Microsoft Corp. is launching new data governance tools for enterprises that promise to ease the task of keeping sensitive business information secure.

The tools, announced today, are rolling out for the company’s Microsoft 365 subscription offerings, which bundle Office 365 with Windows 10, cybersecurity services and other products.

The standout addition is a capability called sensitivity labeling. It enables an organization’s rank-and-file employees to take an active role in preventing the misuse of business records.

The tool takes the form of a new drop-down menu in Office applications. Companies can use the menu to display a list of custom labels that each correspond to a different level of document sensitivity, as well as a unique set of data governance policies. When a worker attaches a label to a document, the appropriate policies are automatically applied to the file.

The rules can be customized for a firm’s specific requirements. An administrator could, for instance, configure Microsoft 365 to encrypt documents marked “Confidential” and insert a watermark at the top of each page to indicate they contain high-priority data.

Microsoft said these policies remain with files even when employees move them from one device to another or between cloud applications. The idea is to let organizations track records across platforms to ensure they don’t end up somewhere they’re not supposed to.

In the same spirit, Microsoft is releasing a tool called Supervision for monitoring what data employees share via email. It enables companies to flag messages for review if they meet certain conditions, for instance if they contain an attachment with a customer’s financial information. On top of improving security, Microsoft said Supervision can make it easier to meet certain industry-specific regulations.

The new tools are available through a dedicated compliance dashboard that the company has added for Microsoft 365. The console provides feature shortcuts and displays high-level metrics related to how effectively an organization is following data management rules.

Today’s update comes hot on the heels of Microsoft release of a new, specialized version of Microsoft 365 with expanded features for managing sensitive records. It’s all part of an effort by the company to address the growing enterprise demand for data governance tools. Organizations with a global presence are facing increasingly stringent privacy rules as a result of the European Union’s GDPR regulation and similar laws being implemented in other regions.

Microsoft isn’t the only player working to capitalize on this opportunity. Just this morning, data management and privacy specialist Collibra Inc. announced that it has closed a $100 million investment led by Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG fund.

Photo: Microsoft