Welcome to the 8th Edition of the Microsoft 365 for Construction newsletter: *Managing Projects Using SharePoint*

Lydon Solutions was founded on building SharePoint-based solutions for the construction industry. For over 15 years, we have created custom web parts, pages, sites, lists, libraries, workflows, dashboards, and reports to manage projects of any size using SharePoint. We even host SharePoint solutions in our Azure data center. And we use SharePoint as the backend database for Construction Viz, our enterprise construction management solution for Microsoft 365. So, you could say we have a lot of experience and are heavily invested in the SharePoint/Microsoft 365 ecosystem. This is why this newsletter is near and dear to my heart.

While the topic of SharePoint to manage projects is incredibly broad, in this newsletter, we’ll cover the following:

• What is SharePoint?
• History of SharePoint.
• Features and considerations that will help you manage your projects.
• Future roadmap.

If you find these newsletters insightful, please subscribe and share them with other like-minded professionals. Also, please sign up for our Microsoft 365 for Construction Linkedin Group, where we share ideas and lessons learned from the field. As with most companies, we also have a company page to follow.

I appreciate your support!

Before we jump into this, as always, for some IT humor. Whenever someone says, “The files are in the computer?” I think of this clip. You know what happens next??.

Opinions on new tech and the overall theme of the newsletter.

What is SharePoint?

It’s a web-based collaborative information management platform. There is an on-premises version called SharePoint Server and a cloud version called Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online.

Sample Lydon Solutions SharePoint site.

SharePoint is a standalone application, but it is also the backend database for several applications in Microsoft 365, including Teams and OneDrive. The key features are the following:

• Sites. Sites are containers of data. Think of a site as its own database with separate content and security.
• Content. Inside SharePoint sites are lists and libraries for storing documents, images, and other file types.
• Apps. A site can be extended with new features and integrations.
• Search. Data within and across sites can be searched using queries to scan your data and bring back results.
• Security. Sites have their own security to control access to and sharing specific content.

History.

To see where a service or product is heading, it's always good to understand its history. Over the years, Microsoft has released new on-premises versions of SharePoint every three years since 2001. There are over 20 years of history behind SharePoint, but I’m only going to hit some of the highlights:

SharePoint History.

2001. SharePoint was officially launched. SharePoint Portal 2001 was born from FrontPage, along with Office Server Extension and Team Pages. I remember working with this version at Intel back when I was a Project Controls Manager. I didn’t exactly understand what to use it for besides capturing notes from a meeting. Who knew it would become my bread and butter ten years later?

2001 SharePoint.

2007. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) was released as the commercial edition, providing a better integration with Office. A free edition (Windows SharePoint Services) was also available. This is when SharePoint really started taking off. You could build lightweight solutions and include My Sites and personalized sites. This version also allowed InfoPath forms to be hosted via Form Server 2007 in SharePoint sites. If you are unfamiliar with InfoPath, it was “The” form creation tool for SharePoint. Here’s a link to InfoPath: Introduction to InfoPath Forms Services - Microsoft Support . Unfortunately, it no longer receives updates and will be removed from SharePoint Online after July 2026.

SharePoint 2007.

2010. This version of SharePoint introduced client-side object-model APIs for JavaScript, Microsoft’s Silverlight (now deprecated), and .NET applications. SharePoint also began to offer Business Connectivity Services, Claims-based Authentication, and Windows PowerShell support, which had then been absent from previous versions.

We actually built and hosted our first construction management solution in SharePoint 2010 and then decided to migrate to 2013 to take advantage of the newest features.

SharePoint 2010.

2013. This version introduced a social component with Newsfeeds, Following, Tags, and microblogging features. It also made building sites much easier, especially if you knew HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You could even create externally facing SharePoint sites. Mobile versions of sites were also introduced in 2013.

When we migrated from 2007 SharePoint to 2013 for our first client, we also built our own data center in the new Microsoft Azure cloud platform simultaneously. It was a bold move to learn the latest version of SharePoint and, at the same time, figure out how to host a SaaS solution on our own. We literally built the company with SharePoint 2013 by developing custom JavaScript web parts, InfoPath forms, SQL reporting, and extending our solutions with third party add-ons.

SharePoint 2013.

Lydon Solutions sample construction PMIS built on SharePoint 2013.

SharePoint Online. SharePoint went through several iterations of the cloud version from the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) in 2008 to Office 365 and finally to Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online in 2020. SharePoint Online opened the door to many enhancements over previous versions, including supporting new apps such as Teams, Planner, and Lists, adding a new SharePoint framework for building and deploying apps/sites, modern and responsive sites, improved sharing, Office web apps/Office for the web, and now Copilot AI.

From an administration standpoint, SharePoint Online brings with it automatic updates which is a blessing and a curse. Updating SharePoint on-premises with patches is a very, very stressful endeavor, but you can control scheduling the updates. With SharePoint Online, updates occur automatically, which is great, but some changes can impact functionality, and while you can delay them, you have no way to stop them completely.

To be honest, we were slow to embrace SharePoint Online in the early days because of the update issue, which frequently broke any custom development. When we saw Teams taking off, the new SharePoint Framework, and a slowing of major SharePoint updates, we shifted our focus from on-premises to online SharePoint. At this time, we focused on Microsoft 365 as the platform, and that’s when we built Construction Viz so that we could deploy it to any Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online. ?? ??

Microsoft 365 features and technologies that may benefit your construction projects.

Features for Construction

If you were to take an average construction project and break it down into its key components to deliver a solution in SharePoint, the critical functionality could be grouped like this.

?Project definition. There are a couple of approaches to creating a project in SharePoint:

• One site = one project. Pro: This is a good approach if the project is significantly large and has a lot of content. It reduces some complexity regarding folders and metadata. Con: If there are many projects with their own site, it might be logistically challenging to update and manage separate sites and permissions.
• One site = Many projects. Pro: One single site to manage and update. Con: There are risks associated with permissions, too many artifacts (lists and libraries) to manage could result in errors, categorizing/organizing project data might create complexities, and permissions and sharing data can get tricky.

?Storing files. SharePoint uses document libraries to store files. Within a document library, you have a couple of options for organizing your files:

• Folders. Folders have been the way to organize files since online storage started and have advantages over metadata. Permissions can be assigned to folders, which is a powerful feature if you invite external users into your SharePoint Online. If you choose to use folders, you can still create views of your documents using metadata with or without including folders in the view, which is a nice feature.

Folder view in a SharePoint site.

While folders are easy to set up and further organize your files, you must be aware of the URL length. Whenever you create a level of folders, the relative URL length grows. Why is that important? If you exceed 400 characters, you will not be able to share that link with others, and other features may be impacted.

• Metadata. Most construction users need to become more familiar with metadata. To boil it down to its simplest terms, it’s just a fancy word for adding labels to data so that you can search for and report on that data. In SharePoint, there are two main types of metadata: Columns in SharePoint lists and libraries and Terms from the Term store. In most cases, columns are the preferred method of assigning metadata. ?? If you want to make library structure and search consistent across your sites, I recommend setting up site columns and content types.

Folder view with metadata (columns) in a SharePoint site.

To learn more about the pros and cons of using folders or metadata, check out this article: Folders vs. Columns in SharePoint ( lydonsolutions.com ).

?Creating Forms. What are your options for creating forms such as RFIs and Submittals outside of using Word, Excel, and Adobe? There are several technologies related to SharePoint that you need to be aware of:

• Lists. You can create SharePoint Lists and add columns/fields you want to track. That List can be accessed in the Microsoft Lists app as well. It’s a straightforward way to build a form; you can even include attachments.

Sample Microsoft List showing RFIs.

• Microsoft Forms. Forms is a stand-alone product that saves data to the Dataverse, but you can embed a form into a SharePoint page. It is a very lightweight form tool primarily used for questionnaires and surveys, but it can be “tweaked” to some degree for other form types.

Sample Microsoft Form to capture consent.

• Power Apps. If you are looking to build robust forms and applications, Power Apps is the answer. Unfortunately, while it is considered a citizen developer tool, you may quickly need a developer to write code to do what you want.

Sample Power App form for capturing project issues.

Workflow. To route a form or a document for review and approval, you need some sort of workflow. There is still SharePoint 2013 Designer (but only for existing tenants), which is one option, but it has not been updated for years and will be end of life in 2026. The new default workflow app is Power Automate which is much more powerful but also more complex.

Power Automate workflow for extracting email attachments.

You can also turn on alerts on SharePoint libraries to receive automatic emails when items are added or edited.

Menu to access SharePoint alerts.

Reports. While SharePoint can create views of your data, you might want to create something more complex for more in depth analysis and management decision making. This is where Power BI comes into the picture. Power BI is the reporting solution for Microsoft 365, and it allows you to create complex reports and dashboards and embed them on SharePoint pages.

Sample RFI Power BI Report.

SharePoint Roadmap.

If you want visibility into where Microsoft 365 updates and new features, make sure to visit the Microsoft 365 Roadmap | Microsoft 365 .

SharePoint has received a significant number of updates over the past few years, and 2024 looks to be no different. Perhaps the most interesting update is the suite of features falling under the SharePoint Premium umbrella.

SharePoint Premium is Microsoft’s new advanced content management and experiences platform and the next evolution for Syntex. It combines the features of SharePoint and Syntex to provide AI-driven solutions to empower people, automate workflow at scale, and prepare content for AI and Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365. Some of the key features of Premium that will help you manage your construction projects are the following:

• Microsoft 365 Archive for Sites. Microsoft 365 Archive offers cost-effective storage for inactive SharePoint sites. Microsoft 365 Archive allows you to retain this inactive data by moving it into a cold storage tier (archive) within SharePoint. Any data archived with Microsoft 365 Archive will have the same searchability, security, and compliance standards applied automatically at a much-reduced cost. As construction projects close out, teams still want to have access to the data, so this new Archive feature will be useful. Here’s an overview of this new feature - Microsoft 365 Archive – Microsoft Adoption.

Archive option from Microsoft 365 admin settings.

Microsoft 365 Backup. Microsoft 365 Backup and compliant solutions from partners like AvePoint, Cohesity, Commvault, Rubrik, Veeam, and Veritas can provide you with unprecedented backup and recovery speed, scale, and reliability. You can backup and restore all or individual SharePoint sites and filter content in your backups using metadata such as owner, creation date, and restore points. This is a much-needed update to SharePoint, considering if someone on your team deletes a bunch of files and removes them from the recycle or, heaven forbid, an entire site, you are up a creek without a paddle. Believe it or not, we’ve encountered this in the past and provided our own backup solutions just in case. Here’s an overview of this new feature - Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Backup Storage at Ignite 2023 - Microsoft Community Hub.

Backup option from Microsoft 365 admin settings.

Integrated File Viewer. This new viewer will support over 400 file types. Soon, you’ll be able to add ink, comments, mentions, tasks, and more to any supported file type, just as you do for Office documents today. This will be a handy feature when marking up drawings and contracts.

New File viewer feature.

Autofill columns. Allows you to dynamically add a new column to a document library and use AI to automatically fill in discovered values. This sounds like crazy talk but any way we can ease the burden of users having to fill in metadata or finding the right folder to save something will be a huge plus.

Autofill feature from SharePoint Premium.

Document Portal. The Document Portal will let you set up an easily accessible external site branded to match your organization’s look and feel. It will also be integrated with consumer or organizational identities so you can collaborate on selected documents with confidence. This is probably the most interesting feature when it comes to SharePoint Premium. I’m hoping it will be similar to Power Pages with an externally facing site and hopefully include the ability to embed forms as well.

New features and functionality of Construction Viz, our construction project management solution for Microsoft 365.

After reading through all the capabilities and the new features coming to SharePoint, you can understand why we chose it as our “database” for Construction Viz, our construction management solution.

Construction Viz Microsoft 365 apps.

The overall benefits of using SharePoint are significant when you consider the following:

?Deployment. Construction Viz can be deployed to your Microsoft 365 tenant and used with your SharePoint Online sites in minutes. No waiting for a separate database to be procured.

?Security. Construction Viz leverages the Microsoft Identity Platform. Once a tenant admin consents to the app, you are off and running in a safe and secure manner, which is consistent with the rest of Microsoft 365 applications. This approach has made obtaining client IT security approvals straightforward and addresses many of the questions around access control.

Microsoft 365 app consent process showing Construction Viz.

?Data stays with you. You heard that right. Your data resides securely in your SharePoint Lists and Libraries. None of your data is stored outside of your Microsoft 365 tenant. Very few, if any, enterprise construction management solutions can do that.

Construction Viz RFI data in SharePoint List.

?Features. Construction Viz benefits from all the native features that come with SharePoint, such as metadata, file and folder structure, sharing, search, document libraries, permissions, and integration with the Microsoft 365 stack.

?Flexibility. Construction Viz can be a natural upgrade from using plain out of the box SharePoint. You might want to start with document libraries and folders. When you are ready, we can layer in Construction Viz without losing anything you have already started.

Construction Viz File Manager app showing a connected SharePoint Document Library.

?Customization. Our experience delivering SharePoint solutions for over 15 years taught us this: No company, project, or project manager manages projects the same. So, when we built Construction Viz, we followed that principle allowing us to configure apps but also customize the solution to meet their specific needs.

Future events, training, webinars, final thoughts, your take, and wrap-up.

Final Thoughts

Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online is over 20 years old and has over 200 million subscribers. It is the number one enterprise content management system in the world. With all of the robust features and functionality, it makes sense to leverage your investment in Microsoft 365 to take full advantage of all SharePoint has to offer for your projects.

While I only scraped the surface of SharePoint for construction in the newsletter, know that it can support any size project regardless of how unique the requirements are. To take full advantage of the capabilities of Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, I would recommend employing an IT consulting company that knows both Microsoft 365 and construction. One of the biggest complaints from construction organizations is that they don’t have the time to work on IT projects and they especially don’t have the time to train an IT company on how construction works.

Also, I would recommend focusing on your requirements before building any solutions. You wouldn’t build a house without a set of drawings. The same approach should apply to IT projects. If you want more tips and tricks, check out some of these posts we have previously done that might help you on your journey. As always, if you have any questions and/or Microsoft 365 needs, you can reach out to us at www.lydonsolutions.com ??

Wrap Up

Thanks for reading the 8th edition of our LinkedIn Newsletter. I hope that the information provided helps you assess SharePoint as a viable project management solution.

Please subscribe and share if you find the newsletter valuable. You can follow our Lydon Solutions LinkedIn company page here and join our new Microsoft 365 for Construction group here where you can ask questions and share ideas with the larger team.

Also, check out our Lydon Solutions website for more content and request a free one-hour consultation or a demo of Construction Viz here .