External guest access and external sharing in Microsoft 365

This post was initiated by a question from a client about the difference and/or relationship between: External guest access to a Team (and its various linked resources), a Microsoft 365 Group (and its various linked resources), or a SharePoint site. External sharing from SharePoint/OneDrive, including from Teams. The specific question was 'where can you restrict …

Shared mailboxes vs Microsoft 365 Group shared mailboxes

Shared mailboxes have been a common feature in Microsoft Exchange for a long time and continue to be a standard feature in Exchange Online. According to the Microsoft learn page About Shared Mailboxes (accessed 28 January 2024), 'Shared mailboxes are used when multiple people need access to the same mailbox, such as a company information …

Analogue analogies for managing records in SharePoint Online

This post describes analogies from the world of managing physical records, to help guide approaches to manage digital records in SharePoint. It also notes why these analogies may be useful for specific high value, vital and long-term records. Archive boxes and files Archive boxes (example above) are typically used to store and manage over time: …

Creating additional filters for search results in SharePoint Online

For many if not most end-users, searching in SharePoint Online is limited to the familiar 'out of the box' (OOTB) search bar. Searches at the site level return five standard verticals as shown below: All, Files, Sites, News, Images. Both the default 'All' and the 'Files' verticals includes the option to filter by File type …

How information sensitivity labels in Microsoft 365 can block access to records

Information Sensitivity labels created in Microsoft Purview include the option to encrypt the content. When labels with certain encryption settings (described below) are applied to Office documents stored in SharePoint or OneDrive, this action can render those documents inaccessible including via Content Search and standard eDiscovery in Microsoft Purview. It may be possible to decrypt …

Deleting items subject to retention hold in Microsoft 365

A fairly common requirement in many organisations is to be able to delete something and be sure it is deleted - permanently. When organisations implement retention policies or labels in Microsoft 365, items that are subject to retention hold (via a retention policy or label) cannot be permanently deleted until the hold expires or is …

File Plan/Business Classification Schemes in SharePoint Online

A frequent question asked about SharePoint Online is - How (and where) to implement a File Plan or Business Classification Scheme (BCS)? What is the difference between a File Plan and BCS? A File Plan is 'a tool for organising records' ('File Plan Creation', University of Winnipeg, retrieved 15 August 2023). The online dictionary of …

Disposition of records in Microsoft 365

Records are defined in the international standard for records management, ISO 15489-1:2016 as: 'evidence of business activity and information assets'. The standard adds that: 'Any set of information, regardless of its structure or form, can be managed as a record. This includes information in the form of a document, a collection of data or other …

Why records managers need access to Microsoft Purview

Every day, people create, capture and store a range of digital content using Microsoft 365 applications. On the face of it, there appear to be four primary locations where records might be found - Outlook (Exchange Online), Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive (the last two appear as the 'Files' tab in Teams). The reality is a …

Using predictive coding in Microsoft 365 to find records

In November 2012, I published a post titled 'Can predictive coding be used to classify records'. My post referred to an October 2011 article by (now retired) Judge Andrew Peck, at the time a judge for the Southern District of New York. Peck's article was titled ‘Search, Forward: Will manual document review and keyword searches …