SharePoint powers content collaboration and content services (also called enterprise content management or ECM) throughout Office 365. Today at Ignite, we’re thrilled to announce the following new capabilities for SharePoint content services: (First Release dates in [BOLD].)
- When content is distributed between Office 365 and on-premises SharePoint, hybrid content types allow administrators to deploy a unified information architecture, governing metadata, templates and retention regardless of where content lives. [Now]
- Attention Views aggregate files that require custom metadata into actionable screens that enable bulk management and updates. [October 2017]
- You can view and edit document metadata directly inside Word 2016 on Windows with the Word SharePoint Properties Pane. [January 2018]
- You can work with the largest document libraries, using performance improvements from predictive indexing and queries. And you can find the files you need with the new filter pane. [Now]
- Automate document review and feedback with integrated review flows. Built with Microsoft Flow and available on all libraries, you can easily route any file for review. [October 2017]
- Build custom processes with Flow, to approve and publish content for libraries requiring formal check in and approval. [November 2017]
- Event-based retention allows you to trigger document disposal from external events like project closure, financial events, or manual review. [Q4 2017]
- Sync files from document libraries protected with information rights management policies. Files from IRM-protected document libraries can now be synced to your PC or Mac. [Q4 2017]
Let’s look at each of these.
Unify information architecture with hybrid content types
Content types define taxonomy, retention and templates. By associating files with content types, you can group related files and manage them accordingly. In 2016, we introduced hybrid taxonomy, which let you manage your term sets in Office 365 and replicate them to SharePoint Server 2013 and 2016.
This year, we have introduced hybrid content types, which also allow you to manage content types in Office 365 and replicate them to on-premises SharePoint Server 2013 and 2016. This allows you to facilitate co-existence with a unified information architecture of content types and tags across hybrid content.
Gather metadata in Word documents with the SharePoint properties panel
While you can edit the metadata for a document in a SharePoint document library, it is often easier to display and edit document metadata inside the document itself. Earlier versions of Word provided a way to view and edit SharePoint metadata in a document. This capability was not originally provided by Word 2016. As a result, many users continued to rely on Word 2013. Now, the Word SharePoint properties panel, currently rolling into First Release for Word 2016 on Windows, provides an easy way to display and edit column values in context with the document.
Prioritize content management tasks with attention views
Document metadata is essential for focused, precise use of enterprise content in SharePoint. However, managing groups of files with missing metadata, pending check-ins, missing approvals and expiration dates requires a way to "zoom in" on files that need attention. Attention views provide a visual reminder that files require additional action, and allow you to focus on those files with an actionable view for metadata updates.
The first version of attention views will begin in October 2017 and will identify any files that are missing required metadata. Future updates will add additional conditions, such as files requiring check-in.
Work effectively with the largest libraries, with predictive indexing and queries
SharePoint lists and libraries can house up to 30 million items or documents – and each tenant can store a maximum of 30 trillion documents.
Predictive indexing lets you use the full capacity of SharePoint libraries while minimizing the need for active administration and performance throttles. When we detect a query that might result in thousands of records, SharePoint automatically adds the index on the fly – and we’re working on automatic indexing for queries of any size. In the modern user experience, library views are smarter about using queries and paging behind the scenes to grab records in manageable sets as the users moves through a large view, without needing to throttle the view completely.
Our new predictive logic is an ongoing deployment and will be available to most customers in Q4 of 2017.
Automate document reviews with Microsoft Flow
Use out of the box automation to optimize creativity with integrated review flows. Every document library will allow you to route a document for review and feedback.
For more formal processes that use SharePoint versioning and publishing approval, you can build a custom Flow with a new action that supports SharePoint check in and approval.
Protect and govern content to support your compliance requirements
Our data governance features allow administrators to create labels, shared across Office 365, that can be applied to files and thereby enforce policies for records management or retention.
Many retention policies are time based, such as keeping contracts for at least seven years. However, there are other occasions when documents need to be retained until an event occurs, such as the termination of a project, or the approval of a contract. With event-based retention, document end of life can be also triggered on demand from the Office 365 Security & Compliance Center, providing an auditable, controlled removal of content when required for operational compliance.
Sometimes, content needs even more control. SharePoint libraries allow rights management policies to enforce encryption and policies on downloaded content, but that encryption has been incompatible with the OneDrive sync client. Now, without compromising data encryption, SharePoint and OneDrive will allow offline synchronization of libraries encrypted by Information Rights Management.
Resources
We look forward to seeing many of you at our session this week at Ignite – Harness collective knowledge with SharePoint and OneDrive content services (ECM)
In addition, we are pleased to share our new white paper on content services in Office 365. Please download “Modernizing Enterprise Content Management with Microsoft Content Services” for more information. More ongoing resources on Office 365 content solutions are available on our Resource Center at https://aka.ms/sharepoint-contentservices. Thank you, and please join the discussion to share your thoughts and feedback.