What’s the Difference Between SharePoint and SharePoint Premium?

In today’s article, Conall O’Kane, Modern Workplace Practice Manager at Storm, discusses some of the key differences between SharePoint and SharePoint Premium. 

The author of this page: Conall O'Kane
Conall O'Kane, Practice Manager - Modern Workplace Jul 12, 2024

Part of Microsoft 365, SharePoint is a cloud document management system that enables organisations to create a secure, central hub for all business content so teams can collaborate more efficiently and streamline knowledge sharing. SharePoint Premium is an add-on to SharePoint that further enhances content management capabilities by unlocking advanced features powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. Below we discuss some of the key differences between SharePoint and SharePoint Premium. 

AI and Automation Capabilities 

Microsoft’s AI companion, Copilot, is now available in SharePoint to assist with your work. Use simple, natural language prompts to create SharePoint sites and documents with your organisations unique branding quickly and easily. It can also help you find the information you need fast by pulling content from SharePoint libraries, so you don’t need to spend valuable time searching for documents. SharePoint can be integrated with low-code automation solution, Power Automate, to automate processes like approval workflows and notifications. 

In addition to the AI capabilities mentioned above, SharePoint Premium offers advanced AI and automation to boost efficiency and optimise content-based processes. Leveraging pre-built templates for common business documents, like contracts and invoices, AI can be used to generate new content. Secondly, intelligent document processing (IDP) powered by AI can be used to analyse, classify, tag and organise your content, while metadata is automatically extracted to help improve searchability. This means your important documents are always organised in the most efficient way and can be found quickly and with ease, so you can stay focused in the flow of work. Finally, SharePoint Premium can automatically send documents to the relevant individual or department, ensuring documents are approved as quickly as possible.  

Governance 

As a Microsoft solution, SharePoint is backed by strong security and compliance features including access controls which allow you to restrict who has access to certain information, and content lifecycle management which helps you remain compliant by ensuring you don’t retain content for longer than necessary.  

SharePoint Premium takes document security and governance to the next level with advanced features that help you monitor governance, gain actionable insights and adapt your strategy as required. Data access governance reports highlight which SharePoint sites and content have been shared the most, how they have been shared and who with, so you can easily monitor content access, prevent oversharing and identify risks and areas for improvement. IT Admins can also implement sensitivity labels that restrict access to sensitive documents and ensure only the necessary team members have access to certain information. If a SharePoint site is at risk of policy violation, the site access reviews feature allows Admins to send alerts to site owners who can then review access permissions to restrict oversharing.  Businesses can even receive AI-insights and recommendations on how to improve governance policies and practices. 

Cost 

SharePoint licenses are purchased on a monthly subscription, per-user basis with licenses starting from €4.70 user/month. SharePoint Premium is available as a pay-as-you-go add-on to your existing SharePoint license. To use SharePoint Premium, your organisation must have an Azure subscription in the same tenant, as well as an Azure resource group in that subscription. You will be billed per service or feature used (such as the eSignature or content assembly features), which is tracked through SharePoint Premium meters in your Azure subscription. Learn more about SharePoint Premium pricing

eSignature 

Exclusively available with SharePoint Premium (and currently generally available in the United States – with Microsoft set to release this feature in other regions by the end of 2024), SharePoint eSignature facilitates the digital signing of documents, helping you streamline and accelerate your document approval workflows.  

Optical Character Recognition 

Optical character recognition (OCR) in SharePoint Premium provides a simple way to extract printed or handwritten text from images and documents like scanned contracts, statements of work, invoices, reports and forms. A digital version of the content is then created, with the text then made available for indexing and search so you can easily find the content when you need it. As well as this, OCR can help you protect the confidential information within this content and enforce retention policies by adding sensitivity labels and controls, reducing the risk of data breaches.  

FeatureSharePointSharePoint Premium
Advanced Analytics and ReportingNoYes
AI CapabilitiesOffers AI-assistant, CopilotOffers advanced AI features
AutomationOnly with Power Automate integrationYes
Content AssemblyNoYes
CostStarts from €4.70 user/monthAvailable as a pay-as-you-go add-on to SharePoint
eSignatureNoYes
GovernanceProvides access controls & content lifecycle managementProvides data access governance reports, restricted access controls, site access reviews & AI- recommendations
Intelligent Document ProcessingNoYes

If you would like to learn more about SharePoint or SharePoint Premium, get in touch with one of our solution specialists today. 

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