With over 250 million monthly active users, Microsoft Teams has become the top collaboration platform for remote and hybrid work. With a wide array of collaboration tools and deep integration with the entire Microsoft 365 suite, it’s no surprise that Teams is truly changing the way we work, collaborate, and communicate.
That being said, Teams still has its quirks and limitations that organizations need to address if they want to truly leverage their investment and get as much out of the platform as possible.
Over the last year and a half, we’ve worked with many organizations in helping them deploy and manage Teams, so we’re happy to bring you some of our best practices regarding adoption, provisioning & governance, and data protection.
Half-hearted Adoption Isn’t the Answer
With all of its features and the ability to integrate with other Microsoft products and even other collaboration systems, rolling out Teams can be a massive undertaking. Organizations that underestimate the resources necessary to adopt Teams may get discouraged and only use it for a few features, such as chat and meetings.
While this still adds some value, it doesn’t come close to leveraging the full value of the platform. Organizations must adopt Teams for total integration with Microsoft 365 as well as their existing systems (such as the Document Management System or DMS). This allows your organization to initiate projects through right from Teams through Microsoft’s wide array of apps. You can also plan and organize these projects and matters through your Teams and Channels. Only then will your organization begin to see why Teams is changing the game in terms of hybrid work.
Integration with your other virtual collaboration systems is huge, but in order to ensure safe and efficient collaboration between internal and external users, provisioning of your Teams Channels and workspaces is a must.
Reduce Chaos through Provisioning
Organizations often rely on more than one collaboration platform – like the DMS, CRM, and more – to carry out matters and projects. As the number of matters grows, so too does the risk of a cyberattack.
This is because when left to their own devices, users will create numerous Teams for one matter with names and Channel structures most convenient to them. This creates immense data chaos and leaves data floating vulnerable around your systems.
When carried out across multiple collaboration systems, this practice can quickly spiral into chaos and become a nightmare for any organization’s risk, privacy, and compliance professionals. They will be lost among a sea of data, uncertain of how to locate specific projects and matters in order to assign disposition and security policies. Even worse, in the event of a cyberattack, they won’t be able to seek out affected data and respond promptly.
To remedy this issue, organizations must create logical storage locations for users to save data through provisioning. Teams offers out-of-the-box provisioning with default templates to help provision and structure your Channels. But this method can be quite time-consuming and opens the door for human error.
Automating this process through a software solution – like Prosperoware CAM – can help address data chaos and governance issues to mitigate privacy and cybersecurity risks. CAM enables automatic and on-demand provisioning of Teams, Channels, SharePoint sites, OneDrive folders, OneNote, Planner, Lists, internal and external users & groups, and more, with standardized naming conventions and templates to fit simple and complex use cases.