Many sites today, whether based on SharePoint or other technologies, are plagued by an unruly set of content that is either outdated, contradictory to other content on the site, or simply duplicate and looming about the site. These problems are often seen as nothing more than a content problem, but in reality it poses a higher risk to the organization, ranging from poor press in the media and amongst the public, to serious consequences such as hard to human health and even life depending on the agency mission.

While the problem may manifest itself in multiple ways and present varying levels of risk to an organization, the root cause usually is found in the lack of strong policies, associated standards and the translation of these into actionable controls.

Software vendors themselves will give you tips to avoiding this problem, such as end user training and education, having an information management plan, and enforcing workflows. However, these tips and many software add-ons won’t solve the underlying problems since any good web governance plan has to be a strong combination of process and technology.

So if you are thinking about cleaning up your existing site or migrating to an entirely new platform, this is the time to consider how you will govern your content and the principles around it, from written work to access. This should help significantly as you gain control and start:

• Controlling site control in order to avoid site creation chaos

• Central administration across multiple SharePoint sites (intranets, extranets, Internet sites)

• Efficient business user behavior (approval of access to various sites and content) as well as proper structures for report generation to business users

• Consistent permissions, authorized access, and compliance reporting.

Photo by Jack Hamilton