All about managing records and information especially in Microsoft 365
Category: Information Management
(Updated 17 March 2023 with further details about Microsoft Entra settings and B2B Direct connect, see below). By default, external sharing and access is (mostly) enabled by default in Microsoft 365. Unless the settings have been changed in the various locations described below, end users can usually: Click the 'share' icon next to a folder … Continue reading The complex world of external sharing and access in Microsoft 365
With the large-scale adoption of Microsoft 365 (M365), many records managers have had to find ways to manage the records that have been (and continue to be) captured and stored across the ecosystem, including via Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Exchange Online. The M365 ecosystem is more complicated than a single server-based Electronic … Continue reading Ten tips for records managers to monitor records in Microsoft 365
Office (later Microsoft) 365 (M365) Groups were introduced to Office 365 in 2014. Although Microsoft Teams was introduced in March 2017, there has been a general lack of understanding about the relationship between Teams and M365 Groups on the part of both records managers and IT. This post explains what both records managers and IT … Continue reading Why records managers and IT need to understand Microsoft 365 groups better
OneDrive is a standard feature in Microsoft 365 licences. OneDrives: Provide a 'personal' space to store content, with up to 1 TB of storage, that cannot be accessed by anyone except the relevant admins (no different from their previous ability to access 'personal' or 'home ' drives). Can be accessed by end-users directly from File … Continue reading Understanding OneDrives – for records managers
Microsoft 365 Exchange Online (EXO) mailboxes and OneDrives assigned to individual end users have one thing in common - they may contain the only copy of corporate records (and other content) that cannot be easily accessed or managed as records. Organisational efforts to encourage end users to save emails (and other potential records) to a … Continue reading Delete or do nothing – retention policy outcomes on Exchange Online mailboxes and OneDrive accounts
Modern SharePoint sites include the option to 'Share site' or 'Share site only' (for sites linked with Microsoft 365 Groups). This option is found under 'Site Permissions'. Left - Non-Group based site / Right - Group based site When the option to share site is selected, a note states the following: 'Add users, Microsoft 365 … Continue reading Sharing SharePoint sites
The following are observations from using the 'Move To' function in a SharePoint Online library to move close to 18,500 files and folders over a weekend, from a 'classic' SharePoint subsite in a SharePoint Online site to a new and 'free standing' site in the same tenant. The moving was completed over a weekend to … Continue reading Observations on ‘Move To’ in SharePoint Online
Recordkeeping requires the capture and retention of event or process metadata about records; that is, data about who did what and when. This information is usually captured in audit logs or trails. In legacy EDRM systems, event metadata was captured with all other metadata about the record in the system's database; the actual digital object … Continue reading Understanding why SharePoint viewers vanish when documents are moved
Sensitivity labels are one element in a range of tools that can be deployed in Microsoft 365 to protect information, as shown in the diagram below. Image source: Microsoft page 'What is Azure Information Protection' If you are new to information protection, it is important to understand that Azure Information Protection (AIP) is not the … Continue reading Sensitivity labels in Microsoft 365
As evidence of business activities, records should be authoritative. According to ISO 15489:2016, the characteristics that define authoritative records are authenticity, reliability, integrity and usability. These characteristics may be met by either: Securing or locking a record to prevent unauthorised changes ('declaring a record'). Recording the details of any events - the 'event history' - … Continue reading Audit trails for records in SharePoint Online
Records about the world 