Tag: Microsoft Teams

Cloud Productivity, Document Collaboration, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Loop, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace Mar 23, 2023Mar 23, 2023

Microsoft Loop is here but what is it?

Yesterday, March 22, 2023, Microsoft announced that the Loop app is available in public preview. Launches are always fun and spark a lot of curiosity, but what exactly is the Microsoft Loop? Well in short it is as follows:

Microsoft Loop is a new productivity tool designed to help users organize their work and collaborate with others more effectively. One can say that it is a “cloud-based platform” that allows users to create, share, and collaborate on various types of content, including documents, notes, tasks, and more. It offers an intuitive and flexible workspace where users can organize their content into different sections, such as meetings, projects, and teams.

There are three key parts of Microsoft Loop:

Components
Workspaces
Pages

One of the key features of Microsoft Loop is its integration with other Microsoft applications, such as Teams, Outlook, and OneNote. This integration allows users to easily access and share their content across different platforms, making it easier to collaborate with colleagues and work more efficiently.

In addition, Loop also offers a range of customizable templates that can be used to create various types of content, such as agendas, meeting notes, and project plans. These templates can be customized to fit specific needs and workflows, making it easier for users to get started and stay organized.

Short summary

Microsoft Loop is a powerful productivity tool that offers a range of features designed to help users work more efficiently and collaborate more effectively with others. Whether you’re working on a project with a team or managing your own workload, Loop can help you stay organized, focused, and productive, and I guess that’s something that we all aspire to be. Therefore, this may be of interest to most of us.

As usual, the internet is flooded when news like this launches, so below I’ve compiled some useful and overview articles that can give you the information you need to get started:

Microsoft Loop – Think, plan, and create together like never before

New Microsoft Loop app is built for modern co-creation

The SharePoint storage platform supports the Loop app – Components, pages, and workspaces

Learn how to enable the Microsoft Loop app, now in Public Preview

Cloud Productivity, Collaboration, Document Collaboration, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace, Tips & Tricks, User Adoption Mar 17, 2023Mar 17, 2023

Make yourself seen and heard in Microsoft Teams

You may wonder why it takes so long to hear back from your colleagues. Sometimes it is perhaps so bad that you don’t get an answer at all?

It is a fact that Some people are better at following along, listening and being interested and following what is happening, while others do not react until you tap them on the shoulder. Sometimes the reason may be that it is you yourself who does not work in a way that makes you sufficiently visible. In this case I’m thinking of what it’s like when you communicate in Microsoft Teams.

Continue reading →

Automation, Cloud Productivity, IT Governance, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Forms, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams Apps, Power Automate, SharePoint Online, Tips & Tricks Mar 6, 2023

A simple solution for requesting new Team apps

Many organizations and companies choose to block Teams apps that do not come directly from Microsoft, but they approve all team apps from Microsoft and these are thus possible for users to add to Teams.

A challenge with this approach to success is that users do not know how to go about asking for permission to access and use any of the apps that are blocked. Often, IT also does not have routines or solutions to handle this smoothly. In other words, it becomes a source of confusion and inertia in the organization.

Continue reading →

Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Migration, Migration Tools, Planner, ShareGate, SharePoint Online, Tips & Tricks Mar 6, 2023Mar 6, 2023

Moving team channels is easy (when you know how to do it)

After using a system, solution or tool for a longer period of time, it usually either becomes a bit messy and/or you come up with other structures that you would rather have used. Just think back to how often you moved and reorganized folders back in the day when you were working against file servers. Then it was relatively easy to change the order of the folders in the structure you had built, but that was probably also the only advantage of working with folders on a file server. Enough about that. Today, we work in a more modern way and with tools that give us significantly more dimensions and possibilities.

Most of us who work a lot with Microsoft Teams are sometimes asked how to move a channel. The most common answer from me when I get this question is the counter question: “Do you need to move all posts as well or is it enough to move the files?”.

Continue reading →

Cloud Productivity, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace Jan 17, 2023Jan 17, 2023

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!

On January 11th, I received the following good news from the 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.

Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace, Planning, Prepare for Change, Security, User Adoption Mar 4, 2022Mar 4, 2022

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

Change, IT Governance, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Office 365 Governance, Prepare for Change, Tips & Tricks Aug 26, 2019Aug 26, 2019

Guide to configure a basic Governance Team for Office 365

If you are looking for a solution / tool to get you started with Governance in the shortest possible time (and which still gives you great value) I have, in this post, in the Microsoft Tech Community forum for Microsoft Teams, made a step-by-step description on how to configure a Microsoft Team to solve this.

Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Office 365 Governance, Tips & Tricks Mar 28, 2019Aug 12, 2019

Has a channel been deleted from your Team? Don’t worry, this is how you easily recreate it!

Sometimes it goes a little too fast in the turns and some quick-fingered person does something he regrets. In such situations, it is nice to be able to restore the order so that everything becomes peace and joy again. With regard to Channels in Microsoft Teams, it is, thankfully, almost as easy to recreate the deleted Channels as it was to delete them. Continue reading “Has a channel been deleted from your Team? Don’t worry, this is how you easily recreate it!” →

Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Governance, Prepare for Change, Tips & Tricks Oct 2, 2018Oct 2, 2018

Simplify your work by using filtered views in the new Microsoft 365 Roadmap to focus on the updates of your core area

Are you one of the “chosen ones” with responsibility to keep track of changes in one or more services in Office 365? Congratulations, then your job has just become a little easier. With the new “Microsoft 365 Roadmap” it is now much easier to create filtered views that show the updates that are relevant to you.

As you may have read in my previous posts regarding “Office 365 Governance“, I use Microsoft Teams to get an overview of updates as well as structuring governance plans. I have a Team where each service has its own channel. In the channel of each service, I have (among other things) a tab that shows the “Office 365 roadmap” in a view that I have filtered to show updates only for the current service.

Now, when the new “Microsoft 365 Roadmap” was launched, of course, my previous home-made filtered views were broken. Sometimes this type of change causes some degree of irritation but this time it was only positive. The filtration capabilities of the Microsoft 365 Roadmap are much better than they were in the Office 365 Roadmap.

So now I’m sitting here, sipping a cup of coffee, creating new filtered views and updating my tabs. Below is an example of how easy you can create a filtered view that shows the updates for the service “Microsoft Teams” and how you embed the filtered view in a tab of a channel in your “Office 365 Governance Team”.

Open the Microsoft 365 Roadmap

Filter on the service “Microsoft Teams” and status “In development” and “Rolling out”.

Copy the url of the view

Open Your Office 365 Governance Team, go to the channel of the service and edit the url of the Roadmap tab.

The filtered view in the roadmap tab is now only displaying updates for the current service and you do not have to view the updates of the services that you are not responsible for. This saves you from unnecessary noise that could otherwise steal your focus from your core area.

Now, repeat this exercise and update the “Roadmap tabs” for the channels of the other services.

Bookings, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Flow, Microsoft Forms, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Governance, Office 365 Other, OneDrive for Business, Planner, PowerApps, Prepare for Change, SharePoint Online, StaffHub, Yammer Sep 20, 2018

The unwanted effects of postponing things to tomorrow

It is September 2018. Every morning, I dedicate 15 minutes to update me on Office 365 Roadmap. Today i find that 67 updates are currently being rolled out and 234 that are in development.

My thoughts go away (once again) to all companies “out there” and the crew and individuals who have some form of responsibility for Office 365, either in its entirety or for any of its services. How about you?

Do you have full control of all updates?
Do you have a plan for how to apply these updates?
Do you know how to inform your colleagues about new functionality?
Can you ensure that user adoption is carried out in the most effective way and with the desired effect?

If you answer yes to these questions then you are quite unique. Too many companies let updates and news launch without being in control of the positive and negative effects it brings.

“Whether you are a fast runner or good at hiding, you will not be able to escape the reality. The longer you wait, the harder it will hit you.”

I’m not a strong supporter of scaring people into action but unless you and your company have a very strong focus on Governance and User Adoption, you will not be able to take advantage of the full potential of your platform. The risk is rather that ignorance and poor planning cause disorder, misunderstandings and security problems. In plain text, this means that you will not achieve the profits and goals you wish

How can you get started?

A good (and compulsory) first step that creates great value is to define service owners/Change agents. A service owner shall be responsible for his/her service and keeping up to date on the Office 365 Roadmap and to follow related blogs (a good source of information is the Microsoft Tech Community.

Next step, when the service officers are appointed and have got their routines in place, is to establish a Change-/Governance Team and provide it with a tool that supports their needs.

When should you start?

It’s only a day left until tomorrow. Procrastination is not an option (It is not often that it is). Put this on the agenda today and start planning now. If you do not have the time or resources, there is always someone who can help you. It is better to use the time on planning than on putting out fires later.