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10 policy management and compliance statistics for 2025

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

Blog

Compliance and policy management is essential for every business, but it’s super critical for regulated sectors such as healthcare, financial services and pharmaceuticals. But driving compliance has its challenges, not only keeping up with a fast-moving regulatory environment, but also providing easy access to policies for employees.

Policy management and compliance software like Xoralia can make a significant difference – automating processes such as employee attestation, helping employees find the policies they need, and ensuring policy and SOP owners keep their documents up to date.

The challenges and role of technology associated with policy management are reflected in various industry statistics, some of which are truly eyebrow-raising. These numbers are useful in:

  • helping compliance and digital workplace teams consider how they can overcome challenges
  • feeding into useful conversations with business stakeholders
  • planning appropriate strategies and tactics to support compliance
  • inserting into a business case for policy management software

In this post we’ve gathered ten policy management and compliance statistics for 2025 which we think you’ll found interesting. These are all from authoritative sources and while most come from more recent reports, some are a little older but are still valuable.

Here are ten policy management and compliance statistics.

1. 69% of CEOs think the regulatory environment inhibits the creation of value

PwC’s latest Annual Global CEO survey reports that nearly seven in ten CEOs feel the regulatory environment is a barrier to their organisation in changing the way it creates, delivers and captures value.

2. 82% of compliance professionals view cybersecurity as the biggest area of risk

According to Thomson Reuter Institute’s 2023 Risk & Compliance report, the greatest compliance risk identified by compliance professionals is “data and cybersecurity risk”, mentioned by 82% of survey respondents.

3. 52% of risk and compliance professionals monitor compliance while 54% are using technology

Another fascinating statistic from Thomson Reuters Institute’s 2023 Risk & Compliance report suggests that 52% of risk and compliance professionals spend their time monitoring compliance, the second highest activity after identifying and assessing risk.  Furthermore, 53% also say they are adopting technology-driven solutions due to increased regulatory pressure.

4. The global policy management software market will be worth USD $4,3 bn by 2032

More and more organisations are relying on policy management software like Xoralia to increase compliance, drive efficiency and minimise risk. Market analysts IMARC Group predict that the market will grow to USD $4.3 billion in 2032, up from UDS $1.7 billion in 2023. This represents an annual CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 10.39%.

5. 47% of compliance professionals list training employees as their biggest policy management challenge

In a survey of compliance professionals conducted by NAVEX, respondents were asked what their biggest policy management challenge was. 47% declared “training employees” as their main challenge, the top answer after “aligning policies with changing regulations”, mentioned by 40%.

6. 38% of organisations are not good at providing a tool for employees to search for policies

The research from NAVEX also found that 38% of organisations either felt they were only “fair” or “poor” in either providing employees with a tool that helps them search for policies, or having a corresponding tool that can track which policies are being read by employees.

7. 56% of larger enterprises use automation software to help manage compliance

Increasingly solutions with automation are being used to manage aspects of compliance and policy management. According to a survey from Coalfire, 56% of large enterprises are using automation for managing compliance.

8. 79% of companies are using or considering using AI to support compliance and risk management

AI has significant potential to support different aspects of compliance and risk management, driving efficiency, increasing levels of compliance and more. According to a report from Moody’s, 79% of companies are either already using, piloting or considering AI to support compliance and manage risk. Only 21% are not considering using AI.

9. Compliance costs in the UK financial services sector is rising by 12%

A study of the UK financial services sector by Lexis Nexis found compliance costs rose on average by 12% in 2023 for each company, with 95% of firms in the sector reporting an increase in costs.

10. Organisations using policy management software can achieve attestation rates of 87.5% and higher

When Lifearc, a UK-based medical charity, used Xoralia to support their ISO 27001 certification through improved access to policies and employee attestation, they were able to achieve a high attestation rate of 87.5% extremely quickly. Other Xoralia customers have achieved rates approaching 99%.

Supporting compliance and policy management

The statistics show the continuing challenges around compliance and policy management, but also the positive role technology can play. Xoralia is an example of a solution that is making a real difference for compliance and policy management teams in helping them manage their policies by:

  • Enabling all employees to find all policies clearly and simply, supporting compliance processes and creating a culture of compliance.
  • Reducing the manual overhead around policy management with automation, allowing busy teams to focus on more value-added work.
  • Reducing risk by creating one source of truth – no more duplicate and out-of-date policies.
  • Supporting owners to keep their policies up to date and be more accountable.
  • Revolutionising policy-related communications and employee attestation processes more directly in the everyday flow of work, helping to underpin compliance.

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

How to get started with Xoralia

Step 1: request a demo

Fill out our form and we will be in touch to arrange a time. You can even book a time yourself.

Step 2: get a price proposal

If you think Xoralia is for you ask us for a quote. This will set out any options you may have.

Step 3: install and launch

We’ll install Xoralia in your environment (or you can do it yourself). We’ll provide training and support to get you up and running quickly.

Request a demo

Here's what you'll get

  • Central policy library

  • Search and filter tools

  • Mandatory read policies with attestations

  • Quizzes

  • Notifications and alerts

  • Employee dashboard

  • Line manager dashboard

  • Works on mobile, in Teams and SharePoint

  • New policy creation workflows

  • Policy update workflows

  • Review and approval gates

  • Policy version history

  • Compliance dashboard

  • Audit trail

  • Full reporting

And last but not least:

  • Professional implementation service and support

  • Evergreen software – frequent updates and improvements

  • Comes with our "it just works" support warranty – we’ll fix any bugs, often before you even notice

Ready to get started?

Connect with us to streamline your policy management and ensure effortless compliance.

Book a demo

Perfect policy management solution for Microsoft 365 users.

I highly recommend Xoralia to any organisation seeking a robust and user-friendly policy management solution.

Xoralia seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365, particularly with SharePoint and Teams, aligning perfectly with our company's daily workflow..

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★
Get your FREE Xoralia demo today!
Book a demo
See how Xoralia enhances your SharePoint policy management
Find out more
Explore how Xoralia helped global organizations
Find out more
eBook: Effective policy management and compliance best practices
eBook: Effective policy management and compliance best practices
Download now

The impact of AI on the future of policy management software

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

Blog

Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022 generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) has started to increase its influence on the technology we use everyday in the workplace. Organisations are experimenting with and implementing solutions like Microsoft Copilot. These not only have the potential to supercharge productivity by eliminating repetitive tasks, but also to go further and provide the opportunity to rethink and reengineer basic processes.

As AI is integrated across different workplace technologies including policy management software and becomes more prominent in different products, we will start to see tangible change. While it is still relatively early days for AI, the pace of change may well be rapid.

How AI is impacting policy management software

Policy management software already helps to support compliance, increase productivity and reduce risks. But AI will make an even bigger difference to compliance software and solutions by:

  • Increasing compliance by ensuring employees can find and read the policies, SOPs and other controlled documents they need to do their jobs and make the right decisions, with greater accuracy and precision.
  • Minimising risk by helping to monitor compliance and identify issues before they happen at greater speed and scale.
  • Streamlining administration through the smart automation of repetitive tasks and reporting in increasingly intelligent ways.
  • Future-proofing your organisation by helping to keep policies and other controlled documents up to date in an increasingly complex and fast-moving world.

How AI itself is driving the need for more controlled documents

Developments in AI are not only impacting and influencing the solutions we can use to drive compliance but are also bringing new challenges that mean organisations need to ramp up their approaches to policy management, compliance monitoring and controlled documents.
Policy management to support cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is top of mind for many IT and risk professionals with new AI-powered threats from cybercriminals that are continually evolving. Employees must have access to cybersecurity-related policies and procedures, and be aware of changes, so everyone can stay one step ahead of the criminals.
Access to SOPs that are evolving or need to be reinforced
AI will change the way we work for the better and the detail behind policies and procedures may change. At the same time, AI makes it easier for teams to start doing things differently, and it is possible that some “local” teams may start to change their processes in ways that are risky and not approved centrally. Having easy access at the point of need to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that may either be changing frequently, or need to be emphasised, has never been more important.
Controlled documents that act as guardrails for AI itself
AI itself comes with a whole heap of risks that range from IP protection and data privacy through to bias and ethical concerns. Generative AI is also subject to the odd hallucination that spins up inaccuracies. Employees need clear guidance on the use of generative AI and what is permitted and what isn’t, with easy access to controlled documents such as AI-related policies and guidelines.

How will AI-powered compliance software evolve?

Many policy management and compliance software solutions like Xoralia already use AI to help drive intelligent automation and deliver better compliance, greater efficiency, reduced costs and better operations. For example, we use Microsoft’s AI-powered search capabilities within Xoralia so that employees can better find the policies they need in their everyday work.

We see AI influencing future policy management solutions and compliance software in a number of different directions:

  1. Supporting greater engagement with policies.
  2. Changing the way we query policies, SOPs and guidelines.
  3. Bringing employees closer to the policies they need.
  4. Automating monitoring with wider reach and complexity.
  5. Supporting horizon and legislative scanning.

1.How AI will support better engagement with policies

Policies, SOPs, guidelines and other controlled documents are very important. They provide real-world support and value for managers and employees by establishing clarity, driving efficiency and reducing personal risks.

At the same time, it’s very difficult to build engagement around policies which tend to be long, dry and boring. At worst policies can be written in “legalese” and can be very hard to understand because they are written in ways that make sense to the team responsible for enforcing a policy, but not really for anybody else.

Policies, SOPs and guidelines are meant to be read, understood and acted upon by employees. If that isn’t happening, then a controlled document is more or less pointless. We think generative AI has huge potential to make policy content more engaging and to encourage policy owners to create alternative formats that will drive engagement and make policies more actionable.

It is possible to:

  • Generate shorter guidelines from a policy.
  • Rewrite a policy in a more engaging style or targeted to a particular group.
  • Translate it into multiple languages.
  • Generate summaries and FAQs for quicker scanning.
  • Experiment with alternative formats like podcasts and videos.

All of the above, have the potential to transform engagement with policies by reducing dry, dreary and never-ending documents to something far more digestible and palatable.

2.How AI will change the way employees query policies, SOPs and guidelines

At the moment an employee with a particular question or issue which is answered by a policy may have to find a controlled document or page and then scan through it to find the answer they need. While in some cases that works, it is still quite inefficient overall and feels like an effort for the user.  In many cases an employee may just ask a colleague or simply not refer to a policy, SOP or guideline.

Generative Ai has the power to truly change the way employees query controlled documents in two ways:

  • Use natural language to ask key questions.
  • Get answers to questions directly without necessarily having to read the whole document.

While chatbots have been around for a while now, they have never quite fulfilled their potential. Generative AI is dramatically improving what is possible. Of course, there are still some challenges in ensuring answers are going to be fully compliant. But overall, the ability to directly ask policy-related questions using everyday language and get quick answers is a game-changer that will support greater compliance.

3.Bringing employees closer to the polices they need

One of the exciting possibilities of generative AI is to help ensure employees not only have access to the policies they need at the right time, but also access to the policies and guidelines that they didn’t know they needed. The advances in AI bring significant advances to search to ensure that employees can find exactly what they need, but also to make suggestions for reading based on tasks they are completing, their online behaviour, profile, emerging areas of compliance and more. For example, perhaps somebody is travelling to an unstable or dangerous country for the first time, An AI-powered policy management solution can make intelligent suggestions about all the policies and guidelines they might want to read to help prepare for the trip.

4.Automate monitoring with wider reach and complexity

Compliance and risk management is also sometimes about monitoring for potential incidents and then preventing them from happening. This is particularly important in heavily regulated industries. While there are important data privacy guardrails that need to be in place, AI has the power to monitor areas such as email, chat, documents and other channels in more sophisticated ways, at both greater scale and speed.

For example, an organisation may have some kind of monitoring in place across their Microsoft 365 estate in order to identify if anyone is sharing customer credit card numbers vie email or chat. We can see AI-powered governance solutions identifying a wider set of risks and then searching for these more comprehensively, while also weeding out any red herrings. We think this will help to prevent more incidents.

5.Making horizon and legislative scanning achievable

The world is complex. There are always new legal, regulatory and compliance areas that need to be considered – on AI for example – and these can change for each country or jurisdiction. In real terms this means that policies and procedures will need to change accordingly from time to time. However, the occurrences when this needs to happen can be easy to miss.

AI has the power to keep an eye on major compliance changes and then make intelligent suggestions about which policies you might need to change. This will help to lower the barriers to successful horizon and legislative scanning so that your policies are kept up to date and everyone stays compliant.

There is also the intriguing opportunity to take key internal decisions and meetings, for example a board meeting where particular actions were decided or the agreement of a new internal HR strategy, and let AI make recommendations about the policies that you may need to change.

The future of policy management and governance software

Policy management and governance software is all about reducing risk and increasing compliance in ways that reduce administration, effort and cost. AI has a strong role to play in improving and broadening what policy management software and governance solutions can offer. Here at Xoralia, we’re already excited about the future and what AI will bring.

If you’d like to discuss how AI will impact policy management software and how it could help you, then get in touch!

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

How to get started with Xoralia

Step 1: request a demo

Fill out our form and we will be in touch to arrange a time. You can even book a time yourself.

Step 2: get a price proposal

If you think Xoralia is for you ask us for a quote. This will set out any options you may have.

Step 3: install and launch

We’ll install Xoralia in your environment (or you can do it yourself). We’ll provide training and support to get you up and running quickly.

Request a demo

Here's what you'll get

  • Central policy library

  • Search and filter tools

  • Mandatory read policies with attestations

  • Quizzes

  • Notifications and alerts

  • Employee dashboard

  • Line manager dashboard

  • Works on mobile, in Teams and SharePoint

  • New policy creation workflows

  • Policy update workflows

  • Review and approval gates

  • Policy version history

  • Compliance dashboard

  • Audit trail

  • Full reporting

And last but not least:

  • Professional implementation service and support

  • Evergreen software – frequent updates and improvements

  • Comes with our "it just works" support warranty – we’ll fix any bugs, often before you even notice

Ready to get started?

Connect with us to streamline your policy management and ensure effortless compliance.

Book a demo

Perfect policy management solution for Microsoft 365 users.

I highly recommend Xoralia to any organisation seeking a robust and user-friendly policy management solution.

Xoralia seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365, particularly with SharePoint and Teams, aligning perfectly with our company's daily workflow..

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★
Get your FREE Xoralia demo today!
Book a demo
See how Xoralia enhances your SharePoint policy management
Find out more
Explore how Xoralia helped global organizations
Find out more
eBook: Effective policy management and compliance best practices
eBook: Effective policy management and compliance best practices
Download now

How to use SharePoint for document control

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

Blog

With so many of us relying on documents in our daily work, document management is a critical activity for many organisations. One element of this is to have strong control over particular sets of documents that employees rely on such as policies and procedures, or product overviews. It is imperative that these documents are controlled so they are accurate, up to date, easy to find and trusted by employees. This is particularly the case in regulated industries where compliance and related processes demand effective document control.

Most organisations that have Microsoft 365 use SharePoint for their document management. Even if they have an additional document management system (DMS), SharePoint ends up as their de facto document management system because of its high levels of use.

SharePoint has lots of excellent features to support document management, but it is less than ideal if you want to control a set of documents such as policies. In this post we’re going to do a deep dive into how to establish effective document control with SharePoint by using an additional document control solution such as Xoralia.

What is document control?

Document control can be defined as the practices, processes and solutions that an organisation needs to put in place to effectively manage a set of documents so that those documents fit particular criteria, such as being accurate, up to date and readily accessible.

Why are controlled documents so important?

Documents are central to the way organisations and employees work. Every day we:

  • Access documents to guide our work.
  • Create and update documents as output from our role.
  • Find documents that we need to consult or reference.
  • Disseminate and distribute that others need to read.
  • Save multiple versions of different documents.

With so much of what we do revolving around documents, most organisations invest time and resources in trying to better manage their documents. As part of this, controlling a set of particular documents will be extra important. These are usually documents that need to be relied upon at any one time by employees as an essential reference to support operations, ensure compliance, reduce risk and underpin customer service.

These documents are controlled in the sense that they must be managed in such a way that they are:

  • Accurate.
  • Up to date.
  • Accessible.
  • Findable.
  • Actionable.
  • Security-trimmed.
  • Only have the latest version available.

What are typical types of controlled documents?

Typical collections of controlled documents include:

  • Policies and procedures.
  • Guidelines.
  • Product descriptions or manuals.
  • How to guides.
  • Document templates.
  • Contracts.
  • Standard presentations.
  • Brand assets.
  • And more!

Challenges in managing controlled documents

There are many challenges associated with managing controlled documents that are commonly felt across organisations.

Establishing central trusted places to access controlled documents
Most employees want to have one or two easily accessible places to find controlled documents such as policies, where they are confident that they can find most up-to-date version. But establishing this – particularly in a SharePoint environment with multiple sites and where there are many different departments and teams involved in creating policies – can be extremely challenging.
Poor findability
Ineffective search, inadequate navigation, closed systems, scattered SharePoint sites and controlled documents being in multiple different repositories can make it extremely difficult for employees to find the controlled documents they need. Poor findability wastes everyone’s time but also results in documents being ignored.
Multiple versions of documents in circulation
A core problem with controlled documents is having multiple versions in circulation, often because employees revert to versions that have been sent via email or are stored on file shares. Sometimes there can even be multiple versions found on a company intranet.
Having multiple versions of controlled documents causes confusion, erodes trust and ultimately means employees use documents that are inaccurate or out of date, leading to a number of risks.
Getting people to read and act upon controlled documents
Controlled documents such as policies are important but they’re not always the most engaging content. Getting employees to read controlled documents is far easier said than done, and even then, it is very difficult to know if they have actually read them or will take on board any required actions. You can also cannot report effectively on who has read a document.
Document lifecycle management
Every controlled document has a lifecycle from the time it is created to when it is revised and eventually replaced. But each document needs to be controlled at different stages of the process, and many of the features that support that aren’t available with SharePoint out of the box.

SharePoint’s strengths for document control and management

SharePoint has a number of document related features, and many organisations rely on SharePoint as their main document management system (DMS). These features include:

  • Flexible document libraries for easy access and distribution.
  • The ability to add custom folders and metadata to enable findability.
  • Microsoft and SharePoint’s powerful search capabilities.
  • Highly granular access control to ensure documents are appropriately security trimmed.
  • Seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams.
  • In-built version control.
  • Microsoft’s enterprise-grade security.
  • Support for accessibility.
  • And more!

While these SharePoint features are good at supporting a broad range of document management activities, they are not enough to establish the effective management of controlled documents. In fact, if you are using SharePoint out of the box and want to establish a central collection of controlled documents it is very likely that you will encounter some of the challenges we have already highlighted.

SharePoint’s limitations for effective document control

Despite SharePoint’s strengths around document, it is absolutely not an example of document control system software. In fact, there are a number of specific issues using SharePoint straight out of the box that make it hard to use for controlled documents, and almost impossible to achieve at scale.  Without additional software it is very difficult to achieve document control best practices for SharePoint.

Multiple missing features
SharePoint out of the box simply doesn’t include many of the features that you need for effective control of documents and specific areas such as policy and procedure management. There are no employee attestation features, convenient lifecycle management tools for document owners, specific views aimed at particular roles such as managers, and so on. To set these features up will take significant effort, development costs, in-house technical knowledge, time to market and more.
Decentralised governance
SharePoint by design supports a decentralised approach to document management, empowering different teams across the business to share documents in ways that work for them. While that approach is useful for some day-to-day work, it makes it difficult to provide controlled documents for users in one central library; what tends to happen is that controlled documents are spread over multiple sites and document libraries, making it even harder for employees to find what they need.
Lack of automation
Effective management of controlled documents requires a lot of moving parts. Using SharePoint out of the box means a huge manual effort to coalesce document and policy owners to keep their collections up to date, notify employees about changes to documents, onboard new employees and check they have read it, create reports and more. Of course, all of these can be automated, but that requires a lot of set-up and is also dependent on some of the features that are missing that you would find in a document control product like Xoralia.

Enhancing SharePoint with Xoralia

Xoralia is a flexible document control solution that is often used to manage and disseminate collections of controlled documents. Many organisations use it as policy management software for Microsoft 365.

The great advantage of Xoralia is that it is actually built on SharePoint meaning that it can:

  • Integrate seamlessly with your existing SharePoint and Microsoft 365 environment.
  • Keeps all your data and content within your Microsoft 365 tenant meeting your existing security, compliance and governance policies.
  • Can leverage all the existing capabilities of SharePoint, but make them better, for example so you achieve more effective document version control with Xoralia.
  • Helps you make the most out of your existing investment in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, supporting better ROI (Return on investment).
  • Will enable a wide range of benefits such as improving policy management in Microsoft 365.

However, the beauty of Xoralia is that it enhances SharePoint by:

  • Adding multiple ready-to-go features that support managing controlled documents that simply aren’t available in SharePoint Online out of the box, including employee attestation capabilities.
  • Ensuring you can establish the central control and governance that helps to manage controlled documents involving multiple different owners, and also create a central point or points for employees to access collections of controlled documents.
  • Acting as document lifecycle management software by adding relevant features that help owners keep documents up to date.
  • Adding automation to reporting, notifications and more to save huge amounts of time, again not possible with SharePoint out of the box.
  • Providing structured views and searches to increase the findability of controlled documents.

Xoralia features that transform SharePoint document control

Below are just some of the key features of Xoralia that transform document control using SharePoint.

Central controlled document or policy library
Xoralia establishes a central policy library or portal where everyone can easily search for and find the controlled documents they need, while also viewing any personalised tasks in relation to mandatory reads, employee attestations or even keeping documents up to date. The sheer convenience of a central place for controlled documents supports productivity, establishes trust, and drives accountability, enabling effective control of documents using SharePoint.
The additional useful “Collections” feature also allows you to present disparate documents together in a central library, even though that are actually located in different SharePoint sites.
Controlled documents library in Sharepoint
Reporting, tracking and dashboards
Xoralia makes managing and disseminating controlled documents that much easier with all the reporting and tracking options you need to ensure that people read any required documents. A number of role-specific dashboards are also engineered around different role needs – including individual users, people responsible for documents, team managers and central administrators.
Mandatory reads and employee attestation
Xoralia includes full support for mandatory reads via an employee attestation process where a user must confirm they have read and understood a controlled document such as a policy. Granular reporting allows you to track progress and send reminders in order to ensure high levels of attestation; some Xoralia customers have reported 99% compliance. Employee attestation is extremely important for compliance and onboarding processes and is not available with SharePoint out of the box.
Document attestation in Sharepoint
Additionally, Xoralia’s Quiz Builder feature has the ability to create custom quizzes for employees about the content they are digesting, ensuring the main points are understood or a change has been truly digested.
Search and browsing
You can have effective document management in place that supports controlled documents, but it’s largely pointless if employees than cannot find the documents they need. Microsoft’s search capabilities are powerful, but employees want and need a more structured search and browsing experience to locate an individual document. Xoralia underpins excellent findability through custom metadata that allows users to browse for or filter their search using meaningful keywords to find exactly what they need.
Notifications and reminders
Xoralia comes with in-built notifications and reminders. These can be viewed within Xoralia but also through email. These notifications are automated, so you don’t need to waste huge amounts of time sending off reminder emails, supporting effective workflow automation for compliance purposes.
Document lifecycle management
SharePoint out of the box won’t join the dots around the lifecycle of a controlled document. Xoralia includes features for every part of the document lifecycle:
  • Tools for creating a policy with custom workflow, enabling an automated document approval process.
  • Automated reminders to document owners to review the document at regular intervals.
  • Reports for document owners so they have a clear view of their responsibilities and upcoming tasks.
  • Strict version control for updated versions of documents.
  • Archiving policies.
SharePoint web parts
One unique feature of Xoralia is an ever-growing collection of highly flexible web parts that provide targeted views and features to enable convenient access through your SharePoint intranet or site to meet the needs of end users, document owners, managers and more. These web parts give you unprecedented opportunities to configure access to controlled documents that result in an excellent user experience. Here flexibility is key. Customers tell us they value the ability to achieve customisable policy management in Xoralia.
Policy library webpart
Audit trails and document traceability
Controlled documents relating to compliance such as policies require features to support audit trails and document traceability, so you have a record of who did what to reflect strict document controls. Xoralia has the compliance features that you need.
An active product roadmap
Xoralia has an active product roadmap with new features supporting document control being added all the time. Customers can also request and influence features to be added. Xoralia keeps up to date with the Microsoft 365 roadmap while also taking into account emerging organisational and employee needs.

What are the benefits of using Xoralia for document control?

Using a comprehensive product like Xoralia to support controlled documents has multiple benefits.

Bring proper and scalable document control to regulated industries
Effective document control is a must-have for regulated industries for compliance, operations and more. It is essential that employees have access to accurate, authoritative, trusted and up-to-date policies, procedures and related documents. Investing in the right product is a no-brainer. You can achieve effective and scalable document management with Xoralia.
Easy access to policies at the time of need
Employees need to be able to successfully find the right policies and documents at the point of need – to check a process, to solve an issue in real-time, to complete a task, and so on. Enabling easy access to policies drives compliance, reduces risk, increases productivity and more.
Transform findability
Having a centralised place where employees can find controlled documents such as policies eliminates the problem of poor findability. Employees can find what they need, reducing time-wasting, frustration or relying on out-of-date documents.
Increased compliance and related reporting
With a solution like Xoralia you are able to track and report accurately on areas such as employee attestations, ensuring compliance-related documents are read and understood. This not only leads to increased compliance, but you also report on it to third-party regulators and certification bodies.
Reduced administration overhead supporting productivity
Xoralia’s features and automation massively reduces the administration involved in establishing and managing controlled documents. No returning to the madness of manually sending out hundreds of emails and updating spreadsheets.
Improved employee onboarding
Employee onboarding invariably requires new starters to read controlled documents. A product like Xoralia is excellent at supporting onboarding with the ability to present a collection of onboarding documents, associated employee attestation, views for managers to track progress and more.
Improved customer service
Contact centre and customer-facing staff need access to accurate product and services information that is also easy to find. Xoralia removes the barriers to enable real-time access to help answer customer queries and resolve issues.
Communicating changes
The combination of Xoralia’s employee attestation features, targeted views and notifications can help communicate changes in key policy documents, as well as embed behaviours. This is one of the most difficult areas of managing controlled documents to achieve success.
SharePoint and intranet adoption
Employees often cite access to controlled documents such as policies and procedures as something they want to see from their intranet or SharePoint site. Xoralia delivers this through a central policy library which can be directly integrated into your SharePoint intranet or SharePoint site, contributing to overall adoption in the process.
Builds trust in controlled documents and a culture of compliance
Xoralia helps make all your controlled documents easier to manage and more visible. This means these documents become far more trusted as employees know they are the very latest versions. Document owners also take their responsibilities to keep documents up to date more seriously. All this helps to build a culture of compliance, particularly in regulated industries.

What are some of the real-world use cases for controlled documents?

Having effective document control is important for all organisations, but it especially critical for regulated industries impacting not only compliance but operations as well.  There are a wide range of compliance tools in regulated industries – Xoralia can be a great choice to cover document control.

Real-world use cases of document control with Xoralia include:

  • Having effective health & safety documentation for a manufacturing firm which must be followed to prevent accidents. This helps reduce risks of accidents which are hugely damaging not only to anyone involved, but also leads to reputational damage, compliance and regulatory issues.  Organisations can find themselves spending a fortune on manufacturing document control software, but Xoralia can provide an equally effective and more reasonably priced option.
  • In financial services it is critical that accurate and up to date product and services information is given to clients, otherwise it can result in accusations of mis-selling, regulatory issues and more. Financial services document management can be challenging, but Xoralia provides all the features you need to make it a success.
  • Compliance is critical across multiple areas of the pharmaceutical industry, from the marketing and selling of drugs to how clinical trials are carried out. Documentation on all these areas must be carefully controlled and managed.
  • Healthcare is an industry where critical procedures must be strictly followed, otherwise it can impact patient care. Subsequently healthcare document control and compliance is a major focus for those business functions supporting clinical staff. Any documentation that underpins critical procedures again must be actively controlled – there is no room for compromise. Solutions such as Xoralia can help you achieve document control.

Achieving SharePoint-based document control

SharePoint out of the box is not a platform for effective document control. Xoralia can act as an effective Document Management System for SharePoint, helping you manage controlled documents throughout their lifecycle.

If you’d like a demo to see how Xoralia can help you as a compliance and document control software solution, then get in touch!

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

How to get started with Xoralia

Step 1: request a demo

Fill out our form and we will be in touch to arrange a time. You can even book a time yourself.

Step 2: get a price proposal

If you think Xoralia is for you ask us for a quote. This will set out any options you may have.

Step 3: install and launch

We’ll install Xoralia in your environment (or you can do it yourself). We’ll provide training and support to get you up and running quickly.

Request a demo

Here's what you'll get

  • Central policy library

  • Search and filter tools

  • Mandatory read policies with attestations

  • Quizzes

  • Notifications and alerts

  • Employee dashboard

  • Line manager dashboard

  • Works on mobile, in Teams and SharePoint

  • New policy creation workflows

  • Policy update workflows

  • Review and approval gates

  • Policy version history

  • Compliance dashboard

  • Audit trail

  • Full reporting

And last but not least:

  • Professional implementation service and support

  • Evergreen software – frequent updates and improvements

  • Comes with our "it just works" support warranty – we’ll fix any bugs, often before you even notice

Ready to get started?

Connect with us to streamline your policy management and ensure effortless compliance.

Book a demo

Perfect policy management solution for Microsoft 365 users.

I highly recommend Xoralia to any organisation seeking a robust and user-friendly policy management solution.

Xoralia seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365, particularly with SharePoint and Teams, aligning perfectly with our company's daily workflow..

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★
Get your FREE Xoralia demo today!
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What are the 6 best policy management software solutions?

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

Policy and procedure management is a critical activity for any organisation. The policies, procedures and associated guidelines that businesses create and distribute to their employees helps drive operations, reduces risks, ensures compliance, supports standards, improves customer service and underpins day-to-day work.

However, the truth is that many organisations don’t really manage their policies adequately. This can lead to out-of-date policies, multiple versions in circulation, policies that are impossible to find, huge administrative overheads and ultimately non-compliance. Policies basically get ignored.

Policy and procedure management software is essential for managing policies at scale. At its core, policy management software:

  • helps employees find the policies they need by providing a central point to find and access documents
  • provides features to help policy owners keep their policies up to date
  • has document management features such as version control
  • has employee attestation features so policies are read and understood
  • provides automation and reporting to hugely reduce any central administration effort
  • ticks various boxes around compliance such as audit trails
  • and more!

In this post we’re going to take a deeper dive into the policy management software market, explore some of the factors to consider when selecting a solution, and profiling six leading policy management solutions.

What is the right policy management solution for me?

The policy and procedure management software market and the wider compliance management software market are mature and there is choice to suit different organisations, needs and budgets. That’s good news for organisations and their compliance teams, but it does make it more of a task to pick the solution that is right for you.

Solutions range from very mature solutions that have been around for more than a decade and are often part of a wider suite of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) tools (but still available separately), to more focused standalone solutions that are just orientated towards policy and procedure management. Some of these are newer on the market, including challenger brands like Xoralia, that offer enhanced usability and deep integration with SharePoint.

To a certain extent, most of the leading policy management solutions have a number of common features that cover the core basics of policy management. However, there is difference in the some of the specific details on how these features work, as well as areas such as price point, flexibility and user experience.

How do I select the right policy management software for my organisation?

When you are considering policy management software there are several factors to consider. While these are common to any software selection process, some of them are particularly important to consider for policy management:

  • Features: Does the solution meet all my requirements around policy management with the necessary features?
  • Findability: Does it make policies easy to find at the point of need, a key consideration that is not always straightforward for employees?
  • User experience: Is the solution and intuitive for employees who need to access policies and complete attestation processes? All too often solutions seem built for compliance teams rather than the employees who need to access, read and follow policies.
  • Admin experience: Is the solution easy to use for administrators or policy owners, and does it actually help them to successfully keep on top of their policy management tasks? Many solutions are actually complex and quite hard to navigate.
  • Reporting: Does the system have all the reporting in place you need to support policy management, employee attestation and more?
  • Compliance: Does the system have what you need to support compliance, particularly around audit trials and reporting?
  • Integration: Does the solution either integrate with your wider digital workplace (probably Microsoft 365) or with other related Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solutions?
  • Vendor: Is the vendor a suitable fit in terms of supporting the solution as well as meeting your expectations of a supplier?
  • Roadmap: Is there an active roadmap with investment in the product and potentially the opportunity to request and influence new features?
  • Flexibility: How flexible and scalable is the solution to meet your needs and processes? This can be a major consideration.
  • Price: Of course, the cost of any software is also always going to be a factor.

Six leading policy management solutions

Of course, there is no right and wrong policy management solution – only the one that is best for you and your needs.

Below are profiles of six leading policy and procedure management software products which illustrate the different kinds of solutions that are on the market, and the kind of features they have.

1. ConvergetPoint

Source: Microsoft AppSource

ConvergePoint is a producer of compliance software based on SharePoint. Products cover areas such as contract management, conflict of interests and incident management.  Their product range include a policy management solution.

  • ConvergePoint ticks the boxes for the core features around policy management with capabilities that focus on policy creation, disseminating policies to employees via a central repository and employee attestation.
  • ConvergePoint takes advantage of its integration with SharePoint and Microsoft 365 to allow policy owners to create policies within Word.
  • Approval workflow, version control and audit history support policy lifecycle management, with additional features that help content owners with targeted dashboards, notifications and more.
  • ConvergePoint’s central policy library means that employees are able to find the policies they need through searching , filtering and browsing options, powered by custom metadata. Access to some policies can also be restricted.
  • There is a dedicated “certification module” that drives the employee attestation capabilities, with the ability to add additional quizzes to confirm policies are actually being digested and understood.
  • Reporting, analytics and dashboards cover different aspects of policy management, including keeping on top of employee attestations.
  • As ConvergePoint is SharePoint-based, employees with a Microsoft ID can gain access via Single Sign-On (SSO), although the integrations aren’t as deep as with other SharePoint-based solutions like Xoralia.

While ConvergePoint has generally good online reviews and is a mature and trusted solution that also integrates with other related compliance software, we have heard some customers that some have found it less user-friendly than some other offerings, and it may not have as active a product roadmap as some other rival solutions.

2. ComplianceBridge

Source: softwareadvice.com

ComplianceBridge is a software vendor producing a range of GRC software products. Many of these different products integrate together to form a “suite” of GRC management tools. This include policy management software that is also available on a standalone basis.

Like many of the other solutions profiled in this article, there are a number of features that help central policy teams manage policies and procedures through the lifecycle:

  • Tools to create policies, using appropriate templates, custom approval workflows and more.
  • The ability to import documents from Micorosft 365 and Google Docs.
  • Version control, the ability to compare versions and automated updated links when a version is updated
  • Tools to help different teams collaborate and review policies, as well as automated review reminders to help keep policies up to date.
  • Ability to publish and distribute policies from your own Document Management System (DMS) with the ability to target different groups, sub-groups and roles.
  • Employee attestation and quiz question features to drive and test policy reads and understanding
  • Automated notifications and reminders for employees to review policies.
  • Dashboards with real-time reporting to help track employee attestation and other policy management processes, with the ability to export reports.

One of the obvious strengths of Compliance Bridge is its ability to integrate with other GRC products, providing policy management within a wider GRC suite. However, ComplianceBridge is also a very mature product and its feature set tends to be focused on the needs of central policy teams and administrators, rather than the user experience of employees accessing the policies.

ComplianceBridge also appears to have less features specifically focusing on the findability of documents. While it has some integration with Microsoft 365, it is not a SharePoint-based solution like Xoralia which has much deeper 365 integration.

3. DocTract

Source: capterra.co.uk

DocTract is a software company that is focused on producing cloud-based policy management and contract management solutions. The company was founded in 2018.

DocTract’s core product delivers most of the features to cover the hygiene of policy management. The software’s capabilities are positioned around four key areas –  policy management, policy distribution, regulation and standards and training & attestation. It includes:

  • The ability to manage the policy creation process with an editing interface, templates, version history, custom approval workflows, tools to comment and review the policy and more.
  • The ability to publish the policy to different groups, version control and access to previous versions.
  • Automated policy reviews with reminders and notifications.
  • A search “portal” that is also optimised for mobile with the ability to add custom categories, and also open up to the public via an external-facing website, with the latter a relatively unusual feature.
  • Employee attestation features which can be targeted to different groups, with notification and reminders.
  • Additional training courses and quizzes wrapped around different policies or collection of policies.
  • The ability to map regulations, standards and controls to particular documents and the ability to map “crosswalks” and collections of different policies that belong to a larger manual or compliance process.
  • A range of change control features around managing documents when a standard or regulation changes.
  • Various built-in analytics and reporting on all the above.

DocTract is very much a tool focused more on the document management aspects of policy management and may be designed primarily around the needs of central policy management teams, rather than the needs of employees who need to access policies in their day-to-day work. 

4. NAVEX One PoliyTech

Source: Microsoft AppSource

NAVEX One PolicyTech is another mature policy and procedure management solution. It’s produced by NAVEX, a US-based provider of governance, risk and compliance (GRC) software and services. It is available as a standalone product but also integrates with other NAVEX GRC solutions.

NAVEX One PolicyTech includes most of the core features found in other solutions, helping at all stages of the policy management lifecycle, with policies available for employees to access through a central repository.

  • NAVEX One PolicyTech supports policy creation with version control, archiving for replacing existing policies, and custom approval workflow in place.
  • There are also the requisite employee attestation features for acknowledging polices, with reporting in place to drive up compliance.
  • NAVEX One PolicyTech supports14 major languages as standard, and also has some workflow around supporting translations of different policies.
  • NAVEX One PolicyTech says it integrates Microsoft 365 and SharePoint to help deliver a federated search experience, although this lacks the level of integration that Xoralia has which is a SharePoint-based solution it its own right.
  • Policies can be presented across different sites, which can be branded separately if required.
  • NAVEX One PolicyTech has compliance reporting, for example where you map your policies to different compliance standards or areas, and then reflect this in your reporting – such as cybersecurity or HR areas for example.

A back-up feature provides essential offline access to policies if there is outage or similar issue, also supporting business continuity.

5. MitraTech PolicyHub

Source: capterra.co.uk

MitraTech is a software company that produces a range of different software solutions covering workflow automation, the legal sector, human resources and risk & compliance (GRC). MitraTech PoliyHub is the company’s policy management tool among a range of other GRC solutions.

PolichHub covers the fundamentals of policy management:

  • Making policies available for employee through a central policy library.
  • Policy management lifecycle tools including the ability to create policies within the tool and approval workflow.
  • Automated reminders and notifications.
  • Target global polices and procedures including in different languages to the right groups.
  • Employee attestation features to cover acknowledgement.
  • Reporting and analytics including for employee attestation.
  • An audit trail across the policy management lifecycle.
  • The ability to add custom quizzes to test knowledge gained from policies.

Feedback from online reviews is generally positive in at least covering the basics, however we have heard from customers that it can feel complex to use, and sometimes fall short in some of its features.

One of the things to release about PolicyHub is that is an extremely mature tool. It was first introduced in 2002, although there have been numerous releases. It is currently on version seven. It is possible that some of the interfaces do not feel as modern or as up to date as a more recently launched product like Xoralia.

PolicyHub is also one of multiple GRC tools from MitraTech. This is appealing for customers looking for a more integrated suite of compliance tools. However it is possible that the policy management tool many not have had as much investment or focus compared to other vendors with a less expansive product range.

6. Xoralia

Xoralia policy management software

Xoralia is a comprehensive policy management solution supplied by Content Formula, a digital workplace consultancy and vendor with deep expertise in SharePoint, Microsoft 365 and intranets.

Xoralia has some similarities with the other policy management solutions detailed in this piece in that it has all the main features that you’d expect from an enterprise policy management solution.

However, it is a much newer product with an agenda to challenge existing policy management software, by having a rapidly evolving product roadmap while also focusing much more on the user experience for employees, policy owners and admins, and leveraging deep integration with SharePoint.

  • Xoralia has a strong emphasis in findability with the central policy library for employees including scoped searches, filters and browsable categories all fed by custom metadata that could reflect an organisational structure, locations, brands or other aspects.
  • Xoralia has employee attestation features that can be targeted to different groups or across collections of documents with the required reporting, with the ability to add customs quizzes to embed learning about policy changes.
  • As with the other solutions profiled in this post, Xoralia enables policy creation via integration with Word, the creation of multiple approval workflows, and also automatic reminders for regular policy reviews.
  • Version control and audit trails are a core feature of Xoralia to remove the threat of duplicate or out-of-date policies, and supporting compliance and transparency.
  • One of the key attributes of the product are the different views that are created for different personas, each of which are focused on the information they want to view including required tasks and actions.
  • These include dashboards for users, individual policy owners, central admins and even managers who want to track engagement with policies across their team.
  • Xoralia is based on SharePoint which means all data is kept within your existing Microsoft 365 tenant, but also it has deep integration with Microsoft Entra ID groups, Power Platform and also Microsoft Teams, to enable easy access and the ability to create custom reporting and automation.
  • Xoralia allows employees to view policies through Microsoft Teams, but also uniquely comes with sixteen different web parts targeted at different roles that can be integrated into SharePoint sites or your SharePoint intranet.
  • This allows your policies to be easily accessible and found across your digital workplace rather than being stuck in a heavy duty compliance system that nobody wants to use.
  • Xoralia comes with a very active roadmap compared to other policy management tools with AI and a host of other features on the near-horizon.

Overall, Xoralia is a product that places much more emphasis on ease of use without compromising on any the policy management features that you need.

Book a free demo

In this article we’ve profiled six leading policy management software solutions, including Xoralia, and covered some of the things you need to consider when selecting a policy management product.  

 If you would like to find out more about Xoralia, why not book a free demo?

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

How to ensure document attestation on your policies in Sharepoint

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

A fundamental pillar of successful policy management is to put measures in place to ensure that policies are acted upon by your employees. Employee attestation on your policies and procedures is a popular way to ensure your policy documents are being read and understood. It’s a relatively simple idea and straightforward process, but executing it successfully can be difficult.

In this article we’re going to look at employee attestation, what it is, why it is important, how to measure it, and how policy management software can help support it.

What is policy attestation?

Attestation for your policies is sometimes known as employee attestation, policy attestation or document attestation. It is a process by which employees confirm that they have read and understood your policies and procedures, and any changes to these policies.

At its simplest, policy attestation asks employees to confirm that they have read and understood a policy by checking a box or even electronically signing a policy. More sophisticated digital policy attestation/acknowledgement solution like Xoralia also offer additional quizzes and learning options to test to see if the policy has actually been understood by employees. Attestation can then be measured to track policy success for both compliance and business reasons, with reporting on the detail of who has completed the process in order to increase the numbers.

Why do you need policy attestation?

There are several reasons why it is very important to acquire attestation for your policies.

Ensure policies are read and understood
Policies are critical and help ensure employees follow the right rules to stay safe, compliant, efficient and more. Employee attestation is a major way to ensure that policies are actually being read, understood and followed by employees.
Demonstrate compliance
There are many legal and regulatory areas that require compliance. Third-party regulators and related certification bodies, as well as insurers, will expect there to be a mechanism to ensure employees are trained and updated on compliance-related matters. Policy attestation is an excellent way to show external regulators that this is the case and also demonstrate particular policies have been disseminated to the workforce.
Change management
Policy attestation can be an important ingredient in change management efforts, for example in introducing new ways of working, changes to procedures and more, particularly if a change needs to be rolled out quickly and you need to ensure it has reached all sections of your workforce. Again, attestation is an effective way to communicate new policies and changes to policies.
Employee onboarding
The employee onboarding process usually requires new starters to get up to speed quickly with processes and procedures. Employee attestation is a useful component of any employee onboarding process and ensures that nothing gets missed.
Policy management insights
Policy attestation gives you powerful data into how effective your policies are with insights into which policies are more easily understood, whether there are particular issues with understanding a certain policy or a section of it, and how different groups within your organisation are responding to policies.
Valuable trend data allows you to make adjustments and interventions to individual policies and the way they are managed, to improve overall policy effectiveness.

How can you measure policy management effectiveness?

There are various ways to measure policy management effectiveness, much of it being achieved through the employee attestation process. Useful measures both at the organisational and department level include:

  • The proportion of policies being read via attestation confirmation.
  • The proportion of policies being truly understood via additional quiz and learning challenges.
  • The speed to which the attestation process is being completed and understood.
  • Areas of policies that are not being fully understood, for example via responses to individual questions in any policy quiz questions.
  • The proportion of policies being updated and reviewed by policy holders (not related to employee attestation but very useful!).

Challenges of acquiring attestation and how policy management software helps

Acquiring attestation for policies has its challenges. Policy management software is designed to help overcome many of these, doing much of the heavy lifting around the attestation process.

Ticking the box
One key problem with attestation is that it can just end up literally being a box-ticking exercise with employees simply stating they have read and understood a policy, when they have actually done neither. While strictly speaking this may be acceptable from a compliance angle, it actually undermines the effectiveness of your policies. Policy management software like Xoralia can help by adding additional features, including using custom quizzes to actually test employees on the contents of the policy, or integrating a digital sign feature to emphasise the validity of the attestation.
Targeting the right employees
Often employee attestation for some policies is only required to be completed by a section of the workforce, such as a particular role, job family, division or employees working in a particular jurisdiction. But targeting the process to different groups can add a level of logistical complexity that takes additional time and effort. Policy management software like Xoralia makes targeting the process to different groups easy and straightforward, for with example with targeting based on their Active Directory profile.
Reporting on compliance to meet regulatory needs
Regulatory and certification third parties often need evidence to show that compliance has been achieved regarding the reading of certain policies, but also that there is a process in place for future changes. If you are using email and a spreadsheet this is challenging to demonstrate. Policy management software like Xoralia that delivers employee attestation provides more comprehensive and reliable evidence, and demonstrates you have a robust process in place.
Administration of attestation
Anyone who has tried to administer an employee attestation process manually using email and a spreadsheet will know it is very time-consuming, inefficient and frustrating. It is prone to errors and very difficult to do comprehensively. Policy management software makes managing the attestation process much easier, more efficient and far less time-consuming, principally by automating communication with employees and reporting.
Attestation for new employees
New starters are usually required to read multiple documents and policies when they first join an organisation. It can be hard for them to keep on top of everything they need to do, while it is also a lot of effort for policy administrators to remember to manage the process for each new starter.
Policy management software like Xoralia allows you to automate employee attestation for new starters so when they join they automatically have a number of policies they need to confirm they have read. This provides clarity for new starters on what they need to do, while allowing policy owners to “set and forget” so employee attestation is covered as part of the onboarding process.
Attestation for changes in the policy
Policies change regularly and sometimes it is critical that employees understand what has changed both from an operational and compliance standpoint, and often at short notice. However, communication around policy changes is traditionally hard as employees tend to be very busy and already overloaded with messages. The attestation process supports policy changes too to make sure the message gets through.
Win over internal stakeholders
Sometimes internal stakeholders don’t always buy into or give sufficient time to properly manage employee attestation processes for their team, department or part of the business. This might relating to launching employee attestation for policies that they manage, or getting their employees to carry out the process for other policies. When you don’t get the full cooperation of all parts of the business it makes employee attestation much harder to achieve.
Because using policy management software makes the attestation process so much easier for both users and administrator, they are more likely to buy into an overall enterprise-wide approach to attestation.

Attestation features in Xoralia

Xoralia is an advanced policy management software solution that includes a number of key features that support employee attestation.

Easy attestation
The easy attestation feature allows employees to preview and read a policy and then tick a box to confirm that they have read the document. Additionally, a quiz can be set to test the user’s knowledge of the policy to ensure it has been properly understood.
Quiz builder
The quiz builder allows content and policy owners to set their own questions for users about a policy. They can create custom questions, select from a pool of set questions and also set their own pass mark, all from an intuitive interface.
Reporting dashboard
Xoralia’s dashboard provides all the reporting that policy owners and central compliance teams need to track and drive the attestation process. It provides a breakdown of policy readership and attestation status, presenting an overall score of documents read and the average quiz score. It then allows you to break this down for each policy and by salient groups such as department, not only helping to drive compliance but also providing evidence to show to external third parties that employees are reading and understanding a new policy.

Need to support the attestation process? Get in touch!

Document or employee attestation is essential in ensuring there is effective communication and compliance relating to your policies. If you’d like to discuss how policy management software like Xoralia can support attestation then get in touch or even book a free demo.

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

5 reasons why Xoralia is the best NAVEX PolicyTech alternative

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

NAVEX PolicyTech is a popular policy management software solution. However, there are alternatives on the market that not only provide many of the same core features, but also add value through additional capabilities. One alternative solution is Xoralia, a policy and procedure management product based on SharePoint.

In this post we’re going to profile both NAVEX One PolicyTech and Xoralia and then compare the solutions.

What are the advantages of policy and procedure management software?

Every organisation has policies and procedures which employees need to read and follow. At least some of these will be very important or even mission critical, being integral to ensuring compliance, streamlining operations, navigating risk and making sure everyone is on the same page.

Policies don’t look after themselves. Active policy and procedure management is particularly important in organisations within regulated sectors, and also in larger, complex and global business. In these types of organisations, policy management tends to be more complex.

Software is needed to ensure good policy and procedure management. A policy management software solution means that:

  • All employees have access to the policies they need at the right time, usually through a central policy repository or library, for example accessible through the intranet.
  • Policies can easily be found at the point of need through search or browsing.
  • There are measures in place to ensure that employees read certain policies for both compliance and operational reasons, usually through an attestation process where employees acknowledge they have read a policy.
  • Policy owners keep their policies up to date and there are no duplicate or outdated policies in place, usually through a range of lifecycle management features and version control.
  • There is detailed reporting in place to meet compliance requirements as well as any other related areas of policy management, through automated reports and views.

The good news is that the policy management software market is mature with plenty of options. In this post we’re going to explore a comparison between two leading solutions – NAVEX PolicyTech and Xoralia.

Selecting the policy and procedure management solution that’s right for me  

There are many policy management software options on the market with different strengths and varying price points. Some policy management software is offered as part of a suite of wider Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) software. These tend to be more mature solutions that are particularly focused on the needs of the compliance and policy management teams in larger enterprises. The policy management solution is still usually available on a standalone basis, separate from the other GRC tools.

Other solutions integrate with or are even based on SharePoint and sometimes offer a more focused approach that also ensures policies are easy to access for users.

Two leading policy management solutions are NAVEX PolicyTech and Xoralia. Both cover the basics around managing policies across their lifecycle, but also have some differences. NAVEX PolicyTech is a more mature solution that focuses on the wider GRC space, while Xoralia is a “challenger brand” that focuses on both the admin and user experience and leverages complete integration with Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.

What is NAVEX PolicyTech?

NAVEX One PolicyTech (formerly called PolicyTech Enterprise) is a policy and procedure management solution produced by NAVEX, a US-based provider of GRC software and services. It is available as a standalone product but also slots in with other NAVEX solutions, such as their incident management software.

What features does NAVEX PolicyTech has?

  • NAVEX PolicyTech includes some of the core features of policy management software to be found in other solutions, helping to manage polices throughout their lifecycle and providing a central access point for employees to find the policies they need.
  • NAVEX PolicyTech supports the creation of policies with custom workflows to ensure the right approvals are in place, with version control and archiving to replace existing policies through the lifecycle.
  • The solution includes employee attestation features that can be targeted to different groups so that employees read and acknowledge policies, with reporting to then track and manage progress.
  • NAVEX PolicyTech has some multi-language support, coming in 14 different languages as standard, and then some translation workflow to link an original policy with translated versions that can then roll-up into reporting.
  • NAVEX PolicyTech says it integrates with SharePoint as well as Microsoft 365, for example with federated search and with Word to aid policy creation; but ultimately NAVEX documents are stored separately rather than within SharePoint itself, unlike a SharePoint-based solution like Xoralia.
  • The software can support different policies being placed across multiple or differently branded sites.
  • NAVEX PolicyTech supports compliance reporting for policy management, including by mapping different polices to particular compliance standards, which can then be reflected in reporting.
  • A weekly back-up is also offered to ensure offline access for your policies if there is an outage.

What is Xoralia?

Xoralia is policy and procedure management software that integrates with SharePoint, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365. It is produced by Content Formula, a UK-based intranet and digital workplace consultancy focused on Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.

What features does Xoralia include?

  • Xoralia ticks the boxes on all of the main features you’d expect from an enterprise policy management solution, many of which are also common to NAVEX PolicyTech and other solutions like ConvergePoint.
  • These “classic” policy management including a central policy library for employees to access policies in one place with the ability to add custom metadata to drive search filters and browsable categories, reflecting your structure, locations or brands.
  • Like NAVEX PolicyTech, Xoralia also adds employee attestation features that enable “mandatory read” policies to be targeted to different groups or across collections of policy documents; employees must acknowledge the policy.
  • There is also an additional ability to add custom quizzes to test and embed learning.
  • Like NAVEX PolicyTech, Xoralia also enables policy creation through seamless integration with Word, custom approval workflows and the required audit trails you need for compliance reporting.
  • Version control is also a core feature of Xoralia, eliminating issues with multiple versions and outdated policies in circulation.
  • Xoralia is a very user-centric product, but it also makes life easy for policy owners with notifications, policy review dates, useful views showing upcoming tasks and more.
  • Like NAVEX PolicyTech, Xoralia has reporting but this is also highly granular and flexible to support compliance, the employee attestation process, the policy management process and more. For example, managers are able to track the employee attestation process across their team, while you can also integrate Xoralia’s in-built metrics into a PowerBI dashboard.

5 reasons why Xoralia is an excellent alternative to NAVEX PolicyTech

While Xoralia and NAVEX PolicyTech have some similarities in terms of the features covered, there are some quite distinct differences which are covered below.

1. Xoralia vs NAVEX PolicyTech: ease of use and intuitive interfaces

Feedback from customers and industry contacts strongly suggests that Xoralia is a more user-friendly and intuitive product than NAVEX PolicyTech. The latter can be confusing to navigate for both users and admins, and there is a learning curve associated when starting out with the product.

All in all, NAVEX PolicyTech has an interface you might associate more with a heavy weight document management system or enterprise compliance solution.  One particular persistent and frustrating issue is that that the “evergreen” links that always link to the latest version of a document are really hard to find, and instead people click on a URL that is outdated.

Aesthetically NAVEX PolicyTech has more of a cluttered and outdated experience, while Xoralia’s interfaces look more up to date and more user focused. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into the design, and then improving on this, based on real world feedback from customers.  We’ve also spent time targeting views to different audiences – users, admins, policy owners, managers and so on, iterating these to improve and enhance our design. Views focus on the essential data that each group needs to know.

For example, our interfaces relating to the employee attestation are very easy to use, leading fo some customers reporting attestation rates of as high as 99%. We believe achieving this is directly related to Xoralia’s ease of use.

2. NAVEX PolicyTech vs Xoralia; SharePoint and Microsoft 365 integration

NAVEX has some limited integration with SharePoint and Microsoft 365. However, compared to Xoralia this is relatively superficial. Xoralia’s integration is much deeper as the solution is based on SharePoint and Microsoft 365 itself.

In practice, this means not only can Xoralia leverage all the strengths of SharePoint like granular access control and version control within document management, but also has a plethora of other advantages:

  • All your policy documents stay within your Microsoft 365 tenant, usually meeting existing compliance, data governance and security requirements.
  • Lower barriers to usage for everyone – with access via Single Sign-On (no password required) – all within a familiar Microsoft-friendly interface.
  • Seamless access through Microsoft Teams where increasingly employees are spending their working day – Xoralia has a dedicated Teams app in contrast to NAVEX PolicyTech.
  • Very deep integration with SharePoint so you can integrate Xoralia into existing SharePoint sites or a SharePoint intranet.
  • This integration is supported through a unique set of 16 out-of-the-box web parts that are ready to deploy and provide all the views you might need for users, managers and policy owners. These web parts, unique to the Xoralia platform, provide unprecedented levels of SharePoint integration and flexibility to craft the access to policies exactly as you want.
  • Uniquely Xoralia also has integration with the Microsoft Viva Connections dashboard, a great option to integrate policy management tasks for frontline staff via the Microsoft Teams app.
  • The ability to use the Power Platform to create custom reports and dashboards via Power BI, custom workflows and automation via Power Automate and even policy-related apps via PowerApps.
  • Exciting future possibilities to leverage Copilot and generative AI into your policy management processes and experiences, for example to create a policy-related chatbot.

3. Xoralia vs NAVEX PolicyTech: Findability

Xoralia has a strong emphasis on findability, leveraging SharePoint and Microsoft’s powerful search capabilities, as well as the ability to use custom metadata for filtering and browsing options. The web additional web parts in the product also help employees find relevant policies across different parts of the intranet. Strong findability is at the heart of the product.

We’ve heard from customers that search capabilities within NAVEX PolicyTech are less reliable and don’t always return expected or relevant results.

4. Xoralia vs NAVEX PolicyTech: Flexibility

As Xoralia is based on SharePoint, it is highly flexible, scalable and configurable. Features such as Collections allow you to create a library of policies to present to employees, even though these might be scattered across different SharePoint libraries. You can also use the different web parts to create exactly the access you want for employees. Additionally, you can leverage the Microsoft Power Platform to create custom automation, reporting and even apps involving your policies.

NAVEX PolicyTech is a more complex, harder-to-use and less lightweight product compared to Xoralia. We’ve heard feedback from customers that it has some issues with flexibility, for example with the ability to integrate local and global policies. It also requires tedious manual updates for changing permissions. In contrast, Xoralia’s integration with Microsoft 365 means you can use Entra ID roles to update targeting and access to policies which is much quicker.

5. NAVEX PolicyTech vs Xoralia: Roadmap

Xoralia prides itself on being a disrupter in the policy management space. We have a rapidly evolving product with an active roadmap that continues to stay aligned with the Microsoft 365 roadmap, adds new feature and modules, and also continues to improve its user experience. Our roadmap is also heavily influenced by our customers who submit feature requests and ideas.

Our evergreen roadmap is in contrast to more mature solutions like NAVEX PolicyTech which tend to be considerably less active.

Book a free demo

In this article we’ve highlighted some of the similarities and differences between Xoralia and NAVEX PolicyTech. If you want to see for yourself, why not book a free demo?

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

5 reasons why Xoralia is the best ConvergePoint alternative

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

Policy and procedure management is critical. When you manage your policies in the right way you can support compliance, minimise risk, improve operations, standardise processes, drive efficiency, establish great employee onboarding and more.

Good policy management means your employees are able to access the policies they need knowing that all of them are up to date and easily findable, and policy owners and compliance managers have clear oversight of the documents they are responsible for.

Additionally asking employees to confirm that they have read and understood policies can also underpin compliance and related reporting.

How policy management software based on SharePoint can help

Policy management can be both fiddly and laborious. However, policy management software can do much of the heavy lifting for you though automation, tracking and more.

A policy management solution is a must have for any organisation that needs to manage large numbers of policies and procedures, particularly if they are in a regulated industry, or if it’s a large or complex global organisation.

The good news is that the policy management software industry is mature and there are a range of different solutions available to suit different budgets and scenarios.

Some of the best policy management solutions are based on SharePoint and Microsoft 365. There are many advantages of using SharePoint for policy management:

  • Leverage the flexibility, scalability and features of SharePoint, particularly around document management.
  • Support audience targeting using Microsoft Entra ID groups and profile attributes like role, department, location etc.
  • Own and manage the security of your documents inside your own SharePoint, rather than uploading documents to a third-party cloud.
  • Simplify access via single sign-on (SSO) so there are no passwords required.
  • Make your policies available on your intranet and on other systems throughout the Microsoft ecosystem, although the extent to which you can achieve this depends heavily on which solution you use.

What are some of the policy management solutions based on SharePoint?

Two leading policy management solutions based on SharePoint are ConvergePoint and Xoralia. Both have some similarities but also some significant differences, with Xoralia proving to be a robust alternative to ConvergePoint.

In this article we’re going to look at some of the common features of both ConvergePoint and Xoralia, as well some of the differences.

What is ConvergePoint?

ConvergePoint is a US-based producer of compliance software based on SharePoint. Products cover areas such as contract management, conflict of interests and incident management. However, in this post we’re focusing on their policy management solution.

  • ConvegerPoint’s solution covers many of the “classic” features of policy management software around policy creation, providing a policy repository, and also employee attestation.
  • For policy creation, ConvergePoint integrates with Word to allow users to create policies with approval workflow. Version control and audit histories also allow policy management teams to maintain a log to track any changes.
  • Policy lifecycle management features then help different content owners to manage their policies with personalised dashboards, notifications, task management and more.
  • ConvergePoint sprovides a central policy repository for employees to be able to access, search, and filter through the latest policy documents. Access control can restrict certain policies if needed.
  • The policy repository can be supported by custom metadata to organise the policies in a way that is meaningful for employees.
  • A certification module supports employee attestation which means employees must acknowledge certain policies. This can be supported by additional custom quizzes to reinforce and confirm understanding.
  • Reporting helps keep track of any attestation process. This reporting adds to other analytics, dashboards and reporting that is available in ConvergePoint.
  • ConvergePoint is based on SharePoint so it means employees can access the solution using their Microsoft ID credentials. However, as we shall see, some of this access is not as user-friendly or extensive as some other SharePoint based solutions.

What is Xoralia?

Xoralia is a dedicated policy management solution built for SharePoint, Teams and Microsoft 365. It is produced by Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy focused on Microsoft 365. Content Formula provides both expert consultancy and a variety of digital workplace software products for Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, so they know and understand SharePoint very well.

  • Like ConvergePoint, Xoralia also includes all the classic features of policy management software, and covers all of the capabilities already detailed in our overview of ConvergePoint.
  • At the heart of Xoralia is the central policy hub that provides an essential repository for employees to access all your policies all in one place, with the ability to search and browse, with custom filters and category descriptions to drive relevance.
  • Xoralia recognises the complexity of organisations and not only allows you to use custom metadata, but also target different policies to locations, regions, roles, divisions and more.
  • Like ConvergePoint there are also employee attestation features, that allow you to define mandatory reads for different groups, while also adding a requirement to acknowledge that you have read and understood a particular policy. Additional custom quizzes can be added via the Quiz Builder to ensure employees have truly understood and read a policy.
  • Xoralia also supports policy creation with deep integration with Word, approval workflows, an audit trail and so on.
  • Xoralia also helps policy owners with automated review dates, notifications, dashboards and more.
  • Like ConvergePoint, Xoralia also provides all the granular and flexible reporting you will need to manage the policy lifecycle, deliver any compliance-related reporting, and provide insights into which policies are being viewed, helping to drive better adoption of, and compliance with your policies.

Comparing ConvergePoint and Xoralia- the best ConvergePoint alternative

From our descriptions so far, it might feel like Xoralia and ConvergePoint are very similar products. It is true that if you are looking just for the basics of a SharePoint based policy management solution with a central policy library, employee attestation, policy creation and management, and some of the advantages of Microsoft 365 integration, then both solutions will suffice. 

However, there are some significant differences that impact adoption, usage and ultimately value. These can make all the difference between a ConvergePoint alternative that just “ticks the boxes” and one that truly delivers ongoing adoption from users and support for policy owners, effectively changing the mindset and culture around policy management.

ConvergePoint vs Xoralia: ease of use

Feedback from our customers and prospects suggests that ConvegePoint is less of a user-friendly product than Xoralia. The user interfaces in ConvergePoint for employees, admins and policy owners are considerably less intuitive than in Xoralia meaning that people who don’t use the tool all the time, or perhaps are less computer literate, could struggle with it.

It can feel like a heavy weight document management solution rather than a policy access tool. This means accessing and finding policies is not quite as effortless as it is in Xoralia, making Xoralia a better ConvergePoint alternative for ease of use.

How we designed Xoralia
From day one we designed Xoralia to be highly intuitive and easy to use. Prototyping the design of the policy library itself, along with the search, filter and browse features, was one of the first things we did. We recognised that the employee who merely accesses and reads policies was arguably the most important user.
Since then, we’ve invested heavily in improving and evolving our interfaces, getting real world feedback and ensuring they are wrapped around the needs of the employees and policy owners. In doing so we’ve been able to build targeted dashboards focused on different groups –including line managers – that clearly show upcoming reads, tasks and actions, as well as presenting the essential data that each group needs.
Our design philosophy behind Xoralia is that policies and procedures are there to be read and used. We don’t view them as being there just to cover legal and compliance processes like a box-ticking exercise. If you want to your policies to be easily accessed, found and then followed by your employees then your policy management software has to have a great user experience.
User-first approach
This is one way where we believe we stand out from ConvergePoint and many of the other solutions on the market. The design of ConvergePoint looks and feels like it has been built to primarily serve the needs of policy administrators, but Xoralia views the experience of your users as just as and potentially even more important.
Xoralia’s ease of use has led many customers to report attestation rates of 99%. In short, if your policies aren’t being accessed and read by everyone then the policy management system is not serving its purpose.

ConvergePoint vs Xoralia: Integration with SharePoint and Teams

The second main difference with ConvergePoint is that Xoralia integrates much more deeply with the rest of Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. This enables a coherent and consistent digital employee experience that makes all the difference in driving adoption and usage of your policies.

Access policies through SharePoint
A unique feature of Xoralia is its extensive set of SharePoint webparts dedicated to policies and procedures. Webparts are Lego-like widgets that can be dropped onto SharePoint pages to create custom views or dashboards for your user. But why might you want to do this? Here are 3 examples to illustrate why custom SharePoint policy pages can be very useful:
Example 1: a city hospital
A large and busy hospital with multiple departments could have literally thousands of policies.  Now imagine an oncology nurse who spends most of her time caring for patients and is less practiced navigating file systems on a computer. When searching for a particular policy to look something up, wading through all the thousands of policies in the hospital could feel like finding a needle in a haystack. However, in a hospital that uses Xoralia, she can simply go to the Oncology department intranet and find a page that shows all the policies relevant to that department. These might be policies that apply to the entire hospital as well as those that are specific to Oncology. In short, our nurse is presented with a reduced and more digestable list of policies. The list feels familiar and she is quickle able to find the policy she needs.
Example 2: a global energy firm
Aisha oversees policy governance for a multinational energy company, coordinating hundreds of people involved in the policy management process across numerous countries. Training and supporting local policy managers has always been a challenge, with many struggling to use the current policy management system which is complex and cumbersome. Managing compliance globally has become time-consuming, with a lot of time spent providing technical support to local managers.
With Xoralia, Aisha can create tailored policy and procedure pages using SharePoint webparts, offering local policy managers a simplified, intuitive interface that includes only the information and tools they need. This modular approach ensures that policy managers can focus on what’s relevant to their role and country, reducing the need for extensive training and support.
End users, who only need to access policies for reference, also benefit from this streamlined system. They are presented with policies specific to their local market, so they don’t have to sift through irrelevant documents, making it easier to stay compliant and up to date with local regulations.
Example 3: a steel manufacturer
In a steel manufacturing plant, the manufacturing process involves numerous work areas and stages, from the blast furnaces to the hot strip mill and beyond. Each work area has its own set of procedures, creating hundreds of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and safety protocols across the company. For a frontline worker in the hot strip mill, this could be overwhelming—if they had to search through all the documentation from other areas to find what they need.
With Xoralia, this complexity is simplified. When the worker accesses the hot strip mill’s SharePoint page, they’re presented only with the SOPs and policies specific to their area and processes. Xoralia’s SharePoint webparts make it easy to filter out unrelated documents from other areas, such as engineering or quality control, ensuring that the worker can quickly find the exact document they need. This tailored, streamlined access reduces time spent searching, improving both safety and productivity on the factory floor.
SharePoint web parts help reduce policy clutter
As you can see from these examples, stripping out noise and unnecessary policy clutter is essential to optimise the experience and make it easy for people to find what they are looking for. Conversely, ConvergePoint makes all policies available to everyone, meaning the user looking for a policy has to wade through a lot of irrelevant documents which involves using complex filters and tags to filter out the noise.
Of course Xoralia can still provide this type of “everything” view of all policies if you need it to, but often different business scenarios require different views.
SharePoint web parts to build pages for every scenario
There are currently sixteen Xoralia web parts covering everything from searching policies,  mandatory reads, documents due for review, policies favourited by a user, recently viewed policies, line manager dashboard and more.
There’s even an AI-powered Xoralia web part which allows the user to ask a policy related question and get an instant answer, along with a reference to the document that contained the information. Each web part is highly configurable so that you can build policy pages inside your intranet to suit every scenario and audience.
ConvergePoint does not come with any additional web parts to enhance user adoption and engagement with your policies, nor to support your policy owners.
Access through Teams via a dedicated app
In some organisations employees are spending most of their working day in Teams. A dedicated Xoralia Teams app means employees can access all the Xoralia features in a way that is optimised for viewing and interacting through Teams, all within the flow of their work. Critically, employees and policy owners can also receive Xoralia notifications through Teams so won’t miss any deadline to read mandatory policies or review policies respectively. What’s more, employees who need access to policies out in the field can use the Teams mobile app to access Xoralia. Xoralia for Teams has been specially optimised so that it works just as well on a mobile screen as it does on a desktop.
Integration with Viva Connections
Additionally, there are cards relating to Xoralia that can be embedded within a Microsoft Viva Connections dashboard accessed through Teams. Many organisations use Viva Connections to enable key tasks for workers via their mobile device. These cards cover documents that must be read, documents pending review (for policy owners), and also expired documents (again for policy owners).
ConvergePoint does not have a dedicated Teams app that integrates so seamlessly into the Teams experience. There is also no integration with Microsoft Viva Connections.
Convergepoint alternative - Xoralia deep integration with MS Teams

ConvegePoint vs Xoralia: Other differences

Collections
Collections are unique to Xoralia. They allow administrators to gather a set of policies into a Collection and present them together to employees. These policy documents might actually be distributed through different SharePoint document libraries.
A typical use case might be a Collection for new starters, showing all the policies that a new recruit must read on day one. Another common use case is for policy education. In this case an admin can create a Collection containing a single policy but also include associated learning materials such as videos, slide decks and links.
Collections provide yet more flexibility that complex organisations need in presenting their policies to users.
Line Manager Dashboards
Xoralia comes with a dashboard to enable line managers to check that their direct reports are completing their policy reading tasks. Xoralia already sends out notifications and reminders for mandatory reads to employees, but providing managers with visibility on top of this helps drive up compliance and policy readership.
Managers also get a weekly email summary in case they forget to check the dashboard.
Evergreen roadmap
Xoralia is a disrupter in the policy management space. We are relatively new compared with incumbents like ConvergePoint that have had a longstanding presence.
At Xoralia we are actively evolving the world of policy management software and have some ambitious plans to innovate in the space. Xoralia’s roadmap contains several features and modules that have not been seen so far.
Our roadmap also not only stays aligned with the Microsoft 365 roadmap, but also is influenced by feedback, requests and ideas from our customers.

Book a free demo

In this article we’ve highlighted some of the similarities and differences between Xoralia and ConveragePoint. If you want to see for yourself, why not book a free demo?

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

7 ways to use policy management software to support employee onboarding

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

The time when a person first joins a company is both exciting but can also be overwhelming. There is a lot to take in with people to meet, paperwork to complete and an avalanche of things to read and learn.

It’s also essential that organisations get that employee onboarding experience right. There can be a lot of moving parts and tasks to complete in the background involving multiple support departments, aiming to get everything ready for the first day. But even more importantly, a good onboarding experience positively impacts employee turnover. There are multiple statistics that show a correlation between the likelihood of an employee staying longer at an organisation and a positive employee onboarding experience.

There are also a range of other factors – including minimising risk and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Here, employees are very likely to be asked to read a number of policies and procedures, and may also need to confirm they have understood and agreed to these policies.

Employee onboarding has emerged as a key use case for the digital workplace and digital employee experience. It is possible to create an online experience that both drives efficiency and also provides a great experience for new starters. In particular, SharePoint and Microsoft 365 provide some great tools for supporting employee onboarding.

Policy management software can also play an important role in a successful employee onboarding process, particularly in facilitating access to essential policies and procedures, and providing the capabilities for employee attestation and associated reporting.

In this post we’re going to explore seven ways that a policy management software solution like Xoralia can support employee onboarding. We explore what employee onboarding is, why access to policies during onboarding is so important, and then how policy management software can make a difference.

Employee onboarding

What is employee onboarding?

Employee onboarding can be considered the process and accompanying experience new starters go through when they first join a company. An onboarding programme will involve employees having to submit paperwork, carry out various tasks, complete learning and access resources in order for them to

  • successfully carry out their role
  • complete any necessary compliance-related activities
  • feel welcome and fully embedded into a company, its culture and its processes.

An employee onboarding programme usually lasts a few months but can stretch for a full year. It can start when an employee is first hired (“pre-hire”), or sometimes just from their first day.

Why do new employees need access to policies as part of onboarding?

Employees often need access to policies and procedures as part of their onboarding experience:

  • Employees are often required to read the employee handbook during onboarding which details core HR processes and procedures, and agreeing with these may form part of their contractual arrangement.
  • Employees need to get up to speed on key policies and procedures in order to complete basic tasks and carry out their role.
  • Employees may need to read and agree to usage policies in order to start using different IT systems.

There is likely to be some mandatory reading of policies in order to minimise risk and meet regulatory or compliance requirements.

How can policy management software support employee onboarding?

Policy management software like Xoralia does the heavy lifting for multiple areas of policy management, providing easy access to policies for users, but also helping policy owners manage their policies. There are also specialist features such as employee attestation that help drive compliance and reporting.

Policy management software is not designed to be a complete employee onboarding solution. However, it can help facilitate the right access to policies that is required for onboarding. In this way policy management software can actually play a significant role in any employee onboarding ecosystem.

Below we explore seven policy management software features that support a successful employee onboarding programme and experience.

1. Mandatory reads, employee attestation and associated reporting

During an onboarding process employees are very likely to be required to read various different policies and procedures. These “mandatory reads” will not only be required help employees get up to speed but may also be required for contractual, regulatory or compliance reasons. While an HR function or a line manager will likely need to track compliance, there may even be a requirement to report on it to an external third party.

Employee attestation

Here policy management software like Xoralia can help by not only indicating which policies are mandatory to read (and when they should be read by) but also enabling an additional employee attestation process. This is where a new employee needs to acknowledge and confirm that they have read and understood a particular policy, usually be completing a check box. This then creates an electronic record of that acknowledgment.

Employee attestation is very valuable as it usually ensures employees are more likely to go ahead and actually read a policy document. Xoralia not only facilitates this employee attestation process but then also provides granular reporting in order for central teams to track progress. Reporting can also be provided to an external regulatory or certification body to show there is a robust onboarding process in place.

2. Additional employee attestation features

Employee attestation is a reasonably straightforward process but there may be additional requirements around it during employee onboarding. Some employee attestations which are very important or are part of a contractual arrangement may require a digital signature. Some policy management solutions can also enable integration with major digital signature solutions.

Custom quiz

Sometimes you may also want to ensure that a new starter really has understood and absorbed a particular policy or procedure. With Xoralia you can create an additional custom quiz to add to the attestation process which tests an employee about the contents of the policy. This may sound a small feature, but it can be useful in ensuring an employee does actually read a policy.

3. Integrations with Microsoft Entra ID for targeting policies

During an onboarding process there may be policies that all new hires need to read. However, it’s very likely that there are going to be specific policies based on a person’s location, role or level of hierarchy that not everyone will need to read or attest to. Being able to target the right policies to the right set of new starters is important, but managing this can get complex and even become an administrative burden.

A robust policy management solution like Xoralia will be able to integrate with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Active Directory) so that you can leverage existing Microsoft 365 or Entra ID groups to target policies to. This means if you have a policy only relevant for a particular location or department – and there is already a Microsoft 365 group set up – you can far more easily target the right policies for new starters who are part of those groups.

4. View and dashboards for new starters and their managers

One way policy management software adds value is by simply providing clarity for employees about the policies they are required to read and attest to both as part of an onboarding process, but then on an ongoing basis.  An advanced solution like Xoralia can also provide visibility for managers about the policies that still need to be read and attested to across their team. With managers often responsible for ensuring their team complete these tasks, this is also very useful during the onboarding process.

Dashboard

In a solution like Xoralia there are personalised views and dashboards for employees that indicate the documents that must be read and attested to, and when each task needs to be done by.  Additionally, automated task email notifications and reminders can help new hires keep on top of the mandatory policies they must read.

A line managers dashboard based on Microsoft Entra ID information also provides a record of each team’s members tasks, recording any that are overdue. This means a manager can keep track of compliance for all their direct reports and send a personal reminder to any of them if necessary to encourage completion.

5. Personalised web parts to embed into a new hire SharePoint site on your intranet

Employee onboarding is an excellent use case for SharePoint and a SharePoint intranet. For example, you can create a personalised site for new hires where they can view links to useful resources, access a new hire support community and also find a personalised view of the tasks they need to complete. This makes the whole onboarding experience more manageable, mor efficient and less overwhelming.

Xoralia webparts

In particular a view of the personalised tasks that new hires need to complete is very useful and can ensure these are done on time. These tasks may include particular policies the need to read and acknowledge. With a feature-rich solution like Xoralia this is made easy with several personalised out-of-the-box web parts that come bundled with the solution and can very easily be integrated into a SharePoint site or intranet.

For example, these pre-built web parts can show a new starter:

  • All the policy documents that they are still required to read or attest to as part of the induction process.
  • Any collection of specific policy documents targeted to a “new starter” group
  • Any useful policies favourited by a new starter that they feel would be useful to read.

Xoralia also has an additional Viva Connection extension to allow a new starter to see the policies they must read from within Microsoft Teams. When combined, these web parts and extensions can help lift your new hire site and drive efficiencies.

6. Collections and Favourites for convenient access to onboarding documents

The policy documents that a new starter might need to access and refer to as part of their onboarding experience can be widespread and span different topics. They are also often owned by different business functions including HR, IT, Legal, Marketing and so on. 

Sometimes these policies aren’t always in one convenient central policy library.  For example, organisations with a Microsoft 365 digital workplace might find the policies the need to read  scattered through different SharePoint libraries.  Attempts to centralise these documents into one onboarding experience can involve working with multiple policy owners.

Xoralia collections

In Xoralia the new “Collections” feature provides a simple and elegant way to present a collection of documents on a particular theme to users so they are all in one place, even though they may actually be scattered across multiple different SharePoint libraries. This provides a very practical way to present a collection of onboarding documents that can then be presented and targeted to new hires. Alternatively, you can present a number of different Collections such as HR onboarding documents, IT support policies and so on.

As a new hire starts in their role they will also find policies and procedures that they will want to refer to again. Xoralia also has a Favourites capability that allows a new starter to mark favourite polices for easy reference later on, showing up on their personal dashboard.  They can also favourite Collections for easy access.

7. Approval workflows for policy creation and updates

Employee onboarding in large, complex and global enterprises can be particularly complicated and involve multiple policies that need to be read but also vary based on location, region, division, role and language. This is particularly true for HR-related processes where different systems and rules can apply from country to country, for example.

Policy creation workflow

Getting the balance right between providing the standardised, on-brand onboarding experience that large global enterprises are looking to achieve and applying the local variations of different policies can be a challenge. It can also involve coordination between central business functions and local representatives in ensuring central and local policy variations are synchronised and aligned.

A solution like Xoralia can help support the creation, updating and alignment of central and local policies required for onboarding. Xoralia can support established workflows with approval for policy creation and updates. For example, a local team may be required to update a policy. Xoralia’s approval workflow can ensure it is reviewed and approved by the central team before it actually goes live.

Policy management software and employee onboarding

Policy management software isn’t always considered as an employee onboarding solution but it can actually help through mandatory reads on policies, employee attestation features and even approval workflows to manage onboarding policies in large enterprises.

If you’d like to discuss how a policy management solution like Xoralia can help with employee onboarding, then get in touch!

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

eBook: Streamlining policy management and compliance – best practices with SharePoint

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

Managing policies in a fast-paced, compliance-driven environment can be a daunting task. Our eBook, Effective Policy Management and Compliance Best Practices, is a comprehensive guide to simplifying document control and version management using SharePoint, a widely used document repository.

Drawing from years of experience in guiding organizations to implement efficient policy management processes, we have compiled practical strategies to help you overcome common challenges like outdated policies, version control errors, and compliance risks.

eBook: Effective policy management and compliance best practices

Download the eBook

Key highlights:

  1. Keep document titles simple
    Avoid cluttering document titles with unnecessary details such as control codes or department names. SharePoint’s version history and metadata features can handle those details, ensuring your titles remain clean and clear.
  2. Effective version control
    A streamlined version control process is essential. Start with minor versions (e.g., 0.1), progress through reviews, and upgrade to major versions (e.g., 1.0) only after approval. This ensures that only the most recent, validated versions are used across your organization.
  3. Block editing of live documents
    Prevent unauthorized edits to live policies. Only approved versions should be accessible for end users, while drafts remain in a separate library, ensuring integrity and compliance.
  4. Set expiry dates and block downloads
    Every document should have an expiry date to trigger periodic reviews. SharePoint allows you to restrict downloads, ensuring that outdated documents are not mistakenly used.
  5. Standardized policy formats
    Consistent formatting enhances readability. Each policy should include essential information such as version control tables, and appendices should be kept in separate documents to avoid clutter.
  6. Archiving and document control
    Even obsolete policies should be archived rather than deleted, ensuring historical records are maintained for audits. SharePoint’s version history feature keeps a record automatically, saving time and effort.

Why Xoralia?

Managing policies manually can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Xoralia, a product born from our extensive experience in policy management, automates the entire process. With Xoralia, you can ensure compliance, reduce errors, and simplify document control, all while freeing up time to focus on strategic tasks.

If you’re looking to streamline your policy management and ensure full compliance, explore how Xoralia can transform your processes.

Using SharePoint for policy & procedure management

Posted on by Dan Hawtrey

A robust and comprehensive set of policies and procedures play an important role in meeting organisational compliance and minimising risk. However, with continuously evolving laws and regulations, it can often be difficult for policy managers to keep track of multiple document lifecycles and ensure that all employees have been provided with the correct and most up-to-date information in order to do their job and to ensure organisational compliance.

Organisations often require an effective policy and procedure management solution that will enable policy managers and administrators to quickly distribute policies to employees, easily obtain attestation and collaborate on policy updates.

Most companies already use Microsoft 365 or certain components of it to fulfill their business processes, but a product that is commonly utilised by organisations for policy document management is Microsoft SharePoint.

Leveraging SharePoint for policy and procedure management offers a robust solution for organizations looking to streamline their document management processes. SharePoint provides a centralized platform for creating, storing, and sharing policies and procedures, ensuring that employees have easy access to the most current documents. With features like version control, workflows, and permissions management, SharePoint helps maintain compliance, enhance collaboration, and improve operational efficiency.

What is Microsoft SharePoint?

Microsoft SharePoint is a website-based collaboration platform that provides an environment for people inside and outside of an organisation to work together. At it’s core, SharePoint can be described as a document management and storage system, that allows the accessing and sharing of information within one centralised location. It also enables organisations to automate their key workflow processes across multiple business areas.

Why SharePoint is ideal for policy and procedure management?

Many organisations now have a digital workplace based on Microsoft 365, using SharePoint Online as the basis for their intranet and document collaboration. This is great news for effective policy management because SharePoint is an ideal base technology for successful policy management.

The key component of SharePoint is it’s document management capabilities. It encompasses a wide variety of functionalities and features that are ideal for managing the lifecycle of controlled documents in an robust and process-driven way, from the creation and dissemination of new policies, through to policy review.

Combined with the other tools available in Microsoft 365, SharePoint offers an advanced and comprehensive policy management solution that will suit organisations of all sizes.

Key reasons to use SharePoint for policy and procedure management

You probably already have SharePoint
Many organisations already have SharePoint bundled with their Office 365 or Microsoft 365 licensing, making it a readily available platform for policy management. Microsoft’s continuous improvements have enhanced SharePoint’s ease of use and speed, making it a familiar tool for document management. Documents can be easily shared, collaborated on, and version control is effective, ensuring a single source of truth—critical for managing policies. Leveraging SharePoint for policy management means your users are already familiar with the system, and it is fully secured and backed up by Microsoft, providing peace of mind.
You can introduce automation and track the policy lifecycle
Lifecycle management is key to successful policy management. SharePoint integrates seamlessly with Power Automate, allowing you to automate workflows and processes around the policy content lifecycle. Create clear ownership, notifications, and workflows to ensure policies are kept up to date and provide views that show admins the status of policies.
Audit trails and version control ensure compliance
SharePoint provides a complete audit trail of changes made to policies and procedures, offering transparency and accountability. You can track updates across versions, showing when and who made changes, which is crucial for compliance and external auditing purposes.
It provides easy access for all employees
Centralised access to policies is crucial. With most organisations using SharePoint for their intranet, project sites, or communication sites, integrating a policy document library into existing channels is quick and easy. This ensures employees can easily access necessary documents, whether through the intranet or Microsoft Teams, which is increasingly central to workplace communication.
You can leverage Microsoft search
Using Microsoft search ensures policies are easily discoverable, helping employees find necessary documents through intranet search functionality. With CoPilot, Microsoft’s AI offering, it’s possible to include policy knowledge and content in AI outputs, further enhancing findability.
You can track usage
SharePoint allows tracking of policy usage, including views and updates. Integration with Active Directory and Power BI enables real-time reporting, supporting effective policy management. Critical data such as mandatory document reads can be tracked, ensuring compliance.
You can target policies
You can integrate with Azure Active Directory and the 365 groups that have been set up to help target policies to the right groups, such as new hires or a function like engineering or sales staff. You can also ensure people access the right policy based on their profile so people in Brazil see a different HR policy to those in France, for example.

What is SharePoint missing?

Although SharePoint is a highly flexible platform that offers many great features for document management, there are some important areas that it doesn’t cover. This means you’ll likely need either some custom development or advanced configuration to make SharePoint into a full policy and procedure management solution.

Does Microsoft have a policy management software?

Microsoft does not offer a dedicated policy management software. However, organisations can use SharePoint to manage policy documents. While SharePoint provides basic document management features like version control and workflows, it lacks specialised policy management functionalities such as automated attestations, audit trails, and advanced reporting. For a more complete solution, Xoralia policy software integrates with SharePoint to provide the additional features necessary for a robust policy management system.

If your organisation requires these advanced features, you have two main options:

  1. Build functionality using Microsoft’s rich toolset, using tools like Power Automate, Power BI and some clever code. This is not an easy task by an stretch of the imagination, but you’ll have fun along the way and learn a whole lot!
  2. Another way is use to Xoralia policy management platform. Xoralia has been built for SharePoint and enables you keep all your policies inside SharePoint and leverage the good stuff like version control, workflows etc, whilst filling the gaps in functionality that SharePoint doesn’t provide.

What gaps does Xoralia policy and procedure management software fill?

Xoralia software is a full policy management solution that provides a comprehensive set of features and functionalities designed to fill the gaps in SharePoint and to provide the sophistication that a robust policy management regime demands. Xoralia policy management software includes:

A central policy library
Xoralia acts as a central policy and procedure library that can be reached via a SharePoint-based intranet or via a SharePoint site. When accessing Xoralia, users are presented with an attractive and intuitive interface that has been designed to help employees find the policy documents they are looking for.
Each policy is listed with details including the title, the owner, the document format, the date it was last updated and any related instructions, such as whether it must be read. These instructions are personalised to the user. A handy summary at the top of the page also lets a user see the number of policies that they have to read.
Auditability
Organisations may need to demonstrate to regulators or other external bodies that they have robust processes in place to manage their policies and that all employees have read policies that are considered to be mandatory. Xoralia leverages the power of SharePoint to provide a complete audit trail of document changes, and also shows clear review policies in place with the ability to track these.
Xoralia can help ensure employees are carrying out mandatory reads. If a policy is mandatory to read, an employee can access the document within the app and confirm attestation once it has been read. It’s built-in report then shows policy owners and admins the percentage of those who have read the policy.
Automated notifications
Notifications ensure that policy owners are reminded to review the policies they own. Xoralia also has a simple dashboard that displays when a policy is due for review or has expired.
Reports for mandatory reads and more
Xoralia comes with powerful tracking and reporting tools. It shows policy owners the percentage of users that have read a policy, whilst administrators can access a more detailed report showing the status of all mandatory reads as well as other information relating to document status.
These reports can help teams to prepare for audits, and help policy managers see when interventions may be necessary.
Strong search facility
It is important for employees to be able to find the right policy quickly and effortlessly. Xoralia includes a strong search facility whereby an employee can enter keywords to find the policy they are looking for. Additionally, employees can filter by different categories including mandatory and non-mandatory reads, the department that owns the policy (IT, HR, Legal etc.) as well as custom tags.
Easy installation and deployment
Xoralia is quick and easy to implement. Because Xoralia can be applied to an existing SharePoint library it means you can easily convert an existing policy library to Xoralia. It can also be deployed from within any SharePoint intranet or other SharePoint site.

The story behind Xoralia

Xoralia was built by the team at Content Formula, an intranet and digital workplace consultancy that has built SharePoint intranets for some of the world’s most famous companies. Now, most companies want their policies and procedures on the intranet but they don’t just want to store them there, they also want tools to help better manage them. Over the years we came across just about every single requirement for a policy management system. As this article above explains, there are gaps in SharePoint and so we never built what in our mind was the perfect policy management system.

However, one of our clients challenged us to build something for them that filled all the gaps but still used SharePoint at the back end. We had a great relationship with them and agreed to share the budget to do this, provided we could then market the solution to others. That was in 2019. We’re now on version 3 of Xoralia and the product has grown and evolved a lot.

3 benefits you can expect from Xoralia

Make it easy to find policies

Centralised policy library with powerful search and filtering.

Reduce administrative burden

Automations and notifications so that all policy tasks are carried out on time

Demonstrate compliance and best practice

Sophisticated tracking and dashboards to drive and measure compliance.

And lots more!

Request a demo

What our clients say

Xoralia drives user engagement and compliance...

The platform's user attestation functionality has been particularly impactful, leading to a remarkable increase from ~50% to 86% in user attestation within a matter of weeks.

Rian Stuart

Rian Stuart, IT Manager, Twinstream

★★★★★

...simplifies our policy management...

It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization.

Nadja Boyum

Nadja Friedrichs, Vice President of HR, Boyum IT

★★★★★

...single source of truth and access for employees...

We successfully rolled out the tool with a minimal internal learning curve and achieved a 97% read / acknowledgement rate on our first assigned policy.

G2 logo
★★★★★

Contact us

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+44(0)20 4534 3460

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Email

[email protected]

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