Case studyWork/Structure

An energy company gets its documents in order.

Some forty SharePoint sites, about 46,000 files and not one tag in use. Engineering drawings tracked by folder name. We counted everything, planned where every file goes, rebuilt the structure, and built document control and search on top of it, all inside SharePoint.

Company
Energy company, a small team
Service
Assess · Structure · Build
Delivery
Remote, in two phases, with a checkpoint at each stage
We used
SharePoint, custom SharePoint web parts, SharePoint lists, our own SharePoint scanner, the accounting system, the HR system, Claude Code
46,000about that many files scanned, with their folders and permissions, before any recommendation
A dozenor so sites in the new structure, replacing about 40
7,800about that many files copied into the new sites, original authors and dates kept
2 dozenor so engineering document types numbered, reviewed and issued in one register
0files deleted. Every move was a copy, and the originals stay where they were.
Counts from the engagement. Client not named. Screens below are mock-ups with sample data.
The story

The drawings mattered most and were hardest to find.

  1. Before

    Some forty sites, and nothing tagged.

    More than half the sites were demos, tests or dormant. Status and title were empty on every file, and a quarter of them sat six folders deep or deeper. One group that meant almost everyone could edit HR, finance and intellectual property. Engineering already ran document control, but as folder names.

  2. The ask

    A place for everything, and control for engineering.

    The business needed a clean home for its files and a way to find them. Engineering needed numbered drawings with revisions and reviews, because drawings were on the critical path for its next design phase.

  3. What we built

    Numbers first, then structure, then tools.

    A full scan and a move plan with a row for every file. A new structure of sites, libraries and tags, with the active content copied in. Then document control for engineering, one search across every site, a branded intranet, and a dashboard prototype for leadership.

Move plan

Every file counted, with a destination and a reason.

 Document control

Numbered, reviewed and issued, next to the files.

 Document Hub

One search across every site, with the same filters.

 Dashboard

Cash, people, documents and spend on one page.
01 · Assess and structure · Scan and move plan

Count everything. Then decide where it goes.

We scanned every site, library, folder and permission, then wrote a move plan with a row for every file: where it goes, which folder, which tags, and why.

Scan

Read in place

Every file, folder and permission entry. Nothing touched.

Plan

A row per file

Destination, folder and tags for each file, with the reason it goes there.

Review

The company decides

Every library's proposed destination goes to the company to confirm or correct before anything moves.

Copy

Copied, then counted

Authors and dates kept. Every destination checked against the plan.

Mock-up. Bar lengths and counts are rounded from the real plan; the rows are sample data.

1Recent work moves forward. Anything touched since the cutoff goes to its new home, and so do live drawings, contracts and safety data sheets, however old.
2Older files go to the archive. Read only, searchable, with the original folders intact so people still recognize where things are.
3Tags arrive with the file. Document type and security, plus project, discipline and equipment tag for engineering files.
4Personal folders aren't ours to sort. Their owners decide what moves.
  • Smaller than it looked. Nearly half the libraries were system libraries and about a fifth were empty. Video was about 500 GB of an estate of about 600 GB.
  • Decisions survive a rescan. A later scan found about 2,400 new files. Each took its destination from the folder around it, and anything edited after the plan went forward, never to the archive.
What changed

Every file had a destination, and a reason, before anything moved.

02 · Build · Document control in SharePoint

Numbered, reviewed, issued.

Engineering documents get a number from a series, even before they're drawn. Revisions and reviews live in a register, and each document's status is written back onto the file. The register is SharePoint lists, and the files stay in their libraries.

1Numbers from a series. Project, discipline, type and sequence, issued once and never reused. The pattern is a setting, not code.
2Planned before it's drawn. A document gets its number, owner and needed-by date before the file exists. Upload a file named with that number and it's matched.
3Reviewers by discipline. Submit fills in the reviewers for each discipline, and they're notified by email.
4Needs attention. What's missing, late or on hold collects in one list.
  • About two dozen engineering types are numbered. Every other department's documents are tagged and searchable, not controlled.
  • Files don't move on approval. Revision, status and issue state change in place and are written onto the file, so a plain SharePoint view still shows them.
  • Imports say so. Drawings from the old sites arrive marked legacy. They're findable, but never shown as approved until a named person promotes them.
What changed

A drawing's number, revision and reviews live in one register, not in a file name and an email thread.

Mock-up with made-up document numbers and sample data.

03 · Build · Document Hub and Site Documents

One search, every site.

A search page that reaches every site with the same filters, and a panel on each site to find, upload and tag. Both read the same ten columns, set up the same way on every site.

Mock-up with sample documents.

1Same tags everywhere. The columns have the same names on every site, so one filter works across all of them.
2You see what you can open. Sites you don't have access to are left out of the results, quietly.
3Straight to the folder. Show in SharePoint opens the file's own folder, filtered to it.
  • Site Documents on each site: find, upload with tags, set default values, and clear a queue of untagged files in bulk.
  • Folders tag on drop. Put a file in Safety Data Sheets and it's typed as an SDS without anyone choosing.
  • Each library offers its own types. A safety library never offers payroll records as a choice.
  • Tagging isn't an edit. The file keeps its last-modified date and author, and a separate tagged-by field records who tagged it.
  • One look across the suite. A branded intranet home page, admin console and site navigation, built in the company's colors.
What changed

One search across every site, filtered by the same tags everywhere.

04 · Build · Executive dashboard prototype

The week on one page.

A prototype for leadership that joins finance, people, engineering documents and operations spend, with a what-if screen beside it. It's in review now.

1Every figure has a source. Each block names the system it came from, and every figure links to where it lives.
2A 13-week cash line. Scheduled bills, payroll and recurring costs against the receipts the company expects.
3Exceptions only when a threshold trips. An invoice past its age limit, or two people in a critical role away the same week.
4What-if never changes the base. Move a receipt, add a hire or slip a program, and compare it to today.
  • Four feeds: the accounting system, read only and nightly; a weekly report from the HR system; the engineering document library; and the operations spend lists.
  • Nothing writes back. A wrong number gets fixed in the system it came from.
  • Two readers. The page and its data are locked to them, and pay data never appears anywhere wider.
Where it stands

An interactive prototype, in review with leadership. It's built to replace a cash spreadsheet and a spend workbook.

Mock-up with made-up figures.

The checks

Copied, then counted.

The move ran as copies, with the original authors and dates written back. Then every destination folder was listed and compared with the plan, file by file. A run log isn't proof. A count is.

Check, active contentResult
Files placed in the new sitesAbout 7,800 of 7,900
Files showing the copy date instead of the original0
Files missing a security tag0
Filename collisions at the destination0
Engineering and project files with a disciplineAbout 75%, up from about 15%
Files not placed, each one explainedAbout 100

The 100 or so: files changed at the source after the scan, which the final pass picks up, and a handful too large for the copy method, which move separately.

  • Authors and dates written back. Where an author's account no longer existed, the file went to an admin account, never to the person running the move.
  • Discipline from the folder path. A recorded rule table set it. Where content has no engineering discipline, the field stays blank, because a wrong value is worse than none.
  • Clashing names widened until unique. Files with the same name took enough of their original path to tell them apart, checked before the run.
  • Late edits caught, not skipped. Files changed at the source after the scan are listed for the final pass.
The rollout

Structure first, then tools.

Nothing in document control can be built right until the libraries, columns and permissions are real, so that set the order. The move itself ran from a plan the company approved.

Scan and move planAbout 46,000 files, a row for each
Done
New structureSites, libraries, shared columns, folders that tag on drop
Done
Active content copiedAbout 7,800 files, counted against the plan
Done
Document Hub and Site DocumentsOne search, and a tagging panel on every site
Done
Document ControlInstalled, with the engineering review next
Now
Branded intranetHome page, admin console and navigation, built and ready to install
Now
Executive dashboardInteractive prototype, in review
Now
Final pass, archive and videoLate changes first, then the older files and the video
Next
Training and handoverFor the people who use and run it
Next
AssessStructureMoveBuildHand over
01 Done13 In progress, and it matters18 Planned
What changed

Three ways to measure it.

For engineering
About two dozen

types of engineering document numbered from a series, with revisions and reviews in one register.

For everyone
One search

across every site, with the same tags and filters in every library.

For leadership
0 deleted

Every move so far was a copy, checked file by file. The originals stay where they were.

Know what's in your SharePoint before you move it.

Thirty minutes on what you have, where it should go, and what it would take to get there.

Book the Scan See all scenarios