Does your organization already use Exchange Online and OneDrive for Business but haven't yet made the leap to Microsoft Teams? In this blog, I'll walk you through the functional requirements and technical settings needed to get your first pilot installation of Microsoft Teams off to a good start with Microsoft Consulting firm.
But let's start at the beginning: have you asked yourself which stakeholders or business units you want to involve in your pilot project?
There are generally three types of organizations:
those who already use Microsoft Teams, have lost control of it and do no maintenance;
those currently using a pilot installation of Microsoft Teams;
those who don't use Microsoft Teams at all for various reasons.
If your organization is already using Microsoft Teams and you want to know the current usages, a friend and former colleague of mine has written an excellent, very detailed blog on the subject. If you are in one of the other cases, let's see together what steps you need to take to make your pilot installation of Microsoft Teams a success.
Step 1 : Check your Office 365 license
Are you using Microsoft 365 or Office 365 licenses? They have differences and Office 365 licenses include additional features that you may find useful such as dynamic groups, default classification and an Office 365 group naming policy. To have access as standard, you will need an Azure P1 or P2 subscription. Access additional resources here .
Step 2 : Decide on the level of self-service provisioning
Do you want users to create Microsoft Teams on their own, or do you want more granular control and primarily allow your users to do their jobs? If you want to ensure that only certain people have the ability to create new Teams , you need to create a synced security group to manage the corresponding permissions.
Step 3 : Check settings for different apps and tasks
A.Microsoft Teams
Review the Microsoft Teams-specific settings and write them down for reference as to how the system was configured. Sign in to https://admin.teams.microsoft.com -> organization-wide settings.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Is communication with external domains allowed? Can guest users access channels?
Do you allow file storage spaces other than OneDrive for Business?
Does your organization still use Skype for Business? If so, is the coexistence module set up according to your situation?
To glean some inspiration, read how Microsoft implemented Microsoft Teams for all its employees and disabled Skype for Business.
Planning to launch your first pilot installation of Microsoft Teams? This article should be useful to you: CLICK TO TWITTER
B. Group settings
It is important to check these settings. Remember that as an administrator of Office 365 Groups, you have the option of designating a security group. Only people in this group can create teams/groups and manage the owners of these groups (I specify "owners", because you must ask yourself the question of what will happen if an owner leaves the company ).
C. Creating SharePoint sites
Review the SharePoint site creation settings. You need to change some of the SharePoint Online settings so that users can't create sites themselves. The modern architecture of SharePoint being a flat architecture, I advise you to disable the creation of subsites.
D. OneDrive for Business Settings
How do you want users to share items from their OneDrive and how long should these links last?
Don't forget to enable email notifications sent to OneDrive space owners when, for example, other users invite additional external users.
E. External sharing settings for OneDrive for Business and SharePoint
It is recommended that you enable the setting requiring external users to accept sharing invitations using the account to which the invitations were sent.
F. Device Settings
Do you want to allow OneDrive synchronization, and only allow it for computers in the same domain? Have you ever thought about deploying mobile application management?
G. Specific parameters with PowerShell
Do you want to use subdomains for email addresses listed in the Global Address List? End users will then be able to directly see where the relevant email address originated.
You can either link Microsoft Teams to one or more subdomains or hide the email address provided in the global address list (GAL).
Step 4 : Engage Stakeholders and Business Units
Once you have made all these configuration settings, it is time to involve other participants. Organizations usually choose to run the pilots with their IT team so they can handle questions live, but it is also possible to involve human resources and the communication department. Indeed, these two departments (especially the communication department) can be effective ambassadors during full-scale deployment.
Step 5 : Determine how your Office 365 tenant should be governed
Ask yourself the following questions: do I want to create and maintain scripts for different types of services? Or is it better to use a regularly updated toolkit that is fully integrated with Office 365?
Whether you decide to create and maintain scripts for your pilot installation of Microsoft Teams yourself or opt for automated governance with Al Rafay Consulting Chicago USA, be sure to write down all settings in a design document (as shown in Step 3 ), so that the purpose of the configuration is clear.
So here are the essentials to know before launching your pilot installation of Microsoft Teams. Do you have any other tips to share? Please let me know in a comment below!
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