Secure Collaboration for Sensitive Projects with Microsoft Syntex and AvePoint Confide

Sensitive projects require secure collaboration and tight access controls across organizations. However, with the rapid growth of data in the cloud, this has become increasingly challenging, and the need to implement effective strategies to protect sensitive data is more critical than ever.

Microsoft Syntex repository services, combined with AvePoint Confide, offer powerful capabilities to make this happen.

The Growing Need for Secure External Collaboration

As Chris McNulty, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, discussed during our joint webinar, organizations today face exponential content growth. Over 2 billion new documents are created in Microsoft 365 each day as more mission-critical systems move to the cloud.

With this massive influx of content, there is an increasing need to securely collaborate beyond normal organizational boundaries while maintaining compliance, records management, and access governance. Legacy methods like emailing documents back and forth or using basic file sharing simply don’t provide the structure, security and traceability required for projects involving sensitive data.

For many organizations, these sensitive projects that require external collaborators include:

• Mergers & Acquisitions – Sharing financial documents, contracts, and plans with potential bidders during acquisition due diligence. Strict access controls are needed to limit viewing only to active bidders.
• Litigation – Working with external counsel on evidence collection, document review, filings and other activities connected to lawsuits and regulatory inquiries. Confidentiality is critical throughout the process.
• Classified Initiatives – Enabling collaboration on sensitive government projects across multiple agencies and contractors. Leaks of classified information can have severe consequences.

Customers clearly want to tap into the collaboration and automation capabilities of Microsoft 365 while retaining control over how content is accessed externally. This is driving the need for purpose-built solutions that enable Microsoft 365 to extend its secure collaboration capabilities for sharing scenarios.

Watch the webinar: Key Data & Technology Considerations That Ensure M&A Success:

What is Microsoft Syntex repository services?

Microsoft launched Syntex repository services to enable more secure content sharing from Microsoft 365 by allowing launch partners like AvePoint to build applications that connect to dedicated content repositories hosted within a customer’s Microsoft 365 environment.

Syntex repository services provide storage, permissions, records management and other content controls that integrate natively with Microsoft 365 security, compliance, and governance capabilities. This creates a trusted framework for enabling external user access from third-party apps built on the platform.

With this approach, customers maintain complete ownership of their data instead of handing it off to other independent systems or repositories outside their control. All policies and protections applied within Microsoft 365 can encompass content shared via Syntex to authorized external participants.

Key Benefits of Microsoft Syntex repository services

Beyond security, Microsoft Syntex repository services also provide benefits that enable organizations to manage their Microsoft 365 environment securely and efficiently. These benefits allow organizations to couple security with efficient management and access to Syntex’s capabilities, such as:

• Microsoft 365 integration – Content shared externally stays within the organization’s Microsoft 365 environment and trust boundary for continuous protection and oversight.
• Consumption-based pricing – Pay only for what you use instead of traditional per-user licensing. Costs scale automatically.
• Customer control – Organizations keep data sovereignty and apply Microsoft 365 compliance controls consistently.
• Headless operation – No need for external users to have Microsoft 365 access or licensing.
• Flexibility – Build custom experiences and apps on virtually any platform to meet specific sharing needs.

By enabling organizations to secure external collaboration flexibly, Microsoft Syntex repository services allow organizations to manage sensitive projects more confidently.

The Next Generation of AvePoint Confide – Powering the Future of Secure Collaboration

As a launch partner for Microsoft Syntex repository services, AvePoint created the next generation of its AvePoint Confide product to give organizations complete control and flexibility to manage data and workflows across a range of business projects with unique sharing requirements.

AvePoint Confide establishes a private project environment that extends Microsoft 365 capabilities like search, co-authoring, tasks and authentication to external users. Then, it adds additional security, auditing, and permissions aligned to the specific sharing needs of an organization’s confidential projects.

On top of these, AvePoint Confide offers key capabilities that provide organizations more control over your private collaboration workspace management, such as:

• Configurable access: Granularly control document and feature visibility per user to ensure only the right people have access to the right information at the right time.
• Auditing: Monitor all activity for compliance and oversight into potential breaches or vulnerabilities so you can take corrective actions promptly.
• External user management: Streamline the process of onboarding and offboarding external collaborators to avoid the manual, time-consuming task and reduce the risk of human error and administrative oversight.
• Access revocation: Remove access automatically when project concludes to ensure external collaborators no longer have access to the organization’s sensitive data once their engagement is over.
• Isolation from Microsoft 365: AvePoint Confide projects exist in isolated repositories, preventing discovery/access by unauthorized users.
• Compliance controls: Apply consistent records, retention, and security policies spanning Microsoft 365 and AvePoint Confide.
• Mobile Device Management integration: Enforce mobile access controls and permissions to securely manage and monitor mobile devices used to access systems and data.

With deep Microsoft 365 integration combined with purpose-built security controls, AvePoint Confide, built on Microsoft Syntex repository services, offers organizations a powerful solution for confidential collaboration scenarios involving external parties.

Typical Use Cases for AvePoint Confide

AvePoint Confide is a purpose-built workspace that support confidential collaboration most organizations go through, such as the use cases particularly mentioned above:

Mergers & Acquisitions

During an acquisition process, the selling organization needs to securely share financial documents, records, plans and other information with potential bidding organizations as part of due diligence. This requires granting temporary access to authorized representatives from each bidding company.

AvePoint Confide creates an isolated environment where files can be accessed only by approved external team members. All activity is audited while access is controlled throughout the process. Once the deal concludes, external access can be automatically revoked.

Deliver secure collaboration during your next M&A – and beyond. Get the guide:

Litigation Support

Litigation and regulatory investigations often require collaboration with external counsel for document review and filings. AvePoint Confide enables creating a private workspace to share case files, prepare filings and extensively track all access.

AvePoint Confide prevents exposure of sensitive documents to unauthorized users. This avoids accidental data leaks that could expose an organization during litigation.

Classified Projects

Government agencies and contractors frequently need to collaborate on classified initiatives with strict need-to-know access. AvePoint Confide provides a way to compartmentalize documents at multiple classification levels.

With AvePoint Confide built on Microsoft 365, agencies can take advantage of cloud scale and intelligence while ensuring classified data stays protected according to government security requirements.

Get Started with AvePoint Confide and Microsoft Syntex repository services

With exponential content growth and increasing needs for secure collaboration, solutions like AvePoint Confide built on Microsoft Syntex repository services are critical for protecting sensitive data. By delivering a modern approach for working with partners, agencies, counsel and others beyond your organizational boundaries, AvePoint Confide empowers organizations to collaborate with confidence.

To learn more about AvePoint Confide, visit our website.