Getting Started with Microsoft Purview: Setup and Best Practices

When you’re running IT for a small or mid-sized business, you’re juggling more than enough already. SharePoint libraries overflowing with documents, Teams channels buzzing at all hours, and now Copilot adding its own demands for high-quality, well-governed data. This is exactly where Microsoft Purview enters the picture.

Purview isn’t just another Microsoft 365 add-on, it’s the backbone of a modern governance strategy. It gives you visibility into sensitive data, helps you classify it, and ensures you stay compliant without slowing down your users. But before you get value, you need to set it up the right way.

Done poorly, Purview becomes another tool IT struggles to enforce. Done well, it empowers your organization to trust its data, unlock Copilot’s full potential, and reduce long-term risks. In this article, we’ll walk through the first steps for setting up Microsoft Purview and highlight best practices that will save you headaches later.

Step 1: Preparing Your Microsoft 365 Environment

Before diving straight into policies and labels, confirm that your Microsoft 365 tenant is properly prepared. Purview integrates deeply with SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams, and Exchange. If your environment is disorganized, duplicate sites, inconsistent permissions, or unmanaged external sharing, Purview will only surface those issues rather than solve them.

Take inventory of your current data landscape. Which sites hold business-critical content? Are there personal (consumer) OneDrive accounts storing customer data? Do you already have basic retention policies in place? This groundwork is essential. SMBs often underestimate how much shadow IT and poor site hygiene can impact the effectiveness of Purview.

Step 2: Enable Purview Services

With a clean(er) foundation, you can begin enabling the Purview services most relevant to your business. At a minimum, start with:

• Data Classification so you can automatically detect sensitive information (think credit card numbers, health data, or tax IDs). 
• Information Protection to create sensitivity labels that travel with documents and emails wherever they go. 
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to prevent accidental or malicious sharing of sensitive data outside your organization. 

For SMBs, these core capabilities deliver the biggest impact fastest. Later, you can expand into insider risk management, eDiscovery, and communication compliance once your governance maturity grows.

Step 3: Define and Apply Sensitivity Labels

Sensitivity labels are the heart of Microsoft Purview. They allow you to classify documents and emails in ways that align with business needs. For example, you might define labels such as Public, Internal, Confidential, and Highly Confidential.

Best practice is to keep your labeling framework simple at first. Too many labels overwhelm users and create adoption challenges. For SMB IT pros, it’s better to start with three to five labels and evolve them as you learn how your business actually uses them.

And here’s the kicker: sensitivity labels aren’t just a compliance requirement, they directly affect how effective Copilot is. Copilot relies on data it can access. Well-labeled, governed content ensures Copilot can provide accurate, relevant, and compliant responses.

Step 4: Configure Purview DLP Policies for SharePoint and OneDrive for Business

Since your organization is already heavily invested in SharePoint and Copilot, this is where Purview delivers visible value. Apply Purview DLP policies directly to your SharePoint libraries and OneDrive for Business accounts. These policies allow you to restrict how sensitive files are shared, whether they can leave your tenant, and even if they can be printed or downloaded.

SMBs often overlook the importance of testing. Roll out DLP policies in “simulation mode” first so you can see what would have been blocked without disrupting users. This builds trust between IT and the business while avoiding support tickets from frustrated employees.

Purview DLP simulation mode example: Start in simulation mode to monitor matches without user impact. For instance, a rule that detects credit cards in /Finance/ libraries can log attempted external shares and alert admins, letting you tune exceptions before blocking.

Step 5: Monitor and Iterate

As you review dashboards, track label coverage and policy match rates as leading indicators of Microsoft 365 Copilot data protection quality. The initial setup is only the beginning. Microsoft Purview provides detailed dashboards and activity logs that reveal how data is being used, where policies are effective, and where risks remain.

For an SMB IT pro, this visibility is gold. It allows you to demonstrate governance value to leadership and fine-tune your approach.

Governance is never “one and done”. As your organization adopts new tools, hires new employees, and expands into new markets, your Purview policies should evolve in step. Set quarterly reviews to ensure your sensitivity labels, DLP rules, and retention policies remain relevant.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Even experienced IT pros run into these challenges:

• Over-engineering policies before understanding real-world usage.
• Launching too many labels too quickly, leading to user confusion.
• Treating Purview as only a compliance tool instead of a productivity enabler.
• Failing to connect Purview setup with Copilot readiness.

Avoiding these pitfalls ensures that your SMB doesn’t just “check the box” on compliance but also builds a foundation for smarter, AI-driven productivity.

Final Thoughts

Setting up Microsoft Purview is one of the smartest investments SMB IT pros can make for their SharePoint and Copilot environments. By taking a measured, practical approach, cleaning up your environment, enabling the right services, starting small with sensitivity labels, and monitoring results, you’ll establish governance practices that scale as your business grows.

Data governance doesn’t have to feel like a burden. With Purview, you’re not just protecting data, you’re making it more usable, more trustworthy, and more valuable for every employee, every day.