1. What to do with Folders in SharePoint
August 2017 | Richmond SharePoint User Group

2. Amarender Peddamalku (MCSE SharePoint)
Who is this Guy?
Amarender Peddamalku (MCSE SharePoint)
Enterprise Solutions Architect
Over 10 years of experience in ECM & Enterprise Architecture
amarenderpeddamalku.blogspot.com
linkedin.com/in/amarender-peddamalku-b
@amarenderp

3. Folders Why they are bad? Reasons to avoid Metadata
Agenda
Folders
Why they are bad?
Reasons to avoid
Metadata
Benefits of Metadata
Best Practices
Q & A

4. Heard This Before? Where is my stuff? Can’t find anything?
SharePoint sucks.
SharePoint is slow.
I hate SharePoint.

5. Why folders are bad?

6. With Folders?

8. Reasons to avoid Folders
Everyone has their own way of organizing documents
Everyone has their own way of searching
No single source of truth
Duplicate documents
Nested folders
Frustrating experience

9. Disadvantages of Folders
Finding Files
URL length limitations (256 char)
No filtering/grouping
Empty Folders
One lonely view
Data Integrity

10. Reasons to avoid Folders
With folders you are making SharePoint just an expensive
Dropbox/ File Share

11. Metadata in SharePoint
The better the metadata, the easy it is to find!

12. Metadata Benefits
Group By
Views
View Filters

13. Metadata Benefits
Metadata Navigation for a Large list/Library

14. Metadata Benefits
Optimized Search
Search Facets
Multi Refiners

15. Best Practices Don’t use Folders Maximum of 4-7 fields per Item
Use metadata and Content types
Leverage Taxonomy
Use Meta data filters to Group , Search & Filter

16. Metadata Benefits Structured content Faceted Search
Drives User adoption
Plan for future
Flexible
Keep your house in order

17. Where to start?

18. Leadership Buy In

19. POC/Demo First

20. Implement in Phases

21. Don’t start from old Network drive

22. Identify Power Users

23. Empower Users

24. Lead by Example

25. COMMUNICATE!

26. Q & A

27. Thank You! Amarender Peddamalku (MCSE SharePoint)
Enterprise Solutions CapTech
Over 10 years of experience in ECM & Enterprise Architecture
amarenderpeddamalku.blogspot.com
@amarenderp