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Search every records system from the case, not just Microsoft 365

GCdocs, Hyland OnBase, Laserfiche, Axon Evidence, network file shares, line-of-business databases — browse and search them from the same Add from… picker as SharePoint, Outlook and Teams, and capture records into the case server-side with a verified SHA-256, full provenance and an audit-ledger entry. All of it in your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant.

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Responsive records rarely live only in Microsoft 365. A federal ATIP search runs through GCdocs — OpenText Content Server — across the Government of Canada; many municipal and provincial searches reach into OnBase; a police request needs the evidence system; nearly every search touches a network share or a line-of-business database. Those have been the parts of the search an access office does by email: ask the system's owner to look, wait for an export, upload it by hand, and hope no one asks later what was searched and whether the copy is the record.

AccessPoint 2.5.0 brings those systems into the case. A repository connector puts a records system in the same Add from… picker as SharePoint, Outlook, OneDrive and Teams, on every Documents workspace — requests and their assignments and tasks, privacy assessments, incidents and complaints. Coordinators browse it with a real breadcrumb, search the source itself, open a record's details to see the metadata the source publishes, and add records or collect a whole folder in the background. The capture happens server-side: the API fetches each record, streams it into the case's storage while computing its SHA-256, compares that with the hash the source declared, and processes it exactly like an upload.

Your browser never talks to the source. Every click goes to the AccessPoint API in your own Azure subscription, which calls the connector with its own identity and tells it who is asking, for which case and why — browse, search, capture or collect. Captured copies are stored in your tenant's own storage, and nothing about a connector ever passes through Realizer. Some connectors are built into the API and need only configuring; others are small HTTPS services you host beside the source — in your Azure subscription, or on a server on your premises reached through an Azure App Service Hybrid Connection, with no VPN and no inbound firewall rule. If your system isn't covered, build a connector on the published AccessPoint Connector Protocol with the .NET SDK, or in any language against its OpenAPI specification. Connectors are included in every plan; there is no per-connector fee.

Connectors ship today for these systems. Ready-to-run connectors you host in your Azure subscription or on your premises: network file shares, Hyland OnBase, OpenText Content Server and its Government of Canada service, GCdocs, Laserfiche and Axon Evidence. Built into AccessPoint and configured in Settings: Azure Blob Storage, SQL Server and Azure SQL views, CMIS 1.1 repositories such as Alfresco and Nuxeo, and MCP search servers. Building your own? See the connector developer guide. Product names are trademarks of their owners; AccessPoint connects through each vendor's published interfaces and is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

Sound familiar?

Three moments every access office that searches beyond its mailbox recognizes — and what each one risks.

The search you did by email

Half the responsive records are in the records system. You email its owner, wait a week for a zip file, and upload it by hand — with no note of what was searched, or how.

The question you can't answer

On appeal, the commissioner asks where you searched and whether the released copy is the record. The answer is an email thread and a folder of renamed files.

The link that changed

The case file pointed at a document in the source system. Someone edited it after the request closed, and now no one can show what was actually reviewed.

What to look for when FOI software reaches beyond Microsoft 365

Whatever you buy — including if it isn't AccessPoint — these are the questions that separate a link to another system from a defensible collection.

Server-side, never through the browser The request system should fetch records itself, with its own identity, so files never detour through a desktop and source addresses never reach a browser.
A frozen copy with a verified hash Each record should be copied into the case as it stood when it was taken, hashed while it streams, and checked against the hash the source declares.
Provenance as data, not a note Source, path, item id, version, hash, who captured it, when and for which case — on the document, in the audit trail, and in an export.
The same permission rule as an upload Who may add records to a case shouldn't change because the records come from elsewhere — and where the source can trim what each person sees, it should.
On-premises reach without opening the firewall Systems with no public endpoint should be reachable over an outbound-only tunnel, not a VPN or an inbound firewall rule.
A protocol you can build on When your system isn't on the list, you should be able to build the connector yourself — and not pay per connector for the ones that are.

How repository connectors work in AccessPoint

One picker, every source — these are the load-bearing pieces.

One picker for every source

Add from… lists Microsoft 365 and each connector you may use, with its own icon. Browse with a breadcrumb, filter what's loaded, and open a record's details for the metadata the source publishes — a record number, a document type, a retention class.

Search the source itself

Search here sends your query to the source system. On the Search tab, the Source selector runs one query against Microsoft 365, then against a records system, from the same box.

Collect this folder

Take a custodian's export or a case file's folder tree in one tracked background job, narrowed by dates, name pattern, extensions and size, with the source folders mirrored into the case. Re-running skips what's already there.

Suggestions and Ask AccessPoint

Suggested documents asks connectors for records matching the request's terms and period. Ask AccessPoint lists repository hits visible to you — names, paths and dates, never content — and offers a capture step you confirm.

Built in, or beside the source

Azure Blob, SQL view, CMIS and MCP connectors run inside the AccessPoint API. Remote connectors run in your Azure subscription or on premises, reached through a Hybrid Connection.

Custodians can collect their own

Coordinators see connectors by default. An administrator can widen one to custodians, and a custodian's repository row can be bound to a connector folder, with Browse here and Search here on the assignment.

See it in AccessPoint

Real screens from the product, running in a Microsoft 365 tenant. Click any one to enlarge.

The Add records picker in AccessPoint with a Repositories group below the Microsoft 365 sources Click to enlarge
One picker. Records systems appear beside Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams in the same Add records picker.
A connector open in the Add records picker with Collect this folder on a folder's menu Click to enlarge
In the same picker. Browse or search a records system from the request, or collect a whole folder.
A connector registration showing its identity mode, capabilities, health and a passed Test connection Click to enlarge
Tested before use. Test connection checks every step before coordinators see the connector.

Chain of custody

Every capture is an upload — with its provenance attached

A record taken from a connector enters the case through the same door as a file you upload: the same permission rule, the same PDF conversion, search indexing, redaction scans, duplicate detection and, where deployed, the Defender malware scan. What it adds is the record of where it came from. Source details show the source path and item id, the version taken, the hash with a Verified, Mismatch or Not declared pill, when the source last modified it, who captured it and when, and the collection job it arrived through. Open in source opens it in the source system with the person's own access, the Captured from facet filters the workspace by source, every capture writes an audit-ledger entry, and the same eight provenance columns travel in the tenant export. A connector that has captured anything can be disabled but never deleted, so that provenance keeps resolving.

Your tenant, end to end Connector traffic and captured copies stay under your control; Realizer never sees them.
Attributed every time Every call carries the person, the case and the purpose, and every capture is in the audit ledger.
No per-connector fee Repository connectors are included in every AccessPoint plan.

From a records system to the case

Set up once per source, then use it on every case:

  1. Choose the connector: a built-in kind for a source Azure can reach, or a ready-to-run Remote connector from the release's connectors folder, hosted in your Azure subscription or on premises.
  2. For an on-premises source, turn on Hybrid Connections in the AccessPoint deployment and install the Hybrid Connection Manager on a host that can reach the connector — outbound HTTPS only.
  3. Register it in Settings → Foundations → Repository connectors, choose who can see it, and run Test connection — the same ten-step conformance check the connector SDK's self-test runs.
  4. On any case, open Add from…, choose the repository, browse or search, and add records — or collect a whole folder in the background.
  5. Review the captures: Source details on each record, the Captured from facet across the case, and a notice that explains every skip.

Go deeper

Repository connectors in the docs Registering, testing and running connectors — kinds, identity modes, health and Hybrid Connections. FOI request management The full request lifecycle the search belongs to — deadlines, collection, redaction, release. ATIP case management Canadian federal ATIP end to end, with GCdocs searches captured into the case. Records & information managers Provenance, retention and a defensible search across the systems you steward. CIOs & Microsoft 365 leaders What runs where, which identity reads what, and what it costs in your own subscription. Security & data sovereignty Where captured records live, who can see them, and what never leaves your tenant.

Repository Connectors Questions

Which systems outside Microsoft 365 can AccessPoint search for FOI and ATIP requests?
Ready-to-run connectors ship for network file shares, Hyland OnBase, OpenText Content Server and its Government of Canada service, GCdocs, Laserfiche and Axon Evidence. Built-in connectors cover Azure Blob Storage, SQL Server and Azure SQL views, CMIS 1.1 repositories and MCP search servers. For any other system, a connector is one .NET class behind the AccessPoint connector SDK, or any HTTPS service that implements the published OpenAPI specification, and a command-line self-test checks it before you register it — see the connector developer guide.

Does connector data leave our tenant or pass through Realizer?
No. Connector traffic runs between the AccessPoint API in your own Azure subscription and a connector that runs inside that API or wherever you host it — in your Azure subscription or on your premises. Captured records are stored in your tenant's own storage. The browser never calls a connector, and nothing about a connector — its address, its traffic or the records it returns — passes through Realizer.

Do we need a VPN to reach on-premises records systems?
No. A connector for a source with no public endpoint — a file share, an on-premises OnBase or Content Server — runs on a server next to it, and AccessPoint reaches it through an Azure App Service Hybrid Connection. The Hybrid Connection Manager on that server makes an outbound connection on port 443 to Azure Relay, so there is no VPN, no ExpressRoute and no inbound firewall rule, and the API's own TLS session runs end to end inside the tunnel. Azure Relay bills about USD $10 per listener per month at list price, with 5 GB of relay traffic included, in your own subscription.

Does AccessPoint copy records or link to them?
It copies them. Every captured record is a frozen copy in the case, with its source path, item id, version and a SHA-256 computed while it streams and compared with the hash the source declared — never a live link that could change under the case. Each copy also links back to the item in the source where the source provides a link, and the same item at the same version is skipped rather than captured twice on one case. Up to 10 records totalling 100 MB are captured at once; larger selections and whole folders run as background jobs.

Who can use a connector, and whose permissions apply?
An administrator decides who sees each connector — by default, coordinators who manage documents — and can widen it to a role such as Custodian so custodians collect their own records. AccessPoint then applies the same rule as uploading a file: you must be allowed to add records to that case, and a closed request refuses captures. Each connector also declares an identity mode: Application, where its service identity reads the source and AccessPoint's rule is the gate, or Application with user check, where the connector trims what each person sees and confirms access before every capture. AccessPoint never forwards a user's own token to a connector.

What do repository connectors cost?
Repository connectors are included in every AccessPoint plan, with no per-connector fee. AccessPoint is a flat annual license by organization size — $2,990, $7,990, $14,990 or $29,990 — with no per-user fees, billed through the Microsoft commercial marketplace, with a 30-day free trial. Built-in connectors run inside the AccessPoint API and add no service to host. A Remote connector runs on hosting you choose, and an on-premises one adds an Azure Relay Hybrid Connection — both billed in your own Azure subscription.

Flat annual pricing, published in full. Every feature in every size — access requests, privacy impact assessments, breach response, complaints, video & audio redaction, the public portal, repository connectors, and AI Assist. No per-user or per-module fees.

  • Under 500 employees$2,990/yr
  • 500–1,999 employees$7,990/yr
  • 2,000–9,999 employees$14,990/yr
  • 10,000+ employees$29,990/yr

See full pricing Build the business case

Search Every Repository From the Case.

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