What Is Microsoft Purview — and Why Colligo Makes It Effective for Email, Compliance & Copilot

Microsoft Purview plays a critical role in Microsoft 365 compliance, governance, and data protection. Organizations rely on Purview to define retention policies, support eDiscovery, and manage records across Microsoft 365 — and increasingly, to govern how AI tools like Microsoft Copilot interact with corporate data.

But while Microsoft Purview is powerful, it does not, on its own, solve the operational challenges of email records management. That gap becomes even more consequential when organizations introduce AI tools that rely on trustworthy, well-governed data.

That’s where Colligo comes in.

Colligo works with Microsoft Purview to ensure that email content is captured, classified, retained, and made defensible — turning Purview policies into real-world, auditable compliance outcomes.

This article explains:

• What Microsoft Purview does (and does not do)
• Why “in-place” email records management is no longer sufficient
• How Colligo operationalizes Purview retention and records management
• Best practices for using Purview and Colligo together — especially in a Copilot era

What Is Microsoft Purview?

Microsoft Purview is Microsoft’s unified compliance, data governance, and risk management platform for Microsoft 365. It helps organizations:

• Define and apply retention policies and retention labels
• Manage records management and disposition
• Support eDiscovery, audit, and legal hold
• Govern data used by Microsoft 365 Copilot and other AI tools

Purview provides the policy framework for compliance — defining how long information should be retained, when it can be deleted, and how it should be protected.

However, Purview is policy-centric, not ingestion-centric. It assumes that content already exists in systems that can be governed natively, such as SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange.

This assumption creates a significant challenge for email.

The Email Problem: Why “In-Place” Records Management Falls Short

Microsoft has promoted “in-place” retention as a way to manage email records directly in Exchange. While this approach may appear convenient, it is not sufficient for compliant records management — especially in regulated environments.

Leaving email “in place”:

• Limits metadata normalization and classification
• Constrains defensible disposition workflows
• Complicates regulatory audits and legal discovery
• Increases risk when AI tools surface content out of context

True records management requires centralized, controlled repositories where records can be governed independently of the systems that created them.

This is why many organizations are re-evaluating their approach and moving email records into SharePoint or other compliant repositories — a position Colligo has taken clearly and publicly.

For a deeper dive, see: Why In-Place Records Management Is Not Compliant

Why Purview Alone Isn’t Enough for Email Compliance

For email compliance to be defensible, records must meet several operational requirements. Purview can define what should happen to email — but it does not ensure that email records are:

• Reliably captured
• Consistently classified
• Stored in a defensible records repository
• Ready for audit, eDiscovery, or AI-driven use

Without proper email capture:

• Retention policies cannot be enforced consistently
• Records labels lack meaning
• eDiscovery becomes fragmented
• Copilot may surface content that should have been governed differently

Policies without operational execution create compliance risk.

How Colligo Makes Microsoft Purview Operational and Defensible

Colligo Email Manager bridges the gap between Purview policy and real-world email governance.

Together, Purview and Colligo provide an end-to-end compliance workflow:

1. From Retention Policy to Real Email Capture

Purview defines retention rules and records classifications.
Colligo ensures that email is:

• Captured automatically (without relying on users)
• Enriched with meaningful metadata
• Routed into SharePoint or other compliant repositories

This transforms email from unstructured communication into governed records.

2. Defensible Records Management — Not Just Retention

Retention alone does not equal records management. Colligo enables:

• Centralized storage aligned with records best practices
• Application of Purview retention labels after capture
• Controlled disposition workflows with auditability

This is essential for organizations facing regulatory scrutiny.

3. eDiscovery That Actually Works

When email is captured and classified properly:

• Purview eDiscovery searches become more complete
• Legal hold processes are easier to defend
• Content is easier to contextualize and produce

Colligo ensures that email records participate fully in Purview’s eDiscovery workflows.

4. Making Purview and Copilot Safe for Production

Microsoft Copilot relies on Microsoft 365 data — including email.

Without proper governance:

• AI can surface outdated, sensitive, or misclassified content
• Retention gaps become amplified by AI visibility
• Compliance risk increases, not decreases

By ensuring email is properly captured and governed, Colligo helps make Purview and Copilot effective and defensible in production environments. 

For more on this, view our webinar: Is Your Data Ready for AI?

Best Practices: How to Use Microsoft Purview and Colligo Together for Email Management

Organizations seeing the most success with Purview and Colligo follow these best practices:

1. Design Retention Policies First

Use Purview to define:

• Regulatory retention requirements
• Business value retention
• Disposition timelines

Then ensure those policies can actually be enforced operationally.

2. Avoid In-Place Email Records Management

Do not rely solely on Exchange in-place retention for records:

• Centralize email records in SharePoint or approved repositories
• Apply retention labels in a controlled environment
• Maintain clear audit trails

3. Automate Email Capture

User-driven filing is unreliable.

Colligo enables:

• Automatic capture based on policy
• Consistent classification
• Reduced user burden

Automation is key to defensible compliance. Learn more about Colligo Auto-File.

4. Align Email Governance with Copilot Strategy

Before rolling out Copilot broadly:

• Ensure email content is governed correctly
• Validate retention and disposition rules
• Confirm eDiscovery readiness

AI magnifies both good governance and bad governance.

5. Continuously Monitor and Improve

Compliance is not static.

Use Purview reporting and Colligo insights to:

• Validate policy effectiveness
• Adjust retention strategies
• Respond to regulatory change

From Purview Policy to Real Email Capture — Faster Than You Think

Many organizations assume implementing compliant email governance will take years. In reality, Purview and Colligo can move organizations from policy to production in weeks, not months.

By aligning retention policies with automated email capture and centralized records management, organizations can:

• Reduce compliance risk quickly
• Support audits with confidence
• Enable AI responsibly

This “policy-to-production” bridge is where many compliance programs succeed — or fail.