Cloud Productivity, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace

Best news in a long time! The wiki in Microsoft Teams is (finally) retiring

The wiki in Microsoft Teams has never been very useful. I have used it a few times but only to realize that it is not sufficient. I have instead used the Teams associated OneNote as a good replacement.

Now is the time to celebrate!

Photo by SKYLAKE STUDIO on Unsplash

On January 11th, I received the following good news from the Microsoft 365 Message Center.

Image source: MC496248 in Microsoft 365 Message Center
Image source: MC496248 in Microsoft 365 Message Center

But what should you use instead?

Do as I have done (and still do). Use your Teams OneNote instead! You can read more about how to use OneNote in Teams here: Add a OneNote notebook to Teams.

Image source: MC496248 in Microsoft 365 Message Center
Image source: MC496248 in Microsoft 365 Message Center
Automation, Christmas, Cloud Productivity, Collaboration, Festive Tech Calendar, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Community, Microsoft Forms, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace, Planner

How Santa uses Microsoft Teams to plan for Christmas

Background

It’s already October and Christmas is fast approaching. Santa begins to feel sick to his stomach from the annual stress this entails. Considering how big his belly has now become, you can imagine the discomfort he is experiencing.

As far back as Santa can remember, he has used paper and pen to keep all his chores in order. The goblins must know where to go. The reindeers must be prepared and in good shape for all travel. Santa himself must get his clothes in order. That’s right, the Christmas gifts too. After all, he must get hold of all the Christmas presents that he will later distribute to the children.

Photo by Edgar Moran on Unsplash

Photo by Edgar Moran on Unsplash

But how will he be able to keep track of what each child wished for? There will be so many wish lists.

Continue reading “How Santa uses Microsoft Teams to plan for Christmas” →
Christmas, Festive Tech Calendar, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams

Don’t miss this year’s edition of the Festive Tech Calendar!

What would a December be without a fun calendar?

Don’t miss this year’s edition of the Festive Tech Calendar! On 16 December you can see my contribution. You can see all the contributions day by day here: https://festivetechcalendar.com/

You can also follow the tag #festivetechcalendar2022 on Twitter

See You! 🙂

Cloud Productivity, Collaboration, Document Collaboration, File shares, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace, OneDrive for Business, Planning, SharePoint Online, Tips & Tricks, User Adoption

Information structure in Microsoft Teams – Where should I save (and later also find) the documents?

In my daily work, I meet far too many companies and organizations that take the information structure too lightly. Sometimes due to lack of time, but sometimes due to carelessness. Either reason will sooner or later lead to chaos and irritated users. In the best case scenario, one has in any case gotten away from storing files on file servers and instead got over to Microsoft 365 with Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive as storage areas.
BUT
Unfortunately, it is far too common to just dump the files where you see that it is possible.

Here are some examples of Basic misuse (which many actually do).

  • Put all files on OneDrive
  • Put all files in one Document Library on a SharePoint Site
  • Put all files in the General channel in a Team

The reason for this blog post

On the first of September 2022, I will participate in Kai Stenberg’s PodCast “Teams Cast away“. There we will talk about information structure in Microsoft Teams. This blog post is written with the aim of sharing some tips with others who might wonder how to build a smart and logical structure in the simplest possible way so that you know where documents belong and can easily find them again when working in Microsoft Teams.

“Create and store documents in their logical/intuitive context. Then you and your colleagues don’t need to waste time searching for them later”

A golden rule in the handling of documents in Microsoft Teams is that the documents must always be created and stored in their relevant context. In my world, there should always be a relevant channel where a document fits. If you have relevant channels, you store documents and conversations in a relevant/logical context, and thus you don’t have to look for them. They simply have a natural place where they belong and your other team members should know (and practice) that too.


Below I will give you some simple and basic tips on what to keep in mind when you have a document that you are wondering where it belongs.

Continue reading “Information structure in Microsoft Teams – Where should I save (and later also find) the documents?” →
Cloud Platform, Cloud Productivity, Cloud Security, Collaboration, Dynamics 365, ERP, Integration, Microsoft 365, Modern Workplace, Security & Compliance, User Adoption

From Skill to Evidi

What does this actually mean?

Many people have contacted me believing that I have changed employers. It is very nice but not entirely true.

I have been with Skill on our whole wonderful memorable journey from the establishment until now. This has been a time in my working life that I will never forget. We have accomplished so many good and great things together and we have had so much fun together. We have had an incredibly good culture and genuine friendship and kindness and, not least, lots of knowledge.

I have not changed jobs, instead it is just time for a new chapter. The companies eSeven, Pilaro, Communicate, AITC and Skill have now joined forces and can now offer the entire portfolio within Microsoft technology and solutions.

I have met the vast majority of my new colleagues and the fact is that I feel that we are now getting even better. So many friendly, helpful and knowledgeable people in one place. Everyone is different, yet we are very similar.

For me personally, this means that I now have access to many more colleagues and much broader skills and this gives me (and us) a much greater strength when working with our customers.

Together we now gather under the name Evidi and I have a good feeling and genuine belief that we will accomplish great things in the future. Feel free to follow us on our website to get all the news that will come in the future.

File shares, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Community, Microsoft Teams, Migration, Modern Workplace, MVP-dagen, Office 365, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, SharePoint Online

Migration is easy (when you know how to do it)

Most things are easy once you master them. Migration is no exception.

Wednesday, October 19, it’s time again for MVP-dagen in Oslo and it is a great pleasure for me to be able to participate and give a presentation here. The title of my session this time is “It’s easy to migrate files properly to Microsoft Teams (once you know how to do it)“.

In short, my session is about the following:

“Your new Teams are set up and configured with the structures that are suitable for your business. All employees have received the training needed to be able to work in the right way and in the same way. Now all that remains is the fun of moving in.

In my session you will get some good tips on how you and your colleagues can migrate files from “old sources” to your new Teams (and in the right way). You will also get tips on when you need to use migration tools.”

The scenarios we are going to go through are the following:

  • Move documents from OneDrive for Business to Microsoft Teams.
  • Move documents from existing sites in SharePoint Online to Microsoft Teams.
  • Move documents from existing sites in SharePoint On premise to Microsoft Teams.
  • Move documents from file shares to Microsoft Teams.

Everyone is welcome to this event which has many great sessions and many topics so there is something of interest for everyone. Hope to see you there!

Follow this link to stay up-to-date on the schedule, speakers and registration.

Photo by Hans-Peter Gauster on Unsplash
Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace, Planning, Prepare for Change, Security, User Adoption

Shared Channels in Microsoft Teams – What do you need to start thinking about now?

Microsoft Teams Connect (Shared Channels) is about to being launched and many are impatiently waiting to use it. I think that Shared Channels will be very useful, and I clearly see its value as you do not have to be a guest in many organizations and change tenant as often as you need today. BUT here is some well-meaning advice in place. You who may think that it is only to activate the functionality and then everyone can use it (just as many did when Private Channels was launched) should stop a bit and think beforehand. If you want this to work well and not lose control (again), then you need to do proper homework with planning, configuration and training before you roll this out in the organization.

“With Microsoft Teams Connect we are making it easier to collaborate with anyone outside your organization. You can use Team’s full suite of collaboration capabilities with external partners in other Azure AD orgs the same way you use them with colleagues from your organization. Shared channels enables people from different orgs to work together as one team in a shared space for a more structured, deeper and longer-term collaboration.”

Source: Microsoft 365 Roadmap

Some examples of what you need to think about:

  • Just as with Private Channels, each Shared Channel gets its own SharePoint area. How should you have control over this?
  • Is the access for the external users affected if you implement (or have implemented) Conditional Access and MFA?
  • How do Shared Channels work in Teams that are blocked from inviting guests?
  • How to do with Sensitivity Labels? Does it work and when (and where) can you use it?
  • Is it enough that you just configure your organization’s tenant for it to work?
  • When should I use a team of guests, when should I use a Private Channel and when should I use a Shared Channel?
  • How are Shared Channels related to M365 Groups?
  • Do all Apps work the same way as in regular channels?
  • Should everyone be able to create Shared Channels or can I control this with a policy?

I am sure that more questions will arise over time, but these are good to start with finding the answers to.

Strategy, Planning, User adoption and Governance

“If you do not do things the right way from the beginning, sooner or later you will have to pay for it afterwards.“

To start using Shared Channels is no exception. As always, Strategy, User adoption and Governance are of great importance here too. This time do not make the same mistakes that many others have made by just rolling out new functionality without first familiarizing yourself with both opportunities and challenges. I have seen many examples of this when it comes to rapid implementation of Microsoft Teams and not least when it comes to Private Channels. You must ALWAYS plan for how new functionality will be implemented in the organization and not least how the new functionality will be received and embraced by your end users. What information should be communicated to them, how should you communicate the information and what training do they need to complete.

Even though we do our work in the cloud and Microsoft 365 is our plane, we can not rely on there being any magic cruise control. You actually need Governance on all services and features and Shared Channels in Microsoft Teams are no exception.

I’m really looking forward to the launch of Shared Channels and I will, without a doubt, use it. However, I will spend a lot of time in advance getting to know how it really works and how we will use it in our organization.

If you are curious to know more about Shared Channels, you can read more here:

Tony Redmond’s article “Diving into the Details of Microsoft Teams Shared Channels“

AvePoint Blog article “6 Things You Need to Know About Microsoft Teams Connect (Shared Channels)” by Kevin Joy

Good luck and do not forget that with good planning you always get the best result!

/Magnus

Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Retention, Disposal and Archiving, Tips & Tricks

Why archive inactive Teams and how?

Regular housekeeping and cleaning is important both privately and at work to have an environment you feel comfortable in and to avoid looking too much for things you need. When it comes to Microsoft Teams, you may find that you have too many Teams to keep track of and that the list of Teams is too long? Maybe some of them are no longer active? Then it is a good idea to archive the inactive teams.

When you archive a team, you keep it for reference, and it is also possible to activate it again in the future should the need arise. When archiving, the conversations / posts and files in the team becomes read-only. You will still be able to search through what you need and you can even keep the team as a favorite. (Worth knowing is that only team owners can archive and restore it. Here you can read about how team archiving works.

Source: support.microsoft.com

(Photo by Nana Smirnova on Unsplash)

Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Tips & Tricks, User Adoption

Overwhelmed by alerts from Microsoft Teams?

Do you feel overwhelmed by alerts from Microsoft Teams?

That is easy to solve. The reason is, most likely, that you have not customized the alert settings to suit your needs. In the article “Manage notifications in Teams” you get the help you need to customize the settings so that you only get notifications about what you want/need (and also the way you receive notifications).

If you, still after configuring this settings, feel that you are getting too many alerts that are not completely relevant, one solution may be to talk to and educate your colleagues who may “@-mention” you and/or the entire team, all too often, so they only do it when they really need your / their attention.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Additional reading: “Six things to know about notifications“

Photo by Yukiko Kanada on Unsplash
Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams Apps, Modern Workplace, Power BI, PowerApps, Prepare for Change, SharePoint, SharePoint Online, Tasks, To Do, Yammer

The wonderful feeling that your toolbox is complete

Microsoft Ignite is in full swing with almost limitless amounts of information about news regarding improvements and new functionality we can soon expect to be served on our table.

I must say that it has never been so inspiring and exciting to work with collaboration solutions from Microsoft. The toolbox grows and grows and I can, with a clear conscience, say that now we probably have everything (or at least most) we need in Microsoft Teams. It has really and finally become a workspace where you can make all your tools and all your information available in the right context.

(Photo by CDC on Unsplash)
With a little planning of how to put the whole thing together, you and your colleagues can actually soon perform all your daily activities without having to leave the Microsoft Teams interface to open additional systems.

“Everything in one place!”

Here is a selection of some important building blocks that we can use to achieve this:

  • All tasks in one app (Tasks)
  • Build workflows with the new “Power Automate app” in Teams
  • Build your own company-specific apps with integrations with your business systems with Power Platform and make these
    apps available to your teams.
  • Use Power BI to visualize your data in dashboards and reports.
  • Use the new “Home Site App” app to link your Modern SharePoint Intranet to teams and get an overview of news, links, quality systems, handbooks, etc.
  • Use the Yammer app to integrate relevant Yammer networks into different Teams

(Photo by Barn Images on Unsplash)

The possibilities do not stop here. For me, however, this is the most relevant functionality (for the moment) I need in my toolbox to help companies and organizations work in a smooth and modern way.

If you are eager to learn more about the possibilities with the news in #MicrosoftTeams, please take a look at “What’s New in Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Ignite 2020“