NOTE ON INTRANET SITES
Operational and communication sites intended for all faculty and staff (university-wide) will not be provisioned at this time. This decision is part of the SFU Communications & Marketing effort to strategically develop intranet-related content in the future.
OVERVIEW
This article describes how SharePoint Online sites are used at SFU (i.e., supported and unsupported use-cases).
For more SharePoint Online resources:
USES FOR SHAREPOINT SITES
Note: In this article, the term "SharePoint sites" refers to standalone SharePoint sites. Not to be confused with integrated SharePoint sites with Teams (or Teams sites), these are part of Microsoft Teams. Visit SharePoint Online FAQs for a detailed explanation.
SUPPORTED SITES
SharePoint sites should be viewed as an internal web space for publishing operational and communication resources to defined SFU faculty or staff groups. This means that SharePoint sites are ideal for:
- Publishing, sharing and communicating internal and page-heavy content
- An internal web space with a focus on content available for viewing or consumption
- An audience that goes beyond your team, but only includes defined SFU faculty or faculty groups
Some examples of internal and page-heavy content:
- Internal information web pages such as: about, overviews, policies, announcements, updates, news
- Final versions of files for distribution: documents, forms, templates and media
Some examples of support use-cases are:
- Departmental sharing, publication or communication space
- Committee sites (SFU-only)
- Project or initiative sites for communication
- Safety and training sites
UNSUPPORTED SITES
SharePoint sites have tools focused on publishing to an SFU-only audience and are not ideal for:
- A working space, collaboration or productivity needs (see Why Microsoft Teams for collaboration?)
- Content that requires productivity tools (Planner, workflows, automation)
- Student-facing content, or content that is primarily for student consumption
- External-facing content, or content that requires sharing or access to external (non-SFU) individuals
- Archival or data resiliency needs
- Research data (unless specified by research contract or aligns with research needs)
Some examples of unsupported use-cases are:
- Sites that have an external-facing audience outside of SFU
- Projects or initiatives for collaboration
- Departmental collaboration space
- Research working space
- Archival repositories
Why Microsoft Teams for collaboration?
Microsoft Teams offers a variety of built-in collaboration features, making it the more ideal collaboration and productivity tool compared to SharePoint Online. These Teams-only features include:
- Instant messaging (or chat)
- Video meetings
- Built-in productivity tools and apps (Calendar, Planner, workflows, automation)
Alternatively, visit Choosing a Document and Content Management Tool at SFU if you wish to look at other tools.
Visit Microsoft Teams
Ready to request a site?
If you're sure that SharePoint sites will fit your needs, you can request a site. If you're still unsure or have any questions, visit SharePoint Ask a Question to submit a request.
Request a Site