Queensland Government Department: Data Governance

Moving document management to SharePoint Online needed a governance framework first, not after. We built one and proved the design.

Why it mattered

Migrating a government department off file shares is straightforward technically and difficult in every other respect. Without agreed retention, classification and protection rules, a migration simply relocates the problem into a platform where it is harder to unpick. The department needed the governance position settled, and the design validated, before committing to the move.

What we did

• Assessed governance through workshops. Reviewing current practice and identifying compliance gaps.
• Deployed Microsoft Purview. Covering data lifecycle management with automated retention and deletion, sensitivity labels for confidential material, data loss prevention rules, and compliance reporting.
• Planned the migration. A roadmap for moving file shares to SharePoint Online, with strategies and risks identified up front.
• Proved it in their own tenant. A SharePoint Online proof of concept validating the high-level design before commitment.
• Set out adoption. A roadmap with milestones, dependencies and timelines.

The difference it made

• A governance framework aligned to regulatory and organisational policy.
• Retention and deletion running automatically instead of by memory.
• Confidential material protected by sensitivity labels and DLP rules.
• Audits supported by built-in reporting and monitoring.
• Information centralised, so collaboration improves across the department.