Keep SharePoint for Teamwork. Control Your Documents in infoRouter.

SharePoint and a dedicated document management system are built for different jobs. SharePoint is Microsoft's platform for sharing content and working together on it. A document management system such as infoRouter is built to control documents: one person edits at a time, every version is numbered and kept, permissions follow the folder tree, and every action is recorded. If your organization is on Microsoft 365, you can keep Teams and SharePoint for collaboration and use infoRouter for the documents that have to be right: procedures, contracts, approved drawings, quality and compliance records. You do not have to choose between them. You choose where each kind of document belongs.

Two Tools, Two Jobs

Microsoft describes SharePoint and OneDrive in Microsoft 365 as cloud-based services that help organizations share and manage content, knowledge and applications, to empower teamwork and collaborate across the organization.Microsoft Learn(source, opens in a new tab) SharePoint is where team sites and intranets live, and files stored in Microsoft Teams are stored in SharePoint sites. For drafting together, sharing with colleagues and publishing news, it does the job well.

infoRouter starts from the document instead of the team. Its job, since 1998, has been to make sure there is one current version, that only the right people can open or change each document, that edits never overwrite each other, and that you can show who did what. It does that one job, with the controls built in.

What It Takes to Get Document Control in SharePoint

SharePoint can be set up for controlled documents. Microsoft's own guidance shows what that involves:

• Designing the information architecture. Microsoft says a solid information architecture "requires detailed planning", that planning content types and their metadata "is fundamental to the ability to organize, manage, classify, and find information in SharePoint", and that enterprise term stores "are typically managed by a governance steering committee".Microsoft Learn(source, opens in a new tab)
• Setting the controls in each library. Versioning, required check-out and content approval are library settings, chosen by library owners and site administrators.Microsoft Support(source, opens in a new tab)
• Building the approval process. Content approval holds a document as pending until someone approves it. To send the request to approvers and record their decision, Microsoft's guidance builds a flow in Power Automate.Microsoft Learn(source, opens in a new tab)
• Configuring retention in Microsoft Purview. Retention policies and retention labels are set up in Purview, and Microsoft's Purview service description lists which licenses include which features.Microsoft Learn(source, opens in a new tab)
• Planning for help. Microsoft recommends using out-of-the-box features as much as possible, and points organizations getting started to its FastTrack onboarding services and to SharePoint certified partners.Microsoft Learn(source, opens in a new tab)

In infoRouter, the controls are part of the product. You still plan your Libraries, folders and permissions, and infoRouter needs a professional installation and ongoing administration, such as backups and database maintenance, by your IT staff, an outside IT provider or a reseller. What you do not have to do is design and build the document controls themselves. The implementation checklist shows what the planning involves.

Why Microsoft 365 Organizations Add infoRouter

Control is built in, not configured library by library

SharePoint has document management features, and a fair comparison says so. In Microsoft 365, versioning is on by default for new libraries, and anyone who can manage a list can change its settings.Microsoft Support(source, opens in a new tab) Check-out, which locks a file for exclusive editing, is off by default. Microsoft recommends turning it on for formal review and approval, and leaving it off where people co-author, because the two are incompatible. Library owners and site administrators make that choice for each library.Microsoft Support(source, opens in a new tab)

That flexibility suits collaboration. For controlled documents it means the controls are only as consistent as the settings in each library, across every site your organization creates. In infoRouter, check-in/check-out locking, numbered versions with rollback, permissions inherited down the folder tree and an audit trail on every document come with every license, and they work the same way in every Library and folder. See version control.

The documents that matter get one current version

Co-authoring is the right model for a draft. It is the wrong model for an approved procedure, a signed contract or a released drawing. In infoRouter, a checked-out document is locked for editing until it is checked back in, every check-in creates a new numbered version under the editor's name, and earlier versions stay available. Everyone else can still read the current version while it is being edited.

You can show who did what

Every action on an infoRouter document is recorded: who viewed it, changed it, downloaded it or changed its permissions, and when. End users cannot edit the log or switch it off, and no audit entry can be deleted from within infoRouter. When an auditor, a customer or your own management asks about a document's history, the answer is on the document. See regulatory compliance.

Your documents stay on a server you control

SharePoint in Microsoft 365 is a cloud service run by Microsoft. infoRouter runs on a server you control: your own server, your own cloud account or a dedicated instance hosted for you. Every deployment is a single, dedicated instance with its own database and document storage, and documents are kept in their original formats. See on-premise vs. cloud document management.

Retention and approvals work on the same folders

With infoRouter's Compliance module, retention schedules are set on folders and every document filed there inherits them. When a period ends, records go through a disposition review before anything is destroyed, and legal holds block destruction while they apply. Workflow routes documents through sequential and parallel approval steps. Both are licensed separately. See how to create a document retention schedule.

AI on your documents, without sending your sensitive data

With infoRouter Connect, licensed separately, you choose the AI provider. Before any text leaves your network, Connect replaces the sensitive values it detects with placeholders, and the original document never leaves your network. See infoRouter Connect.

It Works Beside Microsoft 365

Most infoRouter customers use Microsoft 365 as well. Adding infoRouter does not mean asking people to leave the tools they use every day.

• Office. Office add-ins and WebDAV let people open, edit and save infoRouter documents from Word, Excel and Outlook. Each save through WebDAV is recorded as a new version.
• Sign-in. People sign in with their Microsoft 365 accounts, and users and groups can be synchronized from Active Directory. See security and authentication.
• A clear split. Drafts and team files stay in Teams and SharePoint. When a document is approved, signed or released, it is filed in infoRouter, where it is controlled from then on.

Write the split down, so nobody has to guess where the current version lives.

When SharePoint on Its Own Is Enough

If your documents are working files that people write together, and nobody needs exclusive editing, approval records, retention schedules or a document-by-document audit trail, SharePoint on its own may be all you need. Once some of your documents carry those requirements, they belong in a system built for them.

Questions to Ask Before You Decide

1. Which of our documents need exclusive editing, approval and an audit trail, and which are co-authored drafts?
2. Who will design the information architecture, configure versioning, check-out, content approval and permissions in every library that holds controlled documents, build the approval flows, and check that the settings stay that way?
3. Which Microsoft 365 or Purview licenses would the retention and audit features we need require? Microsoft's Purview service description lists them.Microsoft Learn(source, opens in a new tab)
4. Where must our controlled documents be stored, and who must be able to administer that server?
5. How will final documents move from collaboration to control, and who does it?

The guide to evaluating document management software covers the wider criteria, and the total cost of ownership checklist helps you compare costs.

Try It Beside Your Microsoft Tools

Request a Guided Trial. We set up an evaluation with you, in the cloud or on your own server, with infoRouter Connect included, so you can see infoRouter working alongside Word, Excel, Outlook and your Microsoft 365 accounts.