Filing structure as a template
From a lean project filing structure to a filing plan with more than 90 libraries. There is one template per project type, optionally with folders from a reference project.
Project portal for Microsoft 365
Smarter Project Portal
A ready-made workspace for every project: with structure, roles and data.
Smarter Project Portal automatically provisions a workspace in SharePoint or Teams for every project, with your filing structure, your roles and the data from your systems. The core is proven in customer projects, from plant engineering to major rail projects. Templates, role model and integrations are aligned with your project organisation.
- construction, plant engineering, infrastructure
- 3 real examples
- for a single customer
- 1,000+ workspaces
The problem
Why templates alone are not enough
Every new project starts with the same manual work: create a team, copy folders, set permissions, enter master data. After fifty projects, no two workspaces look alike, and nobody knows who has access to what.
Microsoft’s templates create channels, libraries and apps. But they know neither your project number nor your role model, and they do not fetch data from ERP or CRM. If provisioning stops halfway, half a workspace is left behind.
- The workspace is created from the project’s master data
- Roles and permissions down to library and folder level
- Status and errors are visible; a restart needs no manual clean-up
How it works
From request to finished workspace
Five steps that run the same way for every project. What they produce is defined by the template for the project type.
- 1
Request
A project is requested in a form or arrives directly from CRM or ERP. If required, a central team approves the request before anything is created.
Result
entry in the project list - 2
Workspace
The service creates the site or team, named and addressed according to your convention, and associates it with your project hub.
Result
site or team with a fixed address - 3
Structure
Libraries, folders, metadata, pages and navigation come from the template. Where needed, a Planner plan with your standard tasks is added.
Result
filing as defined in the template - 4
Roles
A group is created per role, with permissions down to library and folder level. Project lead and team come from the request.
Result
permissions per role - 5
Handover
The master data is on the workspace, the business systems are linked, the team receives a notification.
Result
notification and status
If a step fails, the service retries it. If provisioning gets stuck, the error is on the list entry and the run can be restarted from there.
Building blocks
What Smarter Project Portal includes
Every building block runs in production for at least one customer. Which ones you need depends on your projects.
Roles and permissions
Project roles as groups, with permissions per library and folder. Construction sections or lots add their own areas and roles.
Teams and Planner
One team per project with fixed tabs and a Planner plan copied from your template plan, including buckets, tasks and checklists.
Integration with business systems
Master data from ERP or CRM, documents from SAP, photos and reports from the construction site, handover to a central BIM repository or a signature service.
Metadata without manual work
Project number, phase and filing level are set automatically on every document. Document types can be predefined per library.
Searchable PDFs
Scanned PDFs without a text layer are detected after upload and replaced by a searchable version. Sender, recipients and date are read from filed emails.
Project overview and dashboard
All your projects in one list, filtered by phase, division or project lead. Inside the project, tiles show the data from the business systems.
Phases and project closure
Project phases control navigation and permissions. During the warranty period, only what is still needed remains writable. After closure, data is reduced.
Roles that fit the project
Project leads, site managers, purchasing, planners and external companies all work in a project workspace. Not everyone should see everything. The role model is defined once in the template and applied identically to every project.
- Groups per role, with permissions per library or folder
- Dedicated areas for clients, planners and external companies
- Roles per lot when a project is divided into lots
- Project leads manage members themselves, without an administrator
- Individual files can be shared via a time-limited, logged link
In the largest template: 26 role groups and more than 800 permission assignments per project, set identically for every project.
Data from the systems that run the project
A project workspace is only as good as its connection to everything else. Project number, client and project lead should not be typed in by hand, and orders or site reports belong to the project, not in a second system.
- Projects and quotations from ERP or CRM trigger the provisioning of the workspace
- Orders and SAP documents are filed as PDFs with metadata in the project libraries
- Controlling figures are shown on the project home page
- Photos, daily site reports and checklists come from the site apps
- Models are transferred to the central BIM repository, documents can be signed with a qualified signature
Every integration is project work
Interfaces depend on your systems. The core provides the patterns: scheduled synchronisation, retries after errors and a visible status per run.
From quotation to warranty
A project changes over its lifetime. A quotation becomes an order, and after handover the warranty period begins. The project workspace follows these phases.
- The project phase is a property of the workspace, visible in the overview and navigation
- When an order is won, the quotation workspace becomes the project workspace and the documents are kept
- A phase change adjusts structure and permissions
- During the warranty period, only selected areas remain writable
- After closure, sharing links are removed and linked systems are cleaned up
Project archive in your own Azure
An archive copy of completed projects in the customer’s Azure subscription is being trialled. Our blog series on SharePoint archiving describes the current state.
Filing that does part of the work
The larger the filing structure, the more it matters what happens automatically on upload. A background service reacts to new files and adds what people do not enter.
- Filing level and project phase are taken from the storage location
- PDFs without a text layer become searchable through OCR; images get their recognised text as metadata
- Drawing management: the drawing code in the file name fills the metadata, and each revision index becomes a new version of the same drawing
- A lower index than the existing one is rejected
- Drawings can be downloaded in bulk, with index and status in the file name
For one customer, the service checks around two million files a month. More than 90 per cent need no text recognition and are skipped.
Core and customisation
The core is the same. The project organisation never is.
A plant engineering company with thousands of small and medium-sized projects needs something different from an infrastructure project that runs for many years. That is why the project portal is not an off-the-shelf product. The core is in place. Templates, roles and integrations are built with you.
What the core provides
- Project list with status, error text and restart
- Creation of site or team, hub association and naming convention
- Templates for structure, pages and navigation
- Roles and permissions from the template
- Project properties for search and overview
- Project overview “My projects”
What we define with you
- Filing structure and project types
- Role model, including per lot or phase
- Trigger: form, approval or business system
- Integrations with ERP, CRM and site apps
- Phases, warranty and project closure
- Additional functions such as drawing management, OCR or signature
Three examples from practice
All three are based on the same flow. The differences are in structure, roles and integrations.
- Plant engineering
- One team per project with a Planner plan from the template and a folder structure chosen from several reference structures at creation. Projects come from the ERP; orders and site reports are filed automatically. When an order is won, the quotation workspace becomes the project workspace.
- Construction group
- One site per project without a team, in eight template variants depending on phase and scope. Twelve roles have permissions per library and folder. On top come drawing management, OCR, site photos with a map and a project mailbox. The interface is available in five languages.
- Rail infrastructure
- One private team per major project with a filing plan of more than 90 libraries. Each construction lot adds its own libraries and role groups. A central team approves requests. Document types are predefined per library, and documents can be signed with a qualified signature.
Built-in tools or app?
When are Microsoft’s built-in tools enough?
Not every organisation needs a project portal. If you start a few projects a year and one structure is enough, Microsoft’s templates serve you well.
The built-in tools are enough for this
- A few new projects a year with the same structure: Teams templates with fixed channels and apps.
- Uniform libraries and columns: site templates in SharePoint.
- Simple requests with approval: a list with Power Automate.
- Cleaning up inactive teams: expiration policies for Microsoft 365 groups.
This is what Smarter Project Portal is built for
- Workspaces from master data, triggered by form, approval or business system
- Permissions per role down to library and folder level
- Several project types, lots and phases with their own structure
- Integration with ERP, CRM, SAP and site apps
- Status, retry and restart instead of half-provisioned workspaces
If the left column covers your case, you don’t need an app – you’ve already paid for the built-in tools. Smarter Project Portal exists for everything on the right.
Approach
From your project organisation to the project portal
- 01
Capture the project organisation
Which project types exist, who is involved, what is filed, which systems hold the data? The result is a filing plan and a role model.
- 02
Build the templates
Structure, pages, navigation and permissions are built as a template in a test environment. A first project is provisioned and reviewed together.
- 03
Connect the systems
Triggers and synchronisation with ERP, CRM or site apps are added, each with retries and a visible status.
- 04
Take over existing projects
Running projects are retrofitted or migrated into the new structure. The business decides what is archived or deleted.
- 05
Operation and further development
Templates change. New projects get the new state immediately, existing ones through a reviewed rollout.
Technology
Built on Microsoft 365 and Azure
The project workspaces are ordinary SharePoint sites and teams in your tenant. No second platform is added.
- SharePoint Online and Teams
- Workspaces, project list and templates are stored in your tenant. Project properties are set on the site and can be queried through search.
- Provisioning service
- Azure Functions process requests through a queue and apply PnP templates. The core is a separate package that we reuse from project to project.
- Web parts built with SPFx
- Request form, project overview, member management and admin area are SharePoint Framework solutions.
- Microsoft Graph and Entra ID
- Teams, Planner plans, emails and invitations use Microsoft Graph. The service signs in with a certificate, restricted to the project sites if required.
- Operation
- The services run in your Azure subscription, deployed by pipeline and infrastructure as code, with test and production environments.
Frequently asked questions about Smarter Project Portal
Is Smarter Project Portal a finished product?
Smarter Project Portal is a proven solution core, not an installation package from a store. The provisioning service, the project list with status and the project overview are in place. Filing structure, role model, project types and integrations are built for your organisation in the project.
Do we need Microsoft Teams for this?
No. Two of the three examples create a team per project; one deliberately works with SharePoint sites without a team. What fits depends on whether your projects mainly file documents or also collaborate in chat and meetings.
How is this different from a governance tool for Teams?
Governance tools regulate for all workspaces who may create a team, what it is called and when it expires. A project portal goes deep into a project: filing plan, roles per library, lots, phases and data from the business systems. Both can run side by side.
What happens to existing projects when the template changes?
New projects get the changed template immediately. Existing projects do not change by themselves, because deviations there were often deliberate. We roll out changes in a targeted way: the template can be re-applied to an existing workspace, and individual adjustments run as a reviewed rollout across all projects.
Can running and old projects be taken over?
Yes. Existing workspaces can be added to the project list and retrofitted. Large volumes from older SharePoint environments are a project of their own. A separate blog series describes our experience from a 25 TB migration.
How are external companies involved?
Through dedicated roles and dedicated areas in the workspace, for example a library for external documents. Where guests are allowed, the project lead invites them through a request. Individual files can be shared via a time-limited, logged link. Where the tenant does not allow guests, role groups represent the companies involved.
What does Smarter Project Portal cost?
The effort depends on how many project types, roles and integrations you need and whether existing projects are taken over. After an initial conversation and a look at your project organisation, you receive an assessment of effort and approach.
Further reading
Project portals in detail
The posts in this series look at individual building blocks, from the folder structure to project closure.
Provisioning SharePoint project workspaces automatically: where templates end
What Teams templates and site templates do for project workspaces, where they end and how provisioning with a project list, status and restart is built.
Read postFolder structure for projects in SharePoint: template, not copy
Three real-world filing structures, from the reference structure to a filing plan with over 90 libraries, and the rules for building them in SharePoint.
Read postTeams template with Planner: project teams with standard tasks
Teams templates create channels and apps, but no Planner tasks. How a template plan is copied automatically when the project team is created.
Read postSharePoint permission concept for projects: roles, not names
Three role models for project workspaces in SharePoint, from five roles to 26 groups per project, and the rules that keep permissions manageable.
Read postProject data from ERP and SAP in SharePoint: four patterns
How SharePoint project workspaces are connected to ERP, CRM, SAP and site apps: four patterns from practice and what keeps them stable in operation.
Read postSharePoint OCR: making scanned PDFs searchable
SharePoint search does not find scanned PDFs without a text layer. How OCR processing on upload is set up and what to bear in mind in operation.
Read postDrawing management in SharePoint: drawing code, index and versions
Managing drawings in SharePoint via a drawing code in the file name: metadata from the name, every index a version and where the limits lie.
Read postProject phases in SharePoint: from quotation to project closure
How a project workspace follows the phases of a project: from quotation through order and warranty to the clean-up after closure.
Read postMore reports from practice
- Connecting SharePoint and LiveLink: handover to the archive
- Signing documents in SharePoint: single and batch signature
- SharePoint migration: why a one-to-one migration is rarely the right answer
- Provisioning at enterprise scale: PnP templates, throttling and race conditions
- A customer-controlled SharePoint archive in Azure
- Using Microsoft Planner efficiently with templates
How is a project workspace created in your organisation?
Show us a workspace as it looks today and one as it should look. You get an honest assessment of what the core covers and what we would need to adapt.