Want to prove your skills as a Microsoft 365 Compliance Expert? The Implement retention, eDiscovery, & Communication Compliance in Microsoft Purview Applied Skill just became available and this is your chance to get a FREE Microsoft credential!
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Video Summary
- Microsoft has released a new free credential called “Implement Retention, eDiscovery, and Communication Compliance in Microsoft Purview,” part of their Applied Skills program.
- Applied Skills are project-based, focusing on hands-on, real-world scenarios instead of traditional exams.
- To earn this credential, you need to master tasks like creating and configuring retention labels, managing retention policies, configuring eDiscovery premium cases, implementing communication compliance, and using content search.
- Microsoft provides a detailed study guide that outlines each task you need to know, helping you prepare effectively.
- The introduction of multiple Applied Skills related to information protection might indicate future changes to existing certifications like the SC-400.
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
Video Transcript
Doesn’t a free Microsoft credential about their top compliance tools sound amazing? Well, if you agree with me, you’re in luck because Microsoft just released their “Implement Retention, eDiscovery, and Communication Compliance in Microsoft Purview” applied skill, and it’s available today. This is actually Microsoft’s second Microsoft 365 compliance applied skill in two weeks. If you missed that video, check out the link in the description below. Let me just take 30 seconds for those of you who might be new to applied skills.
Applied skills is Microsoft’s new verified scenario-based credential that proves proficiency in skill sets specific to critical business challenges. The amazing thing about Microsoft applied skills is that they are very specific to one or only a few products, and they are project-based. So, you don’t need to answer 50 multiple-choice questions with trick questions. Everything is in a lab. You get a scenario, you get told what you have to achieve, and then you just go do it as you would in your day-to-day job. And wait, did I mention the best part? They are 100% free. You can go and take it today. No scheduling required, no proctor required, no credit card required. Just go and take it whenever you want.
Now, let’s talk about this specific applied skill. To earn this Microsoft applied skills credential, learners demonstrate the ability to implement retention, eDiscovery, communication compliance, and content search in Microsoft Purview. Candidates for this credential should be familiar with Microsoft 365 services and Microsoft Purview. They also need experience administering compliance in Microsoft 365. Now, let’s talk about some of the tasks you might be asked to perform.
Remember when I said this is 100% hands-on? So, you are given some tasks to do, and you have to do them in the lab. Here are six of the tasks. You’re not going to have to do all of them; you’re only going to have to do a subset. But this is what you need to know how to do: you need to be able to create and configure retention labels, apply retention labels, create and manage retention policies (again, the difference between labels and policies), create and configure eDiscovery premium cases (so not only the base eDiscovery standard, you need to know everything including the premium suite of products), implement communication compliance, and monitor and investigate data and activities by using content search.
This is still pretty high level. Luckily, Microsoft gives us an applied skills study guide which goes a lot more in detail. So, you know what? Let’s go and check it out together. Okay, I’m now on the homepage of the applied skill. You’ll have a direct link to it in the description below. If you are just ready to take the assessment, you can click the blue button here and just go take it. But if not, let’s scroll down a little bit. Under applied skills resources, the first one is the study guide for applied skills. Remember when I said one of the things you need to know how to do is create and configure retention labels? Well, here it goes a lot more in detail. You need to know how to create and manage retention labels for Microsoft Purview data lifecycle management, create and manage retention labels for Microsoft Purview records management, and create and manage events-based retention.
Then, for applying retention labels, you need to know how to publish retention labels, auto-apply retention labels (so not only do it manually, but you need to know how to create that auto-apply rule and how to create an adaptive scope). For each one of the cases, you have this checklist that tells you exactly what you need to know in order to pass the applied skill. For example, I know a little bit about eDiscovery, but here I need to say, “Okay, do I know how to add a custodian? Do I know how to create a review set?” Especially for those of you whose company doesn’t have eDiscovery premium, they might only have content search or eDiscovery standard. This really tells you what are all the things that you need to know in order to pass the applied skill from the first try. I won’t go through all of them together. It’s not that many, but you can go. You’ll have the direct link in the description so you can go and check off everything you know yourself.
Before we’re done, I want to share some of my thoughts around this applied skill. If we look at the current portfolio, we now have three applied skills around information protection. The first one is “Implement Retention, eDiscovery, and Communication Compliance in Microsoft Purview,” of course, the star of this video. We then have “Implement Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention by Using Microsoft Purview,” and we also have “Prepare Security and Compliance to Support Microsoft 365 Copilot.” The fact that we have three of them scares me a little bit, and let me tell you why.
Earlier in 2024, Microsoft replaced the PL-100 Power Platform App Maker certification with three different applied skills. Now that we have three applied skills that focus on information protection, and let’s be honest, they have a lot of overlap with exam SC-400, the Information Protection Administrator certification. Will history repeat itself? Is Microsoft building those applied skills in order to fully replace the SC-400 certification? Will the SC-400 certification maybe change to be something new? Well, I hope not, but let’s see where Microsoft goes. As soon as I have the knowledge, I’ll make sure to share it with you.
But this is it for this video. Are you taking this applied skill? Is this something that you think is exciting? Please let me know in the comments below. I think this is a super interesting one to have, especially if you’re a pro in eDiscovery and communication compliance but don’t necessarily do a lot of the other compliance tasks. This can be a great credential for you.
As always, make sure to share this video with your compliance friends on LinkedIn and challenge them to take it. Thank you so much for watching this video. I really hope you enjoyed and found it valuable. Please, if you liked it, make sure you like the video, subscribe to the channel, and let me know in the comments what kind of videos you would like from me next. Thank you so much for watching.
