Every business is keen to enhance internal collaboration, introducing tools and platforms that help employees access and share information irrespective of their physical location.
This need has grown in recent years, as a widespread culture of hybrid working has become the new normal, with opportunities for in-person collaboration becoming less frequent.
In response to this, SharePoint Online has become one of the most popular options, allowing operations to continue in-line with an organisation’s unique structure. The flexible, cloud-based service allows users to store and share information from any device, whilst integrating with Microsoft’s key tools.
However, those businesses that have already implemented a SharePoint Online solution may not be extracting maximum value from their investment. To ensure its performance and security has been fully optimised, Circyl’s SharePoint Health Check will evaluate the existing offering and make recommendations based on the results.
What is a SharePoint Health Check?
A crucial assessment designed to evaluate and optimise the performance, security and efficiency of a SharePoint Online environment, the Health Check promises to deliver a comprehensive analysis of the solution.
Through this investigation, potential improvements can be identified that will allow organisations to meet industry best practices, whilst ensuring it has been tailored to suit the business’ unique needs and requirements.
In order to make actionable recommendations, Circyl’s team of technical consultants first complete a thorough examination of the following:
- Site collection storage: Review the site structure to ensure it aligns with best practices, whilst evaluating the storage metrics to identify any sites that have exceeded optimal size limits. Assess the number of items within libraries/lists to ensure they are within key performance thresholds.
- Permission governance: Examine the current permissions and assess the usage of Active Directory groups versus individual user permissions. Review and ensure existing permission matrix documents are aligned with security requirements.
- External User Access: Evaluate the configuration of external sharing settings to eliminate the chance of data leakage, whilst using PowerShell to assess external sharing configurations across the entire SharePoint Online environment.
- Assessment of Unused Sites: Analyse the SharePoint admin centre to identify any unused sites and provide recommendations on what to do with them moving forward.
- Legacy Workflows: Review and assess the impact of any existing legacy workflows and recommend modern alternatives, like Power Automate, to streamline processes.
In addition to this, the team will take a closer look at other key aspects of a SharePoint solution, including content and applications, to determine what other performance-enhancing improvements should be made.
Customer requirements
Whilst a SharePoint Online Health Check needn’t stretch your business’ time and resources, the delivery of a successful investigation relies on collaboration as there are several key requirements that should be met. These include:
- Access to SharePoint Online environment: Provide administrative access or appropriate permissions for Circyl to access the environment, whilst sharing the necessary login credentials for the admin centre or SharePoint Online Management Shell.
- Technical point of contact: Designate a point of contact to provide the necessary information and collaborate with our wider team – this individual should have a good understanding of the environment and be able to assist with technical queries.
- Documentation and configuration info: Provide any relevant documentation, such as permission matrix documents, site structure diagrams or configuration details. Also provide info on the current SharePoint Online configuration, including site collections, libraries, lists, workflows and settings.
- Stakeholder engagement: Coordinate and facilitate engagement with relevant stakeholders, whilst ensuring their availability for insightful discussions into business processes and SharePoint usage.
Once these terms have been agreed, the Health Check can begin as outlined, allowing the team to feedback on performance and offer recommendations.
Three key deliverables
Once this process is complete, the client will receive three key deliverables, including a detailed assessment report, an executive summary and presentation.
The report will provide a comprehensive analysis of the findings, offering actionable recommendations for improving the performance, governance and utilisation of the platform, whilst providing best practices for the optimisation of site structure, permissions and security measures.
Meanwhile, a concise summary of the assessment report will be made available for non-technical stakeholders to review key findings, recommendations and their impact on the organisation’s productivity and security. This summary makes the information much easier to digest for those unfamiliar with the intricacies of SharePoint Online.
Finally, an insightful presentation will allow us to discuss the assessment results, recommendations and the benefits they deliver in more detail – this comes with a Q&A session so that clients can address any concerns they have about the findings.
Build for the future…
Whilst the most important step to take is the initial plunge of introducing business-enhancing tools, it’s vital that the SharePoint environment is tailored and optimised to meet the unique needs of your business.
A lot like buying a car and then refusing to fill it up with petrol, the solution cannot run properly unless you make sure it has what it needs to operate effectively.
Therefore, a comprehensive Health Check could be what your business needs to make sure everything is working as it should be, allowing you to unlock a wide range of short and long-term benefits.
Contact our in-house team of technical experts for more information or to book your SharePoint Online Health Check.