Higher Education

Collaboration is thriving. Keeping it sustainable is the job.

Universities create class and faculty sites constantly, for thousands of students, staff, and outside collaborators. Orchestry gives IT one place to provision sites to standard, apply sensitivity labels, manage guest access, and reclaim storage from sites no one uses anymore, without slowing collaboration down.

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What ungoverned growth leaves behind

Class and faculty sites multiply faster than anyone tracks them

Microsoft 365 makes it easy to create a site for every class, project, and faculty. It doesn't make it easy to see who owns them, what's in them, or when the work ended.

Guests who finished the work still have access

Research collaborators, visiting staff, partner institutions: access gets granted and rarely gets reviewed. There's no natural moment when the collaboration ends and the access does too.

Old sites leave storage behind, and that storage costs money now

Microsoft's pooled-storage model turned ungoverned content growth into a budget line. What used to be messy but invisible under per-user licensing now shows up on a bill.

Locking things down isn't the answer

Universities treat open access and collaboration as academic values, not IT preferences. Governance that restricts self-service doesn't get adopted.

AI will surface whatever a user can already reach

Sites no one owns, unlabeled sensitive research data, and guests with lingering access don't stay invisible when Copilot is switched on. Getting the tenant AI-ready means doing the governance and cleanup work first.

"Orchestry has been a set-and-forget solution for us. It's very low touch for IT, but delivers very high value across the University."

Robert Jurgensen
Head of Cloud Infrastructure

36%

Of existing workspaces flagged for archiving

75 hours

Freed per month through automated lifecycle management

900+

Hours of IT time freed per year with automated lifecycle management

Every class and project site, created to standard

Orchestry's provisioning templates apply your governance standards at creation, so faculty and staff keep self-service and IT keeps oversight. Policy runs quietly underneath; no one has to become the Teams request police.

Governed self-service for class and project sites, with naming, owners, and metadata enforced every time
The right sensitivity label applied at creation, not chased down later
Templates for each site type, including class team, research project, department, committee, and public-facing
Approval routing for higher-risk requests, so the right person signs off before a site exists

Reclaim the storage old sites leave behind

When a class ends, the site doesn't. It stays open, unreviewed, and occupying storage under a model where ungoverned content growth is now a real budget line. One university found tens of thousands of disabled or deleted user accounts still occupying tenant storage. Orchestry surfaces inactive sites and sites no one owns, then routes archival decisions to the owner as one-click actions, configured per site type, so storage comes back without IT chasing down every owner.

Inactive sites, and sites no one owns, surfaced automatically
Inactivity-based archival and renewal policies, with owners reviewing before anything is sealed, configured per site type

Guest access and oversharing, visible and reviewed

Universities collaborate constantly with outside parties, and access rarely gets removed when the work ends. Orchestry gives IT the full guest and external exposure in one view, then routes the cleanup to owners as one-click actions.

Guest requests routed to a responsible owner for one-click approval
A monthly workspace review covers guest access, sensitivity labels, and sharing health in about 20 minutes per owner
Membership, sharing links, and broken permissions surfaced in one view, not dug out site by site
Oversharing detection flags sensitive student or research content exposed too broadly

See a demo built around how your institution uses Microsoft 365

A focused 30-minute walkthrough with someone who has worked with university IT teams across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and North America.

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Frequently asked questions

We're on Microsoft A5. Doesn't that cover provisioning and lifecycle management?

A5 gives you the raw capabilities, not the orchestration. Universities on A5 still spend weeks on manual provisioning and cleanup. Orchestry works alongside your A5 investment, adding governed self-service, lifecycle management, and the single-pane reporting that native tools don't provide.

Each faculty has different naming conventions and site structures. Won't this lock us into one rigid template?

No. IT sets the guardrails; faculties get templates and flexibility within them. You can create faculty- or department-specific templates while keeping central governance, the balance the University of Waikato struck.

Will Orchestry slow down how staff and students collaborate, or restrict academic self-service?

It shouldn't, and that's the point. Orchestry adds lifecycle and accountability around collaboration, not restrictions on it. Staff keep self-serving; policy runs quietly underneath. The University of Waikato called it 'set-and-forget, very low touch for IT.'

How does Orchestry compare to ShareGate, AvePoint, or Powell?

ShareGate is migration-first; Orchestry is governance- and lifecycle-first, built to keep the estate sustainable over time. AvePoint typically means a multi-product suite that takes weeks to months to deploy; Orchestry is usually running in days to weeks. The University of Waikato evaluated ShareGate, AvePoint, and Powell before choosing Orchestry for being intuitive, cost-effective, and easy to manage.

Does Orchestry help us get ready for Copilot and other AI capabilities?

Yes. AI surfaces whatever a user can already access, so sites no one owns, unlabeled sensitive data, and lingering guest access become exposure the moment you switch it on. Cleaning up inactive sites, reviewing who still has guest access, and getting sensitivity labels in place is exactly what gets your tenant AI-ready.

Orchestry Platform Guide

Provisioning & Templates Overview

Guest & User Management Overview

OneDrive Management Overview

Security & Permissions Feature Sheet

Reporting & Insights Feature Sheet

FiveP Partner Case Study

Monash Health Case Study

Orchestry Recommendations

Orchestry Workspace Review