What is SharePoint Premium?

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Microsoft has introduced SharePoint Premium, a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enhance content experiences, processes, governance, and backup/archive functionalities. SharePoint Premium aims to elevate content management to a higher maturity level, integrating various advanced tools and capabilities.

SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM)

Located in the SharePoint Admin Center, SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) offers a range of capabilities, including sophisticated reporting tools and data governance reports. SAM features change history reports that allow administrators to track changes at both site and organizational levels. These reports are downloadable, providing insights into who made specific changes and when.

Another notable feature within SAM is Site Lifecycle Management. Administrators can create site policies to manage site inactivity, either running reports in simulation mode or taking actions like deleting inactive sites after a specified period.

Microsoft Syntex: Document Processing

Document processing is a cornerstone of Microsoft Syntex, integrated into SharePoint Premium. Syntex utilizes three primary methods for document processing:

  1. Prebuilt Models: These models use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and deep learning to identify and extract predefined text and data fields from documents such as contracts, invoices, and receipts.
  2. Structured & Freeform Models: Formerly known as form processing, these can identify field and table values, making them suitable for forms and invoices. They also handle freeform documents like letters or contracts, automatically extracting specific information.
  3. Unstructured Models: Using classifiers and extractors, users can train these models to extract and classify specific information from unstructured documents.

Syntex also enhances Personally Identifiable Information (PII) detection, supports multilabel classifiers, and includes redaction capabilities, ensuring comprehensive document management and security.

Content Assembly

SharePoint Premium introduces Content Assembly, allowing users to upload existing documents to create modern templates. Currently, this feature works exclusively with Word documents and text fields, residing in a single document library. To use the same template across multiple lists or libraries, it must be copied and recreated in each location.

SharePoint eSignature

This feature supports PDF documents and generates external sharing links for external users. It operates under a pay-as-you-go license, providing an eSignature experience within SharePoint without third-party use. Integration with DocuSign and Adobe Sign is coming soon.

Image Tagging

For users with large image libraries, SharePoint Premium offers a quicker way to add image tags. Once enabled, any new images uploaded will be automatically scanned and tagged with relevant metadata, simplifying image management and categorization.

Transcript Translation for Stream Videos

Also, part of the pay-as-you-go licenses, this feature supports transcript translation in over 100 languages. It requires an existing transcript and can automatically translate videos into other languages. Translations appear as closed captions and are stored in SharePoint and OneDrive alongside the original recordings.

Autofill Columns

This feature extracts, summarizes, or generates content from files uploaded to a SharePoint document library. Currently, it supports only English and some specific columns but does not extend to managed metadata.

Licensing

Navigating the licensing for SharePoint Premium is complex. While we initially believed that a single SKU would cover SharePoint Premium, seat licenses are available for SAM. Syntex features operate on a pay-as-you-go basis, with many available as a free trial until June 2025. Backup and archive functionalities have separate SKUs and are in various rollout stages.

Although we are excited about the advancement in content management and governance that Microsoft Premium represents, many features are still in the early stages. We encourage exploring the additional resources and watching the video for deeper insights. Stay tuned for future Ask Sympraxis sessions focusing on these evolving features. If you have any immediate questions, our team is here to help!

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