If you are using Office 365 and want to define rules for retention, disposal and archiving, it is not something that is particularly difficult to activate (It is rare that features are difficult to activate…).

The big job is in the planning required to ensure that you set it up correctly and that you know which labels to use in your organization to control it and which sources you should enable it on.

Often organizations have the desire that the services and solutions they will use shall be configured based on “Best Practice” (unaware that this actually requires that they themselves (often with some amount of assistance), with great probability, must do a comprehensive homework).

An organization must, simply, have a full overview and control of its information and have defined which requirements and guidelines apply before you can press the button (or ask someone else to press it).

When you have analyzed and planned carefully and have full control over the types of information you manage, You have two options:

• Automate everything
• Let the users themselves classify/tag the information they produce.

Regardless of which option you choose, you should first carry out an information classification project. (It is something that everyone should do regardless of having control over what information the organization handles. Especially if you are subject to some compliance requirements).

Read more about what options you have and how it actually works in Greg Taylor’s article “Office 365 Retention, Disposal & Archiving – Frequently Asked Questions (And We’ve Got the Answers!)“