In our final session covering Mastering Copilot Governance webinar, we are joining by Senior Engineer, Georges Wakim and we discuss how Microsoft 365 Copilot is only as good as the data it can access. If your SharePoint environment is cluttered with stale content or overshared files, Copilot’s responses—and your security posture—will suffer. That’s where SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) comes in.
SAM isn’t just another admin tool. It’s a governance framework designed to tackle three big challenges:
- Content Sprawl: Years of unchecked growth in SharePoint and OneDrive.
- Oversharing: Default settings that make sharing easy—but risky.
- Lifecycle Management: Inactive sites that add clutter and exposure.
Why Oversharing Matters for Copilot
Oversharing isn’t just a compliance issue. It impacts Copilot and search results. If users have access to irrelevant or sensitive content, Copilot will surface it. That means less accurate answers and higher risk.
Five Steps to Get Started with SAM
Here’s the practical roadmap we shared in the webinar:
1. Review Sharing Defaults
- Check tenant and site-level settings.
- Consider removing “Everyone except external users” from the people picker.
- Require site owner approval for sharing when possible.
2. Run Lifecycle Reports
- Use SAM’s Inactive Site Policy to identify sites untouched for months.
- Archive or delete stale sites to reduce risk and improve Copilot performance.
- Bonus: Archived sites cost less and are invisible to Copilot.
3. Identify Oversharing
- Start with the Oversharing Baseline Report (DAG).
- It scans all sites—not just recent activity—and shows broad access, sensitivity labels, and external sharing.
- Export to Excel, filter by sensitivity or user count, and prioritize.
4. Delegate Access Reviews
- Launch Site Access Reviews for flagged sites.
- SAM pushes reviews to site owners, not IT, for faster remediation.
- Track progress in the admin center.
5. Apply Short-Term Controls
- Restricted Access Control (RAC): Lock down a site to specific security groups.
- Restricted Content Discovery (RCD): Hide sensitive sites from Copilot and cross-site search without breaking access.
Bonus: Enforce Site Ownership
- Use the Site Ownership Policy to ensure every site has valid owners.
- Configure minimum owner requirements and automate prompts for updates.
Proactive Governance Tips
- Apply Blocked Download Policies on sensitive sites.
- Combine SAM with Purview labels for smarter reporting.
- Run assessments early—SAM now includes a dashboard for quick insights.
Why This Matters
SAM isn’t just about compliance. It’s about making Copilot smarter, reducing risk, and giving admins tools to delegate governance. If you have any Copilot license, SAM is unlocked for your tenant. Start with the Oversharing Baseline Report today—it’s the foundation for everything else.
Next Steps:
- Check your sharing defaults.
- Run the Oversharing Baseline Report.
- Explore SAM in the SharePoint Admin Center.
Previous Recordings:
Session 1: Copilot Governance - Deployment, Copilot Control System, and Agent Management - Session 1
Session 2: Mastering Copilot Governance with Copilot Studio + Power Platform - Session 2
Session 3: Mastering Copilot Governance with Purview - Session 3
Microsoft