The 5Cs Modern Workplace Framework
The Framework
If you’ve spent any time in marketing or strategy, you’ve probably come across a 5C framework: Company, Customers, Competitors, Context and Collaborators.
Different flavours exist, but the idea is the same: Simple structure, clear thinking, better decisions.
We’ve taken that same principle and applied it to a problem we see every day in enterprise IT and the public sector:
How do you modernise the digital workplace and enable Copilot without increasing risk, chaos or cost?
The result is what we call the 5Cs Modern Workplace Framework.
It’s not a theoretical model. It’s a practical flow we use on real programmes across government, energy, financial services, and regulated industries especially where Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, Purview and Copilot are in play.
The five pillars:
This framework is grounded in real-world delivery experience across government and regulated industries and is supported by Proventeq’s CPS modules and Gov360 capabilities.
Content
Establish a trusted content foundation
Purpose: To reduce risk and complexity by understanding, rationalising, and cleaning up enterprise content before migration or AI enablement.
Collaboration
Design structure into modern work
Purpose: To create clarity and consistency in how collaboration tools are used across the organisation.
Communication
Embed ways of working
Purpose: To ensure the digital workplace becomes the primary channel for communication via Teams, engagement via Viva, and collaboration via SharePoint.
Control
Govern by design
Purpose: To embed security, compliance, and records management into the modern workplace without impeding productivity.
Copilot
Enable AI with confidence
Purpose: To activate Copilot and AI capabilities on a governed, high-quality content estate with measurable value.
Content: Don’t move the mess
Before you migrate or enable AI, you need to know what you actually have. We start by discovering, analysing, and rationalising content across:
- File shares
- Desktops
- SharePoint (classic and modern
- Legacy ECM platforms (FileNet, OpenText, Oracle, Documentum)
Using Proventeq CPS Discovery and Migration modules, we analyse the content estate to identify ROT (redundant, obsolete, and trivial information), uncover stale and orphaned data and surface overshared or high-risk content.
This process also reveals ownership and permission issues, providing the clarity needed to reduce risk, rationalise content, and create a safer foundation for migration and Copilot adoption.
Outcome: A smaller, cleaner, lower-risk content estate and a much safer foundation for Copilot.
Collaboration: Structure the way work happens
Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive are powerful but only when designed deliberately.
Here we focus on:
- Information architecture and taxonomy
- Clear patterns for Teams, sites, and workspaces
- Rules for where content lives and why
- Lifecycle management from creation to archive
This is where CPS Migration and Metadata modules come into play, ensuring structure is applied consistently not manually through our provisioning capability.
A core objective of this stage is enabling co-authoring as a default way of working, ensuring documents, knowledge, and decisions are created collaboratively in real time across Teams, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365, rather than fragmented across emails, attachments, and personal drives.
Outcomes:
- Less duplication and collaboration that actually scales.
- Increased Co-Authoring and reduced document duplication with faster decision cycles through shared, live content.
Communication: Make the digital workplace the default
Technology adoption fails when behaviour doesn’t change.
This stage is about embedding ways of working, not just deploying tools:
- Leadership communication via Teams and Viva
- Department and frontline engagement
- Communities of practice
- Clear norms around channels, meetings, and content sharing
We often layer in Gov360 here using insights, and guardrails to reinforce the right behaviours across departments and roles.
Outcome: Higher adoption, less email sprawl, and a digital workplace people actually use.
Control: Governance by design
Governance shouldn’t arrive after the incident.
At this stage we apply:
- Sensitivity labels and classification
- Retention and records management
- DLP and insider risk controls
- Oversharing and restricted search boundaries
This is where Microsoft Purview and E5 security controls come together with CPS enforcing governance during migration, including access conditions and device trust, not as an afterthought.
Outcome: A governed environment that supports productivity, not one that blocks it.
Copilot: Activate AI with confidence
Copilot is incredibly powerful but it amplifies whatever environment it’s given.
Only once the first four Cs are in place do we focus on:
- Copilot readiness validation
- Role-based Copilot scenarios
- Prompt libraries and guardrails
- Adoption metrics and value tracking
With Gov360, organisations can continuously monitor and optimise Copilot usage, ensuring AI delivers value without increasing risk. Copilot delivers value when insight can safely trigger actions, approvals, and business processes not when it stops at answers to prompts.
Outcome: Faster time-to-value from Copilot, fewer surprises, and measurable productivity gains.
