Legal governance + technology governance
Policy to Microsoft Purview design
Last reviewed
Ghani Governance reads your written policies — or drafts the set the design needs — then designs the Microsoft Purview posture from that paper, not from a product template. The deliverable is a Policy-to-Purview design report. It is policy drafting and Purview design, not a regulated legal service and not a substitute for advice from a solicitor.
Most Purview work starts from the product. We start from paper.
A default DLP policy does not know what your board published. An acceptable-use policy that nobody mapped into labels will not survive the first incident. Ghani Governance is a Microsoft Purview practice. DPO and privacy-counsel judgement is how that Purview work is designed: the written policy is the input, and Purview is the control plane that has to carry it. Microsoft defines the product family in Learn about Microsoft Purview; our job is the policy-to-control map those product pages do not write for your organisation.
You get both sides in one engagement — legal governance (what you have promised, what UK GDPR and your regulators actually require) and technology governance (what Microsoft Purview can enforce, audit, retain or investigate — for example as described in Microsoft’s DLP documentation). That is the groundwater. The tenant build comes after.
This is policy drafting and Purview design, informed by DPO and privacy-counsel experience. It is not a regulated legal service and it is not a substitute for advice on your facts from a solicitor.
The Policy-to-Purview design report
The report is the popular artefact. For each obligation in your written set we say: which Purview control carries it, in which workload, in what mode (audit then enforce), who owns the exception, and what cannot be carried in the product so it has to stay a process. It is the brief the engineers and the DPO can share.
Read what you already published
Policies, notices, ROPA, incident plans, cloud and AI rules — including the versions sitting unread in SharePoint.
Draft what is missing
If the set is a gap, we write the policies the Purview design needs. Not a 40-document pack for its own sake.
Map obligation to control
Each clause to a Purview capability — DLP, labels, retention, Insider Risk, catalog, Communication Compliance, eDiscovery, DSPM for AI — or an honest gap.
Then build
Implementation follows the report. Purview services are the build phase, not a separate brochure.
Policies we work from — and draft
Names vary by organisation. We work with the substance, not the filename.
- Data / data-handling policy — mapped in Purview via DLP implementation
- Data classification policy — mapped in Purview via sensitivity labels and information protection
- Data protection / information security policy — mapped in Purview via DLP implementation
- Acceptable use policy (AUP) — mapped in Purview via DLP implementation
- Privacy policy
- Employee privacy notice
- Record of processing activities (ROPA) — mapped in Purview via Unified Catalog and data governance
- Regulatory obligations summary — mapped in Purview via Compliance Manager
- Information governance policy — mapped in Purview via Unified Catalog and data governance
- Incident response / security incident policy — mapped in Purview via Insider Risk Management
- AI retention policy — mapped in Purview via data lifecycle and records management
- AI / Copilot / emerging technology policy — mapped in Purview via DSPM for AI
- Cloud usage policy — mapped in Purview via DLP implementation
- IT / cloud architecture policy
We will read or draft any other relevant policies the Purview posture actually needs — the named list is not closed. We do not invent a policy you do not need just to sell a document.
Why this is the unusual combination
Partner pages usually sell a Purview menu. Privacy pages usually sell a document pack. Organisations still have to make a DLP rule that a finance team can live with, that matches the AUP, and that a DPO can explain. The offer is Purview implementation. The DPO and privacy-counsel background is what that work is meant to demonstrate — not a separate legal chapter. Experience includes Microsoft Purview delivery for Avanade, IBM, Zurich and JP Morgan. The site is the firm, not a personal brand page.
Policy-to-Purview questions
What is a Policy-to-Purview design report?
A written map from your organisation’s published policies (or the ones we draft) onto Microsoft Purview controls — DLP, labels, retention, Insider Risk, catalog, eDiscovery and the rest — plus honest gaps where the product cannot carry the obligation.
What if we have no written policies?
That is common. We draft the policies the Purview design actually needs: data handling, data classification, data protection / information security, acceptable use, privacy, employee privacy notice, ROPA, incident response, information governance, AI / Copilot / emerging technology, cloud usage, and IT / cloud architecture where they are in scope — and any other relevant policy the design actually needs. Then we design Purview against that set.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is policy drafting and Purview design, informed by DPO and privacy-counsel experience. It does not replace advice on your facts from a solicitor, and it does not make a web page a substitute for a regulated legal service.
Do you only write policies, or do you also build Purview?
Both. The report is the groundwater. Implementation of DLP, labels, catalog, Insider Risk and the wider platform is the build. You can stop at the report; most organisations want the tenant to match it.
Related Purview services
Other Ghani Governance Microsoft Purview services on this hub that follow a Policy-to-Purview design report:
- Microsoft Purview DLP implementation — build Data Loss Prevention from the mapped obligations
- Sensitivity labels and information protection — classification taxonomy from the written data-classification policy
- Insider Risk Management — investigation and HR/DPO overlay from incident policy
- Unified Catalog and data governance — ownership and glossary from ROPA and information-governance policy
- Data lifecycle and records management — retention and records from AI and records obligations
- All Microsoft Purview services — full hub list
Book a discovery workshop
A scoping conversation about what you need to protect, what is already configured, and what must not break.