Governance Best Practices in SharePoint Online Environments

Introduction to SharePoint Online Governance

In the realm of digital collaboration and information management, SharePoint Online stands out as a versatile platform, empowering organizations to streamline processes, enhance productivity, and foster collaboration. However, the platform’s vast capabilities also bring forth the challenge of governance—a framework essential for ensuring the effective, secure, and compliant use of SharePoint Online. Understanding governance in SharePoint Online involves recognizing the need to balance flexibility with control. It ensures that the platform’s use aligns with organizational policies, security standards, and legal requirements. The importance of governance cannot be overstated; it is the backbone of SharePoint success, ensuring that the platform remains both a powerful asset for productivity and a safeguarded environment for corporate data.

Planning Your Governance Strategy

Embarking on the governance journey requires a clear roadmap. Identifying key governance objectives is the first step towards creating a strategy that resonates with your organization’s unique needs. Whether it’s ensuring data security, maintaining regulatory compliance, or promoting user adoption, these objectives guide the development of your governance plan.

Stakeholder engagement is another pivotal aspect of governance planning. Involving users, IT staff, and decision-makers from the outset ensures that the governance strategy is comprehensive, realistic, and aligned with organizational goals. This collaborative approach lays a solid foundation for the successful implementation of governance policies.

Core Governance Policies for SharePoint Online

At the heart of SharePoint Online governance are the core policies that define how the platform is used within the organization. User access and permissions management is crucial for controlling who can view, edit, or share content, ensuring that sensitive information remains secure and that the right people have the right access at the right time.Information architecture and organization are also vital, as they determine how content is categorized, stored, and retrieved. A well-designed information architecture facilitates efficient information management and enhances user experience, making it easier for users to find the information they need.

Data security and compliance are paramount in today’s digital landscape. SharePoint Online must be configured to protect against data breaches and comply with regulatory requirements, such as GDPR or HIPAA. This involves implementing encryption, data loss prevention (DLP) policies, and regular audits.Branding and customization guidelines help maintain a consistent look and feel across the SharePoint environment, reflecting the organization’s identity and promoting a sense of belonging among users. However, it’s important to balance customization with performance and maintainability, ensuring that customizations do not negatively impact the platform’s functionality or user experience.

Implementing Your Governance Plan

With a solid governance plan in place, the focus shifts to implementation. SharePoint Online offers a suite of tools and features designed to support governance, from permission settings and audit logs to content types and retention policies. Leveraging these tools effectively is key to enforcing governance policies and achieving your governance objectives.Training and communication are essential for fostering adoption and compliance with governance policies. Users need to understand the ‘why’ behind governance rules, how they impact their work, and what benefits they bring. Regular training sessions, newsletters, and support resources can help build a governance-aware culture within the organization.Monitoring and reporting play a critical role in governance. They provide insights into how SharePoint Online is being used, highlight compliance issues, and identify opportunities for improvement. Regular reports and dashboards can help governance teams track key metrics and make informed decisions about policy adjustments or additional training needs.

Advanced Governance Considerations

Managing External Sharing and Collaboration

In today’s interconnected world, organizations frequently collaborate with external partners, vendors, and customers. SharePoint Online facilitates this through its external sharing features. However, without proper governance, external sharing can expose sensitive information and create security vulnerabilities. Implementing strict policies on who can share content externally and what content can be shared is crucial. Regular audits of shared content and external user access rights help maintain control and security.

Lifecycle Management and Content Retention

Effective lifecycle management ensures that content is kept up to date and relevant, while unnecessary content is archived or deleted. This not only helps in maintaining the efficiency of the SharePoint environment but also in complying with legal and regulatory retention requirements. Implementing retention policies and schedules in SharePoint Online, aligned with organizational data retention standards, is essential for managing the lifecycle of documents and information.

Leveraging Automation for Governance

Automation can significantly enhance governance in SharePoint Online. By automating routine governance tasks, such as permissions reviews, content archiving, and compliance checks, organizations can ensure consistent enforcement of governance policies while reducing the workload on IT staff. SharePoint’s built-in workflows, Microsoft Power Automate, and other automation tools can be tailored to the organization’s governance needs, making governance more effective and efficient.

Introducing Squirrel

Your Automated Document Archiving Solution

At SmiKar, we understand the challenges of managing growing data storage costs in SharePoint Online. That’s why we’ve developed Squirrel, an automated document archiving solution designed to seamlessly integrate with your SharePoint environment.

Squirrel works by intelligently moving documents to more cost-effective Azure Blob Storage based on lifecycle policies, ensuring that your storage costs are optimised without compromising accessibility.

Each archived document is securely encrypted and can be easily retrieved with just a click, thanks to Squirrel‘s innovative stub file system that maintains the original file name and provides instant rehydration. With Squirrel, you can achieve significant savings while maintaining control and security over your documents.

Continuous Governance Evolution

Regular Review and Updates of Governance Policies

Governance is not a set-it-and-forget-it endeavor. As organizations change, so do their governance needs. Regularly reviewing and updating governance policies ensures they remain relevant and effective. This includes adapting to new SharePoint Online features, changes in regulatory requirements, and shifts in organizational structure or strategy. Engaging stakeholders in these reviews ensures that governance policies continue to meet the needs of all parts of the organization.

Adapting Governance to Organizational Changes

Organizations are dynamic, and their SharePoint Online environments must be as well. Governance strategies must be flexible enough to accommodate organizational changes, such as mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, or shifts in business focus. This may involve reevaluating user access, restructuring information architecture, or updating security policies. By anticipating and planning for change, governance can remain a consistent and stabilizing force in the organization’s SharePoint Online environment.

Conclusion

Governance in SharePoint Online is a critical component of successful digital collaboration and information management. By establishing clear governance policies, engaging stakeholders, and leveraging SharePoint’s robust tools and features, organizations can create a secure, efficient, and compliant SharePoint environment. As governance needs evolve, regular reviews and updates will ensure that the governance strategy remains aligned with organizational goals and regulatory requirements. With these best practices in mind, organizations can harness the full potential of SharePoint Online to enhance productivity, collaboration, and information management.

FAQs

1. What are the first steps in establishing governance in SharePoint Online? Begin by identifying your governance objectives, engaging stakeholders across the organization, and assessing your current SharePoint Online setup. This foundation will guide the development of a tailored governance plan.
2. How can I ensure users follow the governance policies? Regular training, clear communication, and the integration of governance policies into daily workflows can foster compliance. Making governance part of the organizational culture is key.
3. What tools does SharePoint Online offer to assist with governance? SharePoint Online provides a suite of tools, including permission settings, audit logs, retention policies, and external sharing controls, to help enforce governance policies.
4. How often should governance policies be reviewed? Governance policies should be reviewed at least annually or in response to significant changes in organizational structure, SharePoint Online functionality, or regulatory requirements.
5. Can governance strategies evolve with organizational changes? Absolutely. Governance strategies should be flexible and adaptable, evolving in response to organizational changes, technological advancements, and shifts in regulatory landscapes.

By addressing these advanced considerations and evolving governance strategies over time, organizations can ensure that their SharePoint Online environments remain effective tools for collaboration and information management, securely and in compliance with relevant regulations and best practices.

FAQs about Squirrel

1. What is Squirrel?
   Squirrel is an automated document archiving solution designed for SharePoint Online. It moves documents to Azure Blob Storage based on lifecycle policies, helping reduce storage costs while maintaining easy access to archived documents.
2. How does Squirrel work?
   Squirrel automatically identifies documents in SharePoint Online that meet the criteria for archiving, moves them to Azure Blob Storage, and leaves a stub file in their place. This stub file allows users to easily rehydrate the document with just a click.
3. What happens to the original documents after archiving?
   The original documents are moved to Azure Blob Storage and converted to HTML format to save space. The file name remains the same, but the extension is changed to HTML. A stub file is left in SharePoint to facilitate easy retrieval.
4. Is the data secure when using Squirrel?
   Yes, Squirrel ensures that all data is securely encrypted both in transit and at rest. This includes documents stored in Azure Blob Storage as well as the stub files in SharePoint.
5. Can users still access archived documents?
   Absolutely. Users can access archived documents seamlessly by clicking on the stub file in SharePoint, which will trigger the rehydration process and restore the document to its original format.
6. What are lifecycle policies in Squirrel? Lifecycle policies in Squirrel are rules that determine when a document should be archived. These policies can be based on various criteria such as document age, last access date, or specific metadata tags.
7. Does Squirrel support customisation?
   Yes, Squirrel is highly customisable. You can define your own lifecycle policies, set specific archiving criteria, and configure various settings to match your organisation’s needs.
8. How does Squirrel integrate with SharePoint Online?
   Squirrel integrates seamlessly with SharePoint Online through APIs, allowing it to interact with documents and apply lifecycle policies without disrupting user workflows.
9. What kind of reporting capabilities does Squirrel offer?
   Squirrel provides detailed reporting on archived documents, storage savings, and policy compliance. This helps organisations track their storage usage and the effectiveness of their archiving policies.
10. How can Squirrel help reduce storage costs?
    By moving infrequently accessed documents from expensive SharePoint Online storage to more cost-effective Azure Blob Storage, Squirrel significantly reduces overall storage costs while maintaining accessibility and security for archived documents.