Getting the Most Out of SharePoint for SMEs: Set-up and Best Practices

"We've got SharePoint, but nobody uses it." It's one of the complaints we hear most often from SME owners who bought Microsoft 365 years ago. SharePoint is a powerful cornerstone of the modern workplace, but for small and mid-sized businesses that power only comes to life once you get a few fundamental decisions right. In this article we set out what SharePoint is, which set-up mistakes to avoid, and how to make it work in your business.

What exactly is SharePoint?

SharePoint is the collaboration and document management platform within Microsoft 365. It isn't a standalone application like Word or Excel, but the place where company files, intranet pages, lists and processes come together. A handy rule of thumb: OneDrive is for me, Teams is for us as a team, SharePoint is for us as an organisation.

Worth knowing: as soon as you create a team in Microsoft Teams, a linked SharePoint site is automatically created behind the scenes. All files in a Teams channel actually live in SharePoint. Files shared in a one-to-one or group chat, on the other hand, are stored in the sender's OneDrive, not in SharePoint. It's the first piece of confusion we have to clear up at almost every SME we work with.

Microsoft reports that more than 190 million people in over 200,000 organisations use SharePoint. In the Netherlands the effect is indirect: around 72 per cent of SMEs already have Microsoft 365, which means SharePoint is effectively ready and waiting.

What does SharePoint cost, and what about the price increase?

A common misconception: you don't need to buy SharePoint separately. It's included as standard in every Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise licence. Since 31 May 2026 Microsoft no longer even sells the standalone SharePoint Online plans to new customers; existing subscribers keep the service until the end of 2029.

Microsoft is raising prices from 1 July 2026: Business Basic goes to around $7 per user per month, Business Standard to around $14, while Business Premium stays at around $22. For the Netherlands, the euro adjustment of February 2026 comes on top of that. For existing customers, the new rates only take effect at the first contract renewal after 1 July 2026. Our guide to the Microsoft 365 price increase 2026 and our guide to choosing Microsoft 365 licences will help you decide.

The five set-up mistakes we see most often

In many SMEs SharePoint works poorly because it was once set up in a hurry by someone who was "switching on Teams". These are the five mistakes we come across time and again:

1. Copying the file server across wholesale. A folder structure eight to ten levels deep, full of cryptic abbreviations, migrated exactly as it was. SharePoint isn't a network drive with a bluer paint job; it deserves its own design. Microsoft and experienced architects recommend no more than one or two levels of folders, with the rest handled through metadata, views and search.
2. Skipping metadata. You never had metadata on a file server, so it feels unnecessary. But SharePoint search, governance and filtering all rely on it. Start without metadata and you'll later lack the structure you need to find documents again.
3. Granting permissions to individuals instead of groups. Everyone gets edit rights to everything straight away, or worse: rights are assigned person by person on individual folders. Six months later nobody knows who has access to what, and cleaning it up becomes a project in its own right.
4. Breaking permission inheritance at too many levels. The more often you break the inheritance of permissions, the more opaque the site becomes. Above 100,000 items you technically can't break inheritance at all any more.
5. Leaving external sharing on the default setting. By default, external sharing is set to "anyone with the link". That's too permissive for most SMEs. It's better to tighten it before your users start working with it.

The common thread is that SharePoint demands both technical and organisational decisions at the same time. Switch on only the technology and you'll unintentionally box yourself in.

What does a healthy information architecture look like?

Microsoft recommends a flat, modern architecture. That means that instead of subsites beneath subsites beneath a main site, you work with separate sites that you connect through hub sites. Hub sites are the glue that groups team and communication sites into families. You can have up to 2,000 per tenant, which will never be an issue for an SME.

The two building blocks beneath the hub:

• Team sites are for collaboration within a team or project. This is where colleagues share documents, have their own Teams channel and work on ongoing tasks.
• Communication sites are for broad sharing: an intranet, news page, policy library or HR portal. You can promote a communication site to a hub later on.

A typical SME set-up: a communication site as the intranet (the hub), with team sites per department beneath it, and a shared news and policy section on top. Simple, flat and easy to navigate.

Limits you'll run into in practice

SharePoint Online is generously sized, but there are limits you will hit in practice. The most important ones:

• Per tenant, 1 TB of pooled storage plus 10 GB per licensed user.
• Per site collection, a maximum of 25 TB; per library, 30 million files or folders; per file, 250 GB.
• Maximum path length (URL plus library plus folder plus file name): 400 characters. Old file share paths in particular often come unstuck here during migration.
• The List View Threshold: views of more than 5,000 items in a list trigger a threshold error. Indexes and filtered views solve this, provided you know about it in advance.
• The OneDrive sync client: a maximum of 300,000 items per library (in 2026 a limit of 1,000,000 items per device is rolling out for eligible Windows machines).

That sounds generous, and for most SMEs it is. But it gets confusing when you try to migrate a fifteen-year-old file share with 600-character paths. Suddenly these figures become hard limits.

Version history, co-authoring and check-in/check-out

An underrated strength of SharePoint is that every file automatically gets version history. Out of the box, SharePoint keeps up to 500 major versions per file; when people edit at the same time, it saves a new version every few minutes. Since 2024 Microsoft has been rolling out Intelligent Versioning: all versions are kept for the first thirty days, after which roughly one per day is retained. One caveat: as soon as a retention policy or legal hold applies to a library, all versions are kept.

What you shouldn't switch on in a library where people collaborate is "Require Check Out". That option rules out simultaneous editing and forces everyone to check files in and out manually. It can be justified for specific contract documents, but it has no place in general libraries.

Migrating from a file share to SharePoint

Many SMEs want to retire their old file server. A workable step-by-step plan:

1. Assessment. How much data, how old, which file types, what path lengths. On closer inspection, 30 to 50 per cent of an old file share often turns out to be redundant.
2. Design the information architecture. Which sites, which hubs, which metadata. Do this before you move a single file.
3. Agree on governance. Who can create a site, what naming convention, how long to retain data, who is the owner.
4. Choose a tool. Microsoft provides a free SharePoint Migration Tool. For larger environments, many IT partners use ShareGate or AvePoint.
5. Migrate in waves. Start with a pilot department, learn from it, then roll out more widely. A big-bang approach is almost never sensible for SMEs.
6. Train people and switch off the old file share. Without training, everyone drifts back to the old drive. Making the file share read-only after migration, or removing it altogether, is crucial.

The timeline depends on volume and complexity, typically anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. If you want to combine the migration with a modern workplace, it's best to tackle everything in one go.

Security, compliance and data residency in 2026

SharePoint has powerful security options, but you have to switch them on. At tenant level, start with external sharing: by default it's open to anyone with a link. For most SMEs, "existing guests only" is a better starting point. Site settings can never be more permissive than the tenant setting; the strictest value always wins.

Sensitivity labels (part of Microsoft Purview) tie privacy, external sharing and unmanaged-device policies to a site. Conditional Access in Microsoft Entra can then enforce that sensitive sites are only accessible from managed devices. Our cybersecurity checklist for SMEs and our GDPR guide go into these choices in more depth.

On data residency: Microsoft completed the EU Data Boundary on 26 February 2025. Customer data and pseudonymised personal data from SharePoint, OneDrive and most Microsoft 365 services are processed within the EU and EFTA. For most SMEs that's more than enough for GDPR compliance. You'll find more on data residency in our server or cloud guide.

SharePoint Premium and Copilot in 2026

If you have Microsoft 365 Copilot, you're getting more and more SharePoint functionality. In 2026 administrators can mark sites as an "authoritative source" for Copilot Search, so they rank higher in answers. SharePoint Premium adds AI classification, automatic metadata extraction and advanced governance. For most SMEs that's still a step too far; get the basics right first. Keep an eye on the new "skills" in SharePoint and the AI-driven Chart web part, but build a stable foundation first.

Frequently asked questions about SharePoint for SMEs

What's the difference between SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams?

OneDrive is your personal cloud storage, comparable to your own drive. Teams is your chat and meetings environment. SharePoint is the company-wide home for documents, sites and the intranet. Importantly, files in Teams channels technically live in SharePoint, while files from Teams chats live in OneDrive. Understand that and you avoid a lot of confusion when searching.

Do I need to buy SharePoint separately?

No. SharePoint is included as standard in every Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise licence. Since 31 May 2026 Microsoft no longer even sells the standalone plans to new customers. For newcomers, SharePoint is only available as part of a Microsoft 365 bundle.

How do I fix it when nobody can find anything in SharePoint?

Almost always by tackling the information architecture and metadata. Folders that are too deep, no metadata columns and no views make searching virtually impossible. A redesign with flat hubs, a few metadata fields per library and good navigation often makes a world of difference within a few weeks.

Is SharePoint secure enough for confidential documents?

Yes, provided you configure it properly. The default external sharing setting of "anyone with the link" is too permissive. Sensitivity labels, Conditional Access and DLP policies make SharePoint suitable for sensitive data. Specific sectors (healthcare, finance) need additional configuration steps.

How long does a migration from a file server to SharePoint take?

It depends on volume and complexity. For a typical SME, a few weeks to a few months is realistic, with most of the time spent on preparation (assessment and architecture) and training. Physically moving the files is usually the shortest part.

What's changing with SharePoint Copilot and SharePoint Premium?

Copilot boosts search and can summarise documents, provided your information architecture is in order. SharePoint Premium adds AI classification and advanced governance. For most SMEs it's still too early, but it's a good reason to set up the foundations properly now.

Conclusion

SharePoint is one of the most underused pieces of software among Dutch SMEs. That's rarely down to the platform and almost always down to how it's been set up: too deep, too open, too little metadata and no clear information architecture. With a flat structure of hub sites, well-considered permissions, properly configured external sharing and a few metadata fields per library, it becomes a working document environment within a few weeks. The payoff is time no longer lost searching, a business with version history under control, and an audit trail that keeps itself up to date.

Want SharePoint to finally do what it was designed for in your business, or clean up your old file server without repeating the old mistakes? Call TRON Group on +31 85 303 5869 or visit our Microsoft 365 page. Together we'll map your documents, sites and permissions, design an information architecture that suits your teams, and deliver a migration your colleagues will be finding their way around within a week, instead of yet another tab nobody looks at.