American College of Radiology
A Purview pilot and an M365 cleanup that opened a secure route to Copilot for an organization that holds sensitive professional data.
Read the American College of Radiology story Microsoft 365 Optimization · Behavioral health
Behavioral health · Family of companies · 18 departments
Eighteen departments onto governed Microsoft 365. An AI-ready foundation for sensitive health data.
18 departments migrated. 90%+ staff adoption.
The situation
The situation we walked into.
Catalight is a human-centered social enterprise that advances access to behavioral health services for individuals with developmental disabilities. Their content lived in three places that did not speak to each other: an on-premises Confluence instance, network drives, and an underutilized Microsoft 365 estate. Search was hard. Adoption was uneven. Governance was inconsistent. As Copilot and AI-driven analytics moved from optional to essential for organizations working in health services, the leadership team saw the gap: an AI-ready environment requires governed, accessible data, and Catalight did not have one.
What we did
What we did.
We partnered with Catalight and their internal IT services provider, Xolv, on a comprehensive AI readiness initiative framed around Microsoft 365 optimization. The framing mattered. We were not selling AI. We were building the foundation that AI would compound on.
We started by exploring enhanced search capabilities. Working alongside the Xolv team, we tested Microsoft and Confluence connectors and evaluated the feasibility of bringing Confluence content into a unified M365 search experience. That work laid the groundwork for a one-stop search that AI tools could index against.
We built the M365 adoption layer in parallel. Training materials, internal communications templates, configuration guidance, live trainings, recorded sessions, admin support resources. The Catalight team had the content and the rhythm they needed to bring users along, not just the tools.
Department migration was the spine of the engagement. We provided project management and change support for each department’s transition from legacy systems onto M365. Each move included pre-migration consultations, detailed plans mapping content locations and Teams configurations, cutover orientations, and post-migration content management training. Standardized data storage made downstream metadata and AI readiness possible.
The content lifecycle work was the most technically delicate part. We worked with stakeholders to catalog every use case for archiving, auditing, records retention, sensitivity labeling, and data loss prevention. We documented an M365-based strategy and a phased implementation plan that addressed technology, processes, and the change management around them, then provided light implementation support for the M365 Purview configuration. Pilot setups went out to user groups, knowledge transfer happened with the admins, and the documentation we left supports the ongoing governance the Catalight team owns.
What changed
What changed.
Migration of content off the on-premises file servers and the cleanup of outdated content cut estimated content retrieval time by forty percent, which made faster AI querying and analysis possible. Over ninety percent of staff adopted the M365 tools after training, and the customized guides and sessions built a habit of continuous improvement. All eighteen departments migrated successfully to M365 and Teams. The lifecycle management framework reduces compliance risk on data classes where compliance matters most. The foundation now has the governed, cloud-based content stores it needs for predictive analytics on care pathways and for automated data loss prevention, which were the AI applications that drove the engagement in the first place.
The human moment
Catalight’s partnership with Ideal State has been instrumental in preparing our organization for the AI era. Their expertise in M365 optimization ensured our data is not just managed, but truly ready to drive meaningful impact.Doris Evans, MPA, Associate Director, Catalight Foundation
What sticks
What sticks.
The content lifecycle framework is the most durable artifact. It defines how every data class is handled across the M365 estate, from retention to sensitivity labeling to data loss prevention, and the Catalight admin team owns it now. The unified search experience continues to evolve as the foundation brings additional content sources into the index. The governance roles and configurations are documented for the next admin and the one after that. And the eighteen-department migration left every team on the same foundation, which is what made the move toward Copilot and AI-driven analytics feasible at all.
Lessons we carried forward
Lessons we carried forward.
Catalight reinforced a discipline we now hold across every M365 Optimization engagement: lifecycle management has to be designed for the most sensitive data class in the environment, not the average one. The behavioral health context, where PHI and HIPAA constraints live on a different floor of the building from the rest of the work, kept us honest. Every governance decision was tested against the question “would this hold up for a patient-data audit.” We carry that question into every engagement now, even where the regulatory environment is lighter. It produces better defaults and a more durable governance posture.
Connect with us
Have a Microsoft 365 estate the AI roadmap depends on?
Catalight started with a discovery call about content sprawl and ended with an AI-ready foundation. A 30-minute conversation with one of our co-founders is the right next step if you are weighing the same kind of decision. No deck. No consultant-speak. No pressure.
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