Microsoft Teams is becoming an increasingly popular collaboration and communication tool across organizations striving for a fully digital workspace environment.
Let’s be honest, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 tools are not the easiest to use. Unless you have completed formal Microsoft 365 training, you are likely confused half the time. And the other half you are trying to figure out which tools to use for what job or task. Even deciding whether to use Microsoft Teams, Groups, SharePoint, or Communication site can bring on a case of analysis paralysis.
When tasked with managing an internal or external project, you may run into a few issues:
- First, you may want to find out if a Team or a SharePoint site for the project already exists.
- If the workspace doesn’t exist, you will need to make a decision on whether you should create one. Then decide whether a Team, a Group, or a SharePoint site will best satisfy your needs.
- Identify whether you should create a workspace from scratch, or use one of the out-of-the-box templates.
- Identify whether you have the freedom to create a workspace, or whether you have to request SharePoint provisioning from IT.
- Come up with a descriptive name that explains the purpose of the workspace and makes it easy to find.
- If you are creating a workspace from scratch, you will need to identify, add and configure the apps. They will need to accomplish the goals of the project, yet not overwhelm people who will be collaborating with you.
- Locate and add relevant documents to the space to make them easily accessible and findable for the rest of the team.
- Security must be a consideration. So you will need to think about the permissions, sharing settings, and adding members to the team.
- You may want to think about sharing the responsibility for the workspace with others. Adding other workspace owners may be beneficial.
- If your workspace requests require approval, you may need to add descriptive reasons for the approvers of the workspace.
That is a lot of responsibility to bear, especially if you haven’t completed Microsoft Teams training.
Is there a better way?
We at Orchestry believe that Microsoft 365 tools don’t have to be difficult and require deep technical expertise. Our mission is to provide autonomy, freedom, and flexibility to the end users. This will help them work effectively without extensive training.
We have developed an intuitive, self-directed Teams and SharePoint Online Provisioning Wizard. It is a tool that allows end-users to create new Teams and SharePoint sites simply and easily. Every new workspace created through the Team of SharePoint site provisioning workflow is a carbon copy of one of many business-first workspace templates. Every new Team and SharePoint provisioned is already embedded with Microsoft 365 governance policies configured by the company admins.
By following the 5 easy steps in SharePoint or MS Teams Provisioning, the end-users can create new workspaces in less than 5 minutes. The new workspaces will either need to be reviewed or provisioned to end users to start using immediately.
So let’s take a closer look at the easy steps involved in requesting a workspace using Orchestry’s provisioning engine.
Step 1. Select a SharePoint or Microsoft Teams template
Orchestry comes with a library of workspace templates, filled with all the right tools and features to get the work done. IT administrators can customize the existing ones or create additional provisioning templates. They can embed them with the right tools, resources, governance, content lifecycle & guest management policies, pre-defined permissions, and other settings.
Every workspace template available to users in the Teams and SharePoint Online provisioning engine has the following indicators:
- Distinctive name
- Description
- The primary goal of the template
- The intended audience
- An information tab
All of this helps the users make the right decision on which template is the right one for their needs.
Step 2. Customize your Teams or SharePoint template
Once you select the template, you can customize it to uniquely meet your exact needs. This includes adding links to specific features:
- Asana project
- Calendar
- Charts
- Countdown timers
- Risk register
- Quick links to the wiki
- Product lists or description pages
- Photo galleries and more.
Next, you will be able to customize your workspace with the right documents. Your IT team may have already embedded the workspace template with suggested documents for this type of template. All you have to do is select the ones you would like to include as part of your new workspace.
Step 3. Generate details for your new Team or SharePoint site
Next, you will need to provide some additional details about your workspace to make it easy to find.
As part of Orchestry’s core Microsoft 365 Governance functionality, the IT administrators have the ability to create certain metadata fields. When they are filled, they will be automatically added to the name of the new workspace. For example, you can select your location, division, and even department.
The unparalleled feature of Orchestry is an automatic duplicate scanner. When you input the name of your new workspace, along with the metadata fields, Orchestry will scan all other workspaces. It will notify you of any potential duplicates, which you can assess and decide whether you need to continue with the Team or SharePoint Online site provisioning request.
Step 4. Configure Microsoft Teams channels and permissions
As part of the workspace template, you may already have a list of channels suggested, however, you can configure additional ones based on the specific communication needs.
Depending on the nature of the template, and its sensitivity level, the sharing permissions may have already been predetermined for your workspace by the IT team. The workspaces can either be private (only accessible by members of the workspace), public (open to all members of the organization to access) or have guest access enabled (so it can be shared with collaborators from outside of your organization).
To avoid ownerless and memberless workspaces, and to help you share the responsibility for managing the workspace, your IT team may have preconfigured the minimum required number of owners and members, so you will need to add additional owners and members to the new workspace.
Step 5. Do the final review and request Microsoft Teams or SharePoint provisioning
As the final step, Orchestry will compile all of the details of the workspace you are creating on one single page for a final once-over before submitting it for provisioning. Make sure that you are happy with the name, the document templates, and features, the channels, and sharing permissions.
If you want to make edits to any of the sections, you can simply hit the pencil button, instead of backtracking. When you are ready, click “Yes, I’m done”.
Some templates require review and approval by administrators before the new SharePoint site or Team is provisioned. Others don’t, and you will be able to start using your shiny and fully configured workspace in minutes.
If approval is required, the administrator/approver will receive the notification and will be able to review the details of your workspace, and either provide feedback which will be sent to you or provision Microsoft Teams or SharePoint at once. Having the full context of the workspace on hand, the approvers are able to make educated decisions on whether the workspace requested satisfies the business needs perfectly and make edit suggestions if something is missing.
You as a requester will always be in the know of the current status of the workspace review and provisioning every step of the way.
Want to see Orchestry in action?
Orchestry offers a free full-experience trial for 28 days.
- Trusted by thousands of IT admins, and leading Microsoft 365 partners worldwide
- Fully secure application attested by SOC2 Security certification
- Full features, zero commitment
- No credit card required
- Orchestry apps installation takes less than 15 minutes
- No obligation. If Orchestry is not your cup of tea, simply delete the apps at the end of the trial. All the content you created using Orchestry will remain
Chat with one of our Microsoft 365 experts about the opportunities you can unlock with Orchestry and see it in action.
Want more insights like this one?
For more Microsoft 365, SharePoint Online, and Teams insights, tips and tricks, best practices, and exclusive events delivered straight to your inbox, join our mailing list today and level up your Microsoft 365 game!
