SharePoint Premium: The Future is Here

Welcome back to Mastering Microsoft 365 and Beyond . In this edition, we dive into the transformative world of SharePoint Premium, announced on November 15, 2023. This version is a redefinition of Microsoft's SharePoint, integrating advanced AI capabilities, enhanced security, and flexible licensing models. Reflecting on SharePoint's journey from its initial release as a centralized platform for document management and collaboration, SharePoint Premium stands as a testament to its evolution, adapting to the changing needs of businesses and incorporating cutting-edge technologies. ?So, without further ado, let's dive in and review key features of SharePoint Premium.

Quick Glance

1. Microsoft Copilot's Integration: Microsoft Copilot enhances AI-driven document analysis, content generation, and automated routine tasks within SharePoint Premium.
2. Content Event Insights and AI-Driven Policy Recommendations: Advanced metrics for user interactions and personalized content workflows offered by SharePoint Premium.
3. Multilabel Classifier and Redaction: AI-driven tools for efficient content categorization and privacy protection.
4. Content Processing Services with SharePoint Syntex: New content processing capabilities, including OCR, image processing, and intelligent taxonomy tagging.
5. Autofill Columns and PII Detection: New features for dynamic data management and compliance with data protection regulations.
6. Integration with SharePoint eSignature: Streamlined document approval and signing process within SharePoint.
7. Flexible Repository Services with Headless SharePoint: Get insights into the headless version of SharePoint Premium for backend data management.
8. Content Governance: Learn about the advanced suite of tools for content classification, risk management, and policy recommendations.
9. Translation for Files and Stream Video: Understand the extensive language support and context-aware translations for global collaboration.
10. Enhanced Collaboration and Advanced Security: Discover how SharePoint Premium merges collaboration with security, including integration with Microsoft Teams.
11. Microsoft 365 Archive and Backup: Learn about the integration with Microsoft 365 for efficient content lifecycle management and data protection.
12. Licensing Models with Pay-as-You-Go Flexibility: Explore the flexible pricing and licensing models of SharePoint Premium.

Microsoft Copilot's Integration in SharePoint Premium: Enhanced AI-Driven Document Analysis

The integration of Microsoft Copilot with SharePoint Premium marks a significant advancement in AI-assisted content creation, management, and discovery. Copilot, powered by advanced AI algorithms, offers a suite of capabilities that transform how organizations interact with their content:

1. Content Generation and Enhancement: Copilot assists in creating new content or enhancing existing documents. It can help draft reports, create summaries of lengthy documents, and suggest improvements to written content. This feature is invaluable for professionals who regularly produce extensive reports or documents, significantly reducing the time and effort required for content creation.
2. Contextual Suggestions and Insights: Copilot provides contextually relevant suggestions based on the content being worked on. This includes recommending related documents, suggesting content based on previous work, or providing insights that can aid in decision-making. For instance, while working on a project plan, Copilot might suggest relevant historical data or similar project templates.
3. Automating Routine Tasks: Copilot can automate routine content management tasks, such as formatting, organizing data, or responding to standard queries in documents. This extends to handling more complex requests like summarizing key points from a series of documents or extracting specific data points.
4. Enhanced Search and Discovery: With Copilot integrated, users can expect a more intuitive search experience. The AI understands natural language queries, making it easier to find specific information or documents, even if the query is phrased in conversational language.
5. Intelligent Content Categorization: Copilot intelligently categorizes content, aiding users in organizing and navigating their documents. It uses AI to understand the context and content of documents, categorizing them in a way that aligns with the user's workflow and organizational structure.
6. Automated Metadata Extraction: The AI-driven tools automatically extract metadata from documents, ensuring consistency and accuracy in metadata assignment. This enhances the searchability and organization of content.
7. Learning and Adapting: A key strength of Copilot is its ability to learn and adapt over time. As it is used more within an organization, it becomes better at understanding the specific needs and contexts of that organization, thereby becoming more effective in assisting users.

The integration of Copilot into SharePoint Premium thus represents a leap forward in content creation, management, and discovery. It makes these processes more efficient and also more intuitive, aligning with the natural work flows and thought processes of users.

Content Event Insights and AI-Driven Policy Recommendations

SharePoint Premium's content event insights now offer an even deeper dive into user interactions with content. This enhanced feature tracks advanced metrics such as view counts, edit history, user engagement patterns, time spent on documents, frequency of edits, and collaboration patterns across different teams. These comprehensive insights are invaluable for understanding how content is consumed and collaborated on within an organization, facilitating more informed decisions on content strategy and workflow optimizations.

The AI-driven policy recommendations work in tandem with these insights. Using sophisticated machine learning algorithms, the system suggests personalized content workflows and best practices for content governance, tailored to the unique interaction patterns and needs of different teams or departments. This includes personalized recommendations for automating processes, customizing content layouts for improved efficiency, optimizing content layout, enhancing accessibility, and ensuring compliance with industry-specific regulations.

By leveraging these enhanced insights and AI recommendations, organizations can make data-driven decisions to tailor their SharePoint environment more effectively. This includes recommendations for automating certain processes and customizing content layouts for improved efficiency, and ensures alignment with specific operational needs and compliance requirements, enhancing content strategies, and maintaining high standards of governance and compliance.

Multilabel Classifier and Redaction

The Multilabel Classifier in SharePoint Premium is a sophisticated AI-driven feature designed to streamline content categorization and analysis. This advanced tool allows users to run a single AI model that automatically determines the content type and selects the most appropriate model for comprehensive data extraction and analysis. You can run a single AI model to automatically set content type and determine the right model to apply for full data extract and analysis, rather than running multiple models to find the best match.

Traditionally, multiple models would need to be run sequentially to find the best match for content categorization, which could be time-consuming and less efficient. The Multilabel Classifier simplifies this process by intelligently analyzing the content and applying the most suitable model in one step. This speeds up the data processing and enhances accuracy in content categorization.

This feature is particularly useful in environments where large volumes of diverse content need to be processed and categorized quickly and accurately. For instance, in legal or financial sectors, where documents may contain a mix of information types, the Multilabel Classifier can efficiently sort and analyze data, aiding in faster decision-making and improved organizational efficiency.

Redaction in SharePoint Premium is a critical feature for maintaining privacy and compliance with data protection regulations. This tool automatically identifies and obscures sensitive information, such as names, addresses, and social security numbers, in documents and other content. The feature allows you to find and remove visibility for select sensitive information, such as names, addresses, social security numbers, from content viewing.

The redaction tool uses advanced algorithms to scan content and detect personally identifiable information (PII). Once identified, this sensitive information can be redacted, meaning it is masked or removed from view, ensuring that viewers of the content cannot access private data. This process is essential for organizations handling sensitive information, as it helps in complying with privacy laws and regulations.

This feature is particularly valuable in sectors like healthcare, legal, and finance, where protecting client or patient confidentiality is paramount. By automating the redaction process, SharePoint Premium saves time and resources and also minimizes the risk of human error in handling sensitive information.

Content Processing Services with SharePoint Syntex

SharePoint Premium introduces advanced content processing services under the SharePoint Syntex brand. This includes optical character recognition for scanned documents, sophisticated image processing capabilities, and intelligent taxonomy tagging to streamline content organization and retrieval. Additionally, an integrated file viewer is included, supporting over 400 file types. Microsoft indicated that soon we will be able to add ink, comments, mentions, tasks and more to any supported file type, just as we do for Office documents today.

These features, combined with AI-driven Copilot document analysis tools, offers advanced capabilities like smart content categorization, automated metadata extraction, and enhanced search functionalities. Significantly improving content discovery, and making it easier for users to find and collaborate on documents.

Autofill Columns and PII Detection

SharePoint Premium introduces autofill columns, a smart feature that allows for dynamically adding new columns to a document libraries and use AI to automatically fill in discovered values. Moreover, SharePoint now includes a feature for detecting personally identifiable information (PII), a critical aspect for maintaining compliance with data protection regulations. PII detection can flag files containing PII data such as addresses, phone numbers, credit card details and more.?

Integration with SharePoint eSignature

This feature allows users to securely sign documents within SharePoint, streamlining the document approval and signing process. It's a significant enhancement for work efficiency, especially in environments where legal and formal document handling is frequent. This feature will be generally available through the first quarter of 2024, beginning with tenants in the United States

Flexible Repository Services with Headless SharePoint

SharePoint Premium introduces a headless version, offering backend repository services. This headless approach decouples the backend data management from the frontend presentation layer, offering unparalleled flexibility and scalability in content management solutions.

In technical terms, the headless version of SharePoint Premium functions as a robust Content Management System (CMS) backend. It exposes APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that allow developers to retrieve and manipulate content without the constraints of a predetermined front-end system. This means businesses can use SharePoint Premium as a central repository for their content, while having the freedom to build custom front-end applications or integrate with other systems.

This feature is particularly advantageous for organizations that require a scalable and flexible content management solution. It allows for seamless integration with various technologies and platforms, catering to the specific needs of different departments or projects within an organization. For instance, a company could use SharePoint Premium as a backend to store and manage documents, while using a custom-built application or a third-party tool for user interaction and presentation.

Moreover, the headless architecture of SharePoint Premium facilitates omnichannel content delivery. Content stored in SharePoint can be easily accessed and displayed across multiple platforms, such as web applications, mobile apps, or even IoT devices, ensuring a consistent and unified user experience.

The headless version also enhances the platform's scalability. As business needs evolve and grow, SharePoint Premium can easily adapt, handling increased loads and complex data structures without compromising performance or security.

In summary, the inclusion of a headless version in SharePoint Premium represents a forward-thinking approach to content management. It provides businesses with the flexibility to design custom solutions that perfectly fit their unique requirements, while leveraging the robust and secure data management capabilities of SharePoint.

Content Governance

SharePoint Premium revolutionizes content governance with its advanced suite of tools, designed to handle the complexities of modern digital workspaces. Its features include:

1. Intelligent Content Classification: Utilize AI-driven algorithms to automatically classify content, enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of content organization.
2. Dynamic Sharing and Privacy Settings: Implement flexible sharing controls that adapt to content sensitivity, reducing the risk of oversharing while maintaining collaborative accessibility.
3. Proactive Risk Management: Leverage Data Access Governance insights to proactively identify and mitigate risks associated with overshared sites and sensitive content.
4. Streamlined Access Reviews: Empower content owners and IT teams with streamlined processes for regular access reviews, ensuring ongoing compliance and appropriate access levels.
5. AI-Powered Policy Recommendations: Take advantage of AI-driven recommendations for optimal access policies, based on semantic analysis of well-governed sites.
6. Context-Rich Content Event Insights: Gain valuable insights into content interactions, like high-volume sharing or downloads, complete with contextual details for informed decision-making

These features collectively elevate SharePoint Premium's capability to manage content effectively, ensuring compliance and security and also enhancing administrative productivity and governance oversight.

Translation for Files and Stream Video

SharePoint Premium's translation services for files and Stream video content are invaluable for global organizations. Highlights include:

1. Extensive Language Support: Translate documents, presentations, and video content across a wide range of languages to facilitate global collaboration.
2. Context-Aware Translations: Beyond simple word-for-word translation, the service considers context and cultural nuances to ensure accuracy and relevance.
3. Enhanced Collaboration: Break down language barriers, enabling team members from different regions to collaborate effectively on shared content.

Enhanced Collaboration and Advanced Security

In SharePoint Premium, enhanced collaboration seamlessly merges with advanced security features to create a dynamic and secure collaborative environment. This integration is tailored to streamline real-time co-authoring, communication, advanced document management, and customizable workspaces, fortified with robust security measures.

• Seamless Integration with Microsoft Teams: This integration centralizes real-time communication and document collaboration within Teams, streamlining content management across various teams and projects. It enables multiple users to edit documents simultaneously in real-time, directly within Teams, enhancing work flow efficiency and facilitating quick feedback. Interactive features like in-document chat and contextual commenting are included to enrich the collaborative experience.
• Unified Collaboration Environment: SharePoint Premium, combined with the Business Documents app in Teams, offers a cohesive platform for sharing and managing content. This unified approach boosts teamwork and productivity, allowing for efficient SharePoint content management directly within the Teams interface.
• Personalized Dashboards and Workspaces: Users can customize their SharePoint environment to fit their specific needs. This flexibility includes organizing content, tools, and workflows, and integrating third-party apps, all aimed at enhancing productivity and tailoring the user experience.
• Advanced Document Management: Features such as improved version control and document tracking are integral, especially in environments with frequent document revisions and strict oversight. Detailed version histories and real-time notifications on document updates ensure that all team members are always aware of the latest modifications.
• Robust Security Features: SharePoint Premium is equipped with advanced security mechanisms to protect sensitive information. This includes AI-driven automatic labeling for classifying documents and applying security policies, user-defined permissions for access control, and enhanced encryption protocols for data protection in transit and at rest. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) capabilities further prevent inadvertent sharing of sensitive information.

These integrations and enhancements in SharePoint Premium foster a more connected and efficient collaborative environment. They effectively leverage the strengths of both SharePoint and Teams, ensuring enhanced productivity and collaboration and a high standard of security and data integrity.

Microsoft 365 Archive and Backup

The integration of SharePoint Premium with Microsoft 365 Archive revolutionizes content lifecycle management. Announced earlier this year, this feature enables efficient management of storage costs while maintaining the integrity and accessibility of your content. Microsoft 365 Archive allows for the extension of SharePoint Premium policies, transferring older sites to the archive storage, which preserves the full richness of content, including versions, metadata, and security, within the Microsoft 365 trust boundary. Archived content, while removed from direct end-user access and search, maintains its security and retention policy, with administrators having the ability to search and execute compliance actions as needed. Content can also be swiftly returned to Microsoft 365 'hot' storage when necessary. Now available in public preview, Microsoft 365 Archive offers a cost-effective solution for storage, charging only for usage beyond the allocated Microsoft 365 storage.

Complementing the archival capabilities, Microsoft 365 Backup provides a robust solution for protecting vital data from disasters, including ransomware attacks. This feature, along with compliant solutions from partners such as AvePoint, Cohesity, Commvault, Rubrik, Veeam, and Veritas, offers unparalleled backup and recovery speed, scale, and reliability. Slated for a paid public preview later in 2023 and expected to reach general availability in the first half of 2024, Microsoft 365 Backup ensures the safeguarding of crucial data, contributing to the overall resilience and business continuity strategy.

SharePoint Premium, already in use today, includes content processing services available under the Syntex brand and content governance under the SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) brand. Services available under Syntex will transition to the SharePoint Premium brand in 2024, with new capabilities and two licensing models. SharePoint Premium’s seat licenses and PayGo services, both set for broad availability in the first half of 2024, offer flexibility to meet diverse business requirements.

Licensing Models with Pay-as-You-Go Flexibility

SharePoint Premium's flexible pricing and licensing models cater to a wide range of organizational needs. The pay-as-you-go model is ideal for businesses with fluctuating usage patterns, allowing them to scale their SharePoint usage up or down based on current requirements. This model ensures that organizations only pay for what they use, optimizing their IT spending. The seat-licensed services provide a more traditional, fixed-cost approach, suitable for organizations with stable user numbers. This dual-model approach ensures that businesses of all sizes and types can find a licensing option that fits their budget and usage patterns. Microsoft will bring SharePoint Premium to broad availability in the first half of 2024.

Partnerships and Customer Examples

SharePoint Premium's effectiveness is further strengthened through Microsoft's partnerships for the product, including industry leaders like Adobe and DocuSign. Customer success stories, such as that of KPMG UK, showcase the practical and transformative impact of SharePoint Premium across various business scenarios. ?KPMG UK is specifically using SharePoint Premium to optimize content classification and streamline their tax and advisory client operations:?

Tech Tip: Third-party integration with Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign will be generally available in early 2024.

Getting Started with SharePoint Premium

1. Initial Setup and Configuration: Begin by setting up your SharePoint Premium environment. This involves configuring the basic settings such as site layout, user permissions, and security settings. Ensure that your SharePoint site reflects your organization's structure and hierarchy. This step is crucial for creating a solid foundation for your SharePoint environment.
2. Customizing the User Interface: Personalize the look and feel of your SharePoint site to align with your organization's branding. This includes customizing themes, layouts, and navigation elements. A familiar and branded interface enhances user adoption and engagement.
3. Implementing AI-Driven Content Management: Utilize SharePoint Premium's AI capabilities to organize and manage your content efficiently. Set up features like AI-driven tagging, content recommendations, and automated document classification. These tools help in streamlining content discovery and management, making it easier for users to find the information they need.
4. Integrating with Microsoft Teams for Enhanced Collaboration: Connect SharePoint Premium with Microsoft Teams to facilitate seamless collaboration. Configure settings for real-time co-authoring, document sharing, and communication within Teams. This integration is key to enhancing teamwork and productivity, especially in remote or hybrid work environments.
5. Setting Up Advanced Document Management: Configure document management settings such as version control, document libraries, and tracking features. These settings are essential for maintaining document integrity and ensuring that team members are working with the most current versions.
6. Establishing Security Protocols: Implement and configure SharePoint Premium’s security features, including access controls, encryption, and compliance tools. Define user permissions and access levels to ensure that sensitive information is adequately protected.
7. Training and Onboarding: Once your SharePoint Premium site is configured and customized, focus on training your team members. Provide them with the necessary resources and training sessions to familiarize them with the new features and capabilities of SharePoint Premium. Effective training ensures that your team can fully utilize the platform to its maximum potential.

By following these practical steps and configurations, you can effectively set up SharePoint Premium in your organization. This setup will enhance collaboration and productivity and ensure that your data is secure and managed efficiently.?

Summary and Reflection

SharePoint Premium marks a transformative advancement in digital collaboration and content management. This platform transcends being a mere update; it's a complete overhaul of the traditional SharePoint experience, combining advanced features with a user-friendly interface. Its flexible licensing models cater to diverse business needs, establishing it as a vital component in today's digital workspace.

Reflecting on SharePoint's evolution, it's impressive to witness its transformation since its inception. The original SharePoint introduced a novel concept of a centralized platform for document management and collaboration, significantly impacting business operations. Over time, SharePoint has continuously evolved, aligning with the dynamic needs of businesses and embracing new technological advancements.

Earlier SharePoint versions primarily focused on document storage and basic collaboration functionalities. As the digital landscape progressed, SharePoint adapted by incorporating more sophisticated features like workflow automation, enhanced security, and seamless integration with other Microsoft products. While these versions were potent, they often required extensive customization and expertise for optimal utilization.

SharePoint Premium, however, heralds a new era. It builds upon SharePoint's fundamental strengths and integrates state-of-the-art technologies such as AI, along with deep integration with Microsoft 365 tools. The emphasis has shifted towards managing content and revolutionizing how we interact with it, making the process more intuitive, collaborative, and secure. Features like AI-driven tools, advanced security protocols, and seamless integration with Microsoft Teams exemplify how SharePoint Premium is redefining the digital workspace.

In essence, SharePoint Premium is more than an upgrade; it's a reenvisioning of what a collaboration and content management platform can achieve. It stands as a testament to SharePoint's journey from a basic document management tool to an advanced, AI-enhanced platform, reshaping the way businesses collaborate and manage digital content. As SharePoint continues to evolve, it is poised to introduce even more innovative features and capabilities, further elevating productivity and collaboration in the digital era.

About the Author: Sousouni Bajis , a seasoned SharePoint expert and consultant, has been at the forefront of content management technology for over two decades. With a deep understanding of SharePoint's evolution and a keen eye on future trends, Sousouni offers valuable insights into the latest advancements in this field.