Achieving frictionless information governance with Microsoft 365

Following a year of disruption and change, one thing remains the same – complete and accurate information is essential to government and community. However, it’s no secret that the rapid adoption of new technologies, such as those from the Microsoft 365 suite, has presented new challenges for Records Managers.

Our recent webinar with IRMS and Welsh Government, discussed the challenges of the ‘modern workplace’ and how Records Managers can leverage collaboration tools to strike the right balance between sound information governance and unavoidable technology adoption. 

The switch to a more distributed work environment requires better managed information. This is why information governance is vital to government. It captures what users create, send and receive as part of their work – providing evidence of what an organisation has done and why. It’s clear that enabling end users to access such information as an asset anytime, anywhere and on a device of choice is not for the short term: it is here to stay.

As a result, the heavy reliance on technologies such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook, SharePoint and the Office apps has been a necessity and not a nice to have, backed by AIIM’s recent report that over 90% of organisations are using Microsoft 365 in some way*.

However, new ways of working and new technologies have created new challenges with information governance and being able to ensure that the information users create, send and receive is captured as a record. We’ve heard several common questions from our customers: How do we provide evidence? How do we avoid information silos? How do we maintain compliance? How do we maintain control of, and protect our, intellectual property?

When asked to select the biggest information governance challenges faced with Microsoft, most of our webinar audience selected ‘Danger of information sprawl and content duplication’, followed by ‘Capturing content created in Teams’. The Objective team noted that this was no surprise given 63% of respondents to a recent industry poll see a continuing role for third-party solutions in maximising their Microsoft 365 investment^**.

So, how can organisations ensure frictionless information governance with Microsoft 365?

Getting the information governance right

During his webinar presentation, Dr Steven Marshall, Head of Social Research and Information Management at Welsh Government discussed how the use of Microsoft 365 has expanded more quickly than planned over the last year. Having previously suffered from “a large, historical digital heap of unmanaged data,” Steven commented there was an organisational determination to avoid “the price of not getting it right” this time around.

With active support from the IT department, the Microsoft Teams chat and meetings functionality was introduced to Welsh Government during the first UK lockdown. Since then, plans have been underway to increase its use. From October 2020, there have been several pilot areas using the wider Teams experience, with full rollout expected to conclude by June 2021.

Internal collaboration

IT governance is in place to ensure only a limited number of people can manage Teams within areas that IT has created. Steven notes, “An important context for us is that when we’re using Teams channels, these are only open to Welsh Government staff but also, Welsh Government staff are not allowed to join a Teams channel in another organisation. We can use Teams for meetings with external participants or join external meetings. The rest of the functionality in terms of collaboration is purely internal.”

External collaboration

When considering external collaboration, Steven noted that the Government’s existing corporate sharing platform, Objective Connect, has been critical for the increased volume and level of risk associated with external file sharing over the last 12 months. Not least as daily usage of Objective Connect has more than tripled compared to the previous year.

“Crucially for us, Connect integrates with our records system [Objective ECM],” Steven said, “which means anything that is shared via the Connect site is either already in our records system, or if external people load it, it goes into our records system. We manage this with workflows to automate the process… it’s all already sorted from an information management point of view.”

Steven stressed the importance of “getting the information governance right” as Welsh Government looks to investigate future options around Microsoft 365 governance.

“What we’re thinking about is the integration between Teams and our records system, essentially to make sure people work on documents in the records system and don’t take them out and make copies. Also, anything created within Teams that needs to be in the records system can be captured with the least resistance.”

What we’re thinking about is the integration between Teams and our records system, essentially to make sure people work on documents in the records system and don’t take them out and make copies. Also, anything created within Teams that needs to be in the records system can be captured with the least resistance.

Dr Steven Marshall

Head of Social Research and Information Management at Welsh Government

Objective GOV365 does just that throughout the entire Teams lifecycle. It captures all Microsoft Teams content including conversations and files from all Teams and channels. That information is then filtered back into the existing system of the record with minimal impact to the end user. 

A holistic approach

As a Gold Microsoft partner, the Objective approach to frictionless information governance with Microsoft 365 is a holistic one. For a complete, accurate view of all information, the team supports a four-pillar approach which aims for simple, automatic and non-intrusive governance:

1. Information everywhere – Maximise the value of corporate knowledge by providing end users with access to relevant information (regardless of where it was created) in order to make more informed decisions
2. Governance everywhere – Provide records compliance across all information sources to ensure governance policies and procedures do not burden end users so they can get the job done efficiently
3. Sustainable transformation – Support scalable and flexible operations for the digital workplace now as well as into the future
4. Cloud first – Deliver rapid ROI and secure information in the cloud to drive technology consumption

To hear Dr Steven Marshall's comments first-hand, you can watch the webinar recording here.

* What Role Does Microsoft 365 Play In Your Organization?

** Mastering Your Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Investment: Moving from Rapid Adoption to Sensible Maturity