How Content Classification Works in Microsoft 365

In this perpetually busy world, where multitasking is the name of the game, we find ourselves having less and less time to identify, analyze and classify our most valuable business asset: our content.

How content classification currently works

Traditional legacy and partially automated classification methods are not enough to manage huge volumes of data. There are typically two ways in which content is classified: supervised and progressive.

Supervised classification involves the application of an Enterprise Content Management system to manually classify various forms of business content and store them within containers in repositories.

This could help to bring down costs significantly as less investment is required to train staff and management to look after it all.

The benefits of progressive classification

When applied correctly, progressive classification can improve user experience, because manual data processing is typically replaced with an intelligent, automated system, which businesses can figure to adapt to their evolving requirements.

By leveraging artificial intelligence and Machine Learning, the repositories of unstructured data that exist within legacy systems are automatically processed, which could be used to get some value in the form of new insights or unknowns.

Documents are grouped from various business lines for instant access and amendments. Some of these documents typically contain sensitive information, and this can further be clustered into subgroups based on the metadata that the AI/ML application detects. For example, invoices that require urgent attention or employee information that no longer requires retaining.

Bear in mind: all this is done via automation. Yes, things are getting exciting!

How sensitivity and retention labelling work in Microsoft 365

With intelligent automation, organisations can finally say goodbye to manually filing and archiving documents in folders – be this digitally or physically (yes, physical filing still happens!) – especially those that contain sensitive and confidential information.

By leveraging the principles of progressive classification, Microsoft 365 enables your organisation to classify content with sensitive and retention labelling. It applies AI and ML to detect content that:

• needs to be classified as containing sensitive information
• needs to be retained for a fixed duration of time
• can only be accessed by certain individuals in your organisation

Sensitivity labelling in Microsoft 365
Sensitive documents typically include information that is bound by government data protection laws or compliance requirements from regulatory bodies. This could include confidential information which organisations are required to keep records of, such as medical or banking information.

Sensitivity labelling in Microsoft 365

Sensitive documents typically include information that is bound by government data protection laws or compliance requirements from regulatory bodies. This could include confidential information which organisations are required to keep records of, such as medical or banking information.

Microsoft describes a sensitivity label to be like a stamp that’s applied to content that is:

• Customisable: This is where categories can be created for different levels of sensitive content that your organisation has, such as: ‘Personal,’ ‘Confidential’, or ‘Highly Confidential’.
• Clear Text: As labels are stored in clear text format within the content’s metadata, third-party apps and external services could apply their own protective actions, where required.
• Persistent: A sensitivity label, including its protection settings, is tagged to the metadata of the email or document and roams with it. Retention or compliance policies are applied to such content using this metadata.