SharePoint stampede.

It doesn’t matter if we discuss Microsoft Teams or any form of SharePoint. The delivery method covers a spectrum from “let 1000 flowers bloom” and makes all buttons available to “only based on a validated process, IT makes a site available”.

The truth probably lies in the middle.

There are 7 ways to create a SharePoint.

1. Via the SharePoint admin panel
2. With the button on the SharePoint collection page
3. Create a Groups, and you develop a SharePoint
4. Start a Teams and develop a SharePoint
5. Start a private channel in Teams, and you deploy a SharePoint analogously
6. Create a shared library in OneDrive
7. Create a storage medium in Yammer, for example, for photos, and you start a new SharePoint.

Accept that you cannot suppress this.

But what can you do?

Retention mechanisms and migration systems prevent you from getting entangled in an unsolvable jungle of sites at some point.

1. Distinguish between regular content and controlled content. This can be done based on content types.

On regular content, you put a retention mechanism like: if a file has not been viewed for so many months, we consider it as “it has seen better days.

Controlled content can produce a record, and this record by definition contains a fixed retention period in which the file is managed in an unalterable state. It is therefore not possible to throw it away. The record provides evidence for the organization.

2. Avoid “in-place records management” in larger organizations. The experience then teaches organizations to build 2:1 SharePoints. A company with 1000 employees can easily generate 2000 SharePoint sites.

If a site has not been visited for 24 months or has no owner anymore, you have a reason to shut down the site or dismantle it completely.

If a site contains records, you must maintain the site until the youngest record has reached the end of its retention period.

A checked document can be automatically transferred to a central facility such as Alfresco, OpenText, or a central SharePoint depot, leaving a hyperlink where the document originated. Thus, the people who created the document have it available within the context of their own system.

3. Because many people (especially boys) tend to press every available button, there is often a proliferation of Teams or SharePoints. Later the reflection comes, and then people realize that it is more convenient to work together. To support this, you set up a migration service that supports the process of merging sites or Teams.

The retention and “merger” mechanism allows an organization to allow for a somewhat looser delivery approach and, as such, initiate movement while steering mechanisms are in place.