Microsoft is launching a revamped SharePoint that it says will “transform content management”.
The company claims that SharePoint Premium will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance content experiences, optimise business processes and prepare content for Microsoft Copilot, a set of tools that help users achieve more with AI.
“SharePoint Premium will build structure, security and governance to ground an organisation’s content, so Copilot has better information to leverage,” Microsoft said as its flagship Ignite event started.
According to Microsoft, SharePoint Premium will build structure, security and governance to ground an organisation’s content so that Copilot can use it more effectively. Copilot is a suite of AI-powered services that aim to assist users with tasks such as writing, coding, designing and learning.
Microsoft said new “content experiences” will enable users to seamlessly discover, interact, and collaborate with hundreds of file types while providing fresh content using AI analytics with branded document packaging.
“Content solutions”, meanwhile, will automate workflows, improve security and apply AI to critical business processes. In addition, it will include governance services that tie in with Microsoft Syntex and Microsoft SharePoint Advanced Management.
Microsoft said SharePoint Premium will also expand content management in Microsoft 365 to help organisations get more value from their content throughout the lifecycle and bring content into the flow of work for information workers, IT pros, developers and more.
The Redmond vendor SharePoint Premium features will roll out between now and the first half of 2024, and customers can sign up for the preview today.
Improved Security
Security was a key SharePoint trend during the opening day of Ignite, particularly tied to Purview Information Protection.
Automatic labelling for files at rest in SharePoint Online can now label PDF files. Auto labelling will automatically start labelling PDF files in addition to currently supported Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.
Another update allows you to apply a default sensitivity label to a SharePoint document library. Whenever you upload a new document to the library, it will automatically inherit the configured label (if not already labelled). All documents in the library, whether newly created or modified, will be assigned the label of that library.
This feature allows users to protect all documents in the library without the need to define classification policies. Site default labels make it easier to secure sensitive information in the library.
Collaborating securely on labelled and encrypted documents with customised permissions is also now possible.
With user-defined permissions, document owners no longer need administrators to create special labels for their highly confidential documents. Instead, they can specify the permissions by applying User Datagram Protocol (UDP) labels on files.
Files labelled with UDP in SharePoint support co-authoring, which is a popular capability among C-suite users and those working on sensitive projects, Microsoft said. This feature allows them to restrict access to highly confidential documents to a select group of explicitly authorised individuals.
