SharePoint Optimization & Governance Assessment
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Project Overview
This project involved a large, multisite construction and development organization using Microsoft 365 as its core collaboration and document management platform. With hundreds of employees across departments and over 290 SharePoint and Teams sites, the client was facing growing pains that threatened to impact performance, cost, and collaboration efficiency.
Operational issues included excessive document storage, broken folder structures, and poorly controlled sharing practices. Staff were defaulting to legacy behaviors like syncing entire libraries through File Explorer, unaware of SharePoint’s built-in collaboration capabilities.
Our role was to perform a deep diagnostic assessment of the Microsoft 365 tenant and deliver a strategic, phased roadmap for optimization—focusing on architecture, governance, and user enablement.
Execution
Our engagement followed a structured approach to diagnose and address technical and governance issues:
- Comprehensive Site Inventory
Audited over 290 Microsoft Teams and SharePoint sites. Flagged inactive libraries, overgrown folders, OneDrive sync issues, and guest access risks. - Stakeholder Interviews
Engaged teams across IT, Finance, QA, and Project Management to understand content usage, permissions pain points, and tool gaps (e.g., Slack, Zoom, Monday.com). - Configuration & Risk Assessment
Evaluated Microsoft 365 tenant settings across SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Entra ID, and Microsoft Purview. Identified security gaps and underutilized compliance features. - Roadmap & Recommendations
Delivered a phased plan focused on five pillars:- Site Restructure – flattening deep subsites
- Content Consolidation – archiving stale content
- Governance Framework – enforcing sharing, labels, and ownership
- Architecture Alignment – hub-and-spoke model per Microsoft guidance
- User Enablement – training, change management, and adoption strategy
Results
The assessment gave the client a clear path to transform their SharePoint environment into a scalable, secure, and cost-effective workspace:
- Identified over $3,000/month in avoidable storage costs
Through rationalization of redundant sites and inactive content libraries. - Reduced technical debt and site sprawl
Flattened folder hierarchies and replaced subsite sprawl with a hub site model. - Improved governance and security posture
Introduced recommendations for guest link expiration, sensitivity labels, DLP, and role-based ownership. - Empowered user base through strategic training
Increased awareness across departments on SharePoint’s capabilities, paving the way for future automation and compliance initiatives within Microsoft 365.
The result was a modern digital workplace strategy aligned to business needs and Microsoft best practices—enabling better performance, reduced cost, and future-readiness.