For IT and Microsoft 365 admins
Governed procedures and guides, built on the SharePoint platform you already run
iomer builds Hazel for your organization as a single installation package and installs it in your own tenant, on SharePoint lists, the term store, Entra ID groups and Power Automate. There is no new vendor platform, no second sign-in, and no data leaving Microsoft 365.
Download the IT overview (PDF, no form)
Architecture overview · 2-minute read
How Hazel fits into Microsoft 365
Download the IT overview (PDF)Download the datasheet (PDF, 2 pages)Watch the 30-second tour
How Hazel reaches your tenant
One package, built for you and installed by iomer
Hazel is a solution accelerator, not a product you download and set up yourself. We build a single deployment package for your organization and run the installation with your Microsoft 365 admin. Nothing is hosted by iomer: once it’s installed, Hazel runs entirely in your tenant.
Built for your organization
Your package contains the web part, lists, content types, term sets and Power Automate flows, already set up with your types, routes, audiences and theme.
Installed by iomer
We install it with your admin, who approves the app and permissions. Your IT team doesn’t assemble components or follow a setup guide.
Changed the same way
When you need new content types or routes, we build a new version of your package, test it and install it. Your package runs only in your tenant.
The same in every build
A foundation your team reviews once
- The web part, list schemas and search behaviour
- Approval, reminder and review flow logic
- The permission model for restricted content
- The audit log and version records
Specific to your build
Your organization’s settings, built in
- Content types, fields and Word templates
- Term sets, approval routes and approvers
- Audiences mapped to your Entra ID groups
- Theme, site location and restricted-content design
What differs between organizations is mostly configuration, not new code, so the foundation your security review looks at stays the same from build to build.
Security and data residency
Where your data lives
Hazel adds no new place for your data to live. Everything it stores is SharePoint content in your own tenant.
- Articles, versions, reading confirmations and the audit log are SharePoint list items, under your security, retention and data residency settings.
- No separate database, server or vendor cloud. Nothing is hosted by iomer.
- People sign in with their Microsoft 365 accounts. Access follows SharePoint permissions and your Entra ID groups.
- If you turn on AI answers, Microsoft 365 Copilot handles them within the Microsoft 365 service boundary, and only over content the person can already open.
- Your content is stored by Microsoft 365, which Microsoft independently audits against standards such as ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2. Those reports cover Microsoft 365 itself, not iomer, and are in Microsoft’s Service Trust Portal.
Microsoft 365 updates
Built to keep working through Microsoft 365 updates
Hazel uses only supported Microsoft interfaces, and doesn’t change SharePoint’s own page elements or rely on undocumented behaviour, which are the usual causes of breakage after an update.
- The SharePoint Framework, for the web part on a modern SharePoint page
- SharePoint REST and Microsoft Graph, for lists, search, people and groups
- Power Automate with standard connectors, for approvals, reminders and reviews
- Microsoft Purview retention labels, for records
When Microsoft changes something Hazel relies on, the change reaches you the same way as any other: a new version of your package, built, tested and installed by iomer.
Licensing prerequisites
Microsoft 365 plans Hazel works with
| Microsoft 365 plan | Hazel | Dynamic audiences | Retention labels, applied manually | Retention labels, applied automatically | AI answers (optional) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E5 | Included | Included | Included | Included | Add Microsoft 365 Copilot or pay-as-you-go |
| E3 | Included | Included | Included | Needs E5 Compliance or a Purview add-on | Add Microsoft 365 Copilot or pay-as-you-go |
| Business Premium | Included | Included | Included | Needs a Purview add-on | Add Microsoft 365 Copilot or pay-as-you-go |
| F3 (frontline) | Included | Included | Included | Needs a Purview add-on | Add Microsoft 365 Copilot or pay-as-you-go |
Hazel uses SharePoint, the term store, Entra ID groups and Power Automate with standard connectors, which these plans include (F3 through SharePoint Kiosk and Power Automate for Microsoft 365). Dynamic audiences use Entra ID P1, which these plans include; assigned groups work on any plan. Checked against Microsoft’s licensing documentation in October 2026. Microsoft changes plan contents, so check before you buy.
Specifications
What runs where
- Hosting
- Articles live in SharePoint lists in your tenant, under your own security, retention and data residency settings. The Hazel web part, built on the SharePoint Framework, runs full width on a modern SharePoint page inside your intranet. Nothing is hosted by iomer.
- Identity
- Microsoft Entra ID groups for audiences and roles, resolved through Microsoft Graph. People sign in with their existing Microsoft 365 accounts.
- Search
- SharePoint Search, plus Hazel’s own synonyms, recommended results and section matching.
- Workflows
- Staged approvals in Power Automate with due dates, escalation and separation of duties. Notifications go through Teams and Outlook.
- Content types
- Sections, guidance, fields, Word template, workflow, review cycle and reading rules for each type, built into your organization’s package.
- Records
- Version history with dates in effect, Microsoft Purview retention labels, and an audit log you can export to CSV.
- Access
- Internal, Confidential or Restricted. Restricted articles use item-level permissions and can’t be printed.
- Accessibility
- Designed to WCAG 2.2 AA: full keyboard use, visible focus, error summaries and reflow down to 320 pixels.
Before you start
What you need
- SharePoint Online and Power Automate
- A Microsoft 365 account for every reader
- Entra ID groups for your teams and roles
- A knowledge owner and named authors
- A Microsoft 365 admin to approve the installation with us
Delivered by iomer
What we do
- Plan your content types and approval routes with you
- Build your organization’s installation package
- Install it in your tenant and test it there
- Migrate your Word procedures in batches
- Launch with author and admin training
For your IT team
Plain facts to plan around
The details a Microsoft 365 admin asks about in the first meeting. Microsoft features and licensing change often; these were checked in September 2026.
Licensing
The Power Automate Approvals connector is a standard connector, covered by Microsoft 365 licences. Extra integrations that need premium connectors need extra Power Automate licences. Dynamic Entra ID groups need Entra ID P1; audiences can use assigned groups instead.
Search
SharePoint Online has no search thesaurus, so Hazel expands synonyms itself before it queries. Approved articles publish as major versions and drafts stay minor, so search only shows approved content. Microsoft publishes no time for new content to appear in search, and a large migration can take a day or more to index.
Records and sensitivity
Retention labels apply to list items, so articles and their versions carry them. Purview sensitivity labels apply to files, sites and groups, not list items, so Hazel enforces Restricted with item-level permissions. Attachments in the library can carry sensitivity labels.
Scale
Hazel is designed at the scale of 1,300 articles across 212 topics. Lists past 5,000 items need indexed columns and an archive for retired content, planned from the start. For much larger knowledge bases we review the list design with you first.
Notifications
SharePoint alerts were retired in 2026. Hazel’s notifications, reminders and digests run through Power Automate to Teams and Outlook.
AI answers
Optional and off by default. They need Microsoft 365 Copilot, pay-as-you-go billing for SharePoint agents, or your intranet platform’s own AI. Answers come only from content the person can already open, and never from restricted articles.
Hazel and Microsoft 365 Copilot
Copilot answers from what it finds. Hazel makes sure it finds the right thing.
Copilot and SharePoint agents answer questions from existing content, current or not, approved or not. They don’t approve, version or retire it.
Hazel gives every procedure one approved, current version with an owner and a review date. An agent scoped to Hazel’s published content gives better answers than one scoped to a shared drive.
SharePoint has no knowledge-base site template, and Viva Topics was retired in February 2025. Hazel is a governed knowledge base that iomer builds on the SharePoint you already run.
Bring your IT team to the walkthrough
Watch the 30-second tour, or book a walkthrough and we’ll go through the lists, flows and Entra ID groups behind Hazel and answer your security and licensing questions.