From data sprawl to Data Governance

I had the pleasure of giving a session on data governance at the Dutch Information Workers User Group Meetup in March 2026 about data governance and how to prepare your data for Microsoft Copilot.

Neglecting data governance in Microsoft 365 exposes organizations to serious security risks and higher operational costs. Microsoft 365 Copilot now makes it essential to control data access and sharing, driving urgent action to protect sensitive information and reduce risk.

This session delivers a pragmatic approach on how to implement and improve data governance practices. We will walk through a structured approach to develop a framework for data governance and how to practically validate and remediate existing workspaces in Microsoft 365 to reduce risk and the costs of storing data in SharePoint Online. A key focus will be distinguishing active, business-relevant content from stale, redundant, or obsolete data, and ensuring only the right data remains available for information works & Microsoft Copilot.

You will learn how to gain actionable insights using Microsoft-native capabilities such as SharePoint Advanced Management and Microsoft Purview, alongside third-party solutions. We will demonstrate how these tools help uncover oversharing, sensitive data exposure, and aging content, and how archiving strategies can reduce both Copilot risk and operational noise without deleting records that must be retained.

This fast-paced session delivers practical guidance you can apply immediately. You will leave with a clear understanding of the decisions, tools, and controls required to move from data sprawl to data confidence, so you can responsibly and securely unleash Copilot across your organization.

For more info about this community, see Dutch Information Workers User Group.