Organizing Information: Things to Consider Amber Roberts Sr. Legal Analyst Gavilon June 13, 2015

Background  SharePoint since 2008  Power User  Business User  Evangelist  Self-proclaimed Geek

Does This Sound Familiar?  “I refuse to use SP because it eats my documents and I can never get them back out.”  “SP is too difficult to navigate”  “Search doesn’t work.”  “I like my spreadsheets!”  “I spend half of my day responding to requests for the same information.”

SP is a Platform  You get the most out of it when combining building blocks to automate processes, collaborate and share information

Information is Key  The point is to find information quickly after putting it in the system  Use the system to surface information in new and relevant ways (charts, graphs, statistics, filtered views, content rollup)

You can’t find information if you don’t:  Have a consistent method for entering information into SharePoint  Tag documents and items with metadata  Use versioning to eliminate duplicates  Delete information when outdated  Archive information and remove particular sites from search until you can delete them (inactive records)

Building Blocks  Items  Documents  Document Sets - no folders!  Columns  Content Types  Lists  Libraries  Webparts  Pages  Workflows  Sites  Site Collections  Term Store  Content Type Hub

Tips and Tricks  Use a Content Type Hub  Use Managed Metadata (Term Store)  Use Site Columns  Use Site Content Types  Use Consistent Navigation  Default values when you can

Tips and Tricks Continued  Consider how you (and your users) plan to retrieve information prior to building the system (people fit into different groups of behavior)  Search  Navigation/Browse  Push  Pull  Turn on versioning AND USE IT!

Tips and Tricks Continued  Build retention into all sites, lists and libraries  Review your retention policy/schedule to see what period applies  After files go inactive, consider moving them to a record center and removing that site from search  You can go directly to the site to search, but it won't clog up results from the Search Center

Real World Examples  List  Officer and Director List  Entity Summary Information  Officer Information  Library  Active  Draft  Archive  Term Store  Gavilon Entity  Gavilon Location  Commercial Segments

Real World Examples Continued  Content Type Hub  Contracts  Invoices  Policies/Procedures  Forms  Contract Request  New Vendor Request  Check Request  Workflows  Create Item in New Site  Change Field - Mark Inactive  Calculate a Date

Real World Examples Continued  Webparts  Content Search Query  Views [ME]  Target Audiencing  Dashboards  Contract Admin  File Clerk  Tasks

THANK YOU! 