To engage SharePoint and maximise value

Kirk Schafer, Director, Dac Systems

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You need to identify your content types and columns (metadata), and load all your content into SharePoint.

Problem is, there is a lot of content. And just like fiscal dumping is a no-no, just dropping a couple of thousand files into SharePoint just before go-live is a no-no too!

You have to tag it, add metadata to it and decide what to do with it. There's less work involved preparing to go out with your better half - and we know how long that takes, says Kirk Schafer, Director, Dac Systems.

Besides, who is going to make any sense of your content, if even you don't know what it contains?

Information will have to be identified and content grouped together... luckily your folder structure should already give you a good indication of the columns.

Having a look at the folder structure on your hard drive, you realise it has more levels than a platform game!

You have a folder structure that (at its lowest three levels) separates all your documents geographically, then by department and then by fiscal year.

You have been told to think: If I need to find a document, what information would I need to uniquely identify it?

Most of your documents are reports sent in by the Risk Audit team that need to be kept for three years - specifically for building safety inspections and fire reports.

You address an e-mail to the SharePoint team:

Dear SharePoint team

These are my metadata fields I require:

* Geographic location (local or national)
* Department (department in company)
* Fiscal year (1995 to 2020)
* Safety officer (an employee)

These are my content types:

o Building safety inspections
* Fire reports

Kind regards

Yes, that's correct, the fiscal year field dates back 20 years! You found documents from 20 years ago in your folders (guess these are ready for archiving)!

Oh, and don't smirk! Go do a quick search for *.doc on your device and sort by date...

Ha! Bet you found some files older than you thought you had?

Aaah... you received a mail back from the SharePoint Team:

...thank you for your inputs. We will add these metadata fields to the Term Store.

You will be able to then use your content types in your library we will create for you.

Should you have a specific template that you require the inspectors to always use, please send that through to us and we will add that for you.

Kind regards

The SharePoint team

You quickly attach your fire inspection template to an e-mail and send it back to the SharePoint team.

Well, this will take forever! Guess we can put all this on the backburner for now. I mean, most of these projects get requirements, and then you only hear from them months later!

We'll have to wait and see!