Intuitive Records Management
“The user experience MacroView DMS provides is the best available in the SharePoint add-on market and superior to that provided by traditional (i.e. non-SharePoint) records management solutions.”
For a leading Australian Not-For-Profit Organisation, the need for improved records management, particularly around the retention and discovery of emails, was highlighted by the need to respond to the findings of a 2017 Royal Commission.
Records management based on Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online
The non-profit’s IT division sought to incorporate Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online for document and records management. Microsoft 365’s cloud-based nature and popularity, along with other organisations’ implementation and support services, were appealing.
The availability of such support was a crucial consideration since their limited IT team was unfamiliar with Microsoft 365 and SharePoint as new platforms. The Head of Information Technology & Systems noted that the major hurdle during the records management initiative was their SharePoint expertise, specifically understanding how SharePoint can create a user-friendly document and records management solution.
Working in the familiar Microsoft 365 environment
A critical success factor for their records management project was enabling end-users to operate in the familiar Microsoft 365 environment on their Windows desktops while storing documents and emails as records in the web-based SharePoint Online environment.
The IT division of the NPO evaluated various software add-ins that enabled SharePoint Online from Microsoft Outlook and other Microsoft applications. Eventually, they opted for MacroView DMS as it offers the best user experience.
Familiar tree-view
Fantastic user experience
Works across Microsoft 365
Designing the SharePoint Online store
The design of the SharePoint Online store was a key factor in the success of the NPO’s records management solution. Classificatory metadata was captured as each document was saved and managed effectively as closed, hierarchical term sets in the central SharePoint Online Term Store.
The design included standard document libraries within a tree of sites and sub-sites, allowing the NPO to maintain control while providing a familiar experience and avoiding issues such as long URLs and exceeding the list view threshold.
MacroView DMS facilitated the NPO’s design in a way that the out-of-the-box SharePoint web browser UI could not. The tree could include sites, sub-sites, and document libraries, which was better for control and volume handling.
Personal sites using OneDrive for Business were even implemented and displayed in the MacroView DMS tree alongside the SharePoint Online structure that stored records for the organisation.
“A key success factor was to work in Microsoft 365 while storing documents and emails as records in the web-based environment of SharePoint Online.”
