SharePoint
In short
SharePoint is the storage layer Microsoft 365 is built on: the place a team's files actually live, rather than a drive in the basement or somebody's inbox. Every file has an address, a version history and a permission attached to it. Drop a file into Teams and you have really dropped it into SharePoint — Teams is the surface, SharePoint is the store underneath.
How it differs from OneDrive, and why that matters
OneDrive is yours. SharePoint belongs to the team. Under the bonnet it is the same machinery; what differs is who owns the files once somebody leaves.
That is exactly where it bites in practice. If the quote template sits in the OneDrive of the person handing in their notice, it leaves with the account. In SharePoint it stays put. So «personal or shared» is not a tidiness question — it is a question of availability.
The mistake we see most
Expecting a migration to tidy up the folder mess. It does the opposite: copy a grown-over network drive into SharePoint one-to-one and you get the same mess with longer paths and a search function that puts it on display.
The order that works: decide which teams exist and who reaches what — then migrate. That is work before tooling, and it is why two companies on the identical licence end up with completely different results.
Where the data sits — the Swiss question
Microsoft has run datacentre regions in Switzerland since 2019 (Zurich and Geneva), and Microsoft 365 lets you pin the storage location of core data to Switzerland. Whether your business needs that depends on the type of data, not on instinct.
Legally the FADP does not prescribe a location. It prescribes a standard: appropriate technical and organisational measures (Art. 8 FADP, SR 235.1). Delegating to a provider is permitted but does not transfer your responsibility (Art. 9 FADP). «Hosted in Switzerland» is an argument, then — not a free pass.
How we handle it
We set the structure up before migrating, and attach permissions to groups rather than to individuals — otherwise every change of rights becomes a one-off job. Details under Microsoft 365 and Modern Workplace.
The brief is rarely «migrate us to SharePoint». It is usually «we can no longer find our own files».
Related terms
A term in your quote that nobody explained?
In a strategy call we translate the offer in front of you — even when it did not come from us.