In organisations across Australia, many will reach a point where SharePoint no longer seems the neat application it should have been. Documents are hard to find, there are too many project sites, permissions are confusing, and there is no consistency in searching. Users are no longer convinced that the SharePoint application holds all the answers.
It may start as an organised SharePoint environment, but it can become difficult to manage if proper governance is not maintained. An audit of Western Australian Government agencies found weaknesses across governance, identity and access management, and information protection within Microsoft 365 environments, increasing the risk of cyber incidents and data breaches.
This blog explores the common causes of a broken SharePoint environment, the business risks they create, and the practical steps organisations can take to regain control before these problems have a wider impact on the business.
What Does a Broken SharePoint Environment Look Like?
A broken SharePoint environment is not always obvious at first. Users may still be saving files, sharing links, and accessing project folders, but the underlying structure may no longer align with the business’s operations.
Common warning signs include:
- Multiple sites serving similar purposes
- Inconsistent naming conventions
- Excessive folder nesting
- Poor search results
- Duplicated documents
- Growing storage usage with little business value
Project-based businesses often experience these issues more quickly. Large volumes of project documentation, drawings and correspondence can quickly overwhelm a poorly structured environment.
Poor migrations are another common cause. Many organisations move content from file servers or legacy systems into SharePoint using a ‘lift and shift’ approach, bringing across:
- Outdated files
- Duplicate folders
- Broken metadata
- Inherited permission issues
Instead of improving collaboration, SharePoint becomes a new home for old problems.
Why SharePoint Environments Break Over Time
SharePoint environments often become difficult to manage as organisations grow faster than the governance supporting them.
Oversharing Through Sharing Links
SharePoint is designed to make collaboration easy, allowing users to quickly generate sharing links for colleagues, contractors and external stakeholders. Over time, broad-access links such as ‘Anyone with the link’ can remain active long after they are needed, creating unnecessary access to business information. Without governance to regularly review and expire these links, organisations can lose visibility over who can access sensitive content.
Broken Permission Inheritance
As SharePoint environments grow, permissions are often customised at the folder or document level rather than inherited from the parent site or library. While this solves short-term access requirements, it gradually creates a complex permission structure that is difficult to understand, review and audit. Over time, organisations can reach a point where no-one has complete visibility of who has access to what information.
These issues are not typically the result of user error. They are a natural consequence of SharePoint’s flexible sharing capabilities when clear governance, permission reviews and ongoing information management do not support them.
Data Sprawl
As SharePoint grows, documents can end up stored across multiple locations, from libraries and Teams to email attachments and project sites. This can make it difficult to know which version is current or where the original document is stored.
OneDrive Synchronisation
The synchronisation of large SharePoint libraries can also pose challenges, especially in project-oriented companies that handle thousands of documents. This may lead to performance slowdowns, frequent versioning conflicts, and an increasing number of duplicates on different devices.
Absence of Lifecycle Management
Not all projects need to last forever. The absence of a lifecycle management procedure will result in an accumulation of unnecessary sites and documents.
How to Fix a Broken SharePoint Environment
Once the problems have been identified, the focus should be on simplifying the environment and implementing controls to prevent the same issues from recurring.
- Assess the Current SharePoint Environment
Start by understanding what is happening across SharePoint today. Review how sites are being used, storage levels, permissions, sharing settings, and search performance. This can uncover unused sites, duplicate content, oversharing, and complicated permission structures. Establishing this baseline helps determine where remediation should begin.
- Simplify the SharePoint Structure
SharePoint should reflect how people actually work. Sites, hubs, libraries, and navigation can be reorganised around business functions, while unnecessary folder structures can be simplified. Consistent naming and templates also make it easier for users to understand where information belongs.
- Review and Simplify Permissions
Complex permissions become increasingly difficult to manage as SharePoint grows. Access can be managed through Microsoft 365 groups or security groups rather than individual permissions. Broken inheritance, unnecessary access, and excessive unique permissions should also be reviewed to provide greater visibility into who can access business information.
- Introduce Clear SharePoint Governance
Governance provides the rules that keep SharePoint organised over time. This should cover how sites are created, who owns them, how access is reviewed, how information is named and managed, and when to archive old sites or content.
- Remove Unnecessary Content
Duplicate, obsolete, and trivial information can quickly clutter SharePoint. Reviewing what should be kept, archived, or removed helps reduce unnecessary data and addresses multiple versions of documents spread across SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive. A cleaner environment also makes search more useful.
- Make Better Use of Metadata
Deep folder structures can make large volumes of information harder to manage. Metadata and document classifications give files useful context, helping users find what they need through filters, views and search without knowing exactly where a document is stored.
- Improve SharePoint Search
Search should make important information easy to find. Clear metadata, useful search filters and promoted content can improve results. Reviewing common search terms can also reveal content that is difficult to find and where the SharePoint structure could be improved.
- Give SharePoint Clear Business Ownership
SharePoint should have clear business ownership, not sit solely with IT. Each site needs an owner who understands its purpose, users and access requirements. Regular reviews of content, permissions and sensitive information help keep sites relevant as the business changes.
- Strengthen Security and Compliance
Security controls should work alongside SharePoint governance. Depending on business requirements, this can include retention policies, sensitivity labels, Data Loss Prevention, and lifecycle controls. Regularly reviewing sharing and access also helps reduce oversharing while keeping information available to the people who need it.
- Support Users with SharePoint Training
Users are more likely to adopt SharePoint when they understand how to use it. Practical training around document libraries, sharing, Teams integration, version history, and search can reduce confusion and unnecessary workarounds. Site owners should also understand their role in managing permissions, content, and ongoing governance.
Why Ongoing SharePoint Governance Is Important
One-time governance of SharePoint is not sufficient. Without governance, the same issues will keep appearing.
Organisational growth means that there will always be new users, projects, customers, and compliance requirements to consider when managing information. Governance helps you keep SharePoint organised, secure, and aligned with organisational goals.
Continuous governance will help prevent data sprawl, set appropriate permission levels, improve searchability, and keep your content up to date and relevant. In addition, governance will provide users with assurance that SharePoint is the place for their business information.
SharePoint should help your organisation grow rather than hinder it.
Conclusion
A poorly governed or broken SharePoint environment can not only affect efficiency but also pose great security threats. However, by thoroughly evaluating your environment, cleaning up outdated content, optimising permissions, and implementing appropriate governance policies, SharePoint should once again become a secure and productive tool.
Get Your Messy SharePoint Environment Under Control
Rodin can assist in regaining control over a SharePoint environment by managing data sprawl, addressing permissions risks, and conducting governance assessments. If your users are having difficulty finding the right information or if confidential data is being shared widely, contact Rodin today to discuss how to improve your SharePoint.
