Before we start our journey of knowing the benefits of managed Metadata in the document management system, let’s first discuss and learn some of the aspects and their connection with Metadata management that will help you better understand its meaning and purposes.
This article will drill down into SharePoint’s document features that deal with Metadata. SharePoint’s core concept was to provide customers with the ability to share, collaborate, and search documents effortlessly.
At the end of this article, you will completely know the answers to all these questions below.
What is Managed Metadata in SharePoint Online?
What are the benefits of managed Metadata for better document management?
How to take care of your Metadata in your document library?
How do SharePoint developers use Managed Metadata?
Why Managed Meta Data is the best option for managing your documents?
The Comprehensive Guide to Managed Metadata in Document Management and The Components Related to It
What is Term Store?
In SharePoint Online, a term set/store is a global site directory of commonly used terms used in your organization. The purpose of the term store is to create consistency in how users enter and manage data in the SharePoint environment. The term store enables you to keep your Metadata consistent across all of your sites.
What is Taxonomy?
A taxonomy is a system of formal classification. A taxonomy organizes the words, labels, and terms that classify something, then are arranged in a hierarchical order. A taxonomy created with managed Metadata displays information in an easy, clear, and user-friendly structure.
Businesses create taxonomies in various ways that are too numerous to list. They develop taxonomies for Chart of Accounts for managing finance and accounts, organizational charts, and job categorization to manage employees, product catalogs, etc. These taxonomies are structured information hierarchies; formal classification systems assist people in dealing with information.
Let’s move toward the meaning of managed Metadata
As you have sound knowledge of these aspects, now is the time to demystify the meaning of managed Metadata in the document management system of SharePoint Online.
To help your better realize the meaning of managed Metadata, we will also discuss how and where it is used in SharePoint online for to manage the documents productively.
The Metadata defined in the Term Store is known as Managed Metadata. Term Store is the place to define Metadata used globally across an organization (for example, a list of clients, markets, departments, document types, and so on). Why might you ask? Because the Term Store is available to the entire tenant (all of the SharePoint sites). Term Store (or managed Metadata) is visible to all sites, lists, and libraries, unlike a choice column that you might define locally at the list or library level or even a Site Column that you might define at the site level.
Taking Care of Metadata in Your Document Library
Managed Metadata was launched in SharePoint in 2010 and has played an important role in tagging and structuring the SharePoint site’s document or list-based content. We created an invoice content type, and now we want to associate this invoice with the “IT” department for which it was issued. To tag it, we can add another column to the Invoice Content Type called “Department.”
When the user saves the invoice, SharePoint will enter “IT” or “Information Technology” as the value of the department column. However, more specific descriptions, such as “SharePoint Practices,” can be used by the user.
We know these values are related to the same department but using a content type does not compel the system to treat them similarly. Managed Metadata and the Term Store come into play here. The Term Store assists SharePoint in managing the taxonomy that can be used across all list-based datasets created in SharePoint. A Term Store Administrator or another person with managed Metadata permissions will typically pre-define and organize managed terms into a strict hierarchical set.
Managed Metadata in Dev Experience
In SharePoint development, there is no single way to do things. It all depends on the application.
When dealing with cross-site publishing or global search-related Metadata, most developers typically use Managed Metadata. Because Metadata values are typically managed by very few people and used widely across all SharePoint sites, we achieve greater consistency and integration on a common understanding. This is especially true when developing Document Management solutions or publishing Intranet News.
Why Managed Meta Data is the best option for managing your documents?
Metadata is useful for neatly organizing documents in SharePoint. We will tell you under what conditions Metadata works best.
Let’s start with cases where Metadata is a better option.
When users are unfamiliar with a folder structure, it can be difficult to locate the appropriate documents. Metadata is the best way to organize documents in this case because users can easily apply filters to Metadata columns to find the document they’re looking for.
Moving documents from folders will be a major task while modifying the folder hierarchy. On the other hand, changing Metadata to organize is a lot simpler.
Another factor that drives users to prefer Metadata over folders is URL length. SharePoint’s 260-character URL limit will cause issues if your folder hierarchy becomes overly complex. Considering Metadata instead of relying on folders will be a wise move in this situation.
Another important benefit of Metadata is the consistency it can provide all across the organization regarding organizing and searching.
Is it getting very technical?
Let’s be more general! For a better understanding of the managed metadata benefits, we have categorized them into 7 points.
What are the benefits of managed Metadata for better document management?
Metadata can easily take the place of folders
As we all know, Metadata is all about adding information for document tracking purposes. It works similarly to the folders we create, but the main difference is that we can create multiple Metadata fields here.
Let’s look at why Metadata should be used instead of folders. For example, in your file share, you may have a folder hierarchy by department and project. However, the main issue is that some projects are managed by multiple departments, making it difficult to consolidate all of the files for these projects in one location.
Now, let’s look at how Metadata can help with this problem. All you need to do in SharePoint is create one column for the department and one for the project. Use one or both columns to filter and sort files. It may appear not very easy at first, but it will be simple once you get used to it. Using Metadata, you can quickly locate required files.
Easier and simplified data or document discovery
With documentation of content-rich data across the organization, you can simplify data discovery and data heritage. Most businesses must manage increasingly complex systems in a variety of locations and on a variety of platforms. By effectively managing Metadata, organizations can create an inventory of their data and learn about its transformation throughout its lifecycle, as well as the various meanings, formats, and locations of each data object.
When the Metadata across an organization’s sites is consistent, it is pretty easy to find business information and data using search. Users can filter search results based on Metadata using search features, including the refinement panel, which appears on the left-hand side of the search results page. Hence, your business will experience hassle-free document management throughout the organization.
Boost productivity by utilizing Metadata consistency
SharePoint products’ managed Metadata features allow you to control how users add Metadata to content. You can, for example, control which terms users can add to the content and who can add new terms by using term sets and managed terms. You can also restrict enterprise keywords to a specific list by setting the keyword term to closed.
It is easier to set up robust processes or solutions that rely on Metadata while the same terms are used consistently across sites. Furthermore, site users will find it easier to apply Metadata continuously to their content.
Moreover, you can strengthen consistency by reusing data and eliminating redundancy, increasing productivity, and reducing project implementation time. A managed Metadata environment (MME) or other technique of centrally managing Metadata is the most efficient way to identify the suitable data elements/objects for any use. This allows businesses to retire unused storage, lowering costs and reducing time spent deciding between “possibly correct” variations of an attribute.
(Check out how our contract management system can help you gain detailed and simplified metadata of all your enterprise contracts.)
Retain invaluable staff knowledge
Maintain staff knowledge that would otherwise be lost if business rules, definitions, and other types of Metadata were not documented. Often, business Metadata is only retained in the minds of a few employees. When these employees leave the company, their knowledge goes with them. Implementing an enterprise approach to Metadata management retains this knowledge and minimizes the possibility of losing important contextual knowledge.
Deliver data confidently
Increase business users’ trust in the data they receive. Data lineage tracking provides valuable context to business users. Data errors can be resolved by categorizing data in source systems by business data stewards and IT staff, resulting in appropriate, reliable, high-quality data presented in reports, enquires, and analytics.
Helps IT dept in understanding performance data
Improve IT performance in development, performance analysis, data integration, change management, and so on… All of these improvements will allow for greater collaboration between business and IT, ultimately lowering the total cost of any system initiative. Metadata assists IT in understanding what data exists, where it is stored, and what it means, thereby reducing information complexity. The ability to assess the effects of potential changes based on improved data knowledge can assist managers in more accurately estimating project duration and resource costs.
Improved adaptability
It is much easier for Term Store Administrators to sustain and adapt your Metadata as your business needs change when you use managed Metadata. It is simple to make changes to a term set. In addition, when you associate a Managed Metadata column with a term set, any new or updated terms are made available automatically to you. For example, if you combine multiple terms into a single term, all associated material is automatically modified to reflect the new term combination. If the term is plural, you can specify multiple synonyms (or labels) for a single term. It is possible to specify multilingual labels for individual terms on your website if your site is multilingual.
Managed Metadata should be planned and configured
Before implementing managed Metadata, your organization may want to conduct extensive research and planning. The amount of strategizing you will need to do will be determined by how formal your taxonomy will be. It also varies depending on how much control you want to have over the Metadata you collect.
If you want to allow users to contribute to the development of your taxonomy, you can simply ask them to add keywords to items, which you can then organize into term sets as needed.
The involvement of key stakeholders in the planning and development of managed term sets is critical for any organization wishing to use managed term sets to implement formal taxonomies. You can import or create your term sets using the Term Store management tool after reaching an agreement with the organization’s key stakeholders on the required term sets.
The Takeaway
Overall, regardless of size or industry, every business organization can reap the numerous benefits of establishing and maintaining an enterprise-wide managed metadata program and implementing an enterprise-wide managed metadata environment.
Every company will have a set of productivity objectives that they will strive to achieve consistently. Microsoft SharePoint is a cutting-edge technology platform that allows you to increase your productivity in the most efficient manner possible.
After reading the above, you must understand everything you need to know to get started with managed Metadata services in Microsoft SharePoint Online. Just make sure to follow the steps outlined above to get started immediately.
At Al Rafay Consulting we ensure that our clients get the most out of SharePoint development services. You can fill out the form to the right if you are interested in learning more about SharePoint or if you want to get the most out of your SharePoint document management. Our dedicated SharePoint consulting and development team would welcome the opportunity to schedule a meeting with you to discuss how to make your SharePoint Online environment work optimally for you.