Manage and Secure Modern External Collaboration at Scale with AvePoint Confide

Digital security is top of mind for most executives today and will only increase as businesses rely more on collaboration platforms and engage more with external parties such as partners, vendors, and clients, expanding their attack surface.  

Yet businesses cannot simply avoid digital technologies or stop external engagements to prevent potential security or compliance risks. Instead, businesses must find a balance between security and collaboration, especially for sensitive projects, to enable safe digital workplaces and efficient external engagements.  

To address this challenge, we’re excited to announce the public preview of the next generation of AvePoint Confide, powered by SharePoint Embedded, to enable secure external collaboration. The solution seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365 to provide users with a familiar working experience while providing IT administrators with the granular security, compliance, and governance controls they need to secure external engagements and reduce risk.   

Let’s dive into the common use cases we’re seeing that require purpose-built secure external collaboration and how AvePoint Confide is integrating SharePoint Embedded to provide a modern business solution that meets the security and collaboration needs of organizations.  

Collaboration Needs are Complex and Expanding 

Today’s collaboration has expanded beyond the four walls of businesses, and external users are often brought into digital environments to work on engagements that include sensitive data. This paradigm shift can cause a growing web of complexity in a digital workplace as IT teams and compliance officers scramble to implement controls and custom permissions to limit access to only necessary information.  

The increasing intricacies are not limited to one industry or sector, as businesses across all industries are facing similar challenges when it comes to managing and securing collaboration at scale. These are the common use cases our customers are sharing with us which require a more secure engagement solution: 

• M&A and Divestitures: Due diligence is the foundation of any business-to-business transaction. Parties need to be able to review business and financial portfolios, which are highly sensitive and must only be restricted to those who need access. Having a restricted virtual deal room is vital in this situation. 
• Capital Raising: When courting investors, companies must share sensitive financial records and business with multiple external parties. Having the ability to use built-in insights to gauge interest and engagement in a secure way is essential.  
• Legal: Complex transactions and litigation often require privileged information to be shared between general counsel, external law firms, and third parties. Enabling secure, 24/7 access to documents and filings is a must.  
• Compliance: Whether complying with a routine audit or responding to a regulatory issue, compiling relevant financial details and company reports in a virtual data room enables you to give access to the external auditing firm as needed.  
• Real Estate: Commercial buyers, lenders, and financial institutions need easy access to financials, blueprints, and other property information. Having the ability to work with multiple parties and revise or revoke access as needed makes these engagements more efficient and secure.  
• Intellectual Property: Securing and streamlining the sharing of critical data such as clinical trial data, environmental audits, and project bids is essential to protecting intellectual property. A virtual data room provides secure access to authorized parties while ensuring confidentiality and preventing unauthorized access.   

All these situations require a modern business solution that grants IT and compliance precise and stringent management of sensitive information to ensure maximum security while allowing safe but productive and efficient external engagements for their business users. The solution: AvePoint Confide.  

Solving the Unique Collaboration Needs of IT, Compliance, and Business Users 

AvePoint Confide is a secure external collaboration platform that enables safe collaboration with multiple parties across many different workstreams. Built on a foundation of strong security controls and seamless collaboration, AvePoint Confide offers the modern business solution organizations need to meet both the security and collaboration needs of organizations.  

Now powered by SharePoint Embedded, the next generation of AvePoint Confide offers tighter integrations and elevated compliance and security capabilities, delivering enhanced visibility and accountability; integration with Microsoft 365 security; and enterprise-grade security and compliance powered by Microsoft Azure for guaranteed confidentiality. 

AvePoint Confide is a powerful platform that can meet the security and collaboration needs across your organization.   

For project managers, sales leaders, and subject matter experts who engage externally, AvePoint Confide streamlines collaboration with individuals outside your organization. It simplifies setting up projects with easy content sharing and deep visibility into the usage, progress, and health of each engagement. AvePoint Confide enhances external collaboration through: 

• Simple project setup tailored to business needs. Easily configure collaboration rooms for each engagement, with templates customized for your business requirements. 
• Powerful but simple and easy to configure granular permissions and custom groups for unique sharing needs. Control document access and collaboration to match each project’s team and sensitivity level. 
• Persona-focused dashboards for productivity. View projects, tasks, and content in ways that maximize individual productivity. 
• Project-by-project management and tracking. Stay on top of project status through at-a-glance visibility into milestones, deliverables, and risks. 
• Insights and metrics for project health. Gain visibility into project performance and spot potential issues early through KPIs and analytics. 

For end users, AvePoint Confide delivers a seamless working experience by integrating tightly with Microsoft 365. Users can collaborate through the tools they already know while IT maintains consistency, security, and control. AvePoint Confide enables seamless Microsoft integration through: 

• Simple, easy-to-navigate project rooms that require no prior experience with Microsoft Teams or Microsoft SharePoint 
• Full support for reading, editing, and co-authoring AvePoint Confide files in Microsoft Office desktop applications. Open, edit, and save protected documents through the Office apps you use most. 
• For internal users, accessing and sharing AvePoint Confide files is as easy as accessing files in native Microsoft 365 interfaces 

For IT professionals and compliance officers, AvePoint Confide provides robust security, compliance, and governance over external collaborations. It safeguards sensitive information shared with third parties while giving administrators control over data, users, and engagements. AvePoint Confide strengthens security and compliance through: 

• Enforcement of AvePoint Confide logins through Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory) conditional access policies. Control access through existing identity and access management policies. 
• Integration with native Microsoft 365 Sensitivity Labels for content protection. Apply and enforce protection policies from within AvePoint Confide based on Microsoft information classification. 
• Application of organizations’ Microsoft 365 DLP policies to AvePoint Confide content. Detect and prevent data loss across AvePoint Confide sites consistently using your DLP rules. 
• Native Microsoft 365 eDiscovery and Legal Hold processes for AvePoint Confide user identification. Quickly find and preserve AvePoint Confide content using the same eDiscovery tools you rely on today. 
• AvePoint Confide will honor the external collaboration settings defined for Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft 365. Control external sharing aligning with your organizational policies for Microsoft collaboration tools. 

By combining the familiarity of Microsoft 365 productivity tools with security and compliance features powered by Microsoft Azure, AvePoint Confide enhances visibility and accountability. With streamlined work management, seamless integration with SharePoint Embedded, and enterprise-grade security, AvePoint Confide offers the collaborative experience users want with the trust and control IT requires.

To learn more about securing external engagements and enhancing external collaboration with AvePoint Confide, visit our website.