Once lacking significantly in mobile friendliness, Microsoft SharePoint has finally embraced the mobile revolution. This is good news for businesses trying to come up with an enterprise mobile strategy to manage the use of mobile – not only by their customers but also their employees, suppliers, partners, etc.
Below are several important additions to SharePoint that business owners can take advantage of to make their SharePoint site more mobile friendly.
Improved Mobile Browser Experience
SharePoint now provides three different browsing options – Classic View, Contemporary View, and Full Screen UI – depending on which browser is being used. The Contemporary View allows quick and easy access to lists, document libraries, and other common SharePoint content on the newest mobile browsers. Older versions of mobile browsers can use the Classic view to gain compatibility with content as well.
Multiple Device Channels
Whereas older versions of SharePoint were frustrating and mobile support was limited, the newer version gives people the ability to choose how they want the same content to show up on different devices through Device Channels. It ultimately gives you far more control over how the content displays. Plus, when designing, you can map master pages, page layouts, and style sheets to specific mobile browsers. The list of browsers is currently limited, but does include the big names such as the iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.
Adding Push Notifications
Push notifications are by no means a new thing. For some time now, SharePoint has been able to send notifications to mobile devices when new or changed documents are added. SharePoint 2013, however, has decided to take push notifications to the next level by allowing users to set more specific filters for what type of activity they would like notifications for. SharePoint is a powerful tool that can keep users even more informed about key changes in SharePoint-based sites and improve engagement for users.
Location Services
The GPS function of mobile devices opens up a completely new field of possibilities for business and SharePoint has decided to get in on the action. With a location/geolocation field added to the platform, users can now add functions based on location to SharePoint. There are a variety of applications for this function, including automatically logging location from the user when they enter information and pulling up locations on Bing Maps. It is particularly powerful considering the amount of information people are capturing with their mobile devices. One of the downsides of this feature, however, is that it’s not available through the standard UI list building tools and must be inserted programmatically.
Office Web Apps
For people who access SharePoint-based documents on their mobile device more often than a traditional desktop, there’s Office Web Apps in SharePoint 2013. Web Apps improves the user experience as they interact with documents on their phones and links SharePoint with Office Web Apps Server. This means mobile users have access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on their phones and can easily view and edit documents.
By now everyone realizes that mobile isn’t going anywhere. Businesses must embrace the way their customers, employees, and partners are interacting with the world. These new mobile friendly feature of Microsoft SharePoint are just a first step in the journey.