Reasons to use SharePoint by Department in 2025

In 2025, while SharePoint has become an integral collaboration and content management platform across entire organizations, some departments consistently demonstrate the heaviest and most intensive usage. These departments are characterized by their reliance on document-centric processes, cross-functional collaboration, and the need for robust information management and security.

Based on current usage trends and the platform's core strengths, the departments that use SharePoint the most in 2025 are:

• Human Resources (HR): HR departments are top contenders for the most extensive use of SharePoint due to the sheer volume and sensitivity of the documents they manage. They leverage SharePoint for the entire employee lifecycle, from recruitment to offboarding. Common HR uses include building comprehensive onboarding portals for new hires, managing employee policies and procedures with version control, securely storing confidential employee files with restricted access, and automating leave requests and performance review workflows using Power Automate integration.

• Marketing: Marketing teams rely heavily on SharePoint for content creation, collaboration, and managing brand assets. They use SharePoint as a centralized repository for marketing collateral, campaign materials, and brand guidelines, ensuring all team members have access to the latest versions. The platform's collaborative features are essential for co-authoring documents, providing feedback, and managing the approval process for new marketing content. With the integration of AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, marketing teams can also leverage SharePoint to streamline content creation and analysis.

• Legal and Compliance: For legal and compliance departments, SharePoint's robust document management, security, and auditing features are indispensable. These departments use SharePoint to manage contracts, case files, and other legal documents that require strict access controls and detailed version histories. The ability to create secure document repositories with specific permissions ensures that sensitive information is only accessible to authorized personnel. Furthermore, SharePoint's compliance features, including retention policies and eDiscovery capabilities, are crucial for meeting regulatory requirements.

• Project Management Office (PMO) and Project Teams: SharePoint serves as the central hub for many project-based teams. A dedicated SharePoint site for a project provides a single source of truth for all project-related documentation, including project plans, status reports, and deliverables. Integration with tools like Microsoft Teams, Planner, and Lists allows for seamless collaboration, task management, and progress tracking directly within the SharePoint environment.

• IT Department: The IT department is not only a heavy user of SharePoint for its own internal processes, such as managing technical documentation, tracking support tickets, and overseeing IT projects, but it also plays a crucial role in the governance and administration of SharePoint for the entire organization. They are deeply involved in setting up SharePoint sites, defining security protocols, and managing user access, making their interaction with the platform constant and comprehensive.

While other departments, such as Finance for records management and Sales for proposal development, are also significant users, the departments listed above typically have the broadest and most deeply integrated use of SharePoint's capabilities in 2025. Their core functions align perfectly with SharePoint's primary strengths in secure, collaborative content management and process automation.