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It takes a lot of people to run a successful SharePoint instance, especially being the point person - a SharePoint Administrator. The role requires a variety of skills and a lot of flexibility.
Keep in mind that SharePoint administrators’ roles are different in different companies. Some might require that you have a specific set of skills to solve problems, while others might leave that up to someone in another role.
The short answer is that a SharePoint administrator is a master of all things SharePoint. They set up sites and manage servers. They train employees to troubleshoot problems. Administrators keep a company’s SharePoint instance motoring along.
Before we get into some of the skills you’ll need, let’s look at a typical SharePoint administrator’s responsibilities. You may have seen job postings for this position in the past and wondered, “What, exactly, does a SharePoint administrator do?”
Site and Account Management
When new employees need accounts, you’ll set them up. When someone leaves the company, you’ll disable their access.
You might edit roles and permissions when an employee changes positions. Or give them access to different sites if they join a new department. SharePoint sites need managing, too. Roles, content types, and workflows need to be updated based on users’ needs.
If a team adds a section to their site, it might not fit with the current method of organization. So you’ll need to use your SharePoint information architecture skills to come up with a new sitemap that makes sense.
Here are a few more site and account tasks that SharePoint administrators may need to tackle.
- Configuring new sites
- Monitoring bandwidth usage
- Deleting old files to save space
- Running and maintaining backups
- Deploying custom features
The bigger your company and SharePoint instance, the more of this management you’ll need to do.
Server Management
On the more technical side, you’ll also have to manage the server that your SharePoint instance lives on.
Are you running out of space? Is your server slowing down? Are you sure that your backups are working properly? Have you installed updates and patches? Is remote access functioning?
You’ll have to answer these questions. Which means you need technical skills to be a SharePoint administrator. Experience with server maintenance is a big help. So is .NET and SQL knowledge. Windows Server, Microsoft networking, and SharePoint server experience will help a lot, too.
You’ll also handle server security. Your company may store sensitive information on its SharePoint server. So it needs to be secure.
Internal security is important, too—you don’t want anyone accidentally stumbling into the server and messing things up.
Training Employees
SharePoint is a powerful system that can help companies boost their productivity. But it takes a while to learn how to use it effectively (that’s one of SharePoint’s notable disadvantages). Especially if you’re using custom-developed third-party extensions.
One of your responsibilities as an administrator is to train other users on how to get the most out of SharePoint.
Here are a few things this might include:
- Running orientations for new employees
- One-on-one training sessions to address specific problems
- Creating organization-specific training documentation
- Updating employees on new features
Again, the bigger your company and more complex your SharePoint instance, the more responsibilities you’ll have.
Troubleshooting and Support
SharePoint is a powerful system . . . but it can also be difficult to work with. Especially when updates break the functionality you took so long to set up.
That’s where troubleshooting comes in. If something stops working, you need to find a fix as fast as possible. This is where both SharePoint experience and analytical thinking skills come in handy.
Some solutions will be as simple as changing a setting. Others might require that you work with your in-house SharePoint developers to change how a custom app works.And there will be lots of smaller issues, too.
Shaun from accounting lost his password and locked himself out of his account. Penelope in shipping can’t figure out how to add the new manifest to the database. Executive Tim has no idea how to see what his direct reports are using the system for.
You’ll address all these issues and more. SharePoint administrators need a combination of technical knowledge, teaching ability, and patience.
