant improvements in changing the deployment method so that it is much more guided, decisions taken at the time of deployment can have long lasting detrimental impacts if the decision is not well understood.
View full review »WH
Wissam H
Change Management Consultant at a analyst firm with self employed
Initial setup was complex, but it was due to our experience and knowledge as an organization. Data deployment was a nightmare as the vendor (a Microsoft business partner) was not well prepared.
View full review »SB
reviewer1451235
IT business analysis, development and governance at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The initial setup of SharePoint is very straightforward. Microsoft did a very good job with onboarding new users of their platform, e.g. the Office 365 platform. There were a lot of good improvements for administrators of tenants of different parts of Office 365, including SharePoint.
View full review »YD
Yatin Dalvi
Senior Industry Expert with 1,001-5,000 employees
The multi-server farm setup was not straightforward.
View full review »it_user329733
Office 365 Consultant at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The initial setup is a simple process. However, planning requires more time in order to gather user requirements.
View full review »it_user366102
Business Process Coordinator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
The initial setup was complex. We hired an external consultant to implement the Content Type Hub.
View full review »it_user189537
Systems Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
N/A. I am not a system admin for SharePoint and was not involved in the deployment.
While a business owner of the platform, I can only comment on that the upgrade/migration from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 was relatively smooth, albeit very slow.
The migration process took an entire weekend, and our instance is shy of 150GB total stored contents.
View full review »it_user130776
Database Senior Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Initial setup was complex. You needed to understand the parts before you could set up the whole, and you needed to understand what parts you needed to get going.
View full review »PK
Seniop9887
Director at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
The initial setup was straightforward for sure. I didn't see any complexity in it. The implementation took about three-and-a-half months.
View full review »it_user449190
Practice Manager and Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
For simple farms, things are pretty straightforward. But for complex farms, I have not yet had that experience.
To be fair, it’s not SharePoint all the time. It’s a combination of other environmental factors and third-party products as well.
View full review »it_user415431
Collaboration Service Manager at a consumer goods company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The initial configuration was straightforward. The online support documentation is well written and easy to follow.
View full review »it_user139293
VP/Treasurer/Asst Secretary at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Here again, from a user’s view, I would say initial setup was complex as to obtain the most benefit, you needed to understand what you were looking for and how best to fit it into the scheme of SharePoint. It seemed that there was often more than one way to solve the need and trying to map the need with the best approach took some time.
View full review »it_user631614
Senior Technology Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The setup is complex, as you need to consider lots of things for the farm design.
View full review »it_user88620
IT & PMO Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Setup was not complex at all. We used third party tools to migrate productive sites and the new sites were created easily. The main difficulty is user adoption. It must be done with a lot of workshops.
View full review »SR
Sunny Rajpal
Senior SharePoint Architect at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Initial setup was straightforward.
View full review »it_user515928
SharePoint Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Initial setup is somewhat complex; it requires a professional for installation and configuration.
View full review »it_user421563
IT admin at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
We used a consultancy company to set up the environment and everything has been deployed within the estimated time frame. The seamless integration with Active Directory made it easy to provide access to all company users.
View full review »it_user302172
System Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Setup is very straightforward when you know the architecture.
View full review »VO
VeyselOzdemir
Managing Director at Ictnet Limited
Very hard.
View full review »it_user312111
Test Lead at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
SharePoint can be very complex to setup initially (both infrastructure and back end design and implementation). The more scalable the environment, the more complex the setup will be. Generally speaking, a 3rd party consultant will be needed to implement the solution.
View full review »it_user263559
Escalation Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Deploying essential components was fairly straightforward. "MySite" page customization for multi-brand organization was a bit complicated due to the application of custom templates and role-based access control.
View full review »it_user118134
Director Cloud Solution Consulting at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It was straightforward, since the migration wizard provided by Microsoft is a good wizard for the environment we have.
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SR
EntrprsA3456
Enterprise Architect Channels at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
I was not personally involved with the setup. My IT team did this.
View full review »it_user689550
Sr DevOps Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Initial setup was complex. The multi-step installation process is complex and has too many dependencies on other Microsoft products, such as Exchange and SQL Server.
View full review »it_user224211
Web Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
For someone who had not set up SharePoint previously, the initial setup was somewhat complicating. However, it became very straightforward thereafter.
View full review »RK
Kumar_Rajesh
Vice President & Head Technology Transition at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The initial setup was fairly complex, but that may just be our environment. A fair amount of design and consolidation needed to go into it.
View full review »CN
Caressa Naidoo
Technical Writer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
There was a fair amount of research, investigation and infrastructure planning involved prior to its implementation and setup. SharePoint was a new initiative that was attempted by our in-house team. Initial setup was not so straightforward. It was a bit complex, as it is with most new products; but we did eventually get it up and running.
Our technical team is now up-to-speed, and the current process moves smoothly. With that said, it is useful to have prior technical knowledge and experience in SharePoint in order to facilitate a smooth setup and integration process.
View full review »it_user500811
SI with 1,001-5,000 employees
Initial setup using the graphical wizard is very easy, but the recommendation is to use PowerShell scripts. Ready to use scripts like AutoSPInstaller make it much easier.
View full review »it_user333585
Project Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Initial setup was complex for IT resources with a non-SharePoint background.
View full review »it_user250926
Managing Director & Chief Technology Officer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Setup was simple.
View full review »it_user247329
Consultant with 1,001-5,000 employees
The setup and installation are straightforward. Microsoft provides a good installation wizard for the same.
View full review »it_user410514
Deputy General Manager at a engineering company with 501-1,000 employees
The installation was very complex. Since our initial implementation, that process has been improved dramatically.
View full review »it_user85050
Senior Technology Architect at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Setup was complex. We needed to design governance and implementation architecture before deployment.
View full review »it_user8346
Product Manager with 1,001-5,000 employees
The installation of SharePoint server was easy and had no issues.
View full review »it_user70575
Project Manager at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
It was very easy to install, like most Microsoft products. I love Microsoft's way of keeping their setups very similar.
View full review »it_user360642
Head of Business Intelligence at a engineering company with 501-1,000 employees
Installation and configuration were somewhat complex.
View full review »JY
JulioYzaguirre
Information Technology Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
You need Microsoft or a partner involved for setup.
View full review »it_user227412
Technical Writer at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
Initially, I was only involved in the setup of the document management portion of our site. I found it very user-friendly and easy to configure.
Since then, I have been involved in the setup and maintenance of a second site from scratch. Although certain aspects have been quite easy to configure, I experienced a lot of difficulty when working with user permissions and content types.
The content types were difficult to configure initially. When I need to edit or update certain properties, I could not determine where, or how, to change them. We eventually decided to remove them from our implementation.
it_user86598
Consultant (SharePoint Specialist) at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Setup was complex. As an IT techie, it is setting up a farm that includes five servers.
View full review »it_user75573
Software Architect at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
As with any other product, initial setup is a bit complex to understand how/what is happening, but with a good background and understanding, how it works it is very easy.
View full review »KM
reviewer907167
Cloud Solution Architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The initial setup is straightforward.
View full review »it_user143376
Consultant with 201-500 employees
Straightforward but user profiles take some time to set up.
View full review »
Buyer's Guide
SharePoint
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about SharePoint. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
767,496 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free SharePoint Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
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