Within the government department, the practice of storing documents and information on network file share (drives) was previously not uncommon and had increased over time. The government department recognised that this posed a risk of improper disclosure, or of unauthorised access, and so sought a business partner to establish and implement a governed process to provision new sites, libraries or folders to appropriately control documents using a combination of SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams.

A number of potential risks and challenges were identified with the pre-existing environment:

• Content on network drives was largely ungoverned and the risk of improper disclosure, or of unauthorised access, is high.
• The pre-existing network files drives were not consistent with the department’s organisation structure, which led to excessive entitlements to information/documents and unknown custody/ownership.
• Users were unable to locate or find information (or the latest version of information).
• Information ownership was not easily managed, and therefore risks associated with compliance, information lifecycles and information security were unknown.
• Multiple products were being used across the business to host information, increasing the overall cost of operations (ShareFile, Network Drives, Microsoft 365, One Drive, TRIM).
• Excessive copies of the same document sets existed within some environments increasing the complexity and cost for support and hosting.
• The existing record management processes requires separate manual actions to ensure compliance to policies, leaving potential gaps.

Velrada’s approach to this engagement was split into 5 main phases:

1. Discovery: the aim of this phase was to confirm the scope, onboard the team and set up the environment. The following key activities were performed:

• Project kickoff meeting.
• Initial document review and workshops.
• Set up on 3 x Environments (Development, UAT and Production)
• Set up of Azure DevOps
• Account creation for all team members

2. Design: the aim of this phase was to focus on the framework design. The following key activities were performed:

• SharePoint Information Architecture workshops (2) to cover common elements, global navigation, libraries, search, templates and security models
• Teams Information Architecture workshop to cover common elements, files, apps, channels and security models
• Review document classification structure
• Search workshop to cover navigation, refiners and search verticals

3. Build: the aim of this phase was to implement the Provisioning Application. Our approach utilised SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. The following key activities were performed:

• The delivery of the project was performed over a number of sprints, each focusing on a key area of development.
• Creation of master document file template, SharePoint templates and MS Teams templates
• Configure the site columns, metadata and content types
• Apply the branding and look and feel to the site
• Configuration of Search with pre-defined refiners
• Build of Teams Provisioning application for SharePoint sites and libraries (navigation wizard for compliance and governance)

4. User Acceptance Testing: the aim of this phase was to complete User Acceptance Testing. The following key activities were performed:

• Demonstration of end-to-end process, focusing on a number of pre-defined scenarios
• Perform User Acceptance Testing
• Log any defects, potential enhancements or questions, and subsequent remediation activities
• Deploy package into Production environment

1. Project Close Out: the aim of this was phase was to close out the project. The following key activities were performed:

• Lessons Learned workshop
• Project Close Out Report
• Update Design documentation

The project delivered a number of successful outcomes for the client including:

• Brand new Microsoft Teams Provisioning tool allowing users to create new document areas for Project Areas, Collaboration, Secure Areas and Workspaces.
• Ability for users to self-manage their own areas – to see what areas they are a part of and allow them to join areas.
• Improved auditability with the ability to generate Access Reports against each document area providing full traceability.
• Updated branding and vision, which is now aligned with the wider client strategy.
• Improved search functionality, with specific search refiners configured to provide easier filtering of results (including the updated tagging of materials).
• Ability to extend functionality to other directorates within the government department.