Considerations before implementing MS Teams governance

Introduction

Microsoft Teams is a great platform for business communication and collaboration but are organizations able to derive full value from it? Do they see a continuous drive in user adoption and engagement without any hassle?

Organizations, especially with a rising number of users that overlook Teams governance, are bound to struggle with common challenges such as team sprawl, information overload, data invisibility, data leaks, shadow IT, etc. Eventually, this leads to end user frustration and decline in acceptance of a new technology which suggests the need of a robust governance plan in place.

In a world today where remote working is the new normal, governance is not an option but a necessity for virtual collaboration workspace. Microsoft Teams governance is not just about control but also about helping dispersed teams work together with maximum efficiency in a secured environment.

In this blog, we will further discuss a few scenarios in a company where governance fits best so that you can devise an effective governance plan for your organization. Let’s begin.

1. Provide role-based access control to users for simplified team management

Develop a permission model to create a division of work in MS Teams such as team owner, team member, and guest user by granting specific privileges. Set up policies to define administrative rights on different levels to users who will be responsible for monitoring and maintaining the entire Teams environment. Also, by assigning clear roles and responsibilities to users, you can maintain privacy in a hierarchy, and hence, teams function smoothly.

2. Restrict users from creating multiple teams to prevent content outgrowth

Since multiplication of teams in an unprecedented way generates confusion and chaos, you must enforce a set of rules and policies to limit team creation. With appropriate governance in place, you can ensure that teams are created with purpose and are relevant to the business.

3. Redundant teams make content search difficult

Apply naming conventions to teams and groups to prevent repetition of names and thereby, duplication of teams. Additionally, it makes it clear to users the purpose for which the teams are created and which department or project they belong to. Additionally, this helps in searching the content easily and saves time. Similarly, you can create a list of custom blocked words for maintaining a cleaner environment in Teams.

4. Protect files while sharing them with guest users

While interacting and collaborating with guests or external users, you must ensure that sensitive corporate data remains protected based on your company’s standards. By defining policies, you can enable external file sharing and ensure a secure exchange of information with guests.

5. Track sensitive files to ensure they are not misused

Governance allows you to keep track of files and documents exchanged while external collaboration. If the purpose of a file is already served or on an illicit activity detection, you can even revoke or stop its access.

6. Manage the lifecycle of teams for better organization

To keep the Teams environment healthy and active, all irrelevant or unnecessary teams must be periodically cleaned up. By configuring expiration policies, you can manage the lifecycle of teams by archiving or deleting them when not in use.

Third-party governance tools for MS Teams

Considering the above scenarios, governance seems to be inescapable for MS Teams, however, implementing it is an arduous process that greatly affects the administrator’s efficiency. With this regard, choosing an automation tool for Office 365 governance such as TeamsHub by Cyclotron is a wise decision. Built on top of Teams, TeamsHub by Cyclotron automates MS Teams governance and other Office 365 workloads such as SharePoint, Yammer, Planner and more to drive productivity without compromising security.

TeamsHub by Cyclotron meticulously covers all important aspects of governance in one single platform – site provisioning and self-service using dynamic forms, guest access management, lifecycle management of teams and other workloads, real-time analytics on user activities, tracking and managing externally shared files, automation of direct voice routing and what not!

TeamsHub by Cyclotron lets you manage your business operations efficiently and allows your teams collaborate without security fears while accelerating engagement.

If you want to learn more about TeamsHub by Cyclotron, please visit https://teamshub.io or contact sales@cyclotrongroup.com to request a demo