Service SharePoint
A web-based collaboration platform for internal cooperation
Microsoft SharePoint is a powerful collaboration platform that can simplify, standardize and accelerate cooperation for many areas of work. The URZ offers SharePoint as an "on-premises solution", i.e. all data stay on the servers operated by the URZ.
SharePoint offers the following functions and more:
- Creation of SharePoint pages with the help of predefined building blocks
- Virtual rooms for teams and projects
- Document management
- Collaborative editing of documents online and offline
- Independent rights management
- Discussion forums
- Task management
Target group
- University employees
Use
Employees
- Central data storage for work groups: simplification of collaboration through applications like a calendar, task management, blogs, wikis, etc.
- On SharePoint pages, files are accessible via a permanent URL, can easily be uploaded/downloaded and can be quickly found due to comprehensive search functions.
- Work collaboratively on documents: Shared documents, e.g. scientific papers, proposals and tables, can be edited online simultaneously by multiple users.
- Virtual team work rooms and single point of informationnt of Information: In addition to document storage, SharePoint sites also facilitate active communication, e.g. via discussion forums or news feeds.
- Tools for the digital work space: Simple management of appointments, contacts, forms and lists even on mobile devices.
Access and requirements
Organizational Requirements
Due to the terms of the licensing agreement, SharePoint is only available for institutions at Heidelberg University. This means that it is unfortunately not available for the University Hospital.
To use SharePoint, the institution must first apply for a SharePoint "site collection". This is usually done by your institution's IT representatives.
The URZ generally establishes site collections for institutes, administrative institutions, or larger research associations (e.g., CRCs, clusters). Within this site collection, the individual institutions can independently create sub-sites for individual chairs, research projects, working groups or departments.
Please contact your IT representative to find out if SharePoint is already being used at your institution. If not, the IT representative can submit a request using the linked form. Maintenance of the sites is the responsibility of their registered owner(s).
If your institution already uses SharePoint, your IT representative can grant you the appropriate permissions to use it.
Technical Requirements
SharePoint is available on virtually all devices. Using it simply requires an up-to-date web browser and a Uni ID or project number.
For an optimal simultaneous document editing experience, Microsoft recommends using the following browsers: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome.
Technical Information
Additional Services
The URZ team is responsible for operating, maintaining and backing up the SharePoint environment and offers the following additional services:
- Administrator training
- User training
- Technical support for the initial setup of an institute's website collection. Once the initial setup is complete, the website collection is maintained (e.g. creation of subpages, administration of authorizations, etc.) by the institute's IT department, not by the URZ. The administrator and user training courses offered as part of the initial setup serve this purpose.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Are there limitations on file size and memory space? | SharePoint is no a storage location for large files or backups. Furthermore, it does offer a place for personal file storage. We recommend using the service heiBOX for this. Maximum size of a SharePoint collection: 100GB Maximum file size: 2GB |
Is the data secure? | All data transmission is transport-encrypted. However, we recommend using the heiBOX service with password encryption for confidential and personal data. Alternatively, you can encrypt files and folders locally (e.g. with 7-Zip) and upload them to SharePoint. In this case, the password should be communicated separately and not stored together with the files. |
Can data in SharePoint be shared with external persons/institutions? | No, SharePoint is only accessible to employees of Heidelberg University via the Uni ID or project number. To share data with external persons/institutions, we recommend the heiBOX service. |
Does access also work via macOS and Linux? | Yes, SharePoint sites can be accessed via Windows, macOS and Linux. |
Is an installed version of Microsoft Office required in the client? | No, not necessarily. Office files stored in SharePoint can also be edited in the browser via Office Online. |
Do the clients have to be members of the Active Directory of the URZ? | No, not necessarily. For the most convenient user experience, we recommend using a Windows work computer that is part of the Active Directory and has an installed Microsoft Office package, but in principle it is also possible to use computers with alternative operating systems that are not in the Active Directory and do not have Microsoft Office. |
Is there a link between the university's SharePoint and Microsoft Teams or SharePoint Online (Microsoft 365)? | No. We use SharePoint On-Premises at the university, not SharePoint Online, which are two fundamentally different versions of SharePoint. With SharePoint On-Premises, the data is stored on servers operated by the URZ itself and is not synchronized to commercial cloud systems. With SharePoint Online from the Microsoft 365 package, the data is stored in the cloud on servers operated by Microsoft.
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