Information Management in Microsoft SharePoint 2007

Transcription

1 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 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. 2 P a g e

3 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. Information is an asset Right Information, Right Time, Right Place 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 IM Right Place Eliminate wasted effort searching for records, Better sharing of information within SAW and customers, Better use of business intelligence. IM enables the business Information is shared IM must be consistent IM must be pervasive IM must be easy IM is everyone s responsibility Business needs drive IM 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. 3 P a g e

4 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. Corporate Publishing Centrally Managed Common processes Self Provisioned using templates Managed retention Information Architecture Central Portal Divisional Portals Portals Business Team and Project sites Team workspaces and collaboration sub sites Ad hoc, self managed Small teams My Sample Business Driven Information Architecture Business Group Site Business Group Mgr Confid Site Business Group Advanced Search Site Corporate Functions KPI Reporting Recruitment Employee Files Tenders and Procurement Contracts Forms Financial Board Meetings SMT Meetings Ministerial Policies and Reconciliations Correspondence Procedures 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 , share drive and other corporate data. IM System to Core System Integration Projects CAD GIS Assets Systems Properties Connections Spatial Display Modelling Attributes Drawings Plans Cap Appr Billing Customer Contacts Corro Forms Complaints IMS Call Logging & Dispatch Asset & Works Mgmt Equipment Work Orders Faults Costs Conditions Criticality Risk Plans Documents Photos SharePoint /Workflow Corro & complaints Connections Developers Invoicing Purchasing Incidents & escalations QMS RMS ODS/ WaterScope Operating Data Condition Alerts & Trends Calculated values Summary Data Modeling SharePoint Policies & Procedures Project / Folder collaboration Quality systems Plans & photos Drawing Register Documents s Model versions Reports Tenders & contracts Corro & complaints Dockets Metadata LIMS Test results Invoices Procedures Reports Notes SCADA Alarms Flows Water Quality Schemas Emergency Plans Field Dispatch & Data Capture Work Orders GIS Plans Documents Photos Finance Project Control Equip Register GL Invoices Tenders Cap approval Contract docs AD HR Employee Payroll Details HR files 4 P a g e

5 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. IM strategy Info Set strategy Capacity planning Info Mgt Expert BACS Content types Search and key word management IM policies Job roles and procedures IM Strategist (contractor) Compliance & Records Mgt ARM compliance Record mgt Recfind and Record Centre Audits and reports Retention strategy Disposal and storage State Records liaison IM training IM Trainer (contractor) Education Training Support Manager Information Management Assistance Record officer Support Assistance IM Technical Lead IM design IS liaison Data capture & conversion Info set mgt Data model (IS) integration Data quality Usage analysis & monitoing IM Content and Info Sets IM site content IM site configuration Search optimisation IM Templates & Forms (contractor) IM templates IM forms Simple workflow 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. 5 P a g e

6 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. IM Program Journey IM Strategy Corporate Clean Up eclean Up Information Mgt System (SharePoint) Compliance / Best Practice 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. Share Drives IS control security, permissions often out of date Difficult to track final version with version in file name Difficult to track comments and approvals Can easily be working on the same or different versions Multiple copies are created, for example documents, not links, local copies, separate controlled copies Hard to search for information, reliant on folders. Often information is lost through inconsistent use of folders Little or no metadata is recorded on author, version, approval, keywords. Auditing of access, modifications and deletes is difficult SharePoint Security groups are updated and controlled by the owner of the information directly Version tracked without having to rename, including published version Workflow for review, approval & publishing. Check in/out ensures everyone works off the latest version 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 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. 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. Full auditing is supported based on the type and security of information. Deletes can be disabled. 6 P a g e

7 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. Business Group Site Program Project Sub Program Project Sub Workspaces Meetings, Discussions, Wiki s, Document workspaces Program My Site Project Sub Sub Project Sub 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. 7 P a g e

8 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. Making it easy Up front metadata capture 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 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 & 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. 8 P a g e

9 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 Sample Business Driven Information Architecture A common framework for corporate and internal administration Business Group Site Business Group Corporate Functions KPI Reporting Recruitment Employee Files Tenders and Contracts Procurement Forms Confidential and high security sites for sensitive and vital records Mgr Confid Site Business Group Advanced Search Site Financial Reconciliations Board Meetings SMT Meetings Ministerial Correspondence Policies and Procedures 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. 9 P a g e

10 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 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. 10 P a g e