information management in microsoft sharepoint...

Information Management in Microsoft SharePoint 2007 © Wise Technology Management 2009

Information Management in Microsoft

SharePoint 2007

How to Guide

Introduction

Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is being widely adopted as an intranet and

collaboration platform. Many organisations see the potential to extend its use

as a user friendly, cost effective information management solution, particularly

compared to traditional EDRMS software.

This How to Guide provides assistance and guidance on how best to design and

implement SharePoint to meet these information management and compliance

needs. The guide covers:

Why use SharePoint as an Information Management platform?

How to implement SharePoint for Information Management successfully

Key SharePoint Information Management features

2 | P a g e Information Management in Microsoft SharePoint 2007 © Wise Technology Management 2009

Why Use SharePoint as an Information Management platform?

SharePoint 2007 introduces a number of new features and concepts to simplify Information and

Records Management. The SharePoint development team researched the failings of traditional

EDRMS solutions, and sought new ways to solve the problem of capturing metadata and

classifying information easily and accurately, particularly for electronic records.

SharePoint 2007 provides new, simpler ways of:

Capturing, classifying and managing information;

Ensuring information is meaningful, secure, and also easily shared,;

Reporting and auditing changes to information and its use;

Managing archiving, retention and disposal; and

Ensuring users can use search and other tools to ensure Right Information, Right Time,

Right Place, and Right Use.

As a result of these improvements SharePoint has a number of advantages compared to

traditional EDRMS solutions:

Improved ease of use, integrated with the full Office suite. This ensures easy capture

and saving of records compared to many EDRMS systems that require a separate step or

process to capture or identify a document as a record

Information is more easily used, shared and managed using collaborative and team sites

that work the way the business wants them to.

Support for new one to many and many to many communication tools such as wikis.

blogs, surveys and discussions.

Sophisticated search capabilities, including Line of Business system data.

Low cost of ownership where SharePoint is deployed as an Enterprise solution.


Right Information, Right Time, Right Place

.

IM

Right Information

Information should be complete, accessible and

easily retrievable to simplify business

processes .

Right Time

Reliable access to information should ensure

improved, faster, more consistent service

Right Place

Eliminate wasted effort searching for records,

Better sharing of information within SAW

and customers, Better use of business intelligence.

How to Implement SharePoint for IM successfully

Successful implementation requires a properly managed approach. Careful design and implementation

planning is essential, especially where improved compliance, centralization of corporate information,

and standardisation of business processes are expected project outcomes. Four steps are essential for

getting your project off to a sound start:

1. Develop and agree an Information Management strategy

2. Define the Information Architecture and Governance approach

3. Assemble the right team with the right tools

4. Start with an achievable plan and follow a proven method

STEP 1: Develop and agree an Information Management strategy, including vision, principles,

policies and responsibilities. The Information Management strategy should be developed with wide

business involvement and provide an all encompassing approach.

Ensure the strategy has a vision managers

and staff can all identify with at a high level,

but can also be translated into specific

improvement projects within business areas.

While from an information management

perspective the key policy is “All Information is

treated as an Asset”, in planning stages establish

how IM can enable the business and ensure

business needs drive IM. The vision and these

principles are the start of your marketing and

communication and overall change management.

Information is an asset

Information is shared

IM is everyone’s

responsibility

Business needs drive

IM

IM must be easy

IM must be pervasive

IM must be consistent

IM enables the business


Information ArchitectureCentralPortal

DivisionalPortals

Business Unit Portals

Business Team and Project sites

Team workspaces and collaboration sub sites

My Sites

Corporate Publishing SitesCentrally ManagedCommon processes

Self Provisioned using templates

Managed retention

Ad hoc, self managedSmall teams

Sample Business Driven Information Architecture

KPI Reporting Recruitment Employee Files Tenders and Contracts

Procurement Forms

Board Meetings SMT Meetings Ministerial Correspondence

Policies and Procedures

Financial

Reconciliations

Corporate FunctionsBusiness Group Home

Site

Business Group Admin

Mgr Confid Site

Business Group Advanced Search Site

Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin

Business Unit Team Site

Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin


Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin


Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin



Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin



STEP 2: Define the Information Architecture and Governance approach, particularly the

freedom to be allowed within business unit and team sites. Structure and governance is required at the

middle level, else you’ll end up having to revert to a Records Centre approach.

Ensure key business and collaborative team sites

are built or self provisioned using templates that

incorporate corporate document and content

type standards. Reserve the ad hoc workspaces

for the individual creativity.

To meet corporate objectives the business driven

information hierarchy must be complemented

with a common administration framework to

support automation of forms and centralisation

of key administrative records. In this example

common approach is also taken to internal

administration sites so the staff can move

between areas and have standard processes.

Also plan and structure the links to line of business systems

if you want unstructured data saved with structured keys

such as customer, location, product or address. You can

also extend search to return relevant line of business data

as well as email, share drive and other corporate data.

IM System to Core System

IntegrationCall Logging &

DispatchProjects

CAD Modeling

GIS

Field Dispatch

& Data Capture

ODS/

WaterScopeLIMS

SCADA

Alarms

FlowsWater Quality

Schemas

Emergency Plans

SharePoint

Assets

SystemsProperties

Connections

Spatial DisplayModelling

Attributes

Drawings

Plans

RMSIMS QMS

Finance

Project ControlEquip Register

GL

InvoicesTenders

Cap approval Contract docs

Cap

Appr

Policies & Procedures

Project / Folder collaborationQuality systems

Plans & photos

Drawing RegisterDocuments

EmailsModel versions

Reports

Tenders & contractsCorro & complaints

DocketsMetadata … …

Work Orders

GIS

Plans

Documents

Photos

Test results

Invoices

Procedures

Reports

Notes

Billing

Customer

Contacts

Corro

Email

Forms

Complaints

Operating Data

Condition Alerts & Trends

Calculated

valuesSummary Data

Asset &

Works Mgmt

Equipment

Work OrdersFaults

Costs

ConditionsCriticality

Risk Plans

Documents

Photos

SharePoint /WorkflowCorro & complaintsConnectionsDevelopers

InvoicingPurchasing

Incidents & escalations

HR

Payroll

HR files

AD

Employee

Details


STEP 3: Assemble the right team with the right tools including IM specialists who will own the

content type classification schemes and search, as well as business unit representatives.

Establish the resources and skills needed for long

term support of the system, including an IM function

to manage the overall information policies, support

and maintain them. Ensure adequate skills to manage

and support the SharePoint deployment, with

relevant IM specialists responsible for content

management, the overall taxonomy and search.

Don’t just focus on systems. Plan parallel policy

development and implementation, training and

support. Use SharePoint to help in the

implementation and support of these initiatives.

Agree an implementation process with business

owners that encourages end user self sufficiency

and ownership.

Use appropriate tools such as SchemaLogic for content

type modeling, metadata compliance and keyword and

thesaurus definitions. Consider tools such as Metalogix

to automate the share drive to SharePoint conversion,

adding content type metadata as part of the process.

Review administration tools for site deployment and

back up, as well as security management.

Manager

Information

Management

IM Strategist

(contractor)

Compliance

& Records Mgt

Info Mgt

Expert

Admin

Assistance

IM

training

IM Trainer

(contractor)

IM Templates

& Forms

(contractor)

IM Technical

Lead

IM Content

and Info SetsBACS

Content types

Search and key word

management

IM policies

Job roles and

procedures

ARM compliance

Record mgt

Recfind and Record

Centre

Audits and reports

Retention strategy

Disposal and storage

State Records liaison

Education

Training

Support

IM strategy

Info Set strategy

Capacity planningIM design

IS liaison

Data capture & conversion

Info set mgt

Data model (IS) integration

Data quality

Usage analysis &

monitoing

IM site content

IM site configuration

Search optimisation

IM templates

IM forms

Simple workflow

Record officer

Support

Assistance


Share Drives SharePoint

IS control security, permissions often out of date

Security groups are updated and controlled by the owner of the information directly

Difficult to track final version with version in file name

Version tracked without having to rename, including published version

Difficult to track comments and approvals Workflow for review, approval & publishing.

Can easily be working on the same or different versions

Check in/out ensures everyone works off the latest version

Multiple copies are created, for example email documents, not links, local copies, separate controlled copies

Single copy with links to ensure everyone uses the latest version. Sharing using minor and major versions and full version history eliminates need to keep personal copies of information

Hard to search for information, reliant on folders. Often information is lost through inconsistent use of folders

Business related & managed full text search allows information to be found regardless of where it is saved. Numerous views of data can be created including “no folders”.

Little or no metadata is recorded on author, version, approval, keywords.

Majority of author, creation, version and approval data is created automatically. Improved integration with Office also captures title, key words and other business metadata automatically.

Auditing of access, modifications and deletes is difficult

Full auditing is supported based on the type and security of information. Deletes can be disabled.

STEP 4: Start with an achievable plan and follow a proven method. Consider dependencies, and

the ability of the organization to manage and accept change.

Adopt a method that addresses business issues

and concerns and provides a sound base for

SharePoint as a new approach, not a repeat of the

past. Consider starting simple with a Share Drive

clean up. In this example the SharePoint

implementation was the fourth step in the plan,

with the overall file scheme being designed and

existing data being cleaned up before business

areas converted to document management in

SharePoint.

Avoid supposed “quick wins” such as search when there is no structure to data, limited metadata to

refine search results, and no certainty that security won’t be put at risk. Search is a third level feature

for this reason – structure data for security and add metadata first.

Using document libraries to replace

share drives is a good first step in

terms of improving information

management and becoming

compliant. Aim to replace share

drives using a similar structure that

makes it easy for the business to

find and use the information they

need. SharePoint document

libraries overcome many of the

typical information management

problems with share drives and so

help improve sharing, use and

management of their information.

IM Program Journey

IM Strategy

Corporate Clean Up

eClean Up

Information Mgt System (SharePoint)

Compliance / Best Practice


Key SharePoint Information Management Features

Four key SharePoint features provide a simple and effective means of meet compliance and business

requirements for document and information management:

1. Use Business driven sites, sub-sites, document libraries and lists to organise information

2. Use Content Types and Information Management policies to manage information

3. Implement Corporate Functions to standardise processes and forms

4. Create a Central IM site using standard SharePoint functionality to manage information through

its lifecycle

1. Use business unit driven sites, sub site, document libraries and lists

Use a business driven structure using sites, sub sites, document libraries and lists to organise

information around how people do their work.

In this example sites are organized along business lines

with team and project sites at the lowest level depending

on the function. Each key business activity and project

has its own site, and where appropriate its own site

collection (or series of sites and sub-sites). Temporary

sites called workspaces can also be created for meetings

and other collaborative activities. Keep the information

context and structure business specific.

Avoid “shared documents” libraries. Create specific

document libraries and lists as r part of each site. For

example a contract site may have two document libraries –

one for tender responses and evaluation, with its own

security and the other for general tender and contract

documents. Where relevant use folders to group information

into sets or common categories such as Financial years and

periods.

Use lists to record information that would normally be held in excel or other registers., such as customer

enquiries and hard copy records. Lists have versioning and workflow capabilities, the same as

document libraries.

Business Group Site

Business Unit Sites

Business Unit Sites

Program Sites

Program Sites

Project Sub Sites

Project Sub Sites

Project Sub Sites

Sub Project Sub Sites

Program Sites

Business Unit Sites

WorkspacesMeetings, Discussions, Wiki’s, Document workspaces

My Site


2. Use content types and information policies to manage information

Use Content types and information mgt policies to automate capture of compliance and other business

data, on all information not just records.

Content types are used to automate the

record data capture process. Define unique

content types to match every disposal

schedule item in your plan. Then by assigning

default content types relevant to a library or

list users need to only select the specific

content type and their record keeping data

collection is done.

In most cases users have just 4 or 5 content

types to choose from. Classification of all

documents using content types at time of

creation means no additional step is required to capture data needed for record keeping purposes.

Linked to content types, information management

policies capture and manage the information lifecycle

including retention, archiving, sentencing and

disposal of information., as well the required audit

trails needed for security and record management.

Policies can also be used to automate the transfer of

information from SharePoint to back end compliance

archive and record systems.

Office 2007 templates can also be created to

simplify metadata capture and eliminate double

data entry on saving. You can even start with

“blank” templates that just pick up site metadata

to simplify this capture.

• User starts in the relevant site document library

– Determines security and record types

• User selects content type

– Content type for each schedule item / transaction

– Predefines BACS, compliance and business metadata

– Information Mgt policy

• User selects predefined templates for content type

• Also works for file uploads & email

Making it easyUp front metadata capture


Sample Business Driven Information Architecture

KPI Reporting Recruitment Employee Files Tenders and Contracts

Procurement Forms

Board Meetings SMT Meetings Ministerial Correspondence

Policies and Procedures

Financial

Reconciliations

Corporate FunctionsBusiness Group Home

Site

Business Group Admin

Mgr Confid Site

Business Group Advanced Search Site

Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin


Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin


Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin


Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin



Business Unit

Home

Business Unit Admin



3. Implement Corporate Functions to standardise processes and forms

Implement corporate functions, electronic forms and search as a third step, building on the business

driven site structure and taking advantage of end users increasing SharePoint skills.

The corporate administration framework outlined in Step 2 above provides

A common framework for corporate and

internal administration

Confidential and high security sites for

sensitive and vital records

Corporate information stores on employees,

contracts and other administrative records

Easy access to electronic forms

A business group structure for tailoring

Search by major subject matter area

Business forms and processes are automated

using a combination of SharePoint workflow,

InfoPath forms, Office templates and SharePoint

lists. Tasks are standardised to make it easy for

end users to manage their work. Digital signatures

and approvals are accepted as part of an all

electronic record.

Delaying search to the third step ensures full use

is made of the content type metadata collected

on all information to improve findability and

presentation of results. In this case advanced

and facetted search results allow drill down

using content type metadata.


4. Create a central IM administration site for whole of life management of information

Create a Central Information Management site to provide a central repository for all:

Disposal schedule items and relevant content types

Specific information management policies which can be applied

as required at site and document library levels using content

types

Specific security policies including sites and documents set to

high security and their owners

Links to relevant thesaurus, business classification and

compliance tools,

Central lists to control final disposal schedule items and track

locations of hard copy files and stored documents.

Use simple lists such as the overall

disposal schedule and BACS control to

manage the use of content types and

information management policies,

including how information is archived

and retained.

Don’t use Records Centre for after the event compliance and records management, instead manage

information upfront using the content types and information management policies introduced above.

Content types also ensure improved search ability and guard against information being lost.

Use smartly defined lists and libraries to

replace hard copy record systems.

To complete the SharePoint based compliance solution, use third party SharePoint vendors to provide

simple email capture and bulk upload of documents from file shares. For large organisations not using a

compliant records system such as Documentum or Trim as their archive repository, consider archive and

compliance add ons such as Metalogix that use the information management policies to manage the

archive, long term retention and destruction of volume information within SharePoint.