However, if you share only files and folders, you can choose to share anonymously. If you decide to share a whole site externally, users will need to log in. Step 6: Decide whether you will require vendors or clients to login (authenticate) Moreover, your client or vendor experience will be different based on what you share (sites or just files and folders). If you are sharing just the files and folders, then all you got to do is create folders in the default document library. The reason for this question is because if you are sharing the site, then you will need to build it out first, create all the lists and libraries, customize the look and feel, clean up the navigation. Step 5: Determine whether you will share the whole site or just files and foldersĭo you want your client or vendor to access the entire site or only a few files and folders?
#Best ways to use sharepoint for a joint business project how to
I provide step-by-step instructions in this post on how to create one here (under Site Template # 3 section). It gets you a simple site with left-hand-side navigation but without an overhead of an Office 365 Group (Planner, Teams, etc.). Step 4: Provision a site for external sharingįrom my experience, I find that a Team Site without an Office 365 Group is usually the best site template for client or vendor sharing.
Nothing technically prevents you from sharing directly from your existing sites, but in this context, I assume that we are creating a dedicated site for a vendor or client. To share externally, we will create a brand new site. How file and folder external sharing works Step 3: Decide on the appropriate site type They will provide the necessary background info on how external sharing works and best practices on the setup. “SharePoint External Sharing is like office romance – you will not be able to prevent it!” Step 2: Get familiar with how external sharing worksīefore we set up the external sites, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with these few posts I published in the past on external sharing. Still think you can avoid external sharing? Then I suggest you read this post. Just like the office romance – it will happen. Step 1: Do not prevent external sharing!īefore you tell me, “But Greg, but we do not allow external sharing in our organization, so this post would not apply to us,” let me be the first to tell you – “Yeah, right! Good luck with that”! Despite your best efforts and objectives, you cannot prevent external sharing. Today I would like to explain to you how to build a simple, successful, and secure customer or vendor portal in SharePoint Online for document exchange with external parties. Luckily, with SharePoint Online, we have a more straightforward mechanism to achieve this. This was never an easy endeavor for users – they either had to be really good friends with IT admins or bribe them to get one set up. In the past, this had been achieved via secure FTP sites. After all, you are not in a bubble and need to exchange documents, folders with those you collaborate with. Whether you use SharePoint for intranet, project portal, or document management, content exchange with external parties like customers, vendors, and contractors is almost mandatory. These days external sharing is inevitable.