Garbage in, garbage out': get these 5 things in order to get real value from Copilot
In many organizations, information management has been neglected for years. But now that AI and Copilot are increasingly gaining a permanent place within companies, the subject is coming back into the spotlight. Because when you have a lot of outdated data lying around, you get much less return from Copilot. After all, you ask questions to Copilot based on the existing information. If it is incorrect, the output is also unreliable. To put it very bluntly: garbage in, garbage out.
If you want to get value out of your Copilot license, it is crucial to get the basics in order. But how do you do that? In this blog post, we share five things you need to have in order!
1. Retention periods
With a view to Copilot, you want to have up-to-date information available. At the same time, you have to take into account legal retention periods of documents. For example, some pieces may only be destroyed after seven years. In this context, it is useful to automatically archive certain sites or files to cold storage. This kills two birds with one stone: you save money (especially if your organization has to buy extra storage for SharePoint) and you keep outdated files out of the picture (AI and Copilot can no longer access them).
Then there is also the other side of the 'retention spectrum': according to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you are not allowed to store certain data for too long. For example, the GDPR requires you to delete an employee's personal data after they have been out of service for a certain period of time. Depending on the sector in which you operate, additional requirements often apply.
With so many regulations, it is crucial to map out data lifecycle management very clearly!
2. Access
Sharing files, folders and documents within your Microsoft environment? Your employees have been doing that for years. Handy, but the result is also that people have shared certain information excessively. If Copilot can reach everything, you probably have a problem. For example, sensitive HR files should not end up with just anyone.
Therefore, investigate which data is where and who has or should have access. And determine in which cases you need to further restrict access to information. There are good tools that help you to make this clear.
3. Labels
When it comes to confidential data (for example, around the financial administration, HR or management), it is wise to classify data with labels. Additional measures are often also necessary. For example, you can apply encryption and set it up so that only specific people are allowed to access this data.
Make sure you create the right labels. Both for new and existing files. Examples of standard labels are 'public', 'internal', 'confidential' and 'strictly confidential'.
4. Additional shielding via access control
Is certain information highly sensitive? Then explicitly limit access to a specific group of employees.
In practice, this means that you work with defined memberships: only authorized users have access to this data. Copilot follows these access rights, so that the information is not visible to others.
5. Control
Your information management is not something you set up once and then never look at again. As an organization, you are on a 'data train' that is constantly running. Along the way, new data comes on board and existing data becomes irrelevant. That is why it is important that you are always actively involved in it.
You do this by continuously checking and expanding the foundation you build. This way you ensure that you stay in control!
Information management in order? That's where you reap the benefits!
When you have the five points above in order, it provides many advantages. You can get started safely with Copilot, but you also have your governance in order right away. In the unlikely event that you are faced with a cyber attack, you know, for example, that you have not stored customer data that you should have deleted by law.
In addition, you benefit from cost reduction with good information management. Because you don't store any unnecessary data, there is little chance that you will exceed the available storage space within your license.