How is SharePoint different to Confluence?

According to Microsoft, SharePoint is used to:

“Share and manage content, knowledge, and applications to empower teamwork, quickly find information, and seamlessly collaborate across the organization.”

As a browser-based product within the Microsoft 365 family, you can create and manage organisation-wide and team-specific intranet sites with a variety of web content types like articles, blogs, newsfeeds, forms and document libraries, use it for document creation and storage, and facilitate collaboration and workflows with links to other applications.

Similar to Confluence, users create ‘sites’ (spaces in Confluence) to share documents and information with others, however, it acts as more of an information-sharing platform than a true live collaboration or rich content tool. It uses a fairly traditional CMS structure and relies on Microsoft Teams for collaboration functionality and other Microsoft products for planning and task management.

When set up correctly, the security controls, co-authoring ability, versioning and approval workflows can certainly facilitate a high level of quality control for the work produced. Metadata allows users to easily see information about what documents are stored, what they contain and why they are there.

It does have the capacity for large data storage and organisation, so can be used to keep documents, videos, lists of data and images.

While SharePoint is highly customisable and scalable (as is Confluence), and has some great content creation tools, using it without good governance can lead to a sprawling mess.  Furthermore, the ability to keep documents private can result in the information remaining hidden in individual or team silos.

Atlassian has provided a helpful SharePoint vs Confluence comparison chart here.

How are Google Drive & Google Docs different to Confluence?

We can’t really talk about Google Drive without talking about Google Docs and its partners.

Google Drive allows you to store your files securely and open or edit them from any device. Files are created using its suite of Microsoft Office-like tools like Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Forms, Google Drawings and Google Sites, or can be uploaded directly from Microsoft Office 365 tools.

Similar to SharePoint and Confluence, Google Drive offers:

• Access controls and permissions for data privacy.
• Alerts/Notifications for changes and comments.
• Automatic backup.
• Collaboration tools like inline commenting and live co-editing.
• The ability to create a content library.
• Content publishing pptions.
• Data storage management for large file types.

Tagging, searching and managing documents however isn’t nearly as simple as in Confluence. And while in-line comments in the file creation tools are great, conversations can be easily deleted and lost whereas Confluence keeps conversations in place at the end of the document, in addition to in-line comments.

While Google Drive and Google Docs are flexible and easy to learn (particularly if you’ve been a Microsoft Office Suite user), governance takes much more effort and it’s easy to end up lost in a maze of folders, documents and permissions.  In Confluence, a page-tree structure is used instead of folders and documents are open by default, with the option to share or lock documents available if needed.

Google’s document creation tools, like Microsoft’s, have more formatting options within each file type, however, Confluence acts as a complete workspace that goes beyond specific file types and document storage which gives it greater flexibility for collaborative tasks like project planning.

Atlassian has provided a helpful Google Docs vs Confluence comparison chart here.

Why is Confluence a better option?

All teams need to be able to organise their work and link together the queryable information (the transactional data .e.g anything stored in fields in a database) and the non-queryable information (rich content like reports, templates, plans, meeting notes etc).  The biggest benefit of Confluence is that you can create a relationship between the queryable information in Jira (and other tools) to the rich content in Confluence with two-way integration so you can work seamlessly between the two. It becomes that all-important Single Source of Truth, and together with the ability to configure highly-efficient workflows it speeds up work, eliminates information gaps and improves data integrity for better decision-making.

The transparent file structure, together with the ease of sharing, commenting and live editing also makes it come out on top for collaboration and teamwork. With easier administration and permissions governance, everyone can access the information they need, when they need it.

The primary downside is that Confluence doesn’t act as a large file storage space. For large items like videos, images or design files, you’ll still need to use DropBox, Google Drive or OneDrive for cloud storage but those can be easily connected to Confluence.

Who is Confluence a better option for?

Any organisation, team or function can use Confluence, regardless of size or structure (even freelancers can use it!), and work management tools used e.g. Service Now, Asana, Teams, Slack, Microsoft Project, Basecamp. However, if you’re already using Atlassian tools – specifically Jira, Jira Work Management or Jira Service Management – you’ll get the greatest benefits as these products are designed to keep communication and work together in one place. The choice to adopt Confluence should be a no-brainer.

The greatest challenge is for non or new Atlassian users to move away from other products. We often see that when an organisation uses Microsoft as an email client, they naturally adopt SharePoint and MS Office, Office 365, Teams or Google’s shadow versions (Google Docs or Drive).  Unfortunately, this gets messy when documents don’t get linked, shared or stored correctly, or people keep information to themselves.  Migrating information to Confluence can be disruptive initially, but the productivity gains, information transparency, features and ease of use soon outweigh the initial inconvenience.

What mistakes do people make with Confluence?

Before you dive into the wonderful new way of working that Confluence offers, it’s worth making yourself aware of a few common mistakes that can hinder your success.

Too many administrators:
Making everyone a high-level administration might seem like a great idea so they can create their own project and access whichever space or page they want, but it can result in information or space duplication (e.g. two spaces for the same project or client), links getting missed, poor information hierarchy for the page tree (people create pages in the wrong spot) and inconsistent naming conventions. It can then be hard to find information and people create new documents or spaces in a rush. Be selective about who gets administration-level permissions and ensure they understand the rules governing usage of the space.

A lack of training:
Throwing a new tool ‘over the fence’ and hoping for the best is a quick route to failure and will see users quickly go back to creating Google Docs or Microsoft Word documents and saving them in private folders. Training on the fundamentals is the minimum requirement here – for successful adoption of Confluence, we recommend having training tailored to individual team needs that gives them the inside tips and tricks so they can use the tool to its full potential.

Not having good governance from the start:
The information-sharing, productivity and collaboration benefits that Confluence offers are contingent on having ground rules established from the beginning. This means:

• Setting up formatting and styling templates and guidelines to keep the look and feel of your Confluence workspace consistent with your branding. This is particularly important when team members are creating presentations, quotes, proposals or other marketing documents that are designed to be exported and shared via PDF.
• Establishing naming conventions, page tree hierarchy and archiving rules and ensuring everyone adheres to them. This is vital if the information is to remain available and easy to find.
• Establishing and enforcing rules about where documents and information can be stored: e.g. all communications and information should be stored on Confluence, NOT on personal drives or company drives, or hiding messages in Teams/Slack etc. This isn’t just a matter of keeping information transparent: hiding or losing information can be a big security risk.

(h2) How Design Industries can help you get the most out of Confluence

Shifting to Confluence is a big move, and given the complexity and the possibilities that can arise, we don’t recommend a DIY approach. Unfortunately, many organisations that implement Confluence on their own end up with a poorly used platform that doesn’t fulfil its potential.

If want to add it to your Atlassian stack, experts like DI can:

• procure the right Confluence licensing package for your needs;
• install it with best-practice configuration sets;
• host it securely on AWS for cloud-based instances;
• integrate it correctly with other Atlassian tools such as JIRA;
• train your team to use it correctly using foundation skills and insider secrets; and
• provide you with ongoing support to maximise your productivity and ROI.

Similarly, if you’re already using Confluence but aren’t getting the full scope of benefits, it’s worth engaging experts to review your existing processes and work with you to implement a continual improvement plan so you’re always working efficiently to meet the changes happening internally or externally to your organisation.

Every team has their own unique processes – DI’s experts will spend time with you to understand these and configure Confluence in a way that optimises collaboration and productivity. Contact us today.

Confluence Implementation & Support Services

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