Anyone who rapidly deployed Microsoft Teams<\/a> during the pandemic likely found it to be a powerful tool for enabling remote work. However, many are now finding it is out of control within their organization or they’re struggling with adoption.<\/p>\n To ease your journey, I’m sharing some key aspects of our approach to Microsoft Teams governance and adoption.<\/p>\n I’ll also explain how Orchestry<\/a> \u2014 a complete empowerment, adoption and standardization platform to make work simple in Microsoft 365<\/a>, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint<\/a> Online \u2014 can help you increase adoption or get some control of Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n Over the past two years, we\u2019ve worked with customers who have struggled with the ideas of governance and adoption<\/a>. Often they see them as competing and conflicting concepts, thinking adoption will suffer if they put too few \u2014 or too many \u2014 controls on Teams. The reality is, either way, they are 100 percent correct.<\/p>\n If you have too many controls, people become frustrated because they encounter too many bottlenecks when requesting new teams, applications or features. Maybe they need to provision new teams to support immediate needs. Or, they want to use some Teams apps to better perform their work. Or perhaps they need some features enabled in Teams to improve their overall collaboration within groups. Either way, too many controls can stifle adoption.<\/strong><\/p>\n Conversely, if you have too few controls, then people become frustrated for many different reasons: they can\u2019t find the teams they need, they find duplicate teams, they find old or no-longer-used teams, they find duplicate files across different teams, or they find disorganized teams. On the app side, they may encounter apps that serve little to no purpose, aren\u2019t being used at all or are being used improperly, have security or privacy vulnerabilities, and more. As a result, there has to be some element of control for adoption to thrive.<\/p>\n How to perform this \u201cbalancing act\u201d between governance and adoption is one of the most common questions we get from our customers. The beauty of Orchestry is that it helps keep your organization balanced, implementing and enforcing the governance policies that are right for you and your organization.<\/strong><\/p>\n Before we go any further, I must emphasize no matter how good your governance is, and no matter how much you automate when implementing controls over your Teams environment, you can\u2019t forget the importance of a solid Adoption and Change Management<\/a> (ACM) plan.<\/p>\n For success, and ever-increasing returns on your Microsoft 365<\/a> investments, you need to look beyond the technology supporting Teams, because the \u201cpeople side\u201d of change can be even more important (and difficult).<\/p>\n Governance is so important that we usually start Microsoft Teams projects with a “Governance Workshop.” The workshop provides a deep dive into the many controls that affect how Teams operates, functions and is secured. We also touch on a variety of processes and policies that organizations need to consider as they continue their Teams journey, as noted in our ebook \u201cThe Inside Track on Microsoft Teams<\/a><\/strong>.”<\/p>\n However, one area the ebook doesn\u2019t cover in detail is the enforcement of governance processes and policies, especially those affecting the lifecycle of your organization\u2019s teams. From the initial team requests to team provisioning and settings standardization (naming policies, site owner requirements and more), failure to control your teams\u2019 lifecycles can lead to frustration.<\/p>\n In the past, we have helped some organizations implement their own \u201chome-built\u201d solutions to automate aspects of their teams\u2019 lifecycles, but these solutions typically involved integrating several different technologies (e.g., Teams, SharePoint<\/a>, PowerApps<\/a>, Power Automate, Graph API, Azure automation, and so on). Such integrations rarely meet the customers\u2019 full needs, and they are costly to maintain and update.<\/strong><\/p>\n As a result, we now encourage our customers to consider Orchestry as their go-to solution for governance enforcement of Teams (and SharePoint) policies and processes, while simultaneously increasing Teams adoption across the entire organization.<\/p>\n Orchestry is an application that helps organizations solve several key Microsoft Teams and SharePoint challenges, including:<\/p>\n Helps users understand \u201cwhat to use when\u201d by providing Teams or SharePoint Sites Workspaces, preconfigured for specific organizational business needs. Orchestry\u2019s simplified interface for Microsoft 365 lessens the need for training and drives adoption by making it easier for end-users to request and discover Workspaces.<\/p>\n Provides transparent governance that is invisible to the end-user but still provides all the power IT and the business need. Orchestry\u2019s intuitive and scalable governance helps your build policies for groups, teams and SharePoint sites, providing controlled empowerment of end-users without setting up roadblocks or bottlenecks. Orchestry\u2019s Governance capabilities include:<\/p>\n Allows administrators and power users to create complex solutions without writing a single line of code. Templates include:<\/p>\n Orchestry provides ever-increasing features and capabilities that you can\u2019t find today in Microsoft 365, and they would be extremely costly to custom code.<\/strong> Simultaneously, Orchestry provides just the right amount of flexibility and controls for your organization. It supports all types of organizations, from those that need the most control to those who need the least and all points in between.<\/p>\n\n Adoption and Governance \u2014 Striking the Right Balance<\/h2>\n
The Role of Adoption and Change Management<\/h3>\n
Technical Solutions for Implementing and Enforcing Governance to Increase Adoption<\/h2>\n
What Can Orchestry Do?<\/h2>\n
Adoption<\/h4>\n
Governance<\/h4>\n
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Templating<\/h4>\n
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Lifecycle Management, including:<\/h4>\n
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