Understanding permission groups in Teams and SharePoint

One of the most confusing aspects of Teams and SharePoint in Microsoft 365 is the relationship between permission groups used to control access to both of these resources. This is especially the case as every Team in MS Teams has an associated SharePoint site (the 'Files' tab). This post explains how permission groups work between …

Different ways to access content stored in SharePoint

SharePoint Online (SPO) is the primary location to store digital objects and documents in Microsoft 365. In this sense, it replaces on premise network file shares and drives as a location to store information although a bit ironically, it can also be accessed from File Explorer. In Microsoft Teams channels, SPO sits behind the scenes …

Managing MS Teams chat as records

(The image above was part of collector’s album issued in 1930 by Echte Wagner, a German margarine company. Source - https://flashbak.com/wonderful-futuristic-visions-of-germany-by-artists-in-1930-381451/) On 19 May 2020, Tony Redmond published a very helpful article on the Office 365 for IT Pros website titled 'Using Teams Compliance Data for eDiscovery'. In the article, Tony describes where and how …

Planning for records retention in Office 365

Office 365 is sometimes referred to as an 'ecosystem'. In theory this means that records could be stored anywhere across that ecosystem. Unlike the 'old' on-premise world of standalone servers for each Microsoft application (Exchange, SharePoint, Skype) - and where specific retention policies could apply (including the Exchange Messaging Records Management MRM policy), the various …

What happens when you create a Team in MS Teams

On 27 March 2020 I asked, via Twitter, whether organisations that rolled out MS Teams will wonder in the future who created all the random (and randomly-named) SharePoint sites. The reason for this question was because many organisations, scrambling to establish ways for staff to work from home, decided to make use of MS Teams …

Managing emails as records in Office 365

Records managers have been struggling with managing emails as records ever since they first appeared in the workplace. For a long time the accepted practice, as with other digital records, was to print them out and put them on the appropriate file. With the introduction of electronic document and records management (EDRM) systems, end users …

Using Office 365 Groups to manage (some) records in context

The third part of my recent series of posts, titled Setting up SharePoint Online to manage records, included an example architecture model with several Office 365 Group-based sites, shown in green in the graphic below. This post describes how Office 365 Groups, with their associated mailbox and SharePoint site, can be useful when there is …

Setting up SharePoint Online to manage records (as part of Office 365) – Part 2/3

This is the second of three posts that describe the main elements involved in setting up SharePoint Online to manage records. The first post was focused on Office 365 admin: Licences, roles and Groups; Compliance Admin - Retention labels and policies. This post focuses on SharePoint Online Admin centre configuration.  The next and last post …

Setting up SharePoint Online to manage records (as part of Office 365) – Part 3/3

This is the third and last of three posts that describe the main elements involved in setting up SharePoint Online to manage records. The first post focused on the recordkeeping related elements in the Office 365 and Compliance admin portals, including user licences, Roles and AD Groups, and Compliance Admin - Retention labels and policies.  …

Setting up SharePoint Online to manage records (as part of Office 365) – Part 1/3

This is the first of three posts that describe the main elements involved in setting up SharePoint Online to manage records. This post focuses on the recordkeeping related elements in the Office 365 and Compliance admin portals: Office 365 Admin - Licences, Roles and AD Groups (including Office 365 Groups) Compliance Admin - Retention labels …