SharePoint is the place to store and manage your documents. You can easily collaborate with multiple authors all at the same time. The current approach prioritises collaboration over control and that’s where some of the issues can arise.

Organisations often have critical documents that require strict control and oversight, including tracking changes and managing approvals. As a Microsoft partner that helps organisations with document management and SharePoint migrations, we explain how to build a secure document library in SharePoint to maintain full control.

Bring back the Document Controller

In the world of physical copies of documents, it was easy to keep control. In order to access a document, you had to have permission to check it in and out via a librarian or document controller.

This would allow for a record of the change and ensure only one person could do this at the time. In SharePoint, it is possible to replicate many elements of this with a virtual document controller. This isn’t an actual document controller but by bringing back many of the roles that used to be managed by a person into SharePoint.

A clear document register

A master register provides full visibility of all documents in one place. SharePoint can display the status, version, and who has a document checked out, helping to avoid duplication or confusion.

This creates accountability, ensures everyone works from the latest version, and replicates the control once managed by a physical logbook.

Check out process

In your document library you can ensure only one person can edit any one document at a time. When you want to edit the document, this can check the document out and allow one person to use it.

Once the editor has made their changes, they can check the document back in. This won’t overwrite the original document but instead kick off an approval process.

Approval process

Once a document is checked back in you need to ensure the key business stakeholders are happy. You can build an approval process designed around your business needs.

You can have a workflow that automatically sends the document to one person, multiple people in a series or a group of people. Once this document is approved then you are ready to update your final document library.

The final document library

Once the final document is approved you have it automatically updated in your public document library that allows required users to access the final/live versions.

Use cases

The process above is simple but requires a few key elements brought together to keep your business-critical documents secure and approval processes in place.

  • Drawing office design documents: For CAD drawings and key product information, version and change control are essential to maintain standards and consistency.
  • – Legal documents: When updating contracts or terms and conditions, it is important to clearly track proposed changes and apply the necessary layers of approval to ensure compliance.
  • – Heavily regulated industries: In sectors such as finance and construction, where strict regulations apply, changes must be carefully managed and reviewed by domain experts to ensure adherence to all requirements.

SharePoint is a key platform and for scenarios where you need to restrict collaboration and manage version control this is all very much possible within SharePoint. The ability to easily integrate with Microsoft, manage approvals and processes takes SharePoint to the next level. Discover how you can migrate your document management to SharePoint or download our Document Management guide here.