SP Extranet Portals
Until now, providing portals for external users was limited to enterprises because of the complexity and cost. Leveraging the Office 365 cloud platform, we can deliver an out-of-the-box solution that provides that same value but at a fraction of the cost.
Penn Valley, CA (PRWEB) June 02, 2016
SP Marketplace (http://www.spmarketplace.com), the leader in out-of-the-box Office 365 and SharePoint business portals and applications, announced SP Extranet, a next generation portal solution that brings together external groups and organizations to work harmoniously and enhance business relationships.
Built on SharePoint Online, and leveraging the Office 365 external user authentication model, SP Extranet takes collaboration and sharing with external parties to new levels.
By turning organizations’ existing Office 365 implementation into a powerful central hub and portal structure composed of community and partner portals, organizations and users can securely connect, collaborate, and share important information.
This new product allows partners and groups to simplify communications, find information quickly, foster relationships, and increase productivity. SP Extranet helps businesses work smarter and faster while supporting many types of external users, including board members, committees, clients, partners, and external workers like volunteers.
SP Extranet features a portal structure with a home page where external users can instantly see the latest organization announcements, events, and news. From the home page they can navigate to their group portal and access personalized, relevant content as well as collaborate with the rest of the group.
Group portal sites can be deployed automatically from the appropriate site template, complete with group members and permissions. Types of groups supported include:
- Leadership and Community Groups – Boards, Committees, Commissions
- Business Partners – Distributors, Suppliers, Resellers, Clients
- External Workers – Contractors and Volunteers
- Others - Members and Donors
Using a best practices portal design, SP Extranet is a full portal structure. At the top of the structure is a service request (help desk) tracking feature allowing external users to submit requests for services. Also, each group portal includes full document libraries, member directories, discussion features, group calendars, and task tracking.
External users like volunteers connect directly to a secure, members-only site in Office 365, without having to access the business environment or other parts of the Office 365 tenant.
As the organization grows, so does the number of partners it can collaborate with. SP Extranet offers the flexibility to expand the number of extranet group sites and the contents of a site. What makes SP Extranet especially unique is its ability to present multimedia, such as video, and its integration with Skype for Business for online collaboration and meetings.
As with all of SP Marketplace products, each portal is 100%, no-code customizable and can be accessed anywhere on any device and anytime.
Traditionally, many small to medium businesses have used email to manually deliver content and collaborate with partners and groups. This can be time-consuming and ineffective. Building portals for external users was out of reach for many organizations.
“Until now, providing portals for external users was limited to large enterprises because of the complexity and cost,” said Darrell Trimble, CEO at SP Marketplace. “Now, by leveraging the Office 365 cloud platform, we can deliver an out-of-the-box solution to small to medium organizations that provides that same value but at a fraction of the cost.”
Unlike expensive standalone solutions, SP Extranet leverages the power of the Office 365 platform, along with its document sharing, collaboration, workflows, online chat and meetings, all integrated with email and Office applications.
In the past, SMBs have not had the budget nor the IT staff to deploy this type of solution. With SP Extranet, they can now deploy a complete out-of-the-box extranet structure with minimal downtime.
Quick Start services make sure organizations are up and running quickly and the application can be customized to meet the organization’s requirements by internal power users or by using SP Marketplace Customization Services.
About SP Marketplace
Founded in 2012, SP Marketplace is the leader in out-of-the-box Office 365 and SharePoint business solutions, providing Office 365 applications and services designed specifically for SMBs. SP Marketplace applications and templates run on Office 365, SharePoint Online or On Premise and are used by hundreds of organizations worldwide to drive collaboration and automate core business services, including intranet solutions, IT Help Desk, HR, Projects, Sales, Marketing, and Facilities. To learn more, contact Ashley Johnson at ashleyj@spmarketplace.com or visit http://www.spmarketplace.com.