Automating Compliance with SharePoint Syntex

In today’s digital world, every company must follow strict rules about how it handles information. This is called Compliance. If you store sensitive documents like customer contracts, health records, or financial reports in SharePoint, you must ensure they are managed correctly. Failing to comply can result in huge fines and damage your company’s reputation.

Manually checking and labeling every single document is impossible. This is where SharePoint Syntex comes in. Syntex is a powerful, AI-driven tool that acts as a digital assistant. It automatically reads, understands, and tags your content to enforce your company’s rules. This article will show you how to use Syntex to achieve effective SharePoint Compliance and simplify your entire document classification in the SharePoint process.

SharePoint Compliance and SharePoint Security and Compliance Foundations

Before we look at automation, we must understand the goal. SharePoint compliance means setting up rules that control who can see documents, how long they are kept, and what happens to them when they are no longer needed. This is the foundation of SharePoint security and compliance.

1.SharePoint Data Governance – The Blueprint

SharePoint data governance is the overall set of policies that dictate how your information is created, stored, used, and deleted. It is the “blueprint” for your information landscape.

• Classification: Identifying what kind of information a document contains (e.g., Invoice, Employee Record, Public Memo).
• Retention: Deciding how long a document must be kept meeting legal needs (e.g., all tax documents must be kept for seven years).
• Protection: Ensuring sensitive documents are not shared outside the company.

2. The Problem with Manual Labeling

In a traditional SharePoint compliance setup, an employee must manually apply a sensitivity label (like Confidential) to every document they upload. People forget, make mistakes, or choose the wrong label. Syntex solves this by automating the document classification in SharePoint.

Document Classification in SharePoint with AI (Syntex)

SharePoint Syntex uses artificial intelligence (AI) models to read documents instantly and apply the right labels and metadata. This is called compliance automation in SharePoint.

1. Building the Custom Models.

You train the Syntex models with examples from your own files. Think of this as teaching the AI to recognize document types:

• Invoices: You feed the model 10-20 examples of your company’s invoices. You teach the AI to identify key phrases like “Invoice Number,” “Total Due,” and “Payment Terms.”
• Contracts: You feed the model examples of contracts. You teach the AI to look for the signature block and the phrase “Terms and Conditions.”

Once trained, the Syntex model is deployed to your SharePoint library. When a new document is uploaded, the model runs and says, “This is a Contract,” with high certainty.

2. Compliance Automation in SharePoint through Tagging

When the Syntex model identifies a document, it does two things automatically:

• Metadata Tagging: It extracts key pieces of information (like the Contract Date or the Customer Name) and places them in columns on the SharePoint list. This makes the document easy to find later.
• Compliance Labeling: It applies the specific Compliance label you defined (e.g., Finance Record – 7 Year Retention). This label tells SharePoint exactly what to do with the document.

This direct automation is the core of compliance automation in SharePoint.

SharePoint HIPAA Compliance and Regulatory Needs

Many organizations, especially those in healthcare, finance, or government, must adhere to specific, non-negotiable laws. SharePoint HIPAA compliance is a prime example.

How to Use Microsoft SharePoint Compliance to Meet HIPAA

HIPAA requires that patient health information (PHI) be protected from unauthorized access. Microsoft SharePoint compliance tools help you meet these requirements:

1. Retention Policies: You set a retention policy that says, “All documents tagged as ‘Patient PHI’ must be kept for 10 years, and then securely deleted.”

2. Sensitivity Labels: You create a sensitivity label called “Highly Confidential – PHI.” You configure this label to encrypt the document and prevent it from being downloaded or shared outside the organization.

3. Automated Tagging: You train a Syntex model to recognize any document that contains PHI (e.g., one that lists a patient’s name, date of birth, and diagnosis). When a nurse uploads a new chart, Syntex automatically applies the “Highly Confidential – PHI” label, protecting the data instantly.

This automated protection is crucial for SharePoint HIPAA compliance and similar regulatory environments.

SharePoint Online Compliance and Data Governance

The entire solution lives in the cloud, linking together services across your entire Microsoft 365 environment. This is the essence of SharePoint online compliance.

1.SharePoint Online Compliance Across the Tenant

The compliance labels you make do not remain in SharePoint only. They come into action in your entire Microsoft 365 tenant:

• Email: Where a document marked Confidential is attached to an email, this document will be protected.
• Teams: When a document is shared in a Teams chat, this protection goes with it.

With this strategy, you can be sure your online SharePoint compliance rules will be applied regardless of where your document travels.

2.SharePoint Online Compliance and Data Governance

To become completely online compliant with SharePoint, you need your automated labeling to control the whole Microsoft 365 platform in this way:

• Auditing: With this tool, you can see each time a protected document is viewed, printed, or transferred.
• E-Discovery: If you need to find all documents related to a specific lawsuit, the system can instantly search and hold all documents with a specific tag (e.g., Legal Hold), even if they are scheduled for deletion.

Does using SharePoint Syntex and automation mean I can get rid of all my other SharePoint security settings?

No, you cannot get rid of all other security. Syntex is a powerful layer of automation that enforces rules, but the core SharePoint security and compliance foundation must still be in place. You still need to manage who has access to the site itself (permissions) and manage external sharing settings. Syntex works best when it is combined with good basic SharePoint data governance practices.

In A Nutshell:

The days of manual labeling and managing every company document are over. Trying to handle that task manually is like trying to catch water with your hands, it is slow and guaranteed to fail. The strategic use of SharePoint Syntex moves your organization from manual, error-prone compliance to highly accurate compliance automation in SharePoint. By investing in intelligent tools that provide accurate document classification in SharePoint, your company can meet strict regulations like SharePoint HIPAA compliance and GDPR with rock-solid confidence. You gain not only vital peace of mind but also incredible efficiency that comes from knowing your data is instantly classified, automatically protected, and managed correctly across your entire digital workplace. Hence, it is time to let AI handle the rules so your people can focus on the work.

FAQs

Q: What exactly is SharePoint Syntex?

SharePoint Syntex is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) service from Microsoft that reads your documents. It automatically identifies, classifies, and extracts key information (metadata) from files stored in SharePoint, enforcing compliance automation in SharePoint.

Q: Is Syntex included in my regular Microsoft 365 license?

No. SharePoint Syntex (now often referred to as a part of SharePoint Premium) requires an additional license. It is typically purchased as a separate add-on, either on a per-user subscription or via a consumption model (pay-as-you-go) against your Azure subscription.

Q: What is the difference between data governance and compliance?

SharePoint data governance is the overall strategy or the blueprint for how your company manages all its information. Compliance is the act of following a specific rule or regulation (like HIPAA or GDPR) within that strategy. Syntex is a tool for automating compliance within your governance plan.